I recently replaced an aging Toro with a more powerful Ariens. The Toro has an excellent controller to match your walking speed. Although the Ariens has the idea, it is not as good as the Toro.

With the Toro, you have a horizontal handle bar to press forward when you want to go forward. The amount that you press is directly related to how fast the drive goes for the mower. You pull back or let go to stop.

The Ariens, and in many other mowers, you press back to go forward. It is very counter intuitive. If you are chopping to something that is not supposed to be chopped, you pull back which causes the mechanism to go forward faster. Granted, simply letting go works but that is not your first reaction.

I chose Ariens over Toro replacement because of a few other well designed features such as a deck connection for water hose to clean out the inside of the blade housing, an engine that is more powerful than some motorcycles, and one control to raise the deck instead of an adjustment for each wheel among others.

It looks as if, once again, I have to reinvent a new purchase to fit my needs.

So, if you are looking for a new mower, the variable speed is the way to go, but get one designed with some instinct in mind.