What is the best homeowner zero turn mower? I have about 2 acres to cut.

I just bought a scag liberty z. No complaints

Scag is the best next to a gravley

I'm very happy with my John Deere 740R

ExMark does mainly commercial but they have a residential line. Get a 10 gauge deck no matter what brand you choose. Kawasaki Engine if you can.

Why is there a difference between residential and commercial line zero turn mowers? Shouldnt they be the same? Is there a brand that is the same?

Cost of manufacturing and trying to hit a price point in the market. Kubota makes a homeowners grade machine (Z200 series), a commercial grade (Z700 series) and an in between (Z400 series). Most manufacturers do this. This way a customer can get into a zero turn machine with its improved maneuverability and faster cutting speed without the $8k plus entry fee the commercial grades require.

Different hydraulic pumps on homeowner vs commercial that drive the wheels. That's why I bought a Hustler SuperDuty when I got mine. It has commercial rated pumps. 10 years and one week ago today I brought her home and I've put one battery on it and a few sets of blades. Regular oil changes and the Kawasaki engine never falters.

Yup, this is the primary difference on commercial mowers. The bigger units have more fluid capacity, serviceable filters and are rebuildable. The low end systems are throwaway but I have read where people have learned to rebuild them with a workaround.

The other common feature seen on commercial engines is a Donaldson cartridge air filter on a commercial mower engine. Keeping crap from getting sucked into the motor will go a long to making it last longer. The higher end motors have fuel injection as well.

I have a Ferris is2100z with a 26HP Vanguard and a John Deere z930R with a 25HP Kawasaki. Both are excellent mowers but the Ferris saves your back while mowing over the bumps we have.

My Hustler has this type air filter as well. This machine will outlast me.

I love my kubota kommander pro 48 inch cut with Kawasaki it's a step above residential series

That depends on your price point for only cutting two acres. It also depends on the aggravation you want to put up with when the pumps start misbehaving, the hydraulics start leaking or are intermittent in working, the deck not cutting even, the belts slipping and or coming off, etc.

Scag to me is the best - Tiger Cat II --- John Deere from a dealer not a big box store, gravely, hustler from a dealer not a big box store, even Toro makes a decent mower. I didn't include exmark, because I drove two, and I was not impressed with either one cutting my yard. My acreage does have some bahai in it, and the exmark couldn't cut it, it just pushed it over. The smaller scag did the same thing, that is why I went with the larger Tiger Cat. I have more to cut than you do, but I wish I had gone with the larger deck than the 64".

All we run is toro...we have about 10 i think and just purchased 2 more this year. We average 2500-4k hours per mower before we put them on guv deals an sell them. We also have exmarks and john deeres..id rank them in the order posted..we dont buy john deere anymore..too much money for a lesser machine. If i bought a new one today it would be torro,hustler,spartan,and the cub cadet pro z series...lot of folks are switchin to those. To all the folks who would claim they suck...i thought they did too...i was wrong.

Good mower! I have the Scag Patriot for 3.5 acres and love it. On year two of having it and zero complaints. I'm glad I bought it!

Another big difference is a welded deck vs a stamped deck.

I got a Scag Tiger II. Awesome!! Ex mark and Toro are made by the same folks I think.

For home use, a box store John Deere will be fine for what you are doing. The low-end box store mowers are the same exact low-end models at Sunsouth in the 300 series. They will be fine on your own yard as long as you're not running 200 hours every Summer on it.

One guy explained to me. To be designated "commercial" it has to meet certain criteria. Upgraded parts, and certain safety featureslike roll cage and stuff like springs in the seat. The heavy duty version usually has the upgraded parts like pumps, spindles and sometimes a better seat, but not all the features that it requires to be classified as " commercial". So it's cheaper than commercial and better than the base model.

I used a Grasshopper to cut 4 acres.Easy on and easy off for a 76 year old man with bad legs..

I have a Kubota Kommander residential series. The only difference between it and the next up commercial grade, is mine has a Kohler engine instead of a Kawasaki. Mine also has LED lights. The commercial series didn't. Mine has a manual deck lift, where the commercial has a hydraulic lift. My roll bar doesn't fold up. Other than that, it is the same mower, just hundreds cheaper. Same warranty.