Bought the JS40 3 years ago. I have had this mower serviced more than any other I have owned. 1st Season was fine, Second Season was repaired 3 times; Self propel once, starting twice, third season had to replace carburettor since replace was cheaper than diagnosis and repair. Started great for three weeks then became unreliable, John Deere dealer no help. Season four dtarts by the 6th pull the first time, once warm if you need to restart need to wait 20 minutes before attempting restart. I was fooled by the name that this was a quality machine when in fact it is an MTD mower in green paint. I am always willing to pay more for a quality product, this time I was fooled. Never again!

jkyvle

Yorkville, IL

We picked up a used John Deere JS40 for a really good price and have been very happy with it. Both my husband and I are responsible for mowing the front lawn and back lawn, which totals just about an acre of grass. We had been using an old dumpy push lawn mower that made the task a real chore. This lawn mower is so different. It has the automatic propel which allows us to simply walk behing the unit as it mows. It's so easy to do that even my 12 year old son can operate it without any trouble. The only downside to this lawnmower that I can see is that sometimes when I am manually pushing it, the front wheels turn around and get me kind of stuck where I am. I have to back up a bit and pivot the wheels to keep going forward. This could be because of our yard, though and not the mower.

sprockt012

Merrimack, NH

This is a miserable mower to use. The bagger is designed to scratch all the paint off the handlebar crossmember and it takes 2 hands and a knee to attach it while trying to hold the spring loaded chute door open.  You'll dump most of your clippings about every other time, too, so keep a leaf rake handy. A good mower (and I HAVE had one) will maintain the same speed up hill and down (the same ground speed regardless of terrain) - this one exerts a certain amount of drive at any given setting and will either stall on the uphill or race away on the downhill.  If your property is totally flat, this will not be a problem, but the smallest hill will find you spending an aggravating time adjusting the speed repeatedly. And plan on removing the screws on the back cover every once in a while to put the drive belt back on - it just flips off on occasion. It does start every time but my wife can't start it because it has a very large motor, which is good for high grass, but bad on fuel economy and requires a serious tug to get it started.  The deck is heavy and the dolly wheels can lock to prevent the mower from drifting downhill when cutting across slopes (which you will find necessary because you certainly can't endure the aggravation of cutting up and down a slope while constantly adjusting the speed control or pushing the mower in one direction. My wife hates it and I have put an add in the paper to sell it for 1/4 of what I paid for it - but can't really sell it since, when I tell folks the truth about it, they don't want it either.  John Deere went cheap here - on everything but the price - in my opinion, a stockholder decision to make a short term profit - the bane of modern day America with long term corporations selling our for short term profit. This is a Junior engineer design.  John Deer got me this time but they never will again because I will never own a John Deere - anything - for the rest of my life and I have owned their products for nearly 40 years now and am myself an engineer.  Hang your head, John Deere.

DavidHank

Hendersonville, NC

I have owned this lawnmower for over three years and have had very few issues with it. i love the mulching or bagging options.  It is not difficult for a single person to empty the lawn bag like in some other lawn mowers. It has always started without problems.  The only issue that we have every had with this lawnmower was that when filling the lawnmower with gas be careful not to spill any gas on the lawnmower since the air filter is right next to the gas tank.  If you get gas on the air filter compartment it will get on the filter and need to be replaced for the lawnmower will smoke and cut in and out.. I learned this first hand this summer when I thought the lawnmower was dieing when it was just human error.  This lawnmower has worked great for us and I am glad we spent the extra money to get a reliable lawnmower like John deere. It is great to have the self propelled lawn mower that is easy to turn and back up.

mwac22

Montgomery, IL

Bought this mower new from Wal Mart. Used it three times and it hasn't started since. Contacted John Deere and they tell me that there is nothing they can do because I refused to purchase service plan. I didn't buy service plan because it's a John deere, thats the only reason I bought it

hshupe

Tennessee Colony, TX

I am extremely pleased with the John Deer JS40 walk behind mower that I recently purchased. I love the way that the turning radius wokrs with the independent front end. It i a much improved design than the old mower that I used to use. With the old mower I used to find myself lifting the front up to make the turns that I had to do such as the trees and brush areas. A lot of time my children are present when i'm mowing the yard and with the old mower we used to have the lifting of the front end was very dangerous not only because of the spinning blades but also when I would set it back down it would often spit rocks and debris at my daughter. This mower is extremely well built and will last a lifetime as far as I can see. John Deer has been around for a long time and building quality products such this one are the reason why. I would reccomend this mower to anyone in the market for a new lawn mower. It's not the cheapest but it is the safest nad the best built.

toobinatordad

Ventura, CA

I have used one of these and i must say they cut wonderfully. I personally would buy a rider but this push behind is fairly great! I think that most people tend to stay  fact they don't feel like walking but when you have a lawn mower that is as easy to use as this one it is simply a breeze. Would not recommend this to use in big yards because if you have a very large yard get a rider mower!!!! But this made me think about how good they actually are and how convenient it is to store. If i didn't have to cut a large yard would i get one of these? And the answer to that question would be i totally would!!!

ViciousMudbutt

Rochester, NY

High quality, well constructed mower.  Good manueverability.  Reliable starting time after time.  A bit pricey for the basic feature set, but worth it if you don't want to have to worry about your mower.

gerryh

Framingham, MA