One of the most important factors people consider when buying expensive products is brand recognition.
When you’re spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on a new mower, it helps to know that you can trust the company.
Unfortunately, even though they’ve been around for over a century, many people aren’t familiar with Husqvarna, so their products are often overlooked.
In this article, we’ll be answering the questions:
- Who is Husqvarna, and what do they make?
- Does Husqvarna make good lawn mowers?
- Are they as good as the competition?
Let’s dive into this well-researched Husqvarna lawn mower review.
What is Husqvarna, and Where is it from?
Of all the lawn mower makers in the world, Husqvarna has one of the most interesting backstories.
The company was founded as Jönköping Rifle Factory in Husqvarna (now called Huskvarna), Sweden, in 1620, and it was owned by the royal family.
Two hundred years later, the company was sold to private investors and soon went into making sewing machines, bicycles, gas stoves, and motorcycles (1903).
However, it wasn’t until 1918 that Husqvarna Rifle Factory acquired Norrahammars Bruk that they started making lawnmowers.
Since then, Husqvarna has established itself as a global brand, making chainsaws, motorbikes, and lawn care tools.
Yet, while Husqvarna’s products became household names in Europe in the 1950s, it has taken half a century for their success to be replicated in the US.
What Products Does Husqvarna Make?
Over the years, Husqvarna has sold-off popular products like its motorbikes to focus on outdoor power equipment.
While they still make dozens of products, there’re two industries where Husqvarna is head and shoulders a bulk of the competition.
The first is in handheld forestry tools. The Swedish company makes some of the world’s best chain saws, having introduced many revolutionary improvements that have made them safer.
The second is in lawn mowers. In 1995, Husqvarna introduced the first ever fully robotic lawnmower.
Even though automatic mowers have only been popular for a few years, many brands have been secretly trying to copy Husqvarna’s blueprint for decades.
Since then, the company introduced the first all-wheel drive walk-behind lawnmower and the first robotic lawnmower that can mow on slopes.
What Types of Lawn Mowers Does Husqvarna Make?
As you would expect from the brand that revolutionized the industry, Husqvarna makes every type of lawn mower.
That is why most Husqvarna lawn mower reviews narrow down the options so you won’t get overwhelmed.
As much as you would love to see every single lawn mower they make, we want to focus on the major categories instead.
1. Walk-behind & push lawn mowers
Husqvarna is famed for its high-end, self-propelled mowers. They make gas-powered walk-behind lawn mowers that use a Kawasaki engine and battery lawn mowers. You will find older models with a honda engine.
2. Stand-on mowers
The creme de le creme of Husqvarna lawn mowers (price-wise, at least), these mowers are made for professionals working on the most challenging terrain.
Admittedly, they cost a pretty penny, but they are built to last. These zero-turn machines run on 24.5 hp Kawasaki engines and are made with premium materials.
3. Zero-turn mowers
Husqvarna’s range of zero-radius mowers is one of the widest in the industry. They make residential and professional zero-radius mowers ranging from 42″ mower decks to 72″ decks.
In addition, they have budget-friendly options and they have premium offerings.
You can also take your pick from Kawasaki engines, Briggs and Stratton engines, or Kohler engines, starting at a pedestrian 17 hp to a monster 31 hp. They all use hydrostatic transmissions.
4. Riding lawn mowers
The Husqvarna tractor is probably their most popular lineup, despite stiff competition from the likes of John Deere and Kubota, and that’s no easy feat.
Their garden tractors are famed for providing excellent value for money, and they are considerably cheaper than the previous two options.
Just like the zero-turns, you can choose a Kawasaki, Briggs & Stratton, or Kohler engine. Their lawn tractor options are also suitable for both residential and professional use.
5. Robotic mowers
Husqvarna AutomowerⓇ is in a class of its own. They offer over a dozen options for house and professional use.
Their residential AutomowersⓇ can cut up to a third of an acre, while the professional range gets up to 1¼ acres on slopes as steep as 45%.
Where are Husqvarna Lawn Mowers Made?
One way consumers try to judge the quality of a product is by looking at where the product is made. To keep costs low, many lawn mowers are made in China.
While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, what we’ve discovered is that lawn mowers made or assembled in the US have better quality control and higher consumer standards.
It will please you then to know that every Husqvarna lawn mower is made in their Consumer Outdoor Products plant in Orangeburg, South Carolina.
