I hope you will look into and consider a John Deere E 180 which Jas a Koehler engine. I have this model, bought it new at Lowe's 6 years ago for 2,399.00 and it has been the most trouble free tractor I have ever owned. I mow 1 and 1/2 acres with it, hilly and bumpy yard and it is a beast! It also has the 30 second oil change option on it and changing the oil is a dream. It has a garden hose port on the deck so you can clean under the mowing deck in just a few minutes, keeping the deck clean and maintenance free. It has been worth every penny.
I'm sorry but you are falling for the absolute ludicrous marketing of these machines.
That wash Port is used on mini machines, even standard small push mowers and you should never have a garden hose near your equipment!
That is the general rule of thumb. There are a few specific times, kind of like two where it's okay but other than that the homeowner should keep the water hose far away from their machine.
That deck has at least two spindles, if it's a 42, and each spindle has an upper and lower bearing with only a very small rubber lip grease seal keeping out moisture. Then you have at least two idler pulleys which also have one bearing in them typically with a seal on each side.
It is not beneficial to any of those parts to splash them, spray them, or bathe them in water from either side.
It's even worse for people who decide to use a pressure washer to blast off the dirt and make the machine look closer to new.
The only thing that should be used is air whether it be from a leaf blower or compressed air from like a blow gun and of course you can wipe things off with rags too..
Now on that terrible fake feature of oil change in the filter.
If you'll do a quick bit of research you will find that only a smaller portion of your oil is even changed, something like 40% or something but it's nowhere near a complete oil change and you're never getting the crap in the crud that settles to the bottom that could possibly be taken out and even if you do it the better way of running it for a few minutes before you drain it, you're still leaving lot of it in there because it's still in suspension on the oil that you won't be removing.
You will also find that many people and dealers started buying the conversion kit right after this came out so they can convert it back to the proper and better way of changing the oil by draining it all.
This was nowhere near and improvement for the engine or beneficial to the engine or its longevity at all!
It was 100% so John Deere could sell and overpriced oil filter with some overpriced oil in it and convince people to buy it and pay the extra price for the convenience and a false piece of mind from changing their oil which they're actually changing part of their oil.
Don't know why it's such a big deal to people because most of these machines have a quick drain anyways with a spot to put a hose on to it and some of the newer ones actually have the hose already there up to the top so those are even easier to drain and the filter is very easy to remove once you loosen it with a 7 or $8 oil filter wrench what you can keep forever.
Use two little paper towels and you won't have any mess and you will change about 98 plus percent of your oil.
It's already easy since it's a spin on filter and if you don't buy the overpriced ones from John Deere (which many of us will never understand why people do just for their extra piece of mind etc).
I can change the oil on one of these riders with a new filter or even a new longer filter 51348 is the part number for the briggs, kohler, and the Chinese ones... For under $10. Sometimes only 8:50.
Compare that to the price of the all-in-one oil and filter and the real problem that you're not even changing half the oil.
It's a crazy design that should have never existed.
Also, while you seem to be a John Deere supporter , I don't think you'll get him to buy another John Deere machine.
He specifically said not those because he's so upset with his terrible experience from his current John Deere product.
