Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 Review

(Rated: 4.2 / 5) Review by Frank Lowery
Noise
Ease of Assembly
Maneuverability
Balance And Handling
Cut Quality
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Taking care of your lawn can be a lot of work – especially when it is all up to you to keep it looking its best year after year. Not only do you have to make sure it is properly watered and fed, you also have to keep weeds at bay and make sure that it is the right composition to stay healthy no matter what the weather is. But one of the most time consuming jobs when you have a lawn to take care of is making sure it gets a great, professional looking cut every time. Depending on how big your lawn is, what kind of grass you are growing, and how densely it is planted, you may need a fairly powerful lawn mower to get the job done. The Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 is just that kind of lawn mower: with an extra wide deck, powerful engine and solid design, it has everything you need to keep your lawn looking its best.

Review Summary

The Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 is a lawn mower made by a company that knows its stuff – so you can count on it to provide everything it takes to make your job a lot easier. It is packed with the kind of outstanding features that will make sure you get a professional looking finish on your lawn week after week, without too much effort on your part. It has a powerful engine that provides more than enough drive to give the cutting deck the high tip speeds that will cut your grass on the first pass, instead of chewing through it and leaving it ragged looking. The engine also powers the rear wheel drive, so all you have to do is start up the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 and steer it – the lawn mower does the rest of the work on its own.

The Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 has an engine that isn’t just powerful – it’s also CARB compliant, which has a number of advantages. First, anyone can buy and use the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 no matter where they live. Second, you will enjoy all of the advantages a gas lawn mower has to offer – in particular, high performance and plenty of power – without the added emissions that will increase your carbon footprint. And finally, the CARB compliant engine will be more fuel efficient, which will save you money on gas costs.

Specifications

The Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 is a gas powered lawn mower with a Honda GVC160 ARCS engine. The engine has a recoil start and powers the self-propelled rear wheel drive as well as the 21 inch wide cutting deck. The gas tank on the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 holds a quarter of a gallon.

The Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 comes with three grass options: side discharge, rear bag and a mulching plug. It has five height adjustment settings between 1.25 and 3.75 inches, controlled by two levers. The wheels on the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 are eight inches in the front and eleven inches in the rear. The Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 weighs 92 pounds.

Description

Once you get the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 out of its box and put it together (assembly can be done in less than twenty minutes with regular household tools), it will be obvious that you have a high performance lawn mower on your hands. While it is rather big and a bit heavy – weighing 92 pounds and measuring 38 x 25 x 18 inches – that is because it packs a lot of power and serious grass cutting ability under the hood. The Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 has one of the widest cutting decks you can find on a walk behind lawn mower these days.

That means you will be able to finish cutting your entire lawn in fewer passes than it would take with a smaller lawn mower, which will save you lots of time and give more of your weekend back to you so you can get on with doing the things you enjoy. And because the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 has a rear wheel drive, you will not have to work as hard to get your lawn looking like it was mowed by a professional landscaping crew.

The Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 is able to boast such a wide deck along with a rear wheel drive largely because it has a top of the line engine under the hood. The Honda 160GVC ARCS engine is CARB compliant, fuel efficient, and very powerful. Even though it is just 160 cubic centimeters, it still packs enough of a punch to give you all of the power you need to knock even the biggest jobs out more quickly and efficiently than you ever could before. Overall the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 is a great lawn mower that is packed with outstanding features.

Pros

There are a lot of reasons why the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 is one of the best gas powered walk behind lawn mowers on the market today. Along with its solid engine and extra wide deck, the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 has lots of other great features that help make your job a lot easier, allowing you to finish cutting your lawn faster and with less work. Let’s take a look at the five best reasons for you to own the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701.

