Yard-Man 11A-B29Q701 Review

(Rated: 3.6 / 5) Review by Frank Lowery
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Related pages: Best Gas Lawn Mower, Best Lawn Mower, Gas Lawn Mower Buying Guide, Gas Lawn Mower Reviews, Lawn Mower Buying Guide, Lawn Mower Reviews, Walk-Behind Mower Buying Guide, Yard-Man, Yard-Man Lawn Mowers,

A dependable lawn mower is one of the most important yard and garden tools you will purchase as a homeowner. If you are like most homeowners, you will wind up using your lawn mower more than most of your other garden tools combined. Good lawn care is one of the keys to maintaining a beautiful looking yard, and making sure you are mowing your lawn correctly is a cornerstone of that. For smaller yards that are less than 1/2 an acre in size, a walk behind mower is going to be more than sufficient to get the job done. And of the different kinds of walk behind mowers, homeowners consistently choose gas powered mowers, because they are some of the most powerful and dependable ones on the market.

The Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 is a gas powered walk behind lawn mower designed to provide reliable power for smaller residential jobs. With a 21 inch wide cutting deck and a Honda GCV Auto Return Choke System Series engine designed to provide more horsepower and a longer life, this mower has what it takes to get the job done year after year. It has the kind of power that electric lawn mowers just can’t match. That makes it an especially great choice if you have tougher varieties of grass or denser patches on your lawn that less powerful lawn mowers might struggle with. Overall, the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 is a solid lawn mower at an affordable price that will consistently deliver high performance.

Review Summary

The Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 is a great walk behind gas powered lawn mower for residential jobs that are about 1/2 an acre or smaller. Anything bigger and you should be looking at a riding mower, but for most of us, a walk behind mower is the right size to get the job done efficiently. There are quite a few features that make this such a good lawn mower, all of which I will discuss in detail in the “Pros” section of this review. The Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 has a 21 inch wide cutting deck, which puts it on the higher end of the spectrum for cutting deck size on walk behind mowers. A weedier cutting deck allows you to finish the job in fewer passes, which means you will be saving time in the long run.

The mower also has a Honda GCV Auto Return Choke System Series engine that is 160 cubic centimeters. The ARCS is designed to provide more horsepower than comparably sized engines, and it does: this engine provides a full 6.0 HP. That is a lot for a walk behind mower, and it ensures that the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 will be able to consistently handle lawns with dense patches of grass, or tougher cultivars like St. Augustine and Bermuda grass, without getting bogged down or losing performance quality.

The engine is also designed to be fuel efficient, which is important considering how expensive gas prices have become in the last ten years. The higher fuel efficiency ensures that this mower will be able to handle repeated jobs without needing as many refills, and it also reduces the emissions output of the mower. That means you will be able to enjoy a reduced carbon footprint while still enjoying the power and performance of a combustion engine. It also makes the engine compliant with California Air Resources Board standards, so you can use this mower anywhere in the United States.

In addition to its super wide cutting deck and high performance engine, there are a number of other pros to the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701. It has three grass clippings management options. In addition to the traditional side discharge, there is a mulching option that will shred grass clippings into small pieces that will easily break down into your lawn to provide valuable nutrients to the soil for a healthier look and feel. The mower also is equipped with an optional rear bag for collecting clippings for later disposal or composting.

Finally, the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 has a great price, which means just about any household should be able to fit it into their budget. While you want a high performance mower with a wide cutting deck and quality engine, you also do not want to have to spend the lion’s share of your home and garden budget on it. With this lawn mower you get both efficiency and performance at a reasonable price.

