Green Home Improvements | Home Improvement Tips

One of the best and least expensive ways to lower your utility bills all year round is to replace the manual thermostat in your home with an electronic programmable thermostat. Installing a programmable thermostat is not a difficult home improvement project if you follow the directions for your model of thermostat closely. If you’re not comfortable doing it then most heating and air conditioner repair companies will install it for you at a very reasonable price.

Most programmable thermostats are affordable and easy to use. This one sells on Amazon.com for less than $100.

The advantages of a programmable thermostat are pretty easy to see. Electronic thermostats will automatically turn the hear or air conditioner on or off throughout the day according to your instructions. This gives you the ability to only use the utilities when you need them and when you’re home.

For example: lets say you leave for work at 8:00AM every morning and don’t get back until 5:00PM each day during the summer. You can program your thermostat to let your house get to 80 degrees during the day and then have it automatically turn on and cool the house back down to 74 degrees as you walk in the door each night! In a single season a programmable thermostat could pay for itself by saving you hundreds of dollars in electric bills. Many programmable thermostats now allow you to actually set different temperatures and times for the weekends and weekdays.

And, as an added bonus, you don’t have to worry if your schedule changes from time to time. You can always “override” the program temporarily and set your temperature to whatever you’d like it to be when you’re actually in your home.

Most programmable thermostats use batteries to power their display, so the only real maintenance you’ll ever need to do is replacing those batteries once a year or so. Many thermostats now have low battery indicators as well as reminder indicator that blinks when it is approximately time to change the house air filter.

Choosing A Programmable Thermostat

There are several options you can consider when you’re looking to purchase a programmable thermostat. Though they are all fairly affordable, there is still quite a price range for them. You can expect to pay anywhere from $20 for the most basic models to about $150 for the most advanced programmable home thermostats. Here are some of the options you want to look at before you buy a programmable thermostat:

System Type: When buying an electronic thermostat you’ll need to be sure you choose one that will work with your heating and cooling system. Generally, there are three options here. You may have a single stage system which is often found on traditional heating and cooling systems for a single house. You may have a gas heating system and an electric central air system and you can only operate one or the other at any one time with your automatic thermostat. Multi stage systems control two or more types of heating systems (one main and one secondary) and you’ll typically know that you have this. Another common system type is a heat pump which is a single system that can both cool and heat your home.

Programmable Days: There are generally three varieties of programmable thermostats – 1 day, 5 day and 7 day programmable thermostats. Single day programmable thermostats usually allow you to set the temperature for 3 to 4 different periods through the day, but they treat each day exactly the same. You can’t have any sort of differences in temperatures on weekdays or weekends. The 5-2 programmable thermostats allow you to set your weekdays differently from your weekends, but they tend to only let you set all your weekdays the same and then both weekend days with the same time and temperature schedule. There are also 5-1-1 programmable thermostats that treat Monday through Friday as the same, but allow you to set different times and temps for Saturday and Sunday independently. The most common, and only slightly more expensive electronic thermostats are 7 day thermostats which give you the option to set each and every day of the week differently. These are becoming more and more common and affordable. Most digital thermostats allow you to program 3 to 4 temperature changes in a single day and you can set the times to meet your schedule.

Extra Functions: There are lots of extra features and functions you can get in electronic thermostats. Some will control multiple systems, some allow you to control a whole house humidifier and some allow you to hook up an outdoor temperature sensor. A few even allow you to save multiple program types so you can just pick and choose as needed.

Interface Type: Most automatic and programmable thermostats sold now feature digital readouts on easy-to-read LCD screens. Backlit screens are easier to read at night or in dim lighting, obviously. You can get touchscreen thermostats, button-controlled thermostats and even remote-controlled thermostats. Today’s programmable thermostats are almost exclusively housed in white or beige plastic casings with rounded corners. Yes, you can paint or even wallpaper over electronic thermostats, but doing so is generally not recommended as it could interfere with the temperature gauges in most electronic thermostats.

Programming a Thermostat

While different brands and models of thermostats are obviously programmed with different specific steps, most programmable thermostats these days are pretty easy to operate.

You will often have to set up a schedule initially, which usually consists of going through each day and setting the appropriate times and temperatures you want your house to reach. Some electronic thermostats will only allow you to turn on one system at a time: heat or AC. So if it’s cool in the morning but expected to get hot in the afternoon you might want to turn on your AC and program it to kick on before you get home.

