Husqvarna 5521P Review

(Rated: 4.3 / 5) Review by Frank Lowery
Noise
Ease of Assembly
Maneuverability
Balance And Handling
Cut Quality
Check Price
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A well cared for and properly manicured lawn is one of the most important features of the yard and garden. A healthy, lush lawn really ties the rest of the yard together, and it provides an area for hosting barbecues, playing with your kids, or just relaxing after a long week at the office. While we all want to enjoy the benefits of a beautiful lawn, we do not want to spend our entire weekend making sure it stays that way. Fortunately, once we have done the initial work of sodding and fertilizing, and our grass is lush and dense, all we have to do is find the right lawn mower to keep it looking great.

Most American homeowners continue to turn to gas powered lawn mowers to do this. There are a number of reasons for that. While gas powered mowers do produce more emissions than electric or reel mowers, and they tend to require a bit of light maintenance to keep them providing optimal performance over the long term, they more than make up for it. Gas powered lawn mowers provide the kind of reliability and power necessary to keep big lawns looking great. And they can support the kind of wide cutting decks that you want in order to finish the job in fewer passes and get back to enjoying the rest of your weekend with your family.

The Husqvarna 5521P provides all of the benefits of a gas powered lawn mower, and it does not have the kind of price tag that would make it too expensive for the average homeowner. It has high quality parts like a Briggs & Stratton 140 cubic centimeter engine and convenient features like a 21 inch wide cutting deck and three grass clippings management options included in the initial purchase price.

Review Summary

The Husqvarna 5521P is a gas powered manual push mower with overall dimensions of 36.2 x 20.8 x 25.2 inches and a cutting deck that is 21 inches wide. That makes its cutting deck one of the widest you can find on a walk behind lawn mower, and it means you will be able to finish cutting your lawn in fewer passes and less time. The mower has a best in class Briggs & Stratton engine that is designed to provide high performance over the long term without needing extensive maintenance to keep it running smoothly. Briggs & Stratton is a very trusted name in the small engine manufacturing industry, and this model is designed to have higher fuel efficiency and produce fewer emissions.

Because of the reduced emissions, the Husqvarna 5521P is compliant with California Air Resources Board standards, which means you can purchase and use it anywhere in the United States. There are three grass clippings management options included in the initial purchase price of the Husqvarna 5521P: side discharge, a mulching kit, and a rear bag assembly. The mower has extra large wheels for greater stability and improved traction. I will cover all of these excellent features in more detail in the Pros section.

I will also cover a few areas in which the Husqvarna 5521P is not quite perfect in the Cons section. The mower is a bit noisy, even when you take into consideration the fact that it is a gas powered mower. Its engine is a little on the smaller side, and as a result the cutting deck may have minor difficulties with dense patches of grass or lawns with tougher varieties of grass such as St. Augustine or Bermuda grass. It only has five cutting height options, and its overall dimensions are on the larger side. But I don’t consider any of these drawbacks to be very serious issues.

As always, I will provide a detailed product comparison section that looks at how the Husqvarna 5521P stacks up against two similar models so you can get a clear picture of where it stands compared to its competition. And I’ll discuss how its pricing compares to the market today and whether I think the price is a good one, considering the features that the Husqvarna 5521P offers. Let’s get started!

Specifications

The Husqvarna 5521P is a gas powered manual push lawn mower. It has overall dimensions of 36.2 x 20.8 x 25.2 inches, which puts it on the bigger side of walk behind lawn mowers, but this is in part due to the fact that its cutting deck is 21 inches wide. It has a Briggs & Stratton engine that is 140 cubic centimeters and provides 5 1/2 foot pounds of torque. The engine is CARB compliant, more fuel efficient, and produces fewer emissions than similar models. It has a Ready Start recoil starter system that is guaranteed to start on the first or second pull every time. The engine has a commercial grade air management system to reduce debris intake. The mower’s gas tank holds 0.24 gallons, which should be more than enough to get your front and back lawns cut on a single tank, especially because the cutting deck is wide enough to do the job efficiently and the engine uses less gas.

