Customer Reviews for Honda 21 in. 3-in-1 Variable Speed Gas Walk Behind Self-Propelled Lawn Mower with Auto Choke

Limit 500 words? Yuck. I owned a Honda for 15+ years. It was great. This one has issues, two-fold. First, the throttle mechanism required me to get rubber-tipped gloves. My thumb kept slipping off. MORE problematic? The throttle is HYPER sensitive. The mower WILL get away from you if you're not careful particularly when the bag is full (the front end will jump up!). The old mower had a dial-up throttle and you could pace yourself. This mower is JUMPY. Loved my old Honda. CAN'T recommend this one

Brand new lawnmower, mowed grass one time. Then come out to garage and see oil everywhere. Leaking from bottom of motor.

I was so happy that Honda decided to bring back gas mowers. I’ve been using electric but it wasn’t good enough. I’m satisfied with this purchase and looking forward to many years of using this mower. Cuts well, good on gas and makes it so much easier for me. The bagging is wonderful. Will recommend

Purchased this mower today. Got it home and unboxed it. Setup was easy. Set the handlebar, put the bagger together, adjusted the cut height, selected mulch or bag, filled it with oil and gas and it was ready to go. Started very smoothly. Ran well cutting about 1/4-1/2 acre of lawn. I mowed at 3.5” and mulched it. The blades of grass were mulched really well. One thing that was my fault was not adjusting the speed control paddle. I left it at the factory setting, so make sure to adjust it.

I love my new mower. It has some amazing power. It's easy to push easy to maneuver. The only downside is when you release the lever the mower engine shuts off and you have to start it up again. I am guessing it's a safety feature one that I've never had before on a mower.

Glad to see Honda gas mowers back in the Home Depot lineup. Still the best!

Right out the box. Oil then gas only ONE PULL. Real smooth run

I was so not expecting the quality of the motor or the cutting. QUALITY!

Its a good mower like dual blade for the mulching feature the motor is quieter then my last mower and its a Honda so hopefully it lasts a long time

I’ve always loved the Honda lawnmowers. The only reason I bought this mower was to replace the 21 year old exact same model mower! This one is a lighter version of its grandfather (my old mower) and the second reason why I bought it. The Hoda starts right up first pull and does a wonderful job cutting the lawn.

I haven’t had a chance to mow yet but the build quality seems very good and it started up right away. Very little assembly needed and I really like how the deck height adjusts. The switch from mulching to bagging couldn’t be simpler. I look forward to mowing this season.

Amazing lawn mower machine. Grassbag mechanism is perfect and outstanding overall operation.

Delivery was excellent and after unboxing it was easy to top off with the supplied oil and finish installing the handles. Poured some gas in the tank I adjusted the wheels to 3 inches and pulled the cord the unit fired up immediately. The hand controls for powering the wheels works very well for either hand. I used the unit on mulch setting as I do not anticipate using the bagging option. The cut on the lawn was great and the handles collapse for easy storage.

Engine works very smooth and perfect and drives good too. Easy to install and operate.

I can’t speak on longevity because I’ve only used it once, but it is far superior so far to the junk Troy-bilt it replaced. I’m not sure how people have this “thumb fatigue” I’ve seen on some reviews. Maybe they haven’t adjusted the paddle to the proper position? I don’t have any issues with the so called jumpy self propulsion either. It’s only too fast when you push the paddle a ridiculous amount. One thing I advise doing, to just about anything with a motor, is run it for an hour or so and then change the oil with a quality synthetic. When you do that, you’ll see the oil looks like metallic paint from the metal shavings as the motor breaks in. Small engines have no filter to catch any of it either. Hopefully it runs forever!

I needed a solid walk behind mower to manicure my 1 acre. After some research I decided on this one and after unboxing and first test, I’m very pleased and confident this Honda mower will do the job and hopefully last for years.

Switching back to gas from a battery-operated name brand mower. After much research, I settled on this Honda. Great features! You can either bag or mulch, but we plan to mostly mulch. With the twin blade system, one blade lifts the grass and the other mulches. It's self-propelled and with the lever on the handle you can adjust the speed just by pushing on the lever. There is a lever to select whether you want to bag or mulch too, and it mulches probably better than any mower I've used before.

Switching back to gas from a battery-operated name brand mower. After much research, I settled on this Honda. Great features! You can either bag or mulch, but we plan to mostly mulch. With the twin blade system, one blade lifts the grass and the other mulches. It's self-propelled and with the lever on the handle you can adjust the speed just by pushing on the lever. There is a lever to select whether you want to bag or mulch too, and it mulches probably better than any mower I've used before.

Everything very good Everything very good Everything very good

Go ahead and buy if you like to stop mowing to flip the front wheel back in place 4 to 5 times each mowing. Requires unbolting the front wheel, flipping the front wheel assembly in place, tightening the one of a kind star bolt assembly, and reattaching the front wheel. No one sells the bolt assembly online or in stores. I bought in 3 years ago and it is destined to be another piece of junk in a landfill.

