Went back to the dealer and picked up my mower today. The dealer had about 20 new push mowers ready for pickup and most were HRX Hondas and this dealer sells numerous popular brands.
The dealer was great. The mower was prepped and ready to go. He spent some time with me going over all the features and started it up for a quick trial run. Rear drive is definitely different than my old front drive Toro and will take some getting used to. I had read how quiet the Honda engines were compared to other brands but I was really surprised at how quiet they are.
The only thing the dealer suggested that I had not read was that 89 octane fuel is recommended. He said I could get away with 87 but said I should really use 89. I have always used 87 in my 190cc Briggs on my Toro and in the Tecumseh on my even older Toro before that and never had a problem. Has anyone heard this about Honda engines? It is not a problem for me to use 89 octane but I just want to make sure it is proper to do so.
Thanks
All Honda mower engines will run just fine on
86 octane. No need to run higher octane, it is just a waste of money.
That said, some higher octane fuels do contain cleaners, detergents, etc., and some higher octane fuel do not contain Ethanol. Ethanol can cause the fuel to go stale faster than non-Ethanol fuels.