The Husqvarna 5521P comes with three grass clippings management options included in the initial purchase price: there is the standard side discharge, a mulching kit that will chop grass clippings into tiny pieces, and a rear bag attachment for collecting clippings for later disposal or composting. There are five height adjustment options that range from 1 1/4 to 3 1/2 inches. The height of each wheel has to be individually adjusted. The wheels are big: the front wheels are eight inches tall and the rear wheels are twelve inches tall, and the wheels have treaded tires for improved traction and stability. The mower weighs just 60 pounds, which means most users will find it is not difficult to maneuver around their yard. The Husqvarna 5521P comes with a limited two year consumer warranty.

Description

The Husqvarna 5521P is a gas powered manual push mower with a best in class Briggs & Stratton engine. The engine is 140 cubic centimeters and provides 5 1/2 foot pounds of torque. The engine is designed to provide high quality performance over the long term while requiring less maintenance than other combustion engines. It has a dual seal design that minimizes the amount of debris intake and extends the engine life. It has Ready Start technology that is guaranteed to start on the first or second pull every time. And its overhead valve design allows the engine to run cooler and more cleanly while delivering increased power. This improves the fuel economy of the engine and reduces the emissions output. As a result the Husqvarna 5521P uses less gasoline and is compliant with California Air Resources Board emissions standards.

The cutting deck on the Husqvarna 5521P is 21 inches wide. That makes it one of the widest available on a walk behind lawn mower. A wider cutting deck is very important in terms of the overall efficiency of a lawn mower. A mower with a 21 inch wide cutting deck will cut the same area in fifteen percent less time than one with an average sized, 18 inch wide deck, because you have to make fewer passes in order to finish the job. That’s fifteen percent less time spent on yard chores and instead spent cooking out with friends or relaxing with your family.

There are three grass clippings management options included in the initial purchase price of the Husqvarna 5521P. You can use the standard side discharge, which will leave clippings in neat rows on your lawn, where they will decompose eventually. Or you can engage the mulching kit, which will chop grass clippings into tiny pieces that will break down into the soil much more quickly. Mulching your clippings is a great way to keep your lawn looking healthy and lustrous without requiring the use of chemical fertilizers. This is better for the lawn and also saves you money in the long run. Lastly, you can attach the rear bag assembly and collect grass clippings for later disposal or composting.

The parts and assembly of the Husqvarna 5521P are all made of high quality, durable materials that are designed to stand up to lots of wear and tear over the long term. The cutting blade is made of heavy, hardened steel so that it will need to be sharpened less often. The engine is designed to provide reliable performance on even the toughest of jobs. The wheels are large – eight inches in the front and twelve in the rear – and made of durable materials to hold up to jobs on rough, uneven terrain.

There are a few minor issues with the Husqvarna 5521P. The engine is exposed, instead of being under the deck assembly, and it is a bit loud. The mower may also have minor issues in terms of dealing with denser patches of grass, which may cause the cutting deck to slow down. In the case that you do have denser patches on your lawn, you may have to cut them in a cross hatch pattern or otherwise go over them more than once to get them evenly cut. And the Husqvarna 5521P may have some difficulty getting lawns with tougher varieties of grass such as St. Augustine or Bermuda grass on the first pass.

The Husqvarna 5521P has fairly large overall dimensions: it is 36.2 x 20.8 x 25.2 inches. As a result some users may have challenges in terms of finding enough storage space for it in their garage or tool shed, and it may prove slightly difficult to maneuver in tighter corners of the yard. At the same time, the large dimensions are there to support the extra wide cutting deck, which I think is a small price to pay for the increased efficiency of the mower.

The overall cutting experience the Husqvarna 5521P provides is a great one. It allows you to cut the lawn more quickly and uses less gas than other lawn mowers. It also will not fill your yard with as many fumes or emissions as other gas powered mowers. It has convenient accessories included in the initial purchase price, and the mower is easy to get started and use. And the Husqvarna 5521P has the kind of design and parts necessary to provide reliable performance over the long term. Overall I consider this a high performance, quality lawn mower. And it provides all of this at a very reasonable price.

