CRAFTSMAN vs Toro Gas Lawn Mowers: Which Brand Wins?

Last updated August 3, 2026 · owner ratings verified July 2026

Which should you buy?

Buy the Toro. On a suburban lawn the two brands cut grass about equally well, but Toro sells through a servicing dealer network, backs its Recycler walk-behinds with full warranty coverage and a guaranteed-to-start commitment, and builds the best mulching deck in the class. CRAFTSMAN’s case is price — it is reliably the cheaper machine, and if the difference between $420 and $470 decides the purchase, nothing about the CRAFTSMAN will disappoint you in year one. The gap opens in year three, when something needs fixing.

Why do these mowers have so few reviews?

Because almost nobody buys a gas mower online. Toro sells through servicing dealers and home centers; CRAFTSMAN sells overwhelmingly through Lowe’s. Amazon listings for both brands carry rating counts in the dozens rather than the tens of thousands you see on a vacuum, and one of the CRAFTSMAN listings here has so few ratings that its score should be treated as noise rather than evidence.

We would rather say that plainly than pretend the numbers mean more than they do. For this category, the useful evidence is the warranty terms, the drive layout, the deck design and the service network — all of which are checkable facts — rather than a star rating built on a handful of reviews. Where owner data is thin, that is what we weight.

Which engine is better?

Neither brand builds its own engine at this price, which surprises people. Both fit bought-in overhead-valve single-cylinder engines in the 140–190cc range, and displacement differences of 20 or 30cc make no practical difference on a 21-inch deck cutting suburban turf. Anyone telling you the engine is the reason to pick one of these is selling something.

What does matter is that the engine is a commodity, which means any small-engine shop can service it and parts are generic. Air filters, spark plugs and carburetor kits for both brands sit on the same shelf. That is genuinely good news for both machines, and it is why an engine failure is almost never what kills a mower of this class.

What actually fails on these mowers?

Three things, in this order. First, the carburetor, from ethanol-blended fuel left in the tank over winter — this is the single most common cause of a mower that will not start in spring, and it is entirely preventable by running the tank dry or adding a fuel stabilizer. Second, the self-propel drive belt or the transmission cable, which wear from use and are the reason a self-propelled machine costs more to keep going than a push mower. Third, the deck itself, which rusts from the underside where wet clippings pack against bare steel.

Toro’s advantage on the second of those is the dealer network: a drive belt is a routine dealer job with a part in stock. CRAFTSMAN owners generally take the machine to an independent shop, which works fine but takes longer and costs what the shop charges. Neither brand’s deck survives being stored wet — scrape the underside after mowing wet grass and both last far longer. Our walkthrough is in how to winterize a lawn mower.

Front-wheel or rear-wheel drive?

This is a bigger deal than the badge and most buyers never consider it. The CRAFTSMAN machines here are front-wheel drive, the Toro Recycler is rear-wheel drive.

Front-wheel drive is easier to maneuver: tip the machine back onto its rear wheels and it pivots freely at the end of a row, which is genuinely nicer on a lawn full of beds and obstacles. Its weakness is traction. As the grass bag fills, weight transfers to the rear and the driven front wheels start to slip — worst on slopes, exactly where you want the drive to work.

Rear-wheel drive is the opposite: harder to pivot, far better on hills and with a full bag. If any part of your lawn is sloped, this alone is worth choosing Toro for. On a dead-flat lot with lots of flower beds, front-wheel drive is arguably the nicer machine. Our fuller treatment is in push versus self-propelled mowers.

How much does the Recycler deck actually matter?

If you bag your clippings, not at all. If you mulch, it is the main reason to pay Toro’s premium. The Recycler deck uses a baffled chamber that keeps clippings circulating under the blade to be cut repeatedly before they drop, and the result is a fine confetti that filters down into the turf instead of lying on top in visible rows.

That matters agronomically as well as visually. Clippings returned to the lawn recycle roughly a quarter of the nitrogen you apply as fertilizer, which is free feeding — provided the pieces are small enough to break down quickly. A coarse mulching deck leaves clumps that smother the grass beneath them and end up needing raking anyway. See is it OK to leave grass clippings on the lawn for the detail.

Should you just go battery?

For a lot under about a third of an acre, seriously consider it. The battery Toro on this page removes every maintenance job people neglect — no oil, no plug, no carburetor, no winterizing — and starts on a button in January. The trade-offs are honest: it costs more up front, runtime drops sharply in thick or damp grass, and the battery pack is a large deferred expense that a gas engine does not have.

For anything approaching half an acre, or for grass that regularly gets away from you, gas is still the pragmatic choice. Our full comparison is in gas versus battery mowers.

The bottom line

Toro is the better mower to own and CRAFTSMAN is the better mower to buy, and which of those matters more depends on how long you intend to keep it. Three years or fewer, and CRAFTSMAN’s lower price wins outright. Longer than that, and the dealer network, the warranty terms and the Recycler deck earn back the difference.

For the full field including the battery options and the budget gas machines, see our gas lawn mower roundup and the best self-propelled mowers. Every ranking here comes from aggregated owner ratings, review volume and expert consensus rather than first-hand testing, and where the rating pool is thin we say so — the method is on how we rank.