21" hi vac bag closures: z fold bag & slider versus the "Kwik and Easy" door system

[Frank Woodbery]

I'm a homeowner, not a commercial landscape person with a 12k sq-ft area of grass lawn. I use an '80s vintage 21" hi vac Snapper to mow and bag clippings. I do occasionally mulch when the grass is dry, but my wet grass tends to clog up the underdeck & discharge chute very quickly. For that reason I usually bag.

I've always used the z fold/slider style bag to collect clippings to move to the yard debris bin. I'm guessing the door system is intended for people that either dump clippings into a ground-level compost pile, or they are landscapers who drop clippings onto a tarp and then hauls the filled tarp to their truck or trailer. Does anybody here use the door style "Kwik and Easy" bag, especially a homeowner? If so, why do you like using it? Maybe I'm overlooking something.

Thanks for any input!

 

[slomo]

The Z bag is my fav by far. I used the door bag type a couple times. It was clunky and added extra weight to the bag. More parts to wear out and fail. Harder to get a full clean dump too. Z bag all the way......

Stunned to hear your chute clogs, never heard that before. You know you can get the mega lift blade kit right? Meaning you bolt two steel wings to the blade for extra lift. That little guy will suck up spare change off your garage floor. Best bagging blade on the market across ALL other brands out there, message ends here on this. Mine clears rocks and junk from the grass. Darn good leaf removal tool as well. Again no other brand be it Honda, Husky, Ariens, Exmark and so on even comes close.

 

[Frank Woodbery]

I'm all over using those wing attachments when I use the bag (see photo)! I swear this kind of blade will suck earthworms out of the ground. The bag always remains pressurized by the air volume pushed into it.

BUT - when I try to mulch the grass using a mulching blade (like a Gatorblade), I also use a mulch plug and no bag. Grass clippings totally clog up under the deck and the entry to the chute very quickly. So when mulching I end up stopping the mower and cleaning out the underside every few minutes trying mulch. If the grass is dry and I cut at a taller height, mulching works ok. I favor just bagging using the "wing" attachments on a high lift blade. Perhaps part of this is that the hi vac deck is shaped to vacuum rather than mulch.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Gators should not be used with a mulching plate
The instructions on the Oregon site actually states
The blade has no down flute so it tosses the grass up and there it stays

 

[Frank Woodbery]

Gators should not be used with a mulching plate
The instructions on the Oregon site actually states
The blade has no down flute so it tosses the grass up and there it stays

Thanks bertsmobile1,

So a gator blade is only intended for doing side discharge or bagging? I don't side discharge, just bag. If that's the case, I would stick with the hi-lift with the wings for bagging. It's awesome.

I also have a Snapper Ninja blade. Would that work for mulching with the mulch plug in place?

 

[bertsmobile1]

Yes the idea behind Gators is the blade of grass is cut off by the bottom end of the blade the chopped into 3 or 4 parts by the sharp edges on the flute as it is discharged,
BEcause the clippings are small they do not throw very far & fan out according to their density.
When you just finished the cut you see clippings everywhere
Go have a pee and a beer then they will have vanished into the remaining grass blades .
They will not do this if you are cutting more than 3" off the lawn or the ratio of remaining lawn length to length of clipping exceeds 1:1 .