Pros

There are quite a few excellent features on the Husqvarna 5521P, and I had some trouble picking the five best ones for the Pros section. Its cutting deck is a full 21 inches wide, which makes it one of the widest walk behind lawn mowers you can find today. There are three grass clippings management options included in the initial purchase price: side discharge, a mulching kit, and a rear bag assembly. Many lawn mowers either charge extra for the latter two options or do not offer them at all. The Husqvarna 5521P has a best in class Briggs & Stratton 140 cubic centimeter engine that has a number of design features that help to improve its performance over the long term. The engine is also highly fuel efficient and produces fewer emissions, which makes it CARB compliant. And its wheels are big and designed to provide improved stability and traction over a range of terrain types.

1. 21 inch wide cutting deck : The cutting deck on the Husqvarna 5521P is one of the widest ones you can find on any walk behind lawn mower on the market today. At 21 inches, it is wider than the average sized cutting deck on lawn mowers that are more expensive than this model. And it is considerably wider than cutting decks found on electric lawn mowers as well as gas mowers that are in the same price range as the Husqvarna 5521P. A wider cutting deck is important because it allows you to finish cutting your lawn in fewer passes. Fewer passes means you can finish the job in less time. That will save you money on fuel costs and also have you back to enjoying the rest of your weekend with your family that much sooner.
2. Three grass clippings management options included : The Husqvarna 5521P comes fully equipped with a three in one grass clippings management system. You can simply discharge clippings out the standard side chute, and either leave them on your lawn to break down or rake them up. You can engage the mulching plug, which will cause the mower to chop the clippings into tiny pieces that will break down into the soil much more quickly. This will significantly reduce the need for chemical fertilizer and weed ‘n’ feed treatments while keeping your lawn looking lush and healthy. Finally you can attach the rear bag assembly to collect clippings for later disposal or addition to the compost bin. All too often, manufacturers do not supply multiple grass clippings management options in the initial purchase price, or they phase them out altogether. With the Husqvarna 5521P, all three options are included right out of the box.
3. High quality Briggs & Stratton engine : Briggs & Stratton is a leader in the small engine manufacturing industry. The Husqvarna 5521P is equipped with a high performance 140 cubic centimeter Briggs & Stratton engine that delivers a torque of 5 1/2 foot pounds. The engine has several features designed to improve its performance and reduce the amount of maintenance it needs over the long term to keep it running smoothly. It has a commercial grade air management system with a dual-seal design that reduces debris intake and extends the engine’s life. It has a unique Ready Start design that is guaranteed to make the engine start right up on the first or second pull of the recoil cord, every time. Its overhead valve design enables the engine to run cooler and more cleanly, which improves the engine’s fuel economy and delivers more power and a longer engine life. All of these features combine to provide the kind of reliability and power you want in your lawn mower.
4. Reduced emissions and CARB compliant : Because the Briggs & Stratton engine on the Husqvarna 5521P is designed with an overhead valve design system, the engine runs more cleanly and produces fewer emissions than most other gas powered lawn mowers. Because of that, the Husqvarna 5521P is compliant with California Air Resources Board emissions regulations, which means you can purchase and use it in any state in the U.S.A. Its increased fuel efficiency means you will not have to spend as much money on gas as you would with a different lawn mower, which is welcome news, since gas prices are higher than ever these days. And its reduced emissions will have a direct impact on your grass cutting experience, since your yard and clothes will not be full of fumes after you are finished mowing your lawn. Finally, you get the power and performance of a gas powered lawn mower while still reducing your overall carbon footprint with the Husqvarna 5521P.
5. Big, durable wheels for better stability : The front wheels on the Husqvarna 5521P are eight inches tall and the rear wheels are twelve inches tall. That is about as big as wheels get on a walk behind lawn mower. In addition the wheels are made of durable materials and have deeply treaded tires that are better equipped to grip the ground and have very improved traction. This will help to make the Husqvarna 5521P easier to maneuver around your yard, especially if the lawn is on uneven ground. This will improve your overall grass cutting experience without you even noticing it at first – until you realize that you have gotten an even, professional looking cut even on areas of your lawn that other lawn mowers typically miss altogether or cut too short because the ground is uneven. The Husqvarna 5521P stays stable on these areas, improving the quality of the cut it provides.

