When mowing there is a constant gust of wind coming out the front towards the right wheel which pushes leaves in a line off to the right and it leaves rows of uncut leaves or semi cut leaves. The mulching worked great where the leave were thick (3" to 6" deep) because that wind was blocked I would guess.

I called Encore Equipment today and they were not really sure what to do but suggested I try taking out the center divider to see if that helped. They also said I might try on some gator blades which work good on leaves. He also said to raise the blade up all the way. The blades are on the third "ring" out of five now, and the front wheels are all the way up for clearance. I'll raise the blades all the way next weekend but it's only about 1/2" more.

Is this a common problem with all mowers or all commercial type walk behind mowers or maybe just the design of this Encore Premier? I did have to go over the leaves a couple/few times and it worked great except for the strips of leaves left behind.

When I used to bag with this mower it sucked up everything in it's path like a vacuum cleaner. I assume because all of the air was going out the discharge chute to the bag.

BTW, I did check and the blades are installed correctly.

I used it again this weekend after lowering the front a bit and raising the blades as far as I could. I had about the same results. Where the leaves were thick it worked fine, but where they were thin they were flying all over the place. I tried mowing with all right turns and it helped a little but still missed a lot. It was frustrating...

My mower is squared off on the front right side but somewhat round underneath for mulching. There are two "chambers" with the center divider in but they are not really round all the way so maybe that's the problem. It could be a design flaw. Maybe it works OK for grass but not so well for leaves.

I'll add a link if it works to encoreequipment.com. If you click on Mowers, then Premier then Pro Belt you would see my mower. Picture it without the discharge chute and the corner is square. Also if you click on Accessories you can see what the underside looks like with the mulching kit and how it's not really round all the way. I wonder if that's where the problem is compared to a true mulching mower...