Forum Friday: Fall yard work, best furnaces, and dishwasher love

We're always happy to see your comments on our blog entries. There's another place for you to vent or to share information with fellow readers: our home and yard and appliances forums. Since most forum messages are posted over the weekend, we're debuting Forum Friday posts to tip you off to the timeliest topics. For example:

• If you've spent more time lately following politics than tending to your yard, our fall-cleanup forum has some savvy tips from Consumer Report garden guru Peter Sawchuk on how you can play catch-up on your cleanup. We've also put together this very useful mix of raking strategies and equipment ratings.

• If you're dreading winter's chill and heating bills, discussions like Which gas furnace should I buy? cover geothermal heating and other topics and offer dozens of first-hand accounts. You'll also find a spirited discussion of our reviews of tankless water heaters and replacement windows.

• On the appliances forum, our dishwashers discussion is attracting a fair amount of traffic as more people are reporting problems with a wide range of models or touting the better-performing ones in I love my dishwasher.

• More warmth is radiating from a discussion of the pros, cons, and costs of slow cookers in our small-appliances forum. And as often happens, members are swapping notes on the real-world performance and unforeseen pitfalls of new products. This discussion about GE's Advantium oven shows how forum postings complement our formal ratings and user reviews (available to subscribers).

Essential Information: Preview our our six free e-newsletters to stay up on the latest news.

The leaves on the trees are falling . . .

I just got back in from an early-morning walk with my 17-week-old dog, and one thing's clear here in my Northern New Jersey hometown: Fall-cleanup season has begun in earnest the last couple of days. The weather has been terrific recently, mild days with more of a late-summer everything-is-in-bloom upbeat feel than a winter-is-coming, let's-pack-it-in-for-the-season dread.

This morning, the brass dial thermometer on my deck reads a bracing 41°F; that's not too bad for October 18, but the leaves have taken the autumn chill of the last 48 hours as a sign to release their tree-bound grip and cascade toward the suburban lawns.

For me and countless others, the sudden shift to full-on fall will interrupt our regularly scheduled lineup of relaxing weekend programming and force us to grab rake, mower, leaf blower, collection receptacle, and myriad essential gear as we gather countless leaves from all the ash, locust, maple, sycamore, and oak trees around us.

Fall cleanup is not a terrible hassle for me, and I dig the vibrant splashes of seasonal color, but I am always looking for ways to make the job go faster and more efficiently. (The sooner it's done tomorrow, for instance, the earlier my twins and I can go for a bike ride.) Fortunately, a colleague of mine prepared this "Tip of the Day: Make faster work of leaf removal" last fall. I followed some of the DIY advice then and I'll use it again in the coming weeks. You should, too.

Good luck, all you leaf wranglers out there. If you have some can't-miss suggestions for ways to deal with leaves, add a comment below.—Steven H. Saltzman

Essential information: Read these other smart moves for fall cleanup. And if you're in the market for a new leaf blower, check out our ratings-based report before you buy.

Protect Your Investment: Lawn mower/tractor

Whether your mower, lawn tractor, or zero-turn-radius riding mower is new or old, some midseason maintenance can keep it cutting cleanly and reliably for years to come. Otherwise, you may face the same situation of one Keith Walendowski of Milwaukee, who shot his Lawn-Boy mower because it wouldn't start. (In all fairness, here is one opinion that insists the mower got what was coming to it.)

I asked Peter Sawchuk, our lead tester of outdoor power equipment, about the best ways to extend the life of a lawn mower or tractor, including zero-turn-radius mowers. They're a smarter, cheaper, and safer alternative to going postal in your backyard:

Clean the deck regularly. Make it part of your mowing routine to wash out the underside of the deck with a hose after each mowing. Clipping buildup reduces mulching performance and corrodes the metal over time, particularly when those clippings include fertilizer. Do it immediately after mowing, before clippings dry and harden.

Many tractors and zero-turn-radius mowers come with washout ports that accept a hose. Some models also accept retrofit ports. (Among walk-behind mowers, newer Toros are among the models that include washout ports.) If you have to wash out a riding mower manually, get a set of automotive ramps and simply drive the front of the tractor onto the ramps for easier access beneath.

An extra tip: After washing the underside of the deck, consider spraying it with an organic-based, non-toxic lubricant to help keep clippings from sticking next time around.

Keep blades sharp. Especially during the hotter, dryer part of the season, sharpen the blade(s) or have it done. Optimally, you'll do it at the start of the season and monthly thereafter—more often if you do lots of heavy cutting. Dull blades damage the grass as they cut, leaving unsightly brown-tipped grass in their wake. You'll also pay more in gas, since dull blades make your mower work harder and longer. Buying spare blades means your lawn won't overgrow while you get the first sharpened.