Any one of these reasons would be more than enough to draw high marks in this review. Taken as a whole, they make the Husqvarna 5521P one of the better gas powered walk behind lawn mowers on the market today. From the extra wide cutting deck that can help you finish cutting your lawn more quickly to the high quality Briggs & Stratton 140 cubic centimeter engine, the Husqvarna 5521P has everything you want from a gas mower. It has durable parts and provides quality performance over the long term, without needing a lot of maintenance. And it is designed with convenience in mind: its three grass clippings management options and big wheels make it easy to use. The Husqvarna 5521P is an excellent lawn mower for the homeowner with a medium sized yard who wants a machine they can trust for many years to come.

Cons

In spite of all of its excellent features, there are still a few minor drawbacks associated with the Husqvarna 5521P. Even when you consider the fact that it is a gas powered lawn mower, which tend to be noisy, it is still pretty loud. And the engine, while providing quality performance on most jobs, is not as powerful as other engines. As a result the cutting deck may get bogged down in dense patches of grass. It may also struggle to cut lawns that have tougher varieties of grass such as St. Augustine or Bermuda grass. Unfortunately, the Husqvarna 5521P only has five cutting heights, and you have to adjust them at each wheel individually. Finally, the overall dimensions of the lawn mower are a bit big, which could present minor difficulties in maneuvering and finding storage space for it. Let’s take a look at each of these cons in a bit more detail.

1. The mower is fairly noisy : We are all aware of the fact that gas powered lawn mowers are the noisier ones on the market – this is one of the reasons some consumers opt to switch over to electric lawn mowers. The noise of the engine is simply one of the trade offs we have to make for the increased power and performance gas powered mowers provide. At the same time, some gas mowers are noisier than others, and the Husqvarna 5521P is one of them. It is not so noisy that you will need ear protection, but it’s still quite loud. Because of that, if you are an early riser who likes to knock out your lawn care duties while the birds are still chirping, you might have problems, especially if you have neighbors who like to sleep in. Still, the fact that the Husqvarna 5521P has a wide deck that can get the job done quickly means you won’t have to be out there too late in the morning, when the sun has gotten too hot for yard work.
2. It may get bogged down in thicker patches of grass : The Briggs & Stratton engine is 140 cubic centimeters, and it provides 5 1/2 foot pounds of torque, which should be plenty of power for most yards. But if you have thick, dense patches of grass on your lawn, you may find that the cutting deck does not have quite enough power being delivered to it to get through them easily. As a result, you may experience the cutting blade slowing down, or in the worst cases, stopping altogether. If you have dense patches of grass on your lawn, be prepared for the fact that you may have to make multiple passes with the Husqvarna 5521P to get them properly cut. This can be a bit of a time waster, but simple cross hatching usually gets the mower through the denser patches on just a couple of tries.
3. Its overall dimensions are a bit large : The overall dimensions of the Husqvarna 5521P are 36.2 x 20.8 x 25.2 inches, which makes it one of the bigger walk behind mowers on the market today. Now, it is worth noting that its large size is in part due to the fact that it has an extra wide, 21 inch cutting deck as well as three in one grass clippings management options. The mower has to be a bit big to support these features. At the same time, these dimensions may cause the mower to be a bit difficult to maneuver in tighter corners of the lawn or in between obstacles like trees and flower beds. It also means the Husqvarna 5521P is going to be taking up a bit of space in the garage or tool shed. In my opinion, it’s a small price to pay for the extra wide cutting deck, but you should still be ready for the fact that this mower is big.
4. Only five cutting heights that have to be adjusted at each wheel : The Husqvarna 5521P has a range of cutting heights that is a bit limited compared to comparably priced gas powered lawn mowers. It has five cutting heights that are between 1 1/4 and 3 1/2 inches. Similar mowers often have ranges that extend another quarter or half inch, and many typically have more than five options. A wide range of options is important so that you can let your lawn go for a few weeks if you’re too busy to cut it or out of town on vacation. This is because you should never cut the grass any shorter than 1/3 its initial height, so if your lawn gets long and shaggy this range might be less than optimal for its overall health. In addition, you have to adjust each wheel’s height individually, which can be a bit of a hassle, although in my experience it doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes to do so.
5. The mower may struggle with tougher varieties of grass : If you live in the Southwest or the Southern United States, in all likelihood you have tougher varieties of grass such as St. Augustine or Bermuda grass in your yard. These varieties are better equipped to handle the effects of drought and heat waves without dying back, although they do go dormant over the winter, when it’s recommended to over seed them with rye grass or other cold season varieties. Unfortunately, many lawn mowers struggle with these tougher varieties of grass, and will often need a second pass to get them properly cut. While most gas powered lawn mowers are able to get through them, the Husqvarna 5521P may have difficulty cutting through them on the first pass, especially if the mulching kit is engaged. That’s not to say the mower can’t do it, but it may be slow going at first.