1. Extra wide cutting deck : The width of the cutting deck is one of the most important features to look at whenever you are in the market for a new lawn mower. This is because how wide the swath that lawn mower cuts is going to determine how many passes you have to make to finish cutting a big area. A wider deck means fewer passes and less time spent on the job. The Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 has a 21 inch wide deck, which makes it one of the biggest out there.
2. High performance engine : Honda is well known as one of the top small engine manufacturers for yard and lawn machines, and so you know you will be able to rely on the 160GCV ARCS engine the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 has to provide lots of power for a long time. The engine is designed to need maintenance less frequently, so you will be able to continue to get plenty of performance out of it without having to get under the hood and tinker with it.
3. Self-propelled rear wheel drive : Most of the work that goes into mowing the lawn is all of the effort you have to expend just to push your lawn mower back and forth – and with heavier models, that can add up quickly. The Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 eliminates all of that work with its self-propelled rear wheel drive. All you have to do is point the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 in the right direction and gently steer it; the lawn mower does all of the rest for you.
4. Three grass management options : Having multiple grass management options is a rather important feature, even though it is one that lots of people often overlook. While side discharge is often fine, sometimes you want to have the option to mulch grass clippings into tiny pieces that will break down more quickly into the soil and give your lawn a great, healthy look. But plenty of homeowners also prefer to collect grass clippings in a rear bag so their lawn looks cleaner.
5. CARB compliant : Finally, a lawn mower that offers not only plenty of power and a high performance engine, but is compliant with California Air Resources Board emissions standards. Lawn mowers like the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 are not easy to find – usually they either comply with CARB emissions standards but are small and weak, or have the power you need for big lawns but produce so many emissions that they are not available to California residents.

As you can see, there is a lot to love on the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701. Not only is the engine one of the best and most powerful – allowing both the rear wheel drive and extra wide cutting deck – but it does not produce a high volume of emissions, making it CARB compliant. By themselves, those features would be great, but on the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 they are just the beginning. This lawn mower is packed with quality.

Cons

It would be hard to find anything that could take away from the convenience of a low emission, fuel efficient, and high performance engine, and those few drawbacks I could find on the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 really don’t. In fact, this is one of the few lawn mowers I have seen that had zero real problems, and instead just a few minor annoyances that do not really impact the overall performance at all.

1. It’s fairly heavy : The Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 weighs 92 pounds, which is rather heavy for a walk behind lawn mower. While that means you will not be able to lift it easily if you have to get it into the bed of a pickup truck or over a curbside, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. And the weight will not affect the ease of maneuverability at all, because the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 has a self-propelled rear wheel drive.
2. Gas tank only holds 1/4 gallon : When you are using the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 to cut a very large lawn – more than about a third of an acre – you may wind up having to refill the gas tank, since it only holds a quarter gallon. Still, because the engine on the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 is more fuel efficient than most other lawn mowers, you should get a solid run time on a single gas tank that should be more than enough for most lawns.
3. Dual lever height adjustment : While it is better than individually having to adjust the height of each wheel in turn, the dual lever height adjustment is not the very best design out there today. A single point height adjustment would make raising or lowering the cutting deck a bit easier, but I do not think this is the kind of Con that will cause you any real problems while you are using the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701.
4. Requires some assembly : There is a bit of assembly required with the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 – you have to attach the handle and cutting blade, for example. But this is not difficult at all, and the user manual explains exactly how to get the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 all put together in clear terms with plenty of easy to follow illustrations. You should be able to get the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 assembled in a matter of minutes with regular household tools.
5. Not the cheapest option : The Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 is definitely not the least expensive lawn mower on the market today, and shoppers who are on a tight budget may be scared off by its price tag. At the same time, you get what you pay for, and on the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 you are getting a high performance, quality machine that will last you for a very long time. And because it is fuel efficient and needs less maintenance than other gas powered lawn mowers, it will save you money in the long run.

I think that you’ll agree that the few drawbacks the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 does have are all fairly minor issues. None of them affect the overall performance of the lawn mower, and none of them can take away from the fact that the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 has one of the best engines and widest cutting decks you can find on a gas powered lawn mower today. Overall, I think that the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 is a great lawn mower in spite of its few Cons.

