Is Honda Xenoy / Nexite decks a joke?

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Fordiesel69

Joined
Sep 10, 2005
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Location
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I have noticed these tend to crack around the engine mounting area, also where the wheels bolt in, and some where the handle brackets meet the deck. My question is this going to happen regardless simply as a result of age? I will need to post some pics when I get home but im not sure if i'd ever feel comfortable owning one. Even with a lifetime warranty they will cover the deck replacement part, and you as the "original" homeowner get stuck with the labor bill for your dealer to transfer the parts over to the new deck. While reading reviews online it seems they will deny the warranty if there is any evidence of impact damage. All used mowers will have this to some extent.

I also noticed that ever knook and cranny in your yard cause these mowers to also be jarring around as they lack the weight stay planted. Unless you roll your lawn frequently I would imagine this would beat up the deck and wheel mountings.

Opinions? I scored a bunch of used HRX217's with all kinds of problems ranging from blown engines to deck failures. Im going to build good ones with the parts from the broken ones.
 
Generally the decks seem to hold up well. The cracked ones I've seen were definitely from abuse, but that isn't to say they can't crack from age and weakened material. I like using them, but my issue with Honda mowers has been with their transmissions and the cost to fix them, which is why I don't recommend them to customers.
 
Honda's Xenoy and Nexite are two different polymers.
Honda used Xenoy in the 1990's and early 2000's. They had a 5 year warranty on the deck. It had a tendency of getting brittle and cracking/breaking when it got older. The mower did not have to be abused for this to happen, engine vibration alone could do this around the engine mounting area.
Nexite is Honda's newer deck material. The HRX217 has a Nexite deck. It has a lifetime warranty. I have not personally seen it crack/break like the older Xenoy decks did, but I suspect that a failure can actually occur if the mower is abused. A hard impact can break any deck material, even the very rugged magnesium decks that Lawnboy used many years ago.
 
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I always thought the light grey was Xenoy and dark grey was Nexite. To my Horror however the grass discharge flap does say Xenoy with 5 yrs warranty on both of my really nice HRX217's and they are dark grey. One is cosmetically perfect and the other has scratches. These decks are in perfect structural condition.

Another HRX217 has a spider cracked deck around the engine in all directions around all motor mounts. this is the one that bothers me the most as it is dark grey and in awsome condition. the engine actually fell thru the deck and the blade took big hunks out of the bottom.

Another HR215 Harmony II is cracked around 2 motor mounts extending all the way to the edge making it unusable. Also the one handle bracket is very loose because the deck is cracked there too.

Another HR215 Harmony II is cracked on all motor mounts, but amazingly it cuts perfect (dont know how)

Another HR215 PX the front wheel area is completely busted off and long gone. I would have liked to JB Weld and rivit a metal backer if I could have found the missing hunk.

And I have to wonder how the shaft drive and belt drive hydrostatic transmissions are on hondas? I know there regular transmissions are not all that good, but neither is anybody elses.
 
I don't think that the color had anything to do with what polymer was used, it had more to do with the model. I think that the more upscale Hondas were dark grey.
The "Harmony I" had a Xenoy deck, the "Harmony II" had a Nexite deck.
I stand corrected about the Nexite deck material. I thought that they were much more rugged than Xenoy. The mowers you have prove that they are also subject to crack/break. I guess that age/heat/vibration affects both materials. Maybe Honda just changed the name when it became known that the Xenoy decks had problems and Honda started to have problems selling them.
As far as the transmissions are concerned, I know that the mechanical transmissions used to have durability problems. I replaced many of them. I never had to replace a hydrostatic transmission, but I didn't see many of them.
I have been out of the business for awhile so I can't comment on the newer Hondas.
 
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Picture time, this is the HRX217:
0814200743.jpg
0814200743a.jpg
 
And the Harmony 215 PX: (Someone could have dropped it I guess. But other wheel is very loose and it probably just broke away over time.)

0814200742a.jpg
 
The biggest causes of failure I have seen on the shaft drives is actually due to the axle support bearing on the rear wheel adjuster wearing out. This places a load on the axle bushing surface in the transmission and usually destroys the axle seals allowing the fluid to escape. The other is the clutch gear wearing because people feather the drive bale.

I have three Honda mowers with the shaft drive transmissions. Two three speeds (made by Dana I believe) and one hydro. The hydro is 29 years old and has been flawless. The three speeds are 31 and 33 years old. I only had an issue with one of the three speeds on the oldest mower requiring a new clutch gear last year. It cost a couple of hours of my time and about $40 in parts and fluid costs. Seemed reasonable to me and the rest of the transmission was in excellent condition inside. None of these mowers owe me anything anymore.

I have worked on several of the belt drive trans and I would say they are indeed less durable. Incidentally Honda’s new line of residential mowers has a new all metal transmission. So it seems they saw room for improvement also.
 
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Very interesting thread. I was always under the impression that the decks were bulletproof, guess that just ain't so. I have a Ryobi electric mower to trim with and I've hit rocks, limbs, gravel, you name it and so far it's just scratched the finish and no real damage. I'm constantly impressed with it. Having worked in the plastics industry for considerably over 30 years, yes, for the company that makes Xenoy, and I worked in product development. While there are plenty of polymers and alloys that can certainly handle the abuse of mowing, many times companies don't want to hassle with the R&D that it takes to use the more slightly more expensive polymers, even when we would do the testing and development, they didn't want to take the time. It's a shame, because then the plastic which was used in the wrong application, gets a bad wrap.
 
