It's the motor, it's the motor, it's the motor. I looked long and hard at a Masport 3-in-1 - almost the same price. Frankly - the Masport was better 6 ways out of 10, particularly in design and ease of use - but a 140cc versus a 190cc for my requirement ...
Aside: (Really, the best solution for me would be a Deutsche, [I'm cutting Phalaris Grass, sometimes over 1m high] but they're five times the price new, and even 30-year-old ones are sold for twice the price)(!)
...for my requirement, I needed some oomph. The Subaru-powered Ryobi has t...Read more

This mower was a replacement for an underpowered Masport purchased from Bunnings, the Masport was a great, high quality product but simply underpowered. This Ryobi has also gone back. This screamed cheap & nasty as soon as I opened the box from the cheap bolts used to bolt the handle together (who bolts handles together these days? use camlocks...) to the lack of design which places the fuel tap (why?), the primer and the wash out attachment directly under/behind the height adjustment bar making every action difficult and awkward. Don't believe...Read more

I will never cut wet grass so I have no idea about that. My 9yr old Aldi Mower has died so I got the Ryobi 190 after reading the reviews. I don't have lawn, just 600sqm grass on a rural house block.

Some of my grass was 30-40cm high. The Ryobi 190 powered through that (mulcher mode) without barely breaking a sweat. The mowed area looked good too. I will keep the grass lower now I have a decent mower. It took a bit of stuffing around to learn how to get the catcher on/off, and the mulch plug on/off. All good now.

The mower is heavy so ...Read more

I needed a mower to cut thick kikuyu grass.
Over the last 30 years I've used various Victas/Rovers/Hondas but their standard home 3.5HP models all struggled with this grass when it was longer than normal.
This mower doesn't, on 3/4 throttle it hardly makes the governor kick in. I selected this mower for this reason and am happy with the results so far and it has never taken more than 2 pulls to start.

However:
1) It is quite a bit heavier than other mowers I've used (I suspect a combination of heavier motor and thicker steel deck, long ...Read more

She cuts well - mulches well - not had much experience with the catcher as mulching suits better on our rough track.
Can't understand the 'hard to push; remarks as my mower is self-propelled and does it adequately but grounds out at times on our uncultured 'lawn'. Handle appears to be too long at first making sharp turns a time for nifty footwork. Seems heavy but I will take that for the solid feel and powerful motor.
Relatively easy to operate when set up properly. Mine came with drive to the wheels engaged at all times making it dangerous t...Read more

I use this mower to cut grass for some income. I cut about 2 lawns a week. Here are my impressions after 2 years of use:

Pluses
- Strong engine can cope with thick grass without too much trouble and without the engine slowing down significantly. It just powers through fairly reliably.
- Reliable engine. With regular maintenance (spark plug and air filter replacements, blade sharpening) it has never let me down.
- Always turns on without trouble. Usually after 2 pulls.
- In dry grass the catcher fills right up beautifully from the back to the brim.

Negatives
- Fairly heavy compared to other mowers I've used, so mowing uphill really takes its toll (great exercise though!). ...Read more

Only bought and used the first time today!
The mower cuts grass well, has plenty of power, is easy to start and once you adjust the handle length is fairly manoeuvrable. The only difficulty I've noticed is the front of the mower seems to sometimes dig into the upcoming grass if its a bit wet/long (when the deck is low and the grass is high). Once you lift the nose a little (or adjust the deck height) the engine has plenty of oomph to power through.

I haven't found the catcher to be a problem. Yes it does hinge at the top rather than the bot...Read more

I have a large block with paddock grass/weeds a lot was over a foot tall after my 450 series B&S died, I went for this mower for the 190cc engine over my old 148cc mower. Assy was straight forward and I used 5w-30 fully synthetic castrol edge oil as i had some already and it was compatible. it started first shot on 91 ron fuel, I started slowly to tackle the jungle and it proved up to the job, I filled 6 catcher loads in a short time, I will use the mulcher on the rest. I don't find it heavy even my 6 yo son pushed it. I found the catcher a li...Read more

I am a mower engineer and the Subaru engine is an excellent product and most aspects of the Ryobi frame are good except for the fact that the back of the mower is 13mm higher than the front, This is the main reason why so much dust is been blown out from under the metal work of the mower and causing the filter cartridge to become saturated in dust. Either new front wheels with an increased diameter of 26mm or the rear wheels need to have a reduced diameter of 26mm or an extension to the front of the height adjustment arm that connects back to t...Read more

Purchased 3 years ago from Bunnings. Looked at many in this price range and the Ryobi won me over with the Subaru engine and robust steel deck.

The Good - Has done what I purchased it to do on a 160m2 lawn 26 times a year. Has handled heavy grass well and never stalled on me. Has always started fairly easily after one or two pulls. Don't find it too heavy as kids use it.

The Bad - Catcher capacity, mulching plug fitting, dust bypass from catcher, throttle cable crimping, throttle cable dislocates from carby and needs cable ties to hold in...Read more