There are also a few drawbacks associated with the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701, however. I will cover each of these in some detail in the “Cons” section, but I’ll summarize them here as well. Some are design and manufacturing related, and others affect the mower’s overall performance. The wheel height settings are made of plastic and too flimsy to stay locked in place, especially if you are using the mower on uneven ground. The wheels themselves are made of plastic as well, and tend to wear out after repeated use on rough terrain. The rear bag does not fill correctly, and needs to be dumped out before it is about half full. The mulch plug affects the cutting deck’s performance. And at 71 pounds, the mower is a bit heavy for its size, which can prove difficult for people with smaller frames and senior citizens.

After covering the pros and cons, I will provide a brief product comparison section along with a helpful table that details the specs of the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 along with those of two similar machines, the Power Smart DB6902 and the Husqvarna 7021P. This way you can get a good idea of how this mower stacks up against its competition.

The Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 is a competitively priced residential grade mower with a quality engine and a rather wide cutting deck. Even with its drawbacks surrounding grass management and certain components and materials, I recommend it as an affordable mower that will perform well on smaller residential jobs.

Specifications

The Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 is a residential grade, walk behind gas powered mower. It has overall dimensions of 36.8 x 24.1 x 17.8 inches and a cutting deck width of 21 inches. The mower has a Honda GVC Auto Return Choke System engine that is 160 cc and provides 6.0 HP. The engine is designed to be fuel efficient and is compliant with California Air Resources Board regulations. It has a gas tank with a capacity of 0.25 gallons and it has a recoil ignition system that is started with a traditional pull cord. The choke is automatic. The lawn mower comes with three grass clippings management options. You can use the basic side discharge to leave grass clippings spread out in neat rows on the lawn, you can engage the mulching plug to have the lawn mower chop grass clippings into smaller pieces that will break down more quickly into the soil, or you can collect clippings in a rear bag assembly for later disposal or composting.

The lawn mower has a manual push drive system. It weighs 71 pounds, which may prove to be a bit too heavy for some users to easily push around their backyard. It has five height adjustment options for the cutting deck between 1.25 and 3.75 inches. The height of the cutting deck is controlled with a single lever, and the wheel height settings are made of plastic, which can be somewhat problematic depending on how uneven your yard is. The wheels, also made of plastic, are 8 inches tall in the front and 12 inches tall in the rear. The mower comes with a 2 year limited consumer warranty, and it is competitively priced compared to other similar gas powered walk behind mowers.

Description

The Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 is a gas powered walk behind residential grade lawn mower. It has a Honda GVC Automatic Choke Return System Series engine. The engine, which is 160 cubic centimeters, is designed to provide more power from a smaller size, and it does: the 160 cc ARCS Series engine provides a full 6.0 HP. That is more than enough to power the cutting blade through even tougher varieties of grass like St. Augustine or Bermuda grass, and the mower can cut right through even dense patches of grass without slowing down.

The mower has a 21 inch wide cutting deck, which places it at the higher end of cutting deck size for walk behind lawn mowers. A wider cutting deck with a high performance engine behind it is going to allow you to cut your lawn in fewer passes. Fewer passes boils down to less time spent cutting your lawn and more time spent enjoying your weekend with your family. The wide cutting deck and high performance engine are packed into a relatively compact size: the overall dimensions of the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 are only 36.8 x 24.1 x 17.8 inches. That means the mower will be easier to maneuver in tight spaces as well as easier to find storage space for in your garage or tool shed.

There are three grass management options included right out of the box with the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701. This is not always the case with more inexpensive lawn mowers; often retailers will sell extra grass management assemblies as separate accessories in order to extend the price of the machine, or they might not offer them at all. That is not the case with the Yard Man. In addition to the traditional side discharge, which allows you to spread out grass clippings in neat rows on the lawn, there are two other options.

You can engage the mulching plug so that the cutting blade chops grass clippings into smaller pieces that will break down into your lawn more quickly. This kind of mulching is a great way to add nitrogen and other nutrients to the soil naturally, and it cuts down considerably on the need for adding additional fertilizer to your lawn in order to keep it looking great. Or you can attach the rear bag assembly and collect your grass clippings for later composting or disposal. There are a couple of issues associated with the extra grass management options, however, which I will get into in more detail in the “Cons” section below.

The Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 has five height options for the cutting deck that are all controlled by a single lever. They range from 1.25 to 3.75 inches. This is a good range of heights to allow you to be sure you are able to cut your grass at the optimal level to keep it looking and feeling its best. You should avoid cutting your grass less than 1/3 its overall height in order to avoid the risk of scalping it, which can leave it susceptible to diseases or heat waves, and also is a great way to invite crab grass and weeds to take over. One drawback of the height setting feature is the fact that the height locks on the wheels are made of plastic and tend to slip out of place on more rugged terrain; I will cover this in more detail in the “Cons” section as well.

The mower’s wheels are 8 inches tall in the front and 12 inches tall in the back, which is a good size to keep the mower easy to maneuver around the lawn. At the same time, the wheels are made of relatively flimsy plastic, and they can get worn out over the long term, which without proper maintenance can make the mower deck wobbly and the overall cut uneven. This can be problematic if the mower is subjected to repeated tough jobs without the wheels being taken care of or even replaced.

The mower weighs 71 pounds, which makes it relatively heavy considering its size. As a result some users who have smaller frames, are elderly, or simply are not as burly as others may have difficulty maneuvering it around the lawn. This is especially true when taken in consideration along with the fact that the wheels are made of plastic.

The Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 has a competitive price when compared to similar models in its class. It should be affordable for the majority of households, and it still has a quality engine, big cutting deck and convenient options. Overall this is a solid mower at a great price.

Pros

There are a number of great features included with the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 that make it an excellent choice for the homeowner with a moderately sized yard that has less than 1/2 an acre of grass to maintain. This lawn mower has a powerful Honda GVC ARCS engine that packs a full 6.0 HP into just 160 cc of space. The engine is fuel efficient and complies with the standards set by the California Air Resources Board. The 6.0 HP of the engine is enough power to support a 21 inch wide cutting deck, which places the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 on the higher end of deck size in walk behind mowers. There are three grass management options included right out of the box. And all of these features are available at a very competitive purchase price. Let’s explore each of them in more detail.

1. Powerful 160 cc Honda GVC engine : With its new Auto Return Choke System, Honda has managed to pack a lot more power into 160 cubic centimeters than other engines can. The GVC ARCS Series engine provides a full 6.0 HP too the cutting deck, which is a lot more power than mowers of comparable size can claim. 6.0 HP is more than enough power to keep it running even through tougher grasses like St. Augustine and Bermuda grass, and able to tackle dense patches of the lawn without slowing down. This kind of power is rare in a walk behind mower with dimensions of only 36.8 x 24.1 x 17.8 inches, and it means you can count on reliable performance from the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 for many years of use.
2. The engine is fuel efficient and CARB compliant : Not only is the engine able to pack a lot of power into a fairly small space, it also does so in a way that is much more fuel efficient than a lot of other gas powered mowers can. The Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 has a gas tank that only holds a quarter of a gallon of gas, but it is so fuel efficient that this is does not take away from its ability to repeatedly cut the lawn without needing a refill. That will save you a lot of money over the long term, especially when you consider how high gas prices are these days. And the fuel efficiency of the engine makes its emissions compliant with California Air Resources Board standards.
3. The mower has a big, 21 inch wide cutting deck : 21 inches is about as wide as cutting decks get for walk behind mowers. Having the widest cutting deck available on your lawn mower means you will be able to finish the job in fewer passes than you normally would, which translates to less time spent on your lawn care chores and more time spent relaxing and enjoying the weekend with your family. The cutting blades are manufactured from durable steel, and along with the 6.0 HP engine, they are able to consistently tackle jobs even when the lawn has tough varieties of grass and denser patches. The 21 inch wide cutting deck cuts an impressive swath through the lawn, and provides the highest efficiency available in a walk behind mower.
4. Three grass management options included : It is not entirely common to find a lawn mower that is affordable and still includes multiple accessory options right out of the box. Typically, when manufacturers are providing a mower with a big cutting deck and a high performance engine at a great price, accessories like grass clippings options are the first to be cut altogether or sold separately. But on the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 you have three options included in the price. You can use the basic side discharge to spread grass clippings out in even rows on the lawn. Or you can engage the mulching plug and chop clippings into tiny pieces that will break down more quickly into the soil. Finally you can attach the rear bag assembly to collect grass clippings for later disposal or composting.
5. Excellent price : The Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 manages to pack all of these great features into a lawn mower with a very competitive price tag, which will be welcome news to homeowners on a budget. You do not have to spend top dollar in order to get a lawn mower that will reliably take care of your lawn when you have a property that is smaller than 1/2 an acre, and frankly you shouldn’t. This lawn mower has a quality Honda engine designed for reliable performance and an extra wide cutting deck designed to maximize efficiency, and all of that is available at a price that will not overwhelm your gardening budget or put too much strain on your wallet.

