Indeed. Actually I have a similar story myself. Likewise an "el cheapo" push mower (I think from WalMart, maybe $90 on sale?) with a (low-end) Briggs & Stratton engine... Bought it back in circa 1994/1995 when I was renting a small house and the Landlord's mower was in for service -- didn't want to (and couldn't afford to) spend much, plus the lawn was small, and I figured if I got a couple of years of service out of it, well that would be good enough.
I still have it, and it still works... 20 almost 25 years later; starts right up (even though I rarely use it -- house I've been in for 18+ years now is a big 1+ acre property with steep sloping lawn, so mostly riding tractor mowing and NOT a lot of need for "trimming"), and in recent years, other than putting Stabil in the fuel, well I honestly can't remember the last time I changed the oil on it,or even sharpened the blade.
But... there's an even FUNNIER aspect to it. That poor thing has been through H*LL and back in other ways... circa 1997/98 the rental house I was living in, well the little "crick" behind it became a "raging river" and flooded the basement and backyard; the basement being where that little mower "lived" -- ayah, it was underwater for about 3 days; I figured it was "dead" but nevertheless when I was able to pull it out, drain the fuel tank and the oil (obviously), and let it dry out... well I'll be darned if the thing didn't start right up. Kept working too. Then... when I bought a house and moved, well the mower got plopped in the back of one of my buddy's pickup trucks and wasn't exactly "strapped down" properly (plus, because of other oversized/longish things being moved the tailgate was down... yup you know the rest, the mower fell off (fortunately it happened when he was turning onto the on-ramp of the freeway, and not yet ON the freeway). Didn't even break the plastic wheels; we just loaded it back up (strapped it on/in better) and figured I'd deal with it the following spring... at which point it time it, again, just fired right up.
So, yeah I'm with you... even though I know the way that manufacturers "cheapen" (cut costs) on many lower end products, I also still have a healthy respect for the fact that "low cost" does NOT always mean "junk"; and conversely "expensive" does NOT necessarily mean "high quality."
And of course, yes, a lot of it DOES very much depend on the user -- in some cases on "proper" maintenance (though often very little is required) -- in others it's more about just not "abusing" the product or treating it in ways it wasn't intended.
CHEERS!
P.S.Also, despite having worked for a "high end" OPE mower company, my riding tractor is a "Murray" (Gasp!) -- in fact it's the one that I bought from the former owner of the house 18+ years ago -- didn't figure it would last long, but why "reinvent the wheel"? The thing had (and still has) massive/heavy wheel weights (needed because of the steep slope), and I knew he'd been able to successfully mow the property with it, so I figured I would at least "buy some time" before purchasing a better grade of tractor (and then having to figure out which model, what weights it would need, etc). But 18+ years later, I'm still using it -- had to repair some different things on it (including re-welding brackets back onto the mower deck, using fiberglas to patch a few rust holes in the housing, etc), but nothing major. And given that the "lawn" (can you call a grass covered "ski-slope" a lawn???) IS on such a slope (and has lots of trees/bushes, etc... well, it's never going to be some golf-course or football-field style "pattern-cut/manicured" patch of grass, so a "better cutting" mower would be rather pointless... what I really need is a "hay baling" attachment (when grass is even slightly damp, the slope is too steep to mow, hence the grass tends to get rather "long" and mowing it is more like cutting a hay field).
I still have it, and it still works... 20 almost 25 years later; starts right up (even though I rarely use it -- house I've been in for 18+ years now is a big 1+ acre property with steep sloping lawn, so mostly riding tractor mowing and NOT a lot of need for "trimming"), and in recent years, other than putting Stabil in the fuel, well I honestly can't remember the last time I changed the oil on it,or even sharpened the blade.
But... there's an even FUNNIER aspect to it. That poor thing has been through H*LL and back in other ways... circa 1997/98 the rental house I was living in, well the little "crick" behind it became a "raging river" and flooded the basement and backyard; the basement being where that little mower "lived" -- ayah, it was underwater for about 3 days; I figured it was "dead" but nevertheless when I was able to pull it out, drain the fuel tank and the oil (obviously), and let it dry out... well I'll be darned if the thing didn't start right up. Kept working too. Then... when I bought a house and moved, well the mower got plopped in the back of one of my buddy's pickup trucks and wasn't exactly "strapped down" properly (plus, because of other oversized/longish things being moved the tailgate was down... yup you know the rest, the mower fell off (fortunately it happened when he was turning onto the on-ramp of the freeway, and not yet ON the freeway). Didn't even break the plastic wheels; we just loaded it back up (strapped it on/in better) and figured I'd deal with it the following spring... at which point it time it, again, just fired right up.
So, yeah I'm with you... even though I know the way that manufacturers "cheapen" (cut costs) on many lower end products, I also still have a healthy respect for the fact that "low cost" does NOT always mean "junk"; and conversely "expensive" does NOT necessarily mean "high quality."
And of course, yes, a lot of it DOES very much depend on the user -- in some cases on "proper" maintenance (though often very little is required) -- in others it's more about just not "abusing" the product or treating it in ways it wasn't intended.
CHEERS!
P.S.Also, despite having worked for a "high end" OPE mower company, my riding tractor is a "Murray" (Gasp!) -- in fact it's the one that I bought from the former owner of the house 18+ years ago -- didn't figure it would last long, but why "reinvent the wheel"? The thing had (and still has) massive/heavy wheel weights (needed because of the steep slope), and I knew he'd been able to successfully mow the property with it, so I figured I would at least "buy some time" before purchasing a better grade of tractor (and then having to figure out which model, what weights it would need, etc). But 18+ years later, I'm still using it -- had to repair some different things on it (including re-welding brackets back onto the mower deck, using fiberglas to patch a few rust holes in the housing, etc), but nothing major. And given that the "lawn" (can you call a grass covered "ski-slope" a lawn???) IS on such a slope (and has lots of trees/bushes, etc... well, it's never going to be some golf-course or football-field style "pattern-cut/manicured" patch of grass, so a "better cutting" mower would be rather pointless... what I really need is a "hay baling" attachment (when grass is even slightly damp, the slope is too steep to mow, hence the grass tends to get rather "long" and mowing it is more like cutting a hay field).
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