Similarly, the Kawasaki and Briggs & Stratton engines they use are also made in the USA.
Are Husqvarna Lawn Mowers Good Quality?
If you’ve seen Husqvarna’s paltry 2.4-star rating on the Consumer Affairs website, you may be inclined to think that its products are poor quality.
On the contrary, Husqvarna makes solidly built lawn mowers from their factory in the US. The reason for their low score has to do with their customer service, which admittedly can be annoying.
However, the lawn mowers are absolutely phenomenal. That is why their riding mowers are best sellers on Amazon and Lowes.
Even though it isn’t a premium brand, they build their lawn mowers to last. Their riding mowers can last up to two decades, provided you keep up with the maintenance and use them as directed.
What are the Best Husqvarna Lawn Mowers?
With over fifty current options (and yes, some people still have and love older versions), it’s hard to narrow down just one Husqvarna lawn mower from each category.
That is why when you see different Husqvarna lawn mower reviews, you might see different products being highlighted.
We can easily recommend nearly any Husqvarna lawn mower, but we have narrowed it to the top three models that would appeal to most buyers.
1. Husqvarna AutomowerⓇ 430X
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With so many automatic mower models in their lineup to choose from, narrowing it down was quite the conundrum.
We could easily have gone with the 415X, which is rated as one of the best robotic mowers on the market by PCmag, and other reviewers.
We chose the 430X for several reasons, but the main one is it has more range. You can cut up to 0.8 acres of grass while catching up on Netflix.
Simply monitor everything from your smartwatch or the phone app and it will do as you would expect from a walk-behind lawn mower but without the stress.
This robotic mower can also handle 45% slopes, which makes it perfect for lawns with complex designs.
Given its range, you can also use this for professional gigs, provided the grass isn’t too high. The maximum cutting height of 2.4” is exactly how tall you want your grass to be.
One other feature we’re crazy about is that the mower adjusts its cutting frequency based on the weather. It approximates how much your grass will grow and gets to work.
2. Husqvarna YTH24V54 Yard Tractor
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Next, we have a Husqvarna riding mower that was built for speed, comfort, and stubborn grass. The YTH24V54 is a gas-powered mower with a 24 hp Briggs & Stratton engine and a 54″ cutting deck.
It has many great features you’d find in their other riding lawn mowers, including a chokeless start, an ergonomic steering wheel and pedal-operated hydrostatic transmission.
Husqvarna wants the rider to be as comfortable as possible, so they added a high-back chair, cruise control, and a cup holder for your morning joe.
We chose this over the other mowers because of the powerful engine and large cutting deck. This will allow you to mow lawns up to 2 acres with uneven terrain.
Plus, it’s easier to log around accessories such as a bagging kit and snow thrower with a rugged engine.
You also get three mowing options: side discharge, bagging and mulching. Cutting height adjustment, anti scalp wheels, air induction mowing and durable blades come as standard.
3. Husqvarna Z254F
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For our final product, we wanted to go with a commercial lawn mower, but the Z254F is impossible to ignore.
Many reviewers have chosen this lawn mower to be the best residential zero-turn mower, and it’s easy to see why.
First, it has a 23 hp Kawasaki engine, which is perfect for large lawns up to 2 acres, although you can push it to four.
The 54” mower deck and its 6.5 mph top speed mean you won’t spend a lot of time in the sun. The hydrostatic transmission is also one of the best we’ve seen.
It offers an effortless ride and doesn’t require a lot of maintenance. Besides that, the seat is comfortable, and all of the controls are easy to use and easy to reach.
Where this zero radius mower gets top marks is the deck design. The mower has a fabricated 10-gauge steel deck, which is what you’ll usually find in commercial mowers.
As much as you are tempted, don’t use this for professional work, as it will void the 3-year warranty.
Nothing but Love for Husqvarna
With so many lawn mower brands out there, it can be hard to settle on just one, so we don’t.
Instead, we have a few brands we easily recommend, and Husqvarna mowers makes some of the best lawn mowers out there.
We particularly love their robotic mowers and their residential zero-turn mowers. Sure they also make good walk-behind mowers, but that segment clearly belongs to Honda, and they also have great yard tractors, but that is John Deere and Cub Cadet territory.
Even though the Husqvarna brand is great, some products will have issues, just as with any other brand.
If that happens, we have a few Husqvarna lawn mower troubleshooting guides that will come to the rescue.