Do not waste your money!! June 10, 2011
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I bought this exact lawnmower in February 2010 since then it has broke on me atleast 5 times. i have had to borrow lawnmower from mynieghbor at least 8 times in the past two summers as my lawnmower was broke and awaiting parts. I was told at the end of summer, by several sears repesentatves, that it was just a bad mowing deck and that switching it out and Sears giving me a new mowing deck will fix all my problems, and which it did for the last two weeks of the summer. I brought it out for this summer and guess what it continues to constantly brake down. Now it is the tractor itself along with the mowing deck. I was advised when i started to complain by several Sears repesentitives that the lawnmower is too small for my lawn and im overworking it,REALLY!! I mow 2 1/2 to 3 acres of lawn and it takes me around an hour to mow it. I guess when you buy a 54 inch mowing deck it is only good for under an acre. bad news is my warranty runs out next february and when I told management at Sears about my concerns they advised me the only thing that I can do is PAY for an extended warranty. The thing dont run half the time, why would I want to keep it and pay SEARS more money for it. By the way I forgot to mention that I live in the snowbelt of Pennsylvania and i only use my mower 3-4 months out of the year. My advice for anyone looking at this mower, or any other craftman mower, is to spend a little bit extra money and buy a Cub Cadet or John Deer. the only good thing I can say about this mower or Sears is the actual repairmen that have come out everytime my lawnmower broke really tried to go out of there way to try to get my mower running good. Well I got to go. I have to ask the next door nieghbor if I can use his 20 year old John Deer lawnmower to mow my grass AGAIN!!

Runs like a champ May 10, 2011
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We have veen very happy with our Craftsman machine. It has been reliable and leaves our lawn looking like it was professionally cut.

Forget 54" deck if you have damp grass.Bagger poorly constructed June 09, 2010
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I bought one of these as my first riding mower and I've had it for 3 years.  It is mechanically reliable, comfortable and easy to operate.  When I bought it, I thought wider deck equals less mowing time - hooray.  Nice theory, but not reality for me.  I live in NW WA and the grass is damp more often than not.  If the grass is the least bit damp, IT WILL NOT BAG.  The chute will clog again and again.  Trying to do so is a frustrating experience.  Even if I'm doing a 50% overlap, it will clog.  My routine now, if the grass is even a little damp, is to mow it, discharging the grass, and then mow it again with the bagger the next dry day, if possible.  This is a waste of time but what choice do I have?  I should mention that I mow every week, at deck height 5 of 6, so I'm not talking about super-high grass.  Also, when I say damp, I don't mean it just finished raining an hour ago.  I mean it didn't rain that day but wasn't particularly sunny either.  Also, most of my grass is not in the shade.

I feel the issue is that the deck is too wide and it's just too much grass at one time to send up the chute.  I don't totally consider it a flaw of the mower.  Partly ignorance on my part - (not that the salesperson advised me otherwise).

The bagger itself it not very well made.  The design is fine, in my opinion, but the construction is poor.  My first one broke within the first year, so I took it back for a warranty replacement.  The replacement was broken when I opened the box, so I returned it too.  It was a minor problem, which I could have fixed, but for $400 I shouldn't have to.  So, I'm on bagger #3 now and the welds on it broke last year so I had a friend fix them, but now one of the welds which wasn't fixed has busted.  It is a 3-bag unit, by the way.  Oh, and how it hooks onto the deck with these little bungee hooks is not so great.

So, all of my complaints have to do with bagging.  If you don't bag, it's a good mower.  If you intend to bag, and you're in a dry climate, good mower.  If I had it all to do over, I would probably go with a 42" deck.  I suspect I would have much less trouble with the grass clogging.  I would look at other brands but would consider a Craftsman again also.

The only maintenance I've done in 3 years is oil/filter changes, one air filter change and blade sharpening.  I think I have about 220 hours on the mower.

AWSOME MACHINE RUNS GREAT May 12, 2010
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RUNS GREAT JUST NEED TO DO A TUNE UP ONCE A YEAR AND KEEP IT RUNNING GREAT. GOOD FOR BIG YARDS AND THE THREE BLADES ALLOWS FOR QUICKER CUTTING TIME.