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After much debate, and a trial run with a disappointing used Toro, I settled on a nice, new Honda HRR2516VYA.

On the very first mow job, I noticed something odd about the cut path. Every so often one blade of grass was still left standing. In truth, the grass was quite long and I was cutting too much length. So, the next time I cut sooner and the same thing happened. The 3rd time out I mowed very carefully. I used a lot of overlap. Still, every so often there was one blade of grass left way taller than the others. These long ones were painfully obvious to me to the point I backed up and passed over them again. And these rogue blades were anywhere in the path, including near the middle where there is no possible reason for one blade of grass to somehow manage to avoid the cutting blades.

So, what in the world is that all about? Anyone care to take a guess?
thanks,

Wow.

Lrobby99 said:

After much debate, and a trial run with a disappointing used Toro, I settled on a nice, new Honda HRR2516VYA.

On the very first mow job, I noticed something odd about the cut path. Every so often one blade of grass was still left standing. In truth, the grass was quite long and I was cutting too much length. So, the next time I cut sooner and the same thing happened. The 3rd time out I mowed very carefully. I used a lot of overlap. Still, every so often there was one blade of grass left way taller than the others. These long ones were painfully obvious to me to the point I backed up and passed over them again. And these rogue blades were anywhere in the path, including near the middle where there is no possible reason for one blade of grass to somehow manage to avoid the cutting blades.

So, what in the world is that all about? Anyone care to take a guess?
thanks,

Click to expand...

Do the blades of grass appear to be getting a clean cut, as opposed to somewhat frayed? I would check the mower blades for sharpness. I've noticed that new blades are typically painted over the cutting edge. Make sure those blades are nice and sharp.

As sharp as brand new Honda mower blades can be. The mow looks fine. Just the occasional missed "rogue" grass blade sticking up here and there. I am fresh out of ideas here. Help?

I have a Honda HRR216VYA and it does the same thing. It actually doesn't suck up the grass on the right side of the deck that had been pushed over from the pass beside it. I created a thread on another forum and lots of people seem to be having this same issue. Here is the link to that if you want to see it.

Here's what I did yesterday and the results I got.

I went out and mowed yesterday and experimented a little. I normally mow at 3 1/2" or 4". I mowed at 3" today to see if mowing lower helps. It just didn't mow the part where the tire laid the grass down. Then I realized the problem is always on the right side of the mower. I setup a plot of grass to mow where the left side of the mower was always on the cut side of grass and didn't have a problem.

Then I thought I would try out increasing the engine speed by changing the spring location. That helped tremendously. I never had a problem after that at 3". I moved the deck back up to 3.5" and the problem came back slightly but not as noticeable as before. I can see why Honda doesn't want the mower running at that speed because it is loud.

Take that experimenting for what it is. Anything else I should try?

Still scratching my head:confused2:

Always run with the throttle WFO regardless of what you are mowing or how fast you are walking.
Engine speed controlls blade speed.
Blade speed controlls the air flow
Air flow is what stands up the grass so you can cut it to an even length.

bertsmobile1 said:

Always run with the throttle WFO regardless of what you are mowing or how fast you are walking.
Engine speed controlls blade speed.
Blade speed controlls the air flow
Air flow is what stands up the grass so you can cut it to an even length.

Click to expand...

If the HRR is like the HRX, there is no throttle adjustment. It runs wide open all the time. The blade stop is another matter. My HRX does not have it.
Can you adjust blade speed with the blade stop lever? Or is it either just engaged or disengaged?

Going off on a bit of a tangent here, but the blade clutch does not affect any speed. The HRR216VYA has a throttle and you can adjust engine speed between Turtle and Rabbit. I guarantee you there is absolutely no reason to mow in any speed other than Full Rabbit. And I would hope no one does.

But, getting back to my situation, why individual grass blades are going untouched when every adjacent blade is well cut, is just weird. I will mow again today or tomorrow and take pictures. March into my Honda dealer and demand answers which I will post here.

I bought a Honda, ******, I want a good cut! Bonsai!
(geez, you can't even enter dam*mit here without being censored).

Lrobby99 said:

Going off on a bit of a tangent here, but the blade clutch does not affect any speed. The HRR216VYA has a throttle and you can adjust engine speed between Turtle and Rabbit. I guarantee you there is absolutely no reason to mow in any speed other than Full Rabbit. And I would hope no one does.

But, getting back to my situation, why individual grass blades are going untouched when every adjacent blade is well cut, is just weird. I will mow again today or tomorrow and take pictures. March into my Honda dealer and demand answers which I will post here.