In addition to all of these great features, the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 comes with a 2 year limited consumer warranty so that you can be sure that if anything does go wrong with it, the manufacturer will promptly repair or replace it. But with its high performance Honda GVC ARCS Series engine that packs more power into a tighter space and its extra wide 21 inch cutting deck, you can be sure that you are getting a lawn mower you can count on over the long term. There are few walk behind lawn mowers that offer this kind of power and size at such a competitive price on the market today, and even few still that offer great options and convenience right out of the box like this one does.

Cons

There are a few drawbacks to this lawn mower, however. Even with all of its great features, there are a few areas of concern with the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701, and I would be remiss if I did not go over each of them in some detail. I think it is important to consider these along with all of the pros I have described above. None of them are related to the outstanding performance of the Honda GVC ARCS Series engine or the size and durability of the cutting deck, and some of them may not apply to your needs whatsoever. But I still recommend carefully looking at them so that you have a better idea of where this lawn mower does not perform at its best.

1. Wheel height settings might not stay locked in place : While the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 does have five convenient height positions for the cutting deck that are all easily controlled by a single lever, the settings are made of plastic and can easily slip out of place, especially if you are using the mower on uneven or rough ground. This can be especially frustrating; if you are not operating the mower at the lowest height setting (and it is unlikely that you will want to be), then you can find it falling out of position in the middle of a job. There is a do it yourself workaround to this: you can secure the height settings with plastic zip ties. But frankly you should not have to be doing this.
2. Rear bag might not fill properly : Three grass management options included right out of the box is a great feature – provided they all work properly. And they do, sort of. But the rear bag collects grass clippings from the bottom, and is not well designed so that clippings can easily fill the entire bag. As a result, if you have a lawn that is on the bigger side of less than 1/2 an acre, you may find that you have to empty the bag in the middle of the job to keep the mower running smoothly. And having to empty a bag that is only half full every time you mow the lawn can be quite frustrating. If you have a smaller yard, you may not find this is as much of a problem, but you will still have to be emptying the bag in between jobs.
3. Mulch plug may affect mower performance : In addition to the problems associated with the rear bag, the mulching setting is far from perfect. When the mulching plug is engaged, the cutting deck does not perform as well, in spite of all of the power provided by the engine. You may find that the cutting blades slow down when the mulching plug is engaged, especially if you are mulching on denser patches of grass. The mulching option also tends to leave clumps of grass on the lawn when you are using it, rather than spreading clippings out so they break down more quickly. Now, the side discharge produces clippings that are small enough to break down in a few weeks, but if you want a more efficient mulching system, you may be out of luck with the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701.
4. The wheels are plastic and somewhat flimsy : The front wheels of this lawn mower are eight inches tall, and the rear wheels are twelve inches. This is typically more than enough size to ensure that the mower is rugged enough to handle uneven ground with ease. But on the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701, the wheels are only made of flimsy plastic, and they tend to wear out over time. This can result in the cutting deck being rather wobbly while you are using the mower, which in turn produces a rather uneven, messy looking cut. If you have rough ground in your yard, you may want to look for a mower with wheels made of stronger stuff or else be prepared to replace one or more wheels after a few years.
5. The mower is a bit heavy for its size : Weighing in at 71 pounds, the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 is one of the heavier gas powered walk behind mowers in its size class, which may or may not prove problematic for you. If you have a slight frame and are not used to heavier work, or if you are a senior citizen, you may want to look for a lawn mower that weighs less, as maneuvering this one around your yard could prove difficult. You may also find that you develop back or shoulder pain if you are pushing this lawn mower around a lawn that is closer to 1/2 an acre in size. This problem is exacerbated by the plastic wheels, which do not make maneuvering this lawn mower any easier.

