The need or wish to side discharge grass clippings is something one should carefully consider when buying a mower. Most of the walk behind rotary mowers that are listed as 3 in 1 accomplish side discharge in the most efficient way, but not all. What is the most efficient way and why? First it is important to know how these mowers cut. Almost all cutting occurs as the blade passes across the front of the deck of the mower, with the clock face reference, from about 10 to 2 o'clock. The natural path of grass clippings off the rotating blade is away radially. That means that the easiest exit path for the clippings that imposes the least load on the blade and least likelihood of being smashed onto the underside of the deck is the one closest to the point at which the rotating blade cuts the clippings off of the grass plants. Approximately 2 o'clock is therefor the best place for the discharge port to be. Since all the rotary mowers I know about rotate the blade clockwise as viewed from above, that'd be on the right side of the mower deck. A mower designed to exclusively discharge through a dismountable chute in it's rear discharge port for rear bagging requires more energy to get the clippings to it and since those "chutes" all discharge to the left of the mower, the chutes themselves introduce mower loading additional resistance to the clippings / air flow the blade creates.. My Neuton CE-5 14" SLA battery pack powered mower is a great example. It is designed for rear bagging and mulching mode mowing but I bought a chute that inserts in place of the rear bag. It works fine for side discharge unless I let the grass get too long before mowing. Then it loads up converting function to mulching mode pretty quickly. A lot of the 3 in 1 cordless electrics now available have a spring loaded cover and a chute insert for a discharge port at ~ 2 o'clock. Their advantage is clear. Were I not in the midst of the patent process for an "improved rotary mower blade" design, testing of which my Neuton offers unparalleled ease of process, I would never have replaced my 13 y/o Neuton EM 4.1 14" SLA powered mower with it's current younger brother, my CE-5, last fall. Both the old and new 14" Neutons use the same battery pack, the newer versions of which are more easy to modify for in use power consumption testing. The objective of the "Improved Rotary Mower blade" is greater efficiency.