Using A Programmable Thermostat

Manually adjusting and using a programmable thermostat isn’t much different from any other type of thermostat. Most have an “up” and “down” button which allows you to control how you want the temperature to change: warmer for up and cooler for down. Some people believe that if you move the temperature higher or lower than you really want it that the heating or cooling system will “work harder” to reach the real temperature goal, but that simply isn’t the case. Almost all heating and cooling systems have two simple settings: on and off.

Most digital thermostats will give you a read out of the current temperature in the house (or temperature at the thermostat itself) and they will all allow you to manually override whatever the programmed temperature is. So if you take a day off in the middle of the week when you normally wouldn’t be at home you can adjust the temperature to your liking. When the next time period and temperature change comes, most programmable thermostats will go back to following the program.

If you have a forced-air heating system or central air conditioner then you can usually manually turn on the system fan without directly turning on the heat or AC itself. This is useful if you want to “freshen” up or circulate the air in your home even though the temperature inside is comfortable.

Summary

Perhaps one of smartest and quickest ways to save energy, installing and using a programmable thermostat is one of the best ways to drastically reduce your energy bills in the summer or winter months. There are lots of options and models to choose from, but in the end they all basically do the same thing: automatically regulate your home temperature when you aren’t in your home. By reducing the amount of time your heat or air conditioner has to run just a few hours each day you can give you hundreds of dollars in savings over the course of a single year. If you don’t have a programmable thermostat installed in your home yet, seriously consider

As you may have guessed I rather enjoy working on my home and running out the hardware store every weekend to tackle new and different projects around my house. I like having a sense of accomplishment at the end of a long weekend and I like making my 50 year old house a little more livable. But lately I’ve been hitting some roadblocks when it comes to my home improvement projects and it’s put me in a philosophical mood.

I’ve been thinking about my limitations and what I can and, more specifically, can’t always do around my house. My home improvement limitations roughly fall into the same categories as the somewhat infamous Project Triangle.

The old joke is, “You can have it done right, on time and within budget. Pick two.”

When it comes to any project, not just home improvement projects, there are essentially three characteristics or “limitations” that must be weighed and measured. So when you decide that something needs to be done around the house or you need to complete some sort of project at work, there are three factors you must consider. These three factors will determine if you decide to do complete your home improvement project yourself, hiring a contractor to do the work, or put the project off completely.

Money – When people thing of limitations, this is often what they think of first. Obviously, a lot of home improvement projects are expensive undertakings and can cause a significant drain on the wallet. A lot of my do-it-yourself home skills come from not having the money to hire someone else and yet still wanted to fix something up in my own home. Almost any home project is going to cost some money in materials, but the real expenses usually mount up when you begin paying someone else to do the work for you. This makes sense, because when you pay someone else you’re essentially trading your money for their…

Time – Some home improvement projects only take a few minutes, but some can take days, months or even years. If you’re got a lot of time on your hands then you can often save yourself a lot of money when it comes to home improvement projects. My basement remodeling job has been one of those long projects which has just gone on and on. Each month I put a little bit of money into materials and then I would spend my weekends and evenings using up those materials. So I’ve been buying and putting up drywall, insulating the basement and painting the walls with a TurboRoll paint roller when I have a time available. Of course, I was able to do all those things in my basement because because I’m not afraid to learn new things and improve my home improvement…

Knowledge – This is the limitation that I think keeps most people from venturing into a home improvement store and trying new things. A lot of people are afraid they’re going to “screw up” and the quality of the project will be compromised. There are lots of home improvement projects that take specialized skills and knowledge that’s not easily gained unless you, quite literally, get your hands dirty. Obviously, when you hire a contractor to do work on your home you’re paying for his or her time as well as his or her skill and knowledge. And the more time you have for a project, the more you can increase your own knowledge and the shorter the job may take overall.

All three of these limitations came into play for me when it came to finishing the floors in my basement. I had to get the floors of my basement done in a hurry, so I took some of the money I had saved from doing everything else in the basement on my own and hired a company to come in and put in laminate flooring in my basement with carpeting on my stairs. To save some money I decided to take up all the old carpeting myself and I agreed to put in the baseboards around the laminate flooring on my own. The money I’m spending for a contractor to do the work is more than I would have paid for materials alone, but they have the skill and the experience to put the floors down in a single day. I could probably do it myself, but it might takes me days, if not weeks, to really get into the rhythm of things and learn enough to do a good job.

