Vietnamesium lawn mowers

[Ozwynn]

These are junk. Avoid them. I have a 150cc Pulsar push mower that lasted 1 season. Second season I had to replace the carb because now amount of cleaning could fix the bent non replaceable jet. 3rd season the recoil starter broke and is unavailable from the manufacturer.
So this year because it has been a bad year financially I just bought the new mower I could afford (after weeks of getting used mowers sniped right out from under me and the grass in my yard getting waist deep) which was a powersmart from Walmart.com. This is the cheapest junk mower I have ever bought. If I could get parts for my 40 year old craftsman I would just use that. The powersmart has a 209cc horizontal shaft engine that turns a vertical shaft gearbox that goes to a belt drive to turn the blade. After 4 uses…. 6 hours of engine time… the rings are shot….. it’s burning oil… in 6 hours is fouled 2 spark plugs….. and now the blade shaft is bent without hitting anything solid. Just the tension from the drive belt. Among other small minor problems like the rear bag cover spontaneously popping off when emptying the bag causing the springs that keep it closed to go MIA….. when I attempted to contact powersmart it took a week to get a response and there have been no further responses.

When I call I just get put in an endless loop of hold music, line ringing, silence, and back to hold music. This loop takes approximately 20 min. After an hour (because I’m persistent) it hangs up on you. When trying the tech support line it hangs up on you after 10 minutes.
when reviewing the warranty it says that the mower has to be shipped to their facility in its original packaging at your expense….. shipping both ways costs more than the mower…. I am seriously considering loading this up in my Jeep and driving it to their facility in Illinois because that would be the cheapest option.

When you go to leave a review, if it’s negative …. It just goes into a loop of telling you that you are missing required information and not allowing you to post your review. If it’s positive the review goes right through.

for the amount of money that I have spent on this mower ($193) I could’ve bought a predator engine from harbor freight which has really good reviews…..

To sum up…. If you bought something that is Vietnamesium…. And an important part breaks…. You can not get a replacement because they only support a model for the production period. Once that is up, they no longer support it. And Vietnamesium has a build quality that makes me miss the build quality of Chinese built products…. Sorry for ranting but apparently I have no recourse…. And…. Now way to finish mowing my lawn because my Husquavarna riding mower is too big and cumbersome to get around my trees.

 

[Josh B]

Viet heat treated is far as I would go, they're good at that.

My last mower was maybe 4 years ago, from Walmart for around $150 Briggs and Stratton USA 300 4.5 maybe 23" cut I just leave it in some shade where I get done with it, used starting fluid a time or two but otherwise it's just crank and push

 

[RobbieD]

For some odd reason, I was expecting a picture of a herd of goats.

 

[Ozwynn]

I finally found a way to order parts from their website. The part I need is out of stock. The warranty says the return shipping is prepaid but there is no way to return it because you have to call to get a shipping label and they don’t actually answer the phone. Fine. I have tools, I have YouTube, I have 40 years of taking things apart and some times those things run after I put them back together….. I can disassemble this mower down to its major parts and replace whatever bearing seat and shaft that bent because of belt tension…. But in order to do that, I need to be able to buy the part. I’m beyond frustrated with this. It’s time for a nap

 

[Josh B]

Reminding me of Volkswagon days, then those Jaspanesiums
In the 60's and 70's they were the major gripes

 

[Chapap]

Did it have oil when you first used it? There's your mower at the bottom of the list, then the next one up says "oil included."

 

[Ozwynn]

I was wrong…. It’s made in China.

 

[Ozwynn]

It did not have oil. Had no specification for oil…. Just capacity. I used left over STP 10w40 from the oil change on my S10

 

[Josh B]

I think on the small engine you would want simple 30 weight non-detergent oil, get it at dollar store

 

[Roert42]

Why put the same parts back in that already broke?

Might be able to come up with something that doesn’t break after a couple uses with some off the shelf components

 

[Ozwynn]

I think on the small engine you would want simple 30 weight non-detergent oil, get it at dollar store

Not on over head cam engines. It will work but according to hours of digging on YouTube, when you add the optional premeasured oil bottle with it, it uses 10w30. I don’t recall seeing that option on Walmart.com

 

[Ozwynn]

Why put the same parts back in that already broke?

Might be able to come up with something that doesn’t break after a couple uses with some off the shelf components

I don’t know. I’ve never seen a push mower before with a horizontal shaft engine into a vertical shaft gearbox to a drive belt before…. This is not a self propelled push mower…. This looks like just extra steps ….. costly steps

 

[Chapap]

I don’t know. I’ve never seen a push mower before with a horizontal shaft engine into a vertical shaft gearbox to a drive belt before…. This is not a self propelled push mower…. This looks like just extra steps ….. costly steps

Oh I was looking at the wrong model. That is a very odd looking engine.

 

[Roert42]

Sounds like someone got a really good deal on a crate of horz shaft engines….

 

[superj]

i would go back to used mowers.

i always found them at the local swap meets for cheap.

the best mowers ended up being about 15 dollars and were spray painted red and the motor was spray painted black. no idea why though.

i would like to find one of those riding mowers that were only around 30 or 32 inch decks and were made for going through fence gates to get the back yards of small middle class homes. i have a 53" deck rider and its a pain behind the garage and around the travel trailer because of the fence.