I do not think that any of these cons is terribly serious, or that taken together they raise enough red flags to outweigh the great features I covered in the Pros section. It is not very surprising for a gas powered lawn mower with an exposed engine to be fairly noisy. While the mower has large dimensions, this is primarily due to the fact that it is supporting one of the wider cutting decks you can find on a walk behind mower today, and most homeowners will consider this to be a fair tradeoff. The mower may get bogged down in denser patches of grass, and it might struggle with tougher varieties such as St. Augustine, but the vast majority of lawns will not present problems for it. And its cutting height range, while not the widest, should be adequate if you cut your grass twice a month or more.

Product Comparison

I always make sure to stress the value of doing some serious comparison shopping when you are looking for a new garden or lawn care product, especially if it is a big ticket item such as a lawn mower. This is hands down the best way to get a clear picture of whether a particular product is offering you the best features for the price tag. By shopping around a bit, you can figure out what features are available on a range of different lawn mowers, and decide which ones are the most important for your lawn care needs. And once you have zeroed in on one or two products, you can get a good idea of how a particular model stacks up against its competition. The following table compares a number of important product specifications, such as cutting deck width, engine type, and grass management options on the Husqvarna 5521P as well as two similar lawn mowers, the Poulan PO450N20SX and the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701. Let’s take a look.

	Husqvarna 5521P	Poulan PO450N20SX	Yard-Man 11A-B29Q701
Dimensions	36.2 x 20.8 x 25.2 inches	31.4 x 16.0 x 24.1 inches	36.8 x 24.1 x 17.8 inches
Power	Gas	Gas	Gas
Engine Manufacturer	Briggs & Stratton	Briggs & Stratton	Honda
Engine Specs	5-1/2-Torque 140-cc Engine	450 Series 148-cc Engine	GVC160 ARCS 160-cc Engine
Gas Tank	0.24 Galons	0.3 Galons	0.25 Galons
Starter	Recoil	Recoil	Recoil
Deck Size (cutting swath)	21-inch	20-inch	21-inch
Mulch/Bag/Discharge	Mulch, bag, and discharge	Side discharge	Mulch, bag, and discharge
Drive System	Manual Push	Manual Push	Manual Push
Height Adjustment	Individual (5 positions)	Individual (5 positions)	Single lever (5 positions)
Height Settings	1-1/4- to 3-1/2-inch	1-1/2- to 3-3/4-inch	1-1/4- to 3-3/4-inch
Wheel Size	8-inch front / 12-inch rear	7-inch front / 7-inch rear	8-inch front / 12-inch rear
Weight	60 pounds	54 pounds	71 pounds
Warranty	2 years	2 years	2 years

