HR215 blade choice?

[Darryl G]

Welcome. I was amazed to see that those spring washers under the bolts are $5 each at Jack's Small Engines. What?!?!

 

[Baughman85]

Used the 215 for the first time today. Not impressed....It didn't have the power to run thru one pass without dying. I kept having to release the blade clutch to keep it from dying when the grass got the slightest bit thick. Its a yard that is not well maintained, mostly weeds but they were not that thick. After about 3 passes I went for my cheapo Troy Built XP that blew right threw it. Maybe the two blade setup is too much for that motor? Going to try a single blade and maybe a side discharge shute to keep it from loading up. If that doesnt work I have no use for it.

 

[Boobala]

Thanks for the diagram! Saved me $40 ordering a replacment that I didnt need

I'm sure you know those "sping-washers" are also called Belleville & compression washers, just FYI

 

[Darryl G]

Used the 215 for the first time today. Not impressed....It didn't have the power to run thru one pass without dying. I kept having to release the blade clutch to keep it from dying when the grass got the slightest bit thick. Its a yard that is not well maintained, mostly weeds but they were not that thick. After about 3 passes I went for my cheapo Troy Built XP that blew right threw it. Maybe the two blade setup is too much for that motor? Going to try a single blade and maybe a side discharge shute to keep it from loading up. If that doesnt work I have no use for it.

Power is definitely on the marginal end of things with the double blades and mulching, and perhaps the engine is a bit "tired" bringing it to the critical point of not being able to do the job.

I agree with your plan to just go with a single blade and see how that goes. You'll need to get the blade holder bracket and shorter blade bolts, as the mulch kit deletes the blade holder and uses longer bolts.

 

[Boobala]

Welcome. I was amazed to see that those spring washers under the bolts are $5 each at Jack's Small Engines. What?!?!

Available at (Fastenal) MUCH cheaper !

https://www.fastenal.com/products/b...|~ ~|categoryl3:"600090 Belleville Washers"|~

 

[bertsmobile1]

Used the 215 for the first time today. Not impressed....It didn't have the power to run thru one pass without dying. I kept having to release the blade clutch to keep it from dying when the grass got the slightest bit thick. Its a yard that is not well maintained, mostly weeds but they were not that thick. After about 3 passes I went for my cheapo Troy Built XP that blew right threw it. Maybe the two blade setup is too much for that motor? Going to try a single blade and maybe a side discharge shute to keep it from loading up. If that doesnt work I have no use for it.

There is a limit to what a mulching mower can do.
The mulchers down here generally have a bigger motor because all of that extra wind movement & grass chopping requires a lot more power.
The mulching version comes with the 190 the strait thrower/bagger uses the 160.

Then there is what you are cutting.
You can not mulch 6" tall grass down to 2", some thing that my office working customers can not understand.
Ideally mulching cuts should be no more that 1/4 of the height of the grass.

Finally, mulching takes time so you have to mow slower, another thing the office workers and particularly the managers can not understand.

Over there the lawers have your balls in a vice because blade brakes/clutches are manditory and all that extra trash gobbles up a lot of power.

 

[Baughman85]

Took the mulching blade off and it runs much better and cuts great. I mow my yard before it gets too tall but the other two other people I mow for let theirs get a little tall before they have me cut it. I guess I will keep the Troy Built around for those yards.

 

[golfergordy]

My son has an HR215K1 SX masters series, and I have an HR215 SX, and last year I installed the mulching blade setup onto both of them. Only the Masters series had the mulching plug installed and I found that the HR215 w/o the mulching plug didn't work as well if I tried to mulch w/o the plug, so I obtained a mulching plug for that one too. If you have the mulching blade setup installed but don't want to mulch, there's no problem because you just attach the grass bag. The mulching blade setup cuts the grass into smaller pieces which fit into the bag more efficiently, so you can cut more grass before emptying the bag.

With 2 different HR215 mowers, I have not noticed a drop-off of power with the mulching blades installed whether mulching or bagging. There might actually be a very small power loss, but I haven't noticed any loss to worry about. If you're experiencing noticeable power loss, I suggest you check every aspect of the mower which could lower power output if not up to specs. For example, I picked up a used HS520 SB a few years ago, and it seemed to run fine, but I noticed that it didn't have the correct spark plug installed, so I replaced the spark plug with the correct one, and the rpm jumped up a few hundred rpms.

 

[JTW73]

I think in at least my case that it's just a lot for the engine to get spinning with the double blade setup. Engages blades fine just pulls engine down hard. Will stall it if I don't warm it up enough or if I have it in uncut grass. Always been that way from day 1. What's it like 5hp?

Edit: Here you go. Dug out my original paperwork. Mine is an HR215K1HMA. Here's the installation instructions and diagram for the mulching blade. Note that the blade holder is not used for the double blade setup. The spacer goes in its place. And there is nothing between the 2 blades. Sounds like it was installed properly on your machine except the spacer was in the wrong place?

Hi Darryl this is an old post thread……but I just restored a HR215 HMA MASTERS Series last year. Have the double mulching blades with the spacer…..currently the spacer in between the blades but you state that the spacer should be on top blades against roto stop…..any possible you can send a copy of your original install instructions as noted in your post
Thanks

 

[golfergordy]

Saw the request for mulching blade installation instructions.
I've had mulching blades on 3-Honda HR series mowers- HR214, HR215, & HR215 masters, and they all ran (and still run) great, with never any sign of power loss, unless the grass was very long, very wet, or if you tried running the mower in the 3rd power drive gear which exacerbated the long or wet grass slow down, and, by-the-way, the manual says not to use 3rd gear for cutting grass.

Anyway, while looking for the mulching kit instructions, I discovered that I have a brand new mulching blade kit stored in my garage along with a bunch of miscellaneous HR series mower parts, and even a couple of spare mulching plugs. A few yrs back a hobby of mine was buying other peoples throw away Honda HR series mowers (for almost give-away prices, and they sometimes also included the mulching plug). So, along with my Honda mower and 2- Honda mowers belonging to my sons, I've got spare parts for most repairs. One pic is worth a thousand words.