I bought a Honda, ******, I want a good cut! Bonsai!
(geez, you can't even enter dam*mit here without being censored).

Click to expand...

Yes. Please post your findings. Very curious as to what's causing the issue.

Lrobby99 said:

Going off on a bit of a tangent here, but the blade clutch does not affect any speed. The HRR216VYA has a throttle and you can adjust engine speed between Turtle and Rabbit. I guarantee you there is absolutely no reason to mow in any speed other than Full Rabbit. And I would hope no one does.

But, getting back to my situation, why individual grass blades are going untouched when every adjacent blade is well cut, is just weird. I will mow again today or tomorrow and take pictures. March into my Honda dealer and demand answers which I will post here.

I bought a Honda, ******, I want a good cut! Bonsai!
(geez, you can't even enter dam*mit here without being censored).

Click to expand...

Did you ever figure this out, I bought the HRX217HZA a year ago and have the same problem. The Honda replaced a Cub Cadet push mower and I never had this issue with that mower. Brought it the dealer and they say nothing is wrong. This is very frustrating as I have to go over the same area twice. I have searched the web for this issue and it seems to be an issue for a lot of people.

After much experimentation and observation, all I can say is the problem of single grass blade inexplicably left uncut has got to be directly related to attempting to mulch grass that has grown too long. That doesn't do much to explain how one blade of grass can avoid the cut when all the adjacent blades are chopped down to size, but the mowing results are better when mowing earlier rather then later. I do have to say my lawn is a little bumpy. I have not observed that as being a cause.

And, since I don't mind mowing, but have better things to do with my time, what I do now when the grass is too long and I want a clean cut, is to mow the long grass in bag mode with no bag. The clippings are nicely expelled out of the back. Then, I switch it back to mulch mode and go over the noticeable clippings again, and they mulch up pretty well. I'm not left with hay on the lawn.

Best mowing to all my fellow Honda owners, and......Bonsai!!!!

Lrobby99 said:

After much experimentation and observation, all I can say is the problem of single grass blade inexplicably left uncut has got to be directly related to attempting to mulch grass that has grown too long. That doesn't do much to explain how one blade of grass can avoid the cut when all the adjacent blades are chopped down to size, but the mowing results are better when mowing earlier rather then later. I do have to say my lawn is a little bumpy. I have not observed that as being a cause.

And, since I don't mind mowing, but have better things to do with my time, what I do now when the grass is too long and I want a clean cut, is to mow the long grass in bag mode with no bag. The clippings are nicely expelled out of the back. Then, I switch it back to mulch mode and go over the noticeable clippings again, and they mulch up pretty well. I'm not left with hay on the lawn.

Best mowing to all my fellow Honda owners, and......Bonsai!!!!

Click to expand...

Rear discharge blowing clippings at me isn't something I would enjoy and probably would only do it for a few minutes before i traded the mower for something different.

But I do say I'm glad you found a solution you can tolerate.

SeniorCitizen said:

Rear discharge blowing clippings at me isn't something I would enjoy and probably would only do it for a few minutes before i traded the mower for something different.

But I do say I'm glad you found a solution you can tolerate.

Click to expand...

There is a discharge attachment available from Honda. I have no idea what it looks like or what it does. My dealer told me no one in their right mind stocks it. It doesn't discharge too badly. Doesn't blow on your shoes or up at you. Thanks.

Lrobby99 said:

There is a discharge attachment available from Honda. I have no idea what it looks like or what it does. My dealer told me no one in their right mind stocks it. It doesn't discharge too badly. Doesn't blow on your shoes or up at you. Thanks.

Click to expand...

It looks like this. Picture below. I wouldn't buy it, but that's just me.

lawn mower fanatic said:

It looks like this. Picture below. I wouldn't buy it, but that's just me.


View attachment 26868

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I think I would buy the Genuine Honda Mower Cover first, before that. Thanks.
Or their leaf cruncher. Ha ha.

With the cost of these mowers, we should not have to cut multiple times or modify how we use them just to get a decent cut. Do to work and family I can only cut about once a week and during peek growing it can get pretty long in a week, with my previous mower this was never an issue. It's unfortunate but after two seasons with this thing and trying several different techniques with the same poor result, I will be looking for a new mower. Also I was never really impressed with it mulching leaves too, it left big pieces behind that I had to go back over or would just spit the entire leaf out the from the side. What a waste of $700!