Essentially, I saved money by using my knowledge and time for most of the basement and now I have some extra cash which I have decided to spend in order to buy the time and knowledge of a skilled contractor!

There are a number of reasons that you could find yourself in a situation where you need to be cutting tall grass that has simply become too thick or too tall to cut or mow very easily. And though you really should strive to never cut your grass more than 1/3 of its full height, there are times when you simply have to cut your grass more than that. Maybe you just bought a house and the yard was uncut for several months or maybe you went on a long vacation and came back to an extra high lawn or maybe the summer rain was just coming down too frequently for you to get out and do some proper grass cutting and your high grass started going to seed.

One method for cutting tall grass is to mow paths that are only half as wide as your mower deck.

Whatever the issue, cutting tall grass is something you want to be careful with and do properly or you could end up damaging your lawn mower or even seriously injuring yourself or others. Here’s what you need to do if you’re faced with the need to cut down some tall grass.

Cut Grass When It Is Dry: Sometimes the weather doesn’t work with you on this one, but it’s always best to mow your lawn when the grass is dry. Dry grass is less slippery, won’t clump as much and is much easier for your mower to cut. Tall wet grass has a much higher chance of stalling your mower or really slowing your blade down to the point where it doesn’t cut very cleanly.

Cut Your Grass Higher: If you’re having a difficult time cutting through tall grass, you may have to take some extra time and effort and actually go over your lawn twice. First, mow on the highest setting possible and then, if you like your lawn shorter (and it’s healthy enough to handle it), lower your mower and go over it again. If you space out the two mowings by a couple of days you’ll help keep your lawn healthier. Ideally, you should probably be keeping your grass fairly tall anyway. Most lawn grass will stay healthy when it’s about three to four inches high.

Mow Your Lawn Slowly: This is probably an obvious one, but it’s also one of those things which will work. When you’re having a hard time cutting tall grass with your mower it’s usually a simple problem of too much grass being hit by the blade at one time. Logically if you move your mower over the tall grass or weeds slowly you’ll be allowing grass to hit the blade all at once, which gives the mower a chance to really cut up your lawn well. If you are using a self-propelled mower that doesn’t have variable speed you may want to opt to push your mower manually just to make sure you have full control.

Cut Half-Way Paths of Grass: Similar to mowing slower, you can move your mower so that it only ever cuts about half of the width of the mower deck in any single pass. So while you might normally walk from one side of the yard to another leaving a 20 inch mower path (the same width as your mower deck) if you are having problems cutting tall grass you may want to move your mower so that the edge of the high grass is aligned with the center of your mower. Essentially, you’re going to be cutting a 10 inch path instead of a 20 inch path through your high grass. Yes, this means it may take you twice as long to cut your lawn, but at least it will be cut.

Bag Your Grass Clippings: I personally try to mulch my grass whenever I mow my lawn, especially now that I’m using a new Troy-Bilt lawn mower. The clippings generally make for great mulch in the yard and most lawn and garden experts recommend leaving the clippings on the ground in order to have healthier grass from one year to the next. That being said, the extra clippings on the lawn can sometimes slow down your lawn mower if you’re cutting tall grass, so bagging your clippings and then disposing of them in a compost pile could help.

Lawn Mower Maintenance: There are a number of things you can do to take care of your lawn mower, but some of the most basic ways to make sure your mower is running well enough to cut grass is to make sure you’re using fresh clean gas and a new air filter. Both of these things are easy to do and they can help your mower engine run much more smoothly. You’ll also want to consider replacing the mower blade or sharpening the one you have. A dull mower blade will just beat-down high grass but may not cut it very well at all.

Cut Your Lawn Manually With a Sickle or Grass Whip: If you have a lot of really tall grass (like a field or side of a hill) then you might want to consider going the manual route to cut your grass. It’s good exercise and a quiet and super-energy efficient way of cutting grass from the time before lawn mowers. There are a variety of scythes, sickles and grass whips available which are all essentially just various sized and shaped poles with sharp grass and weed cutting blades on the end. I’ve had a chance to use an old-fashioned grass sickle and it’s actually remarkably efficient way to cut down large swaths of grass with one fell swoop. Today’s modern grass whips are light and sharp and you can actually cut a fair bit of grass rather quickly when you get into a swaying groove. There’s very little bending involved if you get one that’s meant to be used from a standing tall position. That being said, these things are dangerous if you’re not careful and they don’t magically pick up your cut grass. You’ll probably want to rake your cut grass up after you’ve gone over it manually.

