It's that time of year again – time to put away the snow blower and drag out the lawnmower. Is your lawnmower ready to take on another year of weekly mowing? Here, you'll find a few tips that'll help you get your lawnmower to perform well and survive another season of use and abuse.
Drain the Fluids
It's time to empty the oil and gas that've been sitting in the lawnmower all winter long. If you winterized the lawnmower, then, you'll have a full tank of gas and old oil to get rid of. To do this, you can siphon the fluids out of the tanks, or you can flip the lawnmower upside down and let it run out naturally. The only thing with dumping it over is that you will have to figure out how to catch all of the fluids to keep them from running off into your lawn or staining your driveway.
Layer two large contractor trash bags together. Remove the caps from the oil and gas tanks. Place the trash bags over the motor and wrap them up around the base of the motor. Now, carefully and slowly flip the lawnmower over. Have someone help you hold the lawnmower upside-down so that it's not resting in the fluids that are draining out. Once the fluid is drained, remove the trash bags and turn the lawnmower upright. Get a bucket or jug and cut a hole in the corner of the bags to drain the contents into the bucket or jug – recycle the waste fluids.
Don't refill the fluid yet – you'll want to wait until you're done with everything else first.
Clean and Repair the Deck
Unfortunately, many lawnmowers rust out before the motor quits running. To prevent this, you'll need to give the mower a good cleaning, identify rust, remove the rust, and coat the mower with rust-inhibiting spray paint.
Start with the underside of the deck so that you can position the mower upside down without having to worry about messing up the fresh paint on the top side of the mower.
Repeat this process on the top of the mower deck, but spend more time sanding to give it a smoother, better-looking finish.
If you do this each year, you'll get several years of use out of your lawnmower before you'll need to replace it due to rust damage.
Share19 April 2019
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