Saturday, December 26, 2009

What should I do to winterize my lawn mower?

There are several things that are rather important to increase the chances of your machine starting in the spring without a severe work over by your small engine technician.  Below are a list of things that need to be completed, in the order of importance (in my opinion).

1.  Service your fuel system:
  • A. Stabilize your fuel and run the engine for several minutes to allow the fuel stabilizer to permeate the fuel sysem OR
  • B. Drain your fuel and run the engine out of gas OR
  • C. Perform "A", shut off the in-line fuel shut off and then run the engine out of fuel.
2.  Change the engine oil.
3.  If your mower has a battery, disconnect the negative battery cable (or both) from the battery. Optionally, you could add a battery disconnect on the positive side and then simple turn it off.  There are several of these available, however, I would recommend the "safety switch" model.  This particular one is very simple.  You simple "turn" the switch off in the fall and "turn" it back on in the spring.

For an in-depth Fall Winterizing guide, visit the Superior Power Equipment Forum.

4 comments:

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  3. Another very important thing to store your mower for the winter is to clean under the deck. Get all that grass stuck under there off. The longer it sits, the harder it is to get off. Not only that, any moisture it is holding will accelerate the rusting process.

    I always do this. I also, if I think it needs it, lightly sand under there and paint. I use a spray can. It doesn't really matter what color since nobody sees it. Just make sure the paint is for metal.

    If your tired of the mower you have or are looking for a new one, you can try yardplex.com to see which mower would have what you need and want.

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  4. I just read your article and found it very informative but in this article you haven't mention anything to improve the battery life of a lawn mower. Well, if someone is looking to buy a new lawn mower then I'd recommend to check this list of lawn mowers to buy the best one for your lawn mowing needs.

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