Obviously, you can use most of these methods together in order to get that tall grass cut down. Allowing your grass grow high can be a nuisance to deal with at first, but once you’ve cut it down the first time subsequent mowings should be much easier as long as you don’t let it get too tall again.

Troy-Bilt has always been a well-known brand when it comes to lawn mowers, but this year they’ve come out with a new line of lawn mowers that feature their new “TriAction Cutting System™” which is a collection of improvements designed to cut grass and mulch grass better than other mowers.

The Troy-Bilt TB230: One of a new line of TriAction Lawn Mowers

A month or so ago Troy-Bilt contacted me after noticing how often I used my Troy-Bilt chipper vac and asked if I would like to review one of their new walk-behind mowers with this TriAction Cutting System™. In exchange for a fair review, I was given my choice of a Troy-Bilt mower and I went with the model that Popular Mechanics picked as one of their most popular lawn mowers: the Troy-Bilt TriAction TB230. It was also the most affordable mower of their picks. What follows is my review of the Troy-Bilt TriAction TB230, the good and the bad.

Lawnmower Details

The new Troy-Bilt TB230 is getting a lot of attention because it offers a good mix of popular lawn mower features and details that are often found on higher-end walk-behind mowers but it still retails for under $300.

Here are the specs and details:

• ReadyStart Choke System that requires no priming
• Self-propelled front wheel drive
• Variable speed squeeze grip with tighten/loosen adjustment
• Safety squeeze operated blade control bar
• 3-position handle adjustment
• 21″ steel mulching mower deck
• Deck wash valve for easy clean-up
• 3 discharge options: mulch, side or rear bag
• 1.86-bushel grass catcher bag with wide mouth empty
• Side discharge chute
• 8″ front wheels, 11″ rear wheels
• 6 position deck heigh adjustment, single lever for each wheel set
• 190cc* Briggs & Stratton engine
• Features the Troy-Bilt TriAction Cutting System™ (see below)
• Retail price: $289
• Availability – Lowes stores or website or the Troy-Bilt website

A word on pricing: When you consider that Troy-Bilt is a well-established brand name and when you realize that your mower will most likely last your 10 years or more, you begin to realize that $30 a year is a small price to pay for all the features you get in the TB230. In fact, the $289 price tag puts it squarely in the middle of the price range for self-propelled mowers from known brands and when you compare features the TB230 has many of the same features that are found in most mowers that are $50 to $100 more than it.

If you’re looking for a deal on a Troy-Bilt mower you may want to keep an eye out for coupons from Lowes over the next few weeks. This is about the time they normally publish those $10 off $50 or more and $50 off $250 or more coupons in their newsletters and the Sunday papers. Getting a Troy-Bilt TB230 for $239 would be a heck of a deal!

Another nice option: Troy-Bilt offers financing through its website on some of its lawn mowers and other eqipment.

Connect the handle, add oil and gas and start it up!

Unboxing The Lawn Mower

Before I could test it, of course, I had to get it out of the box. I received this new lawn mower from Troy-Bilt in pretty much the same way I received my Troy-Bilt Chipper Vac a couple years ago: I had it shipped right to my door. The mower in the box weighs over 70 pounds so plan appropriately if you’re going to pick it up from a store. The nice part is that the sturdy box has side handles so it can be lifted easily and the mower comes almost completely assembled.

I was up and running in about 15 minutes, but that could have been less if I wasn’t taking so many photos. I opened the box, set aside the mower bag and instructions and then just moved four bolts to assemble the handle. I have to admit that the fire-engine red of the mower really looks great. I remember being just as excited by the color when I opened the box for my chipper vac. Troy-Bilt uses a solid, rich, pleasing red color on all their equipment and it’s really attractive to the eye.

Upon assembling the handle I came across another nice feature that you don’t realize is important until you don’t have it: the mower handle assembly has three different pitch angles possible, so if you’re a little tall or a little short you can adjust the handle to your liking. My old mower didn’t have this and I always felt as though I had to slouch just an inch or so to really get the handle to the right height for me. After rolling the mower right out of it’s box I just had to put in motor oil (provided), position the pull cord and gas it up. With all those things out of the way I took a few more photos I was pretty much ready to go. There was no priming needed.