And because I personally did not own these since new, who really knows how hard they were abused. Out of the batch of 21 mowers I got from this lot, a total of 5 of the dark grey HRX217's were good (talking about the mower deck itself, not the engines or transmissions). Some had bad cables, some had bad engines, some had bad transmissions. And in case anyone is wondering you cannot make good mowers from 5 broken ones!!! The models differ so vastly that you almost just need to fix them each one by one. I had to tear an entire engine down to salvage a special crankshaft that accepts a roto stop clutch as the good engine had a standard crank that the clutch could not physically go onto.
 
For future reference I've discovered the Toro Super Recycler seems to be the best mower to fix up and use. Mine is a 2007 model w/Briggs engine. Transmissions on these are really good.
 
FWIW I have A 2002 or 2003 Honda Harmony with a nexite deck that I bought as a reconditioned unit in may of 2003. It has been a fabulous machine. I remember when my neighbor found out the deck was plastic he said it wouldn't last more than a few years.

Its been used alot less the past 10 years, but still sees weekly use to get into areas I cannot get the riding mower to. We even had to use it at our old house a few times to mow a 1 acre yard before when the rider broke down.

It has been used somewhat hard and has been flawless. The quality of cut is superb!
 
I will say one thing that's a bit off subject here. I push mow only to trim around my 7 acres of which I mow just over 5. But, even if I had to push mow all the time, no matter what the land was like, I'd use a cordless electric mower. They are awesome. My Ryobi, which is no where near the best out there, (that would be EGO), is a horse of a mower that will eat tall grass without much excitement at all. No oil, no gas, just push the button and go, it's even self propelled, with continuously variable speed.
 
An older thread but a good one.

I have a Honda Harmony with the Xenoy deck... In my experience the deck is a trade off against rust and makes it a bit lighter machine over all. I have seen a number of Honda's with steel decks that are all rotted out. Some are not that old either. The engines are in great shape but the machine is basically junk because of a baseball size hole in the deck. People mow wet grass and do not clean out the deck after. The Xenoy eliminates that problem. The Hydro transmission is smooth as silk.

I have seen a few small cracks on my deck but I have drilled out the ends and filled them with epoxy. It keeps going strong. Nearly 20 years old. When you consider the cost and cost to own it realy is not a bad value. I know people who would have gone through 3 or 4 $300 mowers in 20 years. The Honda has been basically trouble free with basic maintenance

Oil Change every year.
Change filter as needed. Usually every 2 or 3 years.
Use good gas with Stabil and run the carb dry at the end of the season.
Sharpen the blade now and them.

That's been it. It does mulch great. I hope I get another 10 years.

Unless you know how a machine has been treated you can not really comment on why some of those decks mentioned above were damaged. It is possible some were manufacturing defects.
 
Warlord said:
Plastic is not a suitable material for a mower deck. Why didn’t they just use aluminum or magnesium like everyone else?
Click to expand...
I've got a Nexite deck unit circa 2012 I think. In my younger days my brother and I had a small lawn care business (about 40 residential yards and a couple small commercial business contracts) We only used Honda self propelled 21" mowers and had great luck with all of them. When in the lawn business we used both steel deck and aluminum deck units. Aluminum is more brittle and sometimes would suffer small chunks of under deck chipping off. The steel decks never chipped but were quite heavy and eventually suffered metal fatigue cracking next to the wheels but we were able to have the cracks welded back closed to fix that issue. We quite the lawn business long ago, before plastics really appeared so my only experience with Nextite is my home unit for only MY house (not commercial) and it has worked out much better than I expected, there's a smallish chip underside on the front, and a small crack (approx 1/2 " long) barely showing through the top of the deck, both are impact related (not stress or fatigue related), so they are only minor cosmetic issues. It operates in a hot environment (Texas) but is stored under shade when not is use so it's not needlessly exposed to sunlight/UV light, if that helps longevity?
 
MotorFan said:
I've got a Nexite deck unit circa 2012 I think. In my younger days my brother and I had a small lawn care business (about 40 residential yards and a couple small commercial business contracts) We only used Honda self propelled 21" mowers and had great luck with all of them. When in the lawn business we used both steel deck and aluminum deck units. Aluminum is more brittle and sometimes would suffer small chunks of under deck chipping off. The steel decks never chipped but were quite heavy and eventually suffered metal fatigue cracking next to the wheels but we were able to have the cracks welded back closed to fix that issue. We quite the lawn business long ago, before plastics really appeared so my only experience with Nextite is my home unit for only MY house (not commercial) and it has worked out much better than I expected, there's a smallish chip underside on the front, and a small crack (approx 1/2 " long) barely showing through the top of the deck, both are impact related (not stress or fatigue related), so they are only minor cosmetic issues. It operates in a hot environment (Texas) but is stored under shade when not is use so it's not needlessly exposed to sunlight/UV light, if that helps longevity?
Click to expand...
I’m in the lawn biz myself. The main issue I think with plastic decks isn’t the mowing itself it’s the being tossed in and out of trailers and bouncing around in the back of trucks and whatnot. Employees don’t treat anything delicately so a delicate deck just isn’t gonna work. I can deal with the odd chip out of an aluminum deck cause we’ve had them bounce out of trailers at speed and go tumbling down the road and still be good to go with a new set of bars.

For a homeowner with a nice smooth lawn maybe they’d be alright but I’d still just rather have aluminum.
 
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