A lawn tractor or riding mower is the preferred gear when your lawn is a half-acre or larger. But switching from one mowing mode to another—say, side discharging to mulching—requires you to change blades. John Deere eliminates that extra step with MulchControl, a feature that lets you change mowing modes with just a lever. MulchControl costs about $139 extra for 42-inch machines with Deere's Accel Deep decks.
An Easy Switcheroo
MulchControl features a lever on top of the deck that in mulch mode closes the side-discharge baffle to keep clippings airborne longer; in side-discharge mode, it opens the baffle to let clippings escape. You need to step off the riding mower to open or close the baffle.
Most riding mowers in Deere's 2016 line come with Accel Deep stamped decks, which the manufacturer claims deliver excellent cut quality, among other superlatives.
Two 42-inch machines we tested have this deck: the John Deere X350 lawn tractor, $3,200 (shown below), and the John Deere Z335E zero-turn-radius rider, $2,500. In Consumer Reports' mower tests of the X350 and the Z335E, bagging was top-notch, and side-discharge and mulching were almost as good.
Deere's MulchControl kit does away with the need to buy separate blades for each mode because the mulching blades work in either the mulching or side-discharge mode. The kit also includes dedicated bagging blades, which performed well in our tests.
When you switch between side-discharge and bagging modes, Deere recommends keeping the bagging blades in place. If you keep the mulching blades in place when bagging, you might see a slight compromise in performance.
Need a New Lawn Tractor or Rider?
There's plenty to consider if you're looking for a new riding mower, especially if you're upgrading from a self-propelled mower. Check our buying guide for lawn mowers and tractors before browsing our Ratings of more than 60 lawn tractors, zero-turn-radius riders, and rear-engine riders. Any model with Excellent or Very Good scores in all three mowing modes will help you maintain a lush lawn.