If any of these cons seem like they will pose too much of a hassle to you, then I certainly recommend continuing to shop around for a mower that does not have these problems. But at the same time, I think it is important to compare the cons with the pros that I detailed above, so you can have an overall picture of everything the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 has to offer. In spite of these cons, the mower still has a high quality Honda GVC ARCS Series engine that will provide reliable power to its extra wide 21 inch cutting deck. Overall, I think this is a good mower in spite of the cons I described here.

Product Comparison

I always strongly recommend to my readers that they take advantage of the product comparison tables I provide in my reviews. That is because even though you can get a good overall picture of an individual product by reading about its pros and cons, you get a much better idea of how it stacks up compared to similar products by looking at the kind of specs different models have. This way, you not only get a better idea of what you are getting in the product you are thinking about buying, but you also get a better overall sense of what the lawn mower market looks like. In order to help you do this, I have provided a table that compares the specs of the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 with those of the Power Smart DB6902 and the Husqvarna 7021P. All three are gas powered walk behind mowers with similar engine specs and deck sizes. Let’s take a look.

	Yard-Man 11A-B29Q701	Power Smart DB6902	Husqvarna 7021P
Dimensions	36.8 x 24.1 x 17.8 inches	37.6 x 20.6 x 23.4 inches	38.2 x 22.8 x 26.2 inches
Power	Gas	Gas	Gas
Engine Manufacturer	Honda	N/A	Honda
Engine Specs	GVC160 ARCS 160-cc Engine	196-cc Engine	GCV160 160-cc Engine
Gas Tank	0.25 Galons	0.24 Galons	0.24 Galons
Starter	Recoil	Recoil	Recoil
Deck Size (cutting swath)	21-inch	20-inch	21-inch
Mulch/Bag/Discharge	Mulch, bag, and discharge	Mulch, bag, and discharge	Mulch, bag, and discharge
Drive System	Manual Push	Manual Push	Manual Push
Height Adjustment	Single lever (5 positions)	Single lever (10 positions)	Individual (5 positions)
Height Settings	1-1/4- to 3-3/4-inch	1-1/2- to 3-1/2-inch	1-1/4- to 3-1/2-inch
Wheel Size	8-inch front / 12-inch rear	6-inch front / 8-inch rear	8-inch front / 12-inch rear
Weight	71 pounds	66 pounds	66 pounds
Warranty	2 years	2 years	2 years

As you can see, the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 has the smallest overall dimensions of the three lawn mowers, at 36.8 x 24.1 x 17.8 inches, but it also has the widest cutting deck (along with the Husqvarna), at 21 inches. While the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 has a smaller engine than the Power Smart, which is 196 cc, it is important to remember that the Honda GVC Auto Return Choke System Series is designed to produce more HP from a more compact engine. All three mowers have multiple grass management options, and all are manual push walk behind mowers. The Power Smart mower has the most height adjustment options – a whopping ten – while the other two mowers both have five. The Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 is the heaviest of the three, at 71 pounds. All three have 2 year warranties.

