The mulcher on a lawn mower removes the need to bag and dispose of grass cuttings after you mow your lawn. Instead, the clippings are cut finely into pieces by the lawn mower with a mulcher and act as fertiliser for your lawn's soil. According to academic studies, reusing your grass clippings as mulch instead of throwing them away has several excellent benefits, including improving your soil's moisture content and providing natural nitrogen.
Want to elevate your lawn care but need more information about what a mulcher on a lawn mower is? You've come to the right place! Mowrator has outlined everything you need to know about lawn mowers with mulchers before you make the switch.
Key Takeaways
- A mulching lawn mower finely cuts grass clippings and returns them to the lawn as natural fertiliser, saving time and improving soil health.
- Mulching mowers are eco-friendly, reducing landfill waste while recycling nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium into the soil.
- Unlike traditional mowers, mulching mowers feature domed decks and curved blades that recirculate clippings for multiple cuts, eliminating the need for disposal.
What is a Mulching Lawn Mower?
A mulching lawn mower is a type of lawn mower specially designed to vacuum and cut grass clippings several times before dropping them back onto your lawn. A mulching lawn mower has several unique changes to its design to allow it to mulch grass, including serrated mower blades, a domed mower deck, and a multi-step process for cutting mulched clippings. When you use a mulching mower, you eliminate the need to collect and dispose of your clippings, saving you time to perfect your lawn care routine.
What are the Benefits of a Mulching Lawn Mower?
A good mulching lawn mower offers several benefits to improve the health of your lawn, including releasing essential nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium back into the soil, reducing waste, and saving you on fertiliser costs. Not only can you maintain a healthy lawn by regularly mulching your grass and returning the clippings back into the lawn, but it's good for the environment, too.
Studies by the EPA suggest that landfills in the USA received over 10 million tons of yard trimmings, accounting for 7 percent of all municipal solid waste (MSW). While there is an increasing trend to reduce yard waste since the 1990s, switching to a mulching mower helps the environment by reducing landfill waste.
What is the Difference Between a Mulching Lawn Mower and a Traditional Mower?
The main differences between a lawn mower and a mulcher are centred around the mower blades, deck design, and how the lawn mower cuts grass. While your experience lawn mower with a mulching lawn mower will be the same, not needing to collect and dispose of waste makes a difference.
| Lawn Mower Feature | Regular Lawn Mower | Mulching Lawn Mower |
|---|---|---|
| Mower Blades | Straight cutting blades | Curved mulching blades |
| Deck Design | Shallow and flat deck | Deep and dome-shaped |
| Clipping Handling | Single cut and discharge | Recirculates for multiple cuts |
| Airflow Pattern | Lift and discharge | Recirculating |
| Cutting Surfaces | Single edge | Multiple |
What are Mulching Mower Blades?
Mulching lawn mower blades are specialised blades that excel at cutting grass quickly and precisely. They are called “3-in-1” blades because they feature multiple cutting surfaces along the blade's edge. This allows the blades to cut the grass more effectively, and the unique design creates an airflow pattern underneath the deck that holds the grass blades in place.
What is a Mulching Mower Deck?
A mulching mower deck is a cutting chamber in your mower, designed with several features to improve the mulching performance of the “3-in-1” blades. You can tell a mulching mower from a regular mower by its deep, dome-shaped design that lacks discharge outlets. Mulching lawnmower decks don't have any discharge outlets because they keep the air circulating within the mower deck using flow directors and baffles.
The airflow system allows the air to continually recirculate within the lawn mower deck, keeping the clippings until the blades cut them into fine pieces. To spot a mulching mower deck, look for a wider design, a flat-top surface, and a domed deck.
How do Mulching Mowers Clip Grass?
Mulching mowers clip grass like your kitchen blender, using a mixture of specialised blades and air patterns to cut your grass clippings smaller and smaller. The cutting process for lawn mowing with a mulching mower looks like this:
- The lawn mower will cut the grass blades, severing them and lifting them using the airflow generated by the mower blades.
- The circulating airflow suspends the clippings in the air.
- The lawn mower blades cut the suspended grass blades multiple times until they are fine particles.
- These fine particles can no longer be held in the mower deck and are deposited back onto the lawn.
If you want to take advantage of a mulching lawn mower that can bag and discharge your grass clippings, look no further than the S1 Remote Control Lawn Mower 4WD. Mowrator's 3-in-1 system does more than mow, with capabilities to turn your mower into a mulching machine. Shop the latest in garden machinery today.
FAQs on What is a Mulcher on a Lawn Mower?
How do I know if my lawn mower is a mulcher?
A mulching lawn mower has a deeper, dome-shaped deck with no discharge chutes or collection bags and features curved mulching blades with multiple cutting edges. You can identify it by looking for a fully contained deck design and checking if your mower has a mulching plug blocking the discharge chute, which keeps clippings circulating under the deck for repeated cutting.
Do you have to mow slower when mulching?
Yes, you must mow slower when mulching to allow the blades to effectively cut grass clippings into tiny pieces and ensure even distribution across your lawn. Moving too quickly will result in clumped grass and uneven mulching, as the mower needs additional time to repeatedly cut the clippings before depositing them back onto the lawn.
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