Toro Recycler Review 20066 Personal Pace
My 2 year old Sears Craftsman 4.5 HP mower has left me in a cloud of blue smoke so I decided to spend the money this time and buy a good mower. The Toro Recycler was not my first choice. First I was drawn to the Honda HRX because aside from quality, it had the versa mow feature where you could control how much of the clippings made it to the bag. Well when the wife heard it was $600 she said your buying an MTD for $150. After researching the Toro Recycler mowers I learned that I could offer a compromise and land in the very reasonable $350 price range. I chose the Toro Recycler Personal Pace mower model 20066 because it offered everything that I felt was important and left out what I felt was a waste and only made the mower heavier and more expensive. The Toro Recycler 20066 offers a strong 6.75 HP Briggs & Stratton motor. Setup out of the box consists of putting in oil, gas and making the handle straight and hand screwing in the two knobs that let you fold up the handle. Just like they say I did not have to prime in fact there is no primer button on the Toro Recycler 20066. Just pull the rope once. (1/2 in my case) and the motor starts. It's quiet too! I never cared about how loud my mower was but boy when they are quiet it's very nice :)
On 7/11/2009 after a year of happy use my Toro Recycler started smoking out the exhaust and would run and start easy but with a loud banging and vibrating. I took the mower to Home Depot after dumping out the gas. They are sending it out for repair. It will be a good test of the Toro 2 year warranty to see if my recycler is repaired at no cost.
The Personal Pace feature which engages the rear drive at whatever pace you walk at truly seems to read your mind. I found that vs. my push Sears Craftsman I could really see myself mowing with this vs. using my rider. It was actually fun. I've only mowed once now and bagged but based on what came out of the bag I can tell this is going to be a great mulcher. The recycler system with the atomic blade is definitely superior to the cheaper mowers I've seen and used. For anyone looking for the great personal pace feature, strong motor, great cut and VERY easy starting you'll fall in love with the Toro Recycler and won't regret that you paid $350 vs. $150 for a cheap run of the mill mower.