Should you buy consumer or commercial grade
Ever ponder what powers the majority of small equipment? The answer is small gasoline powered engines. There’s a small segment of propane and diesel powered small engines but the overwhelming majority of this segment is gas powered.
Just some of the categories of small engine powered equipment; lawnmowers, lawn sprayers, portable generators, sod cutters, garden tillers, snow blowers, wood chippers, log splitters, power washers, dirt screeners, tree spades, sidewalk edgers, ice augers, post hole augers, lawn aerators, utility vehicles, side by sides, ATVs, go karts, mini bikes and mud boats. I’m sure I’m missing some categories but these are what come to mind off the bat.
What do all these categories of small equipment have in common? They are all powered by gas powered small engines. For the sake of this blog post I’m going to exclude 2-cycle small engine equipment and solely focus on 4-cycle small engine equipment. Perhaps I can do a separate post on 2-cycle small engine equipment.
The small equipment market is further broken down by commercial and consumer categorization. You have overlap of many segments of small equipment that fall in both consumer and commercial categories. The consumer grade level of small engine powered small equipment is typically sold in big box store chains like Menards, Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes etc. Many brands of consumer level small equipment are manufactured and licensed solely to a specific big box store chain. For example, Home Depot may have its very own brand of “sheet metal” grade lawn tractor, while Lowes will have the same tractor but sporting their own exclusive name tag. It’s not uncommon to see the same model of small equipment like a lawn tractor be featured in four different brands and color schemes sold at different store chains where the only differentiating is its color and name label.
Are there cons to big box stores consumer grade brands of small equipment? There are several. Firstly, the level of quality is among the worst in the small equipment industry. It’s designed and produced to their specified price point, marketed to a specific demographic. Secondly, the support after the sale is typically contracted out to a local small engine shop that services the big store chains equipment in that region. If you’re a small engine repair shop fixing your own customers’ equipment alongside the big box stores’ customers, which customers are you inclined to favor, fix first and do a better job at? My guess would be they would service more timely and more efficiently their own customers’ needs then the big box stores contracted customers. Parts availability of big box store sold equipment may be difficult if they are featuring brands of equipment made in other countries than the USA. We are seeing more and more consumer grade small equipment come from places like China.
In conclusion, big box store small equipment is cheap, short life, lower quality and their parts availability may be lacking or non-existent if there is a brand manufactured in another country.
In the commercial small equipment space we have many home grown stalwart brands. Some of these brands are huge behemoth sized companies like TORO, while others are smaller endeavors by two people coming together and building a brand and company.
Is there a difference in different brands of commercial grade small equipment like lawn mowers? The difference in the product quality would only be noticeable between price points of models. Overall, the brands represented in the commercial small engine powered equipment field all play in the same sphere of quality because they are all vying for the same price points on equipment. There are stalwart brands like TORO who can afford to produce a nicer product then a smaller company and brand like Grasshopper. That is understandable being that TORO has 100s of millions more manufacturing prowess then a small company like Grasshopper. Thus models from Grasshopper will look more homemade than those same products from TORO. Both brands however will give you years of satisfaction and trouble free use.
The commercial small equipment field also boasts being sold exclusively at independent dealers that specialize and focus on selling and servicing that particular brand of commercial grade equipment. Parts and service availability is often times better and more readily available for commercial brands because those companies are solely focusing on that product line. You’re working with more expensive equipment as well and that leads to the equipment being worth fixing. The parts and service price points are set by the quality or grade of that equipment. For example, in the consumer space parts are typically cheap whereas in the commercial space parts often cost double for the same part as consumer grade parts.
Should you purchase a consumer grade or commercial grade lawn tractor to mow your lawn? Depends on your lawn size and budget. You may get away with a 48” cutting deck $1,799.99 lawn tractor from the local big box store or splurge on a $3,000 48” cutting deck zero turn from the same big box store. Both machines will mow your lawn in 48” passes, however the zero turn would mow your 3 acre lawn much quicker being it doesn’t have to turn around on the corners like a lawn tractor does. Perhaps you’re cutting your lawn one hour quicker with your zero turn mower that cost you $1,200 more than that 48” cutting deck lawn tractor would have cost you. You’d have to decide if that 1 hour less mowing time was worth $1,200 more. And we aren’t even talking about comparing this to a 48” cutting deck mower from the commercial space! If we compared those two choices with a $5,000 48” commercial grade zero turn our mowing time on our 3 acre lawn would be further cut by let’s say 30 minutes. Is that $2,000 more expensive commercial grade zero turn worth it for saving 30 minutes each mowing time? That is how you’d determine the price and quality of a lawn mower for your yard.