Check the oil. Walk-behind mower engines typically give out after 150 to 200 hours of use—or about eight to 10 years. But you can easily cut that lifespan if you let the oil level on four-stroke engines get too low on the dipstick or don't change the oil as often as the manufacturer recommends. Each time you mow, check the oil before you begin, and add more when the level drop to halfway point or lower. But filling above the "full" mark can also shorten engine life by causing the oil to foam and fail to lubricate critical parts.

Check the tires. For a tractors or riding mower, midseason is also the time of year to check tire pressure. As with car tires, those on mowers gradually lose air even without an actual leak, making the machine harder to steer and damaging the tires if air pressure gets too low. A rear tire that's low can also affect traction, making it easier to tear grass or slide on inclines.

Consider a new mower if your old one is tired. As with appliances and most products we test, it typically makes sense to replace rather than repair if the fix costs more than 50 percent of what you'll pay for a comparable new model. A timely benefit to newer gas mowers and tractors: They tend to run more efficiently and use less gas. If you're considering an electric mower for a smaller property, check with your local government for trade-in programs (like this recent one in Chicago) that let you swap a gas-powered mower for a less-polluting new battery-powered one.—Ed Perratore

Essential information: We tested more than 70 mowers and tractors (including zero-turn-radius mowers) in time for the early mowing season, but you can still find models in stores if you need to shop now. Here's advice on mower types, mowing safety, emissions, and robotic mowers. View Ratings of push and self-propelled mowers and tractors and our repair-or-replace charts (available to subscribers).

New feature! Home Improvement Guide Interactive

Remodeling a room in your home or simply replacing appliances or buying new gear for your yard and garden?

The Consumer Reports Home Improvement Guide interactive (picture shown) on ConsumerReports.org lets you click on any room in your house and choose the top appliances, paints, flooring, and other remodeling products for your home's interior and exterior, from the kitchen and bathroom to roofing, siding, mowers, and tools.

The Home Improvement Guide includes expert remodeling tips as well links to Ratings of top ranges, refrigerators, dishwashers, decking, mowers and tractors, room air conditioners, windows, washing machines, vacuums, and many more appliances, tools, and remodeling materials you need to upgrade your home.

Take a room-by-room tour of our interactive home today!

Pest Patrol: How to get rid of grubs in your yard

If irregularly shaped sections of your lawn are withering away, the problem could be grubs. These small beetle larvae live in the soil and feed on lawn roots.

To determine whether you have a grub problem, cut into your lawn near the edge of a brown area and lift the grass. If it comes up easily, as if you’re rolling up carpet, your yard has grubs. Odds are, you’ll see some of these milky-white, wormlike creatures with brown heads and three pairs of legs curled into a C shape (shown).

The remedy: Apply chemical insecticides with imidacloprid or halofenozide in July or August when grubs are immature. After a couple of days, reseed or replant any damaged areas. (Learn how to plant the perfect grass.)

To kill mature grubs this fall or next spring, combine Heterorhabditis nematodes—sold in pastelike form—with water and apply to the soil according to the package instructions.

Next week’s pest: There’s one other reason to target grubs—they’re a favorite food of moles, whose extensive tunneling can exacerbate the damage grubs do to your lawn. We’ll target ways to control the five species of mole common to the U.S. in an upcoming installment of Pest Patrol.

Essential information: Our updated Complete Lawn & Yard Guide offers how-to advice for planting and pruning and Ratings (available to subscribers) of a wide array of lawn and garden equipment. You’ll also find the best ways to deal with weeds, lawn diseases, and common insects as well as an interactive tour of  major lawn problems.

Tip of the Day: Test your soil

Experts recommend that you test the soil in your lawn every three years to determine whether your yard has gone “sour” or “sweet”—industry parlance, respectively, for lower (heavily acidic) and higher (heavily alkaline) pH levels.

But our tests of six home-use soil-test kits found them returning inaccurate or inconsistent results. Instead of using a home test kit, have your soil analyzed by a lawn service, a private lab, or your local cooperative extension services, whose tests cost as little as $15 apiece. You’ll find state-by-state listings of cooperative extension services on this page from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Read “Test the Soil” (available to subscribers) and watch the video (right) for more details on soil testing and some ways to adjust the pH level of your soil.—Gian Trotta

Essential information: Read "7 Steps to a Better Lawn" for more details on making your yard look its best. You’ll find additional ways to improve your outdoor spaces in our Complete Lawn & Yard Guide.