As you can see, the Husqvarna 5521P and the Yard Man both have cutting decks that are 21 inches wide, while the Poulan is slightly smaller. The Husqvarna and Poulan lawn mowers both have Briggs & Stratton engines, while the Yard Man has a Honda engine. The Honda has about 15% more displacement than the Briggs & Stratton on the Husqvarna 5521P. All three mowers have comparably sized gas tanks, although the Poulan’s is the biggest of the three. The Poulan only comes with side discharge as a grass clippings management option, while the other two mowers also offer mulching and rear bag collection. The three mowers have comparable height adjustment options, although the Husqvarna’s is a quarter inch less than either of the other two lawn mowers. The Yard Man is the only one of the three to offer single point height adjustment. The Poulan has the smallest wheels of the three mowers, but it is also the lightest. All three mowers have two year limited consumer warranties.

Conclusion

All things considered, I think the Husqvarna 5521P is a high quality walk behind lawn mower. It stacks up well when compared to similar models, and it has demonstrated high performance. It has a number of excellent features and provides reliable service over the long term without needing too much maintenance to the engine or cutting deck. There are a few areas in which the Husqvarna 5521P is not exactly perfect, but I do not consider any of these drawbacks to be serious enough to recommend against purchasing this lawn mower. Before we wrap up the review with a Final Word and pricing discussion, let’s revisit the Pros and Cons one last time. I think it’s important to weigh them against one another to get a good idea of what this mower offers.

Conclusion Pros

1. 21 inch wide cutting deck.
2. Three grass clippings management options included.
3. High quality Briggs & Stratton engine.
4. Reduced emissions and CARB compliant.
5. Big, durable wheels for better stability.

The Husqvarna 5521P has one of the widest cutting decks available on a walk behind lawn mower today, at 21 inches. It includes a range of grass clippings management options so you have the freedom to choose whichever one you want, and it doesn’t charge extra for them. The engine in the Husqvarna 5521P is made by one of the best manufacturers in the business, and it is fuel efficient and has fewer emissions. And the lawn mower has eight inch front wheels and twelve inch rear wheels with treaded tires for better traction and stability. That means it will be able to tackle a wide range of terrain types without losing performance or making its cut uneven.

Conclusion Cons

1. The mower is fairly noisy.
2. It may get bogged down in thicker patches of grass.
3. Its overall dimensions are a bit large.
4. Only five cutting heights that have to be adjusted at each wheel.
5. The mower may struggle with tougher varieties of grass.

Even when you consider the fact that the Husqvarna 5521P is a gas powered lawn mower, it is still on the noisier side, which could be a drawback if you have neighbors but like to get your lawn care chores done early in the morning. Its engine is only 140 cubic centimeters, and as a result it may not provide the kind of power necessary to get the lawn mower through thicker patches of grass on the first pass. It may also have difficulty with tougher varieties of grass. It has large dimensions and a limited range of cutting height options. But overall, I do not think any of these drawbacks are serious enough that I would not use this mower myself.

Final Word

When you have a fairly big lawn to take care of, you want a machine that you can rely on to provide quality performance over the long term, along with the kind of power necessary to get the job done quickly and efficiently. Typically, your best bet is going to be a gas powered lawn mower with a wide cutting deck and a high performance engine. The Husqvarna 5521P is an excellent example of this kind of lawn mower. It has a 21 inch wide cutting deck and a Briggs & Stratton engine.

The engine is designed to provide enough torque to deal with most lawn types easily. And it is more fuel efficient than other similar engines, which will save you money over the long term. Plus it produces fewer emissions and is CARB compliant, which means you can get the power of a gas mower while still doing your part for the environment. All things considered, I think the Husqvarna 5521P is a solid lawn mower that will serve you well for years to come.

Best Price

The Husqvarna 5521P is very reasonably priced, especially when you consider all of its excellent features. Gas powered lawn mowers that have CARB compliant, fuel efficient engines that produce fewer emissions are often rather expensive. And it is hard to find a mower that has this kind of reduced emissions but still manages to support an extra wide cutting deck. Often, manufacturers will make up the difference by either raising their prices or cutting back on accessories such as grass clippings management options. The Husqvarna 5521P does neither: it has everything you need for a convenient, professional looking cut and provides it all for a very reasonable price.