It started on the first pull! Yep, right out of the box!

One of the reasons I went with the TB230 over any other TriAction motor was the use of a Briggs & Stratton engine. I’ve always had good luck with their engines starting and running well for years on end, so I decided I’d stick with what worked for me. There is one Troy-Bilt TriAction mower that comes with a Honda engine if that’s you’re thing.

Now that I knew it ran I took it for a quick test walk around the yard. The self-propelled mower moved pretty quickly and the variable speed handle worked pretty much as you would expect: pull it back to move faster, let it go to slow down. The blade control handle was easy to hold down and when I released it the mower stopped immediately. The handle is a metal bar with no rubber grip or padding of any kind, so I could see where it might get hot if it were left out in the sun while you went in for lunch, but it otherwise felt pretty comfortable for my lawn mower’s maiden voyage.

The Lawn Mowing Test

So now it was time for a good old-fashioned lawn mowing test. I was purposely letting the grass in part of my backyard grow high as part of a test to see if it was healthy to let grass go to seed, so I had an area that was ripe for cutting. The grass was high, though not too thick, so I figured it would be good for testing the mulching capabilities.

First, I took my current mower on a run through the high grass, up one direction and back in another. My current mower is a mulching mower, only a couple of years old and was originally bought for about $275, which is in the same price range as the Troy-Bilt TriAction TB230. It has a new blade and I’ve maintained my lawn mower fairly consistently over the years. It was able to cut the grass well, but it left some tall blades here and there and after only two passes I already had a little layer of cut grass blades forming a floating blanket over my lawn. Overall, the results weren’t bad, but if I did my entire lawn with my existing mower I was clearly going to have to rake up the clippings.

I chose another spot about 2 feet away from the first path where the grass was an identical height and thickness and took the self-propelled Troy-Bilt up the line and then back down. I immediately noticed a couple things:

First, the walking with it was much smoother than with my older mower. I had both mowers set for the highest setting, but the TB230 has larger back wheels which seemed to make quite a difference.

Second, the front rake guard really was sort of guiding the taller grass right into a channel as I drove over it. My grass wasn’t particularly trampled or wet, but it did seem to make a little bit of a difference.

The real proof, though, was taking a look at the path after I had gone over it. There was, quite literally, no trace of grass clippings on my lawn. So no clippings, no clumps, no little paths or trails of grass. None!

It was almost as if the grass was cut and pulverized into powder. I later went ahead and mowed a much larger section and found the same to be true: even with tall and sometimes thick grass, I very rarely had any clumps or layers of grass that needed to be raked or spread out. It was almost scary!

Even more telling was what my wife said when she saw the back yard after being cut: “Oh, so you raked, too?”

Yes, the cutting and mulching ability of this mower was that good.

I’m not sure if there were no grass clumps because of the S-blade or the rake guard or the design of the deck, but Troy-Bilt’s claim that this mower design cut grass “better” really seems to hold true. The area of lawn that I cut was much more evenly cut and simply looked like it was a much more level and “clean” surface. My grass was all fairly dry and it’s still early in the season, but I’m optimistic about how it will mow when the grass is thicker and a little damper after a week of summer rain.

It’s difficult to actually describe the subtle differences you can have in cut grass and, as I learned, it’s even more difficult to actually photograph them. Instead I’ll just link to two hi-res images if you really want to try to see for yourself: the first image is the path my old mower left, the second image is the path that the Troy-Bilt TriAction lawn mower left.

Now let’s look at the details of some of the key features!

The TriAction Cutting System

The TriAction Cutting System™ is, as the name suggests, three different improvements to the traditional lawn mower design. The whole idea is cut grass more evenly, mulch it into smaller pieces when it’s being cut, and disburse it in a less haphazard pattern than a traditional mower. The three aspects of the TriAction Cutting System™ are:

1. Front Rake Guard: The front nose of the mower is fitted with a plastic “rake” of a sort which Troy-Bilt claims will help guide your grass into a more upright position your mower moves over it. The purpose of this is simple: if your grass is standing up straight then the cut should be more even. When you actually see the rake it doesn’t look like much more than a bunch of plastic teeth sticking down. Did it help guide the grass into an upright position? That’s hard to say, though I could see where it might help separate grass that is damp and tangled to some extent.