Conclusion

When you are a homeowner with a yard that is less than 1/2 an acre in size, you are going to be best served by a walk behind mower. Even though you can finish the job quite easily with one of these mowers, you still want to get one that is going to have the kind of quality performance, powerful engine and wide cutting deck to allow you to finish the job in the fastest possible time. You also want a lawn mower that will be able to get the job done reliably for many years in a row without breaking down or otherwise needing more maintenance than the minimum. In all of these cases, a gas powered mower is often the best bet.

Among gas powered walk behind mowers, the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 has a lot of great features at a really affordable price. It is important to find a lawn mower that combines power and efficiency without costing so much that you can’t fit it into you r home and garden budget, and with this mower you have. There are a number of pros to buying this mower for your yard, although there are a few minor drawbacks as well. Let’s revisit each of them briefly before we wrap up this guide.

Conclusion Pros

1. Powerful 160 cc Honda GCV engine.
2. Engine is fuel efficient and CARB compliant.
3. 21 inch wide cutting deck.
4. Three grass management options included.
5. Excellent price.

One of the best features of the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 is its engine. The Honda GCV Auto Return Choke System engine is designed with power and efficiency in mind. It is only 160 cubic centimeters, but it still is able to deliver a full 6.0 HP to the cutting deck. That means it will be able to power the lawn mower through even the toughest varieties of grass and denser patches without slowing down or sacrificing performance. The engine is also very fuel efficient, which will save you money, and CARB compliant, which means you can use it anywhere in the United States and have a reduced carbon footprint. The mower has one of the widest cutting decks available on walk behind mowers today, and it has three convenient grass management options included right out of the box. And it provides all of these features at an affordable price.

Conclusion Cons

1. Wheel height settings might not stay locked in place.
2. Rear bag might not fill properly.
3. The mower is a bit heavy for its size.
4. The wheels are plastic and somewhat flimsy.
5. Mulch plug may affects mower performance.

At the same time, there are a few minor issues that this lawn mower has. Chief among them is the fact that the wheel height settings are made of plastic, and might not stay locked into place, especially if you are using the mower on uneven or rough terrain. While there is a DIY workaround to this problem, it is not terribly convenient. This is definitely the main issue I have with the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701, although there are a few others. The extra grass clippings management options do not work especially well: the rear bag might not fill properly and the mulching plug may negatively affects the mower’s performance. The wheels on the mower are made of somewhat flimsy plastic, and they are prone to get worn out or break down. And the mower is rather heavy for its size, which could be a problem for users who have slight frames or are elderly.

Final Word

When you are shopping for a walk behind mower, you want to find one that has the kind of engine that provides high performance and power over the long term and the kind of cutting deck that is big enough and durable enough to handle tough jobs efficiently. The best kind of mower you can buy in that case is going to be a gas powered mower. But you want a gas mower that will have great fuel efficiency, so that you can count on it to provide great power without guzzling gas, which is more expensive than ever these days.

The Yard Man 11A-B29Q701 has a Honda GVC ARCS series engine that is designed to provide lots of power – 6.0 HP of it – in a small space and at the maximum fuel efficiency. This engine is California Air Resources Board compliant, which means it will use less gas and produce fewer emissions than other gas powered mowers will. And it also means that it will reliably provide the kind of power that can support its 21 inch wide cutting deck, even on tougher jobs. While there are certain design and manufacturing concerns, overall this is a solid mower at a great price.

Best Price

Finding a lawn mower that can consistently provide top quality performance and reliably power, along with an extra wide cutting deck is hard enough. And finding one with convenient extra grass management options and ergonomic design isn’t easy either. It’s even less common to find all of those features in a mower that is reasonably priced. But with the Yard Man 11A-B29Q701, you have. It has a price that is very competitive with other similar mowers in its class. The price is affordable enough that most households will not have any problems fitting it into their home and garden budget.