Product Comparison

While you can definitely learn a lot about a given lawn mower’s strengths and weaknesses from Pros and Cons lists, the best way to really find out whether it is the perfect one for you is by comparing it to two or three similar models. That way, you can find out if it really does have the best engine or widest cutting deck, and find out how it stacks up to the competition.

	Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701	Lawn Boy 10604	Poulan PO450N20SX
Dimensions	37.8 x 24.5 x 17.9 inches	42.1 x 21.9 x 24.3 inches	31.4 x 16.0 x 24.1 inches
Power	Gas	Gas	Gas
Engine Manufacturer	Honda	Kohler	Briggs & Stratton
Engine Specs	GVC160 ARCS 160-cc Engine	6-1/2-Torque 149-cc Engine	450 Series 148-cc Engine
Gas Tank	0.25 Galons	0.25 Galons	0.3 Galons
Starter	Recoil	Recoil	Recoil
Deck Size (cutting swath)	21-inch	20-inch	20-inch
Mulch/Bag/Discharge	Mulch, bag, and discharge	Mulch, bag, and discharge	Side discharge
Drive System	Self-Propelled Motor	Self-Propelled Motor	Manual Push
Height Adjustment	Dual lever (5 positions)	Single lever (7 positions)	Individual (5 positions)
Height Settings	1-1/4- to 3-3/4-inch	1- to 4-inch	1-1/2- to 3-3/4-inch
Wheel Size	8-inch front / 11-inch rear	7-inch front / 8-inch rear	7-inch front / 7-inch rear
Weight	92 pounds	79 pounds	54 pounds
Warranty	2 years	2 years	2 years

Of the three lawn mowers, the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 has the widest cutting deck, and its CARB compliant engine also boasts the highest displacement. That means you are going to get the most power out of the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 as well as be able to cut your lawn in fewer passes with it. And while it is heavier than either of the other two, the fact that it has a self-propelled motor really makes up for that. I think it’s clear which the best of the three is.

Conclusion

The Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 is a very impressive lawn mower with a lot of great features to offer. But before you make your final decision to purchase it, I think it would be a good idea to take one more quick look at the Pros and Cons lists, just to be sure it’s the best one for you.

Conclusion Pros

1. Extra wide cutting deck.
2. High performance engine.
3. Self-propelled rear wheel drive.
4. Three grass management options.
5. CARB compliant.

With one of the widest cutting decks you can find on a walk behind mower and a high performance engine that is also fuel efficient and CARB compliant, the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 really has everything you need to take care of tough jobs. This is a great lawn mower with lots of great features.

Conclusion Cons

1. It’s fairly heavy.
2. Gas tank only holds 1/4 gallon.
3. Dual level height adjustment.
4. Requires some assembly.
5. Not the cheapest option.

The few drawbacks the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 does have – its weight, or the fact that the gas tank is a little small – really do not present any problems in terms of ability or performance. Overall I think that all of its great features more than outweigh these few minor Cons.

Final Word

Whether you have a big lawn that is densely planted with tough varieties of grass or just your average suburban front and back yards that you need to keep looking great, you want to make sure your lawn mower has the kind of power that will be able to get the job done right. But in this age of global warming and increasing pollution, we all want to do our part to reduce our impact on the environment. With the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701, you get to have both. The Honda 160GCV ARCS engine in this lawn mower is not only very powerful, but also has reduced emissions and is CARB compliant. Along with that, the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 has an extra wide cutting deck that will ensure you will be able to finish cutting your lawn in less time. Overall this is one of the best gas powered lawn mowers on the market today.

Best Price

There is no way around it: the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 is not a particularly inexpensive lawn mower. But it isn’t too pricey, either, and when you consider all of the outstanding power and performance it has to offer, the price tag is downright reasonable. It is not often that you find a lawn mower that has all of the great features the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 does, and there are plenty of inferior models to it that cost the same or more. While you can spend less money up front on a cheaper lawn mower, you won’t get the quality the Yard-Man 12AVD39Q701 offers. I think this is a great lawn mower at an excellent price.