I was thinking about buying a 30 inch mower and my options were the Toro Time master, Toro Turf Master or Dr Pro Max 30. Turf Master seemed to be the best choice but the pricing made me hesitant. I did a ton of research and needless to say there were plenty of complaints about the Time Master's deck clogging up, cables breaking as well as pulley's failing. Then I came across the Echo option and was very intrigued. I have always liked the Echo brand but some were saying that this new mower was actually a Toro Time Master with an Echo sticker. I think there are plenty of similarities but enough differences to make them better than the Time Master in my opinion. For starters it has the same blade set-up as a Honda mower. I own a Honda HRX-217 and a Toro Recycler and I think the Honda blades provide the better cut than the Toro, just by a little. I love Toro's Personal Pace propulsion over the Honda propulsion and Echo has incorporated the Toro design. The pulleys under the deck have been upgraded to the commercial type available on the Turf Master which was nice to see since the residential pulleys were known to fail quickly. I think the cables are also beefier as well. Echo has a single point height adjustment which I also like.
So I went out on a limb and purchased the Echo version mainly based on brand trust. The bottom line, so far Echo did not disappoint. My first test was mowing wet grass. The grass was not too long, but it mulched well despite being wet and no clumping. Nice to see that Echo took the best features of Honda and Toro to make a better machine for the money, I think but time will tell. So glad that Echo re-entered the gas mower market while Honda was exiting.
I don't have much to say about the DR mower except that the price point looked good and there were not many complaints about the machine or it's functionality. Let's just say that finding the Echo machine derailed my research efforts.
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So I went out on a limb and purchased the Echo version mainly based on brand trust. The bottom line, so far Echo did not disappoint. My first test was mowing wet grass. The grass was not too long, but it mulched well despite being wet and no clumping. Nice to see that Echo took the best features of Honda and Toro to make a better machine for the money, I think but time will tell. So glad that Echo re-entered the gas mower market while Honda was exiting.
I don't have much to say about the DR mower except that the price point looked good and there were not many complaints about the machine or it's functionality. Let's just say that finding the Echo machine derailed my research efforts.