2. S-Blade: The blades used in TriAction cutting mowers are not conventional straight mower blades with a slight twist. Instead, the profile of the blade actually looks a little bit like an “S” supposedly will create more air circulation and lift which means the grass blades have a greater chance of being cut multiple times and being mulched more finely as they move around under the mower. I was actually pretty impressed by the mulching capability of the Troy-Bilt mower and I have a feeling this new blade design has a lot to do with it.

You can see all three features of the Troy-Bilt TriAction Cutting System™ here. I’ve also include a hi-res photo of the TriAction Cutting System™.

3. Symmetrical Deck: Troy-Bilt has made the mower deck out of stamped metal in a symmetrical circle so that a stronger vacuum can be made in the mower housing. This shape works with the S-blade to improve air circulation and discharge the grass a little more easily. This is not a new concept. A lot of lawn mowers have circular blade housings, but a lot don’t. Many lawnmower blade housings are “mostly” symmetrical but that symmetry is broken with the grass discharge area off the side or back. That being said, this symmetrical deck combined with the S-Blade might be what adds to the real cutting and mulching power of this mower.

You can’t argue with the results: this lawn mower really does cut and mulch grass remarkably well.

Based on my experience, the Troy-Bilt TB230 is one darn fine self-propelled mower and is possibly the best lawn mower currently available at its price.

Overall Operation

The Troy-Bilt TB230 was easy to use, easy to start and especially easy to set up and get going. The throttle was adjusted well for me so when I squeezed the handle the front-wheel drive mower pulled forward just as I expected. It had a nice range of speed and go up to a quick walk if I really wanted to go that fast. The blade keeps spinning even when the mower isn’t pulling itself forward, so you can easily pull and push the mower manually if that’s your thing or you need to back out of a corner.

The front-wheel drive worked well and the larger back tires did seem to make the whole mower run a little smoother and it seemed pretty easy to push around. There is some weight to it, but nothing more than what you’d expect of a lawn mower. Rear-wheel drive might give a little more pushing power, but the front-wheel drive made turning pretty easy.

Bagging and Discharge

Yes, the bag is small, but it held a fair amount of grass and it filled completely up before needing to be emptied. I attribute this to both the mulching power of the TB230 and the wide mouth of the bag. It was actually pretty easy to empty as well. Just pop it off and dump. Very little shaking was really needed in my few test runs with the bag. The side discharge worked pretty much as expected. I almost always just mulch my grass right into the lawn (for ease and environmental reasons) so I didn’t spend a lot of time worrying about collecting grass.

Deck Wash Valve

A lot of expensive mowers now have a little hose valve on their mower decks. The idea is that you can clean out the underside of your mower by screwing or clicking your garden hose into the valve, turning on the water and then running your mower blade for a few minutes. You’re then supposed to turn off the water, turn off your mower, detach the hose and then run your mower for another few minutes to make sure everything is dry.

The whole deck washing process was relatively quick and painless. I was expecting water to go splashing everywhere, but it was mostly contained to right under the mower. I flipped the mower over after drying it, expecting to see bright red paint was shining in the sun, but it looked pretty much like it had before I washed it: stained with the green from grass clippings and a few random tufts of grass here and there. My mower deck was clean, but not spotless by any means. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I still think I’ll be scraping old grass bits out from my mower deck every now and then.

Minor Issues

Some reviewers have complained about the various plastic parts being used on this mower instead of metal, but I actually prefer the durable plastics they use these days. The mower is maneuverable, sturdy and the plastic parts can always be replaced if you somehow managed to break something.

I did have a small issue with the way the grass clippings were collecting on the back top of the mower deck when I was mulching my grass. As I mowed I noticed a few bits of cut grass (powder, almost!) blowing through a small area where the back discharge door hinges were attached. It wasn’t much, but after mowing my full backyard I had a good two handfuls of tiny grass clippings collected on the back deck.

Overall Impression

When comparing the number of features for the money, the Troy-Bilt TB230 can’t be beat. It’s simply the best lawn mower available if you want a self-propelled mower that’s under $300 and has lots of options and mulching power.

Go ahead and look around at your various home improvement stores and lawn and garden centers and do some comparison shopping for yourself: almost all of the Troy-Bilt mowers, especially the self-propelled TriAction models, are competitively priced and offer more flexibility than most other makes and models of lawn mowers. I’ve been impressed with the quality and usefulness of my Troy-Bilt chipper vac for years, and I’m looking forward to being just as impressed by this new line of Troy-Bilt lawn mowers as well!