I looked for an image of the grass chute and found MarkP99's review. I can echo his sentiments about this lawnmower. I am 61 years old and have been mowing yards since I was 8, and have never owned a mower I hate any more than this one. I will list the worst problems first. 1) The drive control is bulky and can not be controlled unless you continually run the mower on high and chase after it the whole time (it is geared really high), or use your thumbs to push the huge gray plastic piece down which becomes painful after awhile - the manual says "causes thumb fatigue" - yes it does! You will end up trying to use your palms to control the speed which I have illustrated in one of my images. This doesn't work very well either. You have about 3 or 4 positions you can put that gray lever in: all the way down and you can't make the mower go fast enough, up high or in the middle and the mower wants to jump out of your hands anytime you put excess weight on the lever. And you will put excess weight on it - "hypersensitive" MarkP99 called it. Honda needs a bar for the drive control like 99% of the other self-propelled mowers on the market. Not a smart control. This one isn't smart. 2) This mower does not mow the grass well. Two blades and it doesn't mow the grass well. I don't sharpen blades either. I just replace them when they get dull, which means I will have to buy 2 new blades that don't mow the grass well. In the mower's defense, however, some of the images from other reviewers showed lush lawns that looked to be nicely cut. I live in north Florida though, I have a sand bed for a yard with no saltwater anywhere around it, and this mower does a terrible job cutting the forked weeds that we used to pull through each others mouths as kids. The mower just bends over a lot of them - it doesn't cut the weed. 3) The grass chute will be full of sand and grass when you're done, and when I say full I mean really FULL. I thought I could hose it out. Wrong. The chute is angled backwards so spraying water in it only pushes the debris to the back. I have to reach my hand in to pull the mulch out while spraying inside at the same time; a very nasty business. Lastly, 4) The cheap green plastic piece - it fell off on my very first mowing. Luckily, I found it. I keep an eye on it now while I'm mowing. Summary - I needed this mower in a hurry and fell victim to the totality of the other reviews. (4.6 or something like that? Hmmmm...) I didn't do my research like I should so I blame myself for this. No review is complete without both sides so my positives are that it cranks easily, is light, and since it's Honda I'll assume that it has a great engine.

This mower is a huge disappointment due to its design issues. Power to weight ratio is the first problem. The mower is so light and the engine so powerful, you're in a fight with the rear wheel drive to keep the deck on the ground. The controls are poorly placed and hyper sensitive. Adjustable, but no way to hold it at less than full speed. With the mulch setting, grass still accumulates in the grass chute. See picture. Overall, a great engine atrached to a terrible piece of equipment.

This lawnmower new wheel adjustment system ruins this mower. The rear level adjustment system has a bar that sticks below the deck and drags through the grass. This bar makes the self-propelled system basically ineffective in thick pile grass. It’s harder to push than a push mower. I have tried other mowers that have the same system, and they all have the same problem. Buy a mower with independently adjustable wheels.

This lawnmower has good power,easy to assemble, great double blades for cutting or mulching.

Noticed oil leaking on my garage floor under the mower. Appears to be leaking from the bottom of the oil dipstick tube. Mowed with it maybe 4 times. It’s about 6 weeks old so past the 30 day return to store window. This is NOT what I expected for an almost $600 push mower.

i recently purchased the 216 w/ out blade stop I replaced an 8yo Ariens razor self propelled which i really liked but broke and the repair was to expensive to fix. so I did my homework and read up on the best lawnmowers and the Hondas were always on top my neighbor has the 217 which I could not afford so I bought the 216 and I absolutely love it I am 6’ 1”240 and it fits me perfect what I like the most is when you are not using the drive and you just need to push it a few feet it rolls very easily no gear drag . The Honda mulches better than my Ariens did hopefully I get more than eight years out of it I highly recommend it

I owned a Honda mower in the 80's that lasted over 20 years. Opened the box, filled it with oil/gas and it started on the first pull. I borrowed a Toro Recycler and it was okay. After (too much) research, I settled on the Honda and I can't be more pleased. Consumer Reports rated it highly and (this time) they hit the mark. From the Smart Drive to handle and wheel adjustments, maneuverability, engine power, quality of cut (on varied terrain and growth types), mulching - it's great in every way!

Just buy it.. the reviews are confusing and contradicting. The GCV170 engine is quiet, smooth, has 8.2lb-ft @ 2500 rpm, given the lighter weight and size of the deck, this mower moves, cutting green, fast growing, wet, thick, heavy grass like a buzz saw, never slowing, no matter the height or thickness of the grass (height set 3.5 inches). Bagger system worked unbelievable, never clogged, not even close. Backing up is easy, one hand. The bag was full and heavy, never fell off the deck.