Originally Posted by gofast182
Alright, so I returned the mower to Home Depot. The sound just wasn't right, esp. having purchased the most expensive mowers in the class (could've saved a little money and bought a Toro, but I wanted a Honda which has the feature set I want, plus better overall reviews). Not wanting to exchange it for the next box on the shelf which could've been the next sequential serial number, likely to have the same lot of transmissions, I went to a completely different store, a local power equipment dealer and bought the same model. After initial startup and one pass in the yard the noise is much less pronounced, what I would call acceptable. I'll report back after mowing under load but right now I'm glad I dumped that one instead of messing around with a repair of my brand new lawnmower.
You made the right choice. Did Home Depot give you problems? Once bought a SnoTek snow blower from there way before the snow season in early October. It sat unused for nearly 30 days. But within that 30 days, there was an unusual forecast for a 3in snow, in October! I thought it was a great time to test out the blower. When I moved it, I saw a puddle of oil underneath the drain tube. Thinking the drain nut was loose, I tightened it and moved the snow by hand. But the drain pipe-end kept leaking oil. Brought it back to The Home Depot and their garden department head tried to imply that was returning it after using the product, even though I clearly didn't. Even if I did, it was still allowed under the return period. And the manager was involved, all over a snow blower that was leaking oil and was clearly unused and within the return period. Manager was understanding, though. They took it back, but I will never forget that experience. And thank god for that unusual early snow. Otherwise, I would have been stuck with leaking snow blower.
Went to Sears right after and got a craftsman. No issues so far other than a tire losing air within the first year and it was repaired under warranty.
