New T2500 Leaves Lots of Clippings Need Help Solving

[Bob1234567890]

Hi there.

I just got one of these:

http://www.sears.com/craftsman-46in...-07125583000P?prdNo=1&blockNo=1&blockType=G1#

When I mow with it it leaves heavy grass long clippings on the fresh cut lawn. These take several days to dry up enough to fall down to the ground. It looks awful. Plus the grass under them doesn’t get sun for several days.

I have tried the following and each has not solved the problem:
• It comes with 3 in 1 mulching blades. I didn’t get the mulch kit since it looks like the mulch kit has the same 3 in 1 mulching blades. I did buy the mulch plug and put it on. It made a very small improvement.
• I have slowed down the speed significantly.
• I have cut late in the day when the grass is hot and dry. I have cut early in the morning as soon as the dew is dry.

How can I solve this? Has anyone else encountered something similar? I sure would like to solve this in a low cost way. I really don’t want to spend $440 on a bagger.

My old mower has never had this problem on the exact same lawn. When I look at the blade on the old mower it looks like it has multiple cutting heights. Would changing the blades on the new mower help solve this? Does anyone have any experience with aftermarket blades like the Oregon Gator’s? Do any of them work better than the Craftsman blades?

Thanks a lot for your help.

I was looking forward to this new mower but it seems that it can’t even do its primary job well, cut the grass and leave it looking nice.

 

[darrinster]

If the grass is tall and wet then it's going to leave clippings behind.

If my grass get's to tall I direct the grass to a certain area and just rake it.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Mulching needs a 1:3 cut ratio to work universally.
Some decks have a better air flow than others and will handle a 1:2 ratio and do it better.
Very few will effectivly mulch more than a 2" cut
To cut costs mower companies are fitting universal decks.
Universally they not particularly good at bagging
Universally they not particularly good at throwing
Universally they not particularly good at mulching.
However they are cheap and cheap sells so while the market keeps on buying cheap mowers, mower companies will continue to supply mowers with cheap decks that do not work particularly well.

You could try Gator blades , they may or may not allieviate your problems.
It goes like this.
To throw you need a shallow deck with a wide discharge chute.
To bag you need a shallow deck with a tangential smaller high velocity discharge chute.
To mulch you need a deep deck with a lot of space above the blades for the airflow to circulate the clippings for recuting a lot finer.
So one deck will not be best at all 3.
Steel costs money and there is less steel in a shallow deck so that makes them cheaper.
Pressing a shallow deck requires smaller cheaper dies and a smaller press so again shallow decks cost less to make.

Professional mowers used to have spacers between the blades and the spindle housing so you could change the height of the blades in the deck to suit what cutting mode you wanted to use.

 

[Bob1234567890]

Thanks for everyone's help.

Something I haven't mentioned is that I am running the mower with the engine set at the top speed.

The old mower is a Husqvarna. The new Craftsman T2500 is a Husqvarna.

The old mower does a much better job of mulching than the new one. The conditions are identical. The grass grows for the same amount of time between cuttings, gets the same water, gets cut at the same number of days in between. It gets cut at the same time of day so grass conditions are comparable. It is possible to ask a mower to work in these conditions and expect it to do a good job of dealing with the clippings.

Still looking for help how to solve this.

 

[Bob1234567890]

Just to keep everyone current on this. I took a good look at the mower blades that it comes with. They are straight with no different cut height notches in them.

The picture online of the mulch kit for this mower has the notches at different heights like my old mower blade that mulches better. I bought from Sears the mulch kit. I wanted to buy just the mulching blades but they didn't have them so I have an extra mulch door. Hmmm. What are the chances over the next 5 years that I am going need on of those anyway since we have a plastic door held on by two rubber straps forming part of the mower deck.

Now the next step is to install the mulching blades then see if that improves things substantially.

 

[Bob1234567890]

The mulching blades are on.

We'll know more in a few days.

 

[BlazNT]

I have had my plastic mulching door for 8 years and not one problem yet.

 

[Bob1234567890]

How does your's mulch?

 

[BlazNT]

I run G6 blades on the 54" deck and as long as its not too tall it works great. When it gets too tall I just take it off and blow it side discharge. Most customers dont want mulch but my 2 acre mow wants it.

 

[Bob1234567890]

I wanted to say thanks to everyone who helped with this.

Replacing the original 3 in 1 blades with the mulching blades from Sears has solved this issue.

I waited until I had been through a couple of cuts before I am responding. The original blades created such a huge mess out of my lawn that I wanting to go through a couple of cuts before deciding if it was totally fixed. The grass still hasn't grown back properly yet.

It is doing a good job now!