I have a friend that has bought a used Honda HRU19 mower and he'd like to know how old it is. If anyone knows the date it was made, please let me know. Here are some photos:
I don't think Honda have ever coded their serial like Briggs and Stratton. I was working at a Honda dealer they started selling them, would have been around 2010ish I think. Pieces of rubbish with no throttle control and a flywheel brake. Beginning of the end for Honda mowers in my eyes..
Wow nath, I knew the gearboxes were rubbish but I hadn't heard any complaints about the motors. I will check it out with the Jims bloke who does my lawns. I didn't take a lot of notice of what model his is but I know he has had this current one for 2 years and it is used daily
Personally I have only one bad Honda engine but the mower it was so badly abused that a 21" bar only measure 12" and the engine never had an oil change therefore probably the reason the flywheel side bushing was worn completely out yet it still ran.
Just because they are now using fixed speed system on some designs doesn't cheapen the engine, just removes the throttle cable expense. Now Chondas are a different story here as they can be terrible.
As for dating I have been told you need to contact Honda for that as it is an internal coding setup, mostly a serial number range system.
Nath, I was surprised too, when he told me there was no throttle control lever. Thanks AVB. I googled for some help on dating (of the mower, of course not me personally) and had no luck.
I'm not necessarily saying there is anything wrong with them mechanically, would still be the most reliable on the market, though we did have choke issues early on. It's just all the safety rubbish they have now, and I see the newest are a plastic deck... I have also heard the chute blocks up pretty easy, and seen plenty of broken plastic flaps now too. Most annoying thing is it stops when you let go of the handle. Every one we had in for a service had a bit of wire or rope on the handle to get around it.
