The most important part of your lawn maintenance is keeping your mower in top shape. You don’t want to have your mower quit or need lawn mower repair in the middle of mowing your lawn. There’s no need to worry if you
follow these tips to keep your mower happy and away from lawn mower repair as long as possible.
12 Tips to Keep Your Lawn Mower in Good Shape
1. Don’t hoard gas for the lawn mower. Only store less than a month’s worth of gas wherever the lawn mower is stored. Gas older than a month is prone to having water in it from condensation. This will mess up the
carburetor of the lawn mower and will require lawn mower repair.
2. Check your lawn mower’s air filter often and replace it when it gets dirty. Dirty filters won’t protect the engine from dirt. Dirt will wear down the vital parts of the engine making starting the lawn mower a real pain.
3. Before you start your lawn mower make sure you clear the blades of any built up grass or debris. This will make sure the blade will rotate easily and cut the lawn cleanly.
4. For electric mowers using batteries, remember to plug them in to charge after each mowing. When storing the electric mower over the winter charge it overnight before unplugging and storing. This will keep the battery from losing power.
5. Remember to check your mower’s oil each time you go to mow the lawn. Too little oil in the lawn mower can put a death grip on the engine and send it straight to lawn mower repair. Change the oil at least once a season as well. Usually the middle of the mowing season in early July would be fine.
6. Make sure you keep the lawn mower’s cooling fans clean as well.
7. Check the belt condition and tension each time you mow the lawn.
8. Sharpen your lawn mower blades every third mowing. You can get this done by a lawn mower repair shop or do it yourself. You can use a grinding wheel or file. To keep them balanced when sharpening, drive a long nail into the garage wall and hang the blades off it when sharpening.
9. Wipe down all the rubber and plastic lawn mower parts with Armorall once a month to keep them from drying out, cracking or disintegrating. This will prevent a trip to the lawn mower repair shop.
10. Wipe down all chrome and metal parts with WD-40 every few weeks. This will keep them from rusting and sticking.
11. Check all safety controls before using the lawn mower. There are too many lawn mower accidents each year that could have been prevented.
12. At the end of the lawn mowing season do the end of the season maintenance chores to keep your lawn mower in good shape for the next year.
Getting that Lawn Mower Ready: Checking the Blade, Spark Plugs and Filter
Are you one of those people who just pull it out and go at it? Whoa, that’s not what I meant! We’re talking lawn mowers here. You’ll get longer and better performance out of your equipment…hey,
lawn mower, if you follow this checklist:
1. Clean the exterior of the mower with a brush to remove dust and any left over clippings or dirt from last year.
2. Use a scraper to remove any caked on clippings, dirt, mud, etc., from the underside of the mower.
3. Check the blade. If it has many nicks from stones or other hard debris, or it is a couple of years old, consider getting it sharpened or replace it. You’ll get a more even and faster cut with a sharp blade. Be sure to fully tighten the blade when you install it.
4. Check the filter. Different mowers have different types of filters. Depending on the filter, it may be washable or simply need to be replaced. Consult your owner’s manual or go online to the manufacturer’s website.
5. Check the spark plug. Clean and re-gap it or replace it with a new one to ensure you get a good spark. (Or do you enjoy pulling that cord repeatedly?)
6. Check the gas. Gas tanks can collect moisture when they sit unused for long periods and are exposed to extremes of temperature. You can usually see any significant water build up by shining a flashlight into the tank. The water will be on the bottom. If there is a pool of water on the bottom, you can use an automotive gas treatment product that removes water from gas or you can drain the tank and replace it. (Dispose of old gas in an environmentally safe way, please.)
Now that your equipment is in good working order, whip it out and show that grass whose boss.
Prevent Grass from Sticking to Your Lawn Mower
Mowing grass is a chore and every so often you need to do some maintenance on your lawn mower to keep it running smoothly and to keep it clean. As you mow grass the grass gets stuck on the underside of the lawn mower
and if the grass build up too much the lawn mower will not work as well as it should. You need to clean that grass out of the underside of the mower when the mower seems to get bogged down. Some people clean the underside of the lawn mower every time they mow there grass. How much you clean your lawn mower depends on how much grass you cut and how often you cut the grass.
When you clean off the underside of the lawn mower you need to tip the lawn mower over so you can reach the under side of the lawn mower. You should clean the underside of your lawn mower when the gas is low or empty so the gas won’t leak out.
Take a screw driver or another strong flat tool and scrap out the grass clippings that have accumulated. You should even scrap the grass that is stuck on the blade. Scrap all of the grass clippings that are stuck on the underside of the lawn mower. You can take a scrub brush and scrub some of the grass clippings off the underside of the lawn mower.
Once the underside of the lawn mower is cleaned off you can take some vegetable oil and coat the underside of the lawn mower with the vegetable oil. You can use a spray vegetable oil if you have some of it. Coat the lawn mower blade with the vegetable oil too.
The vegetable oil will keep the grass from sticking on the underside on the lawn mower and help keep the lawn mower cleaner longer. Using vegetable oil to coat the underside of your lawn mower is an easy and inexpensive way to prevent the buildup of grass clippings on the underside of your lawn mower.
Always be careful anytime you are working with a lawn mower. Follow the instruction manual that came with your lawn mower and follow it to keep safe.
When you take proper care of your lawn mower it will last a long time. Change your oil when the instruction manual recommends it and sharpen the lawn mower blade as it gets dull.
