For some, lawnmowing can be a bore or a chore. For the house proud, green fingered people out there, mowing the lawns is a fun job. The sound of engine and the smell of green cut grass. Or it's a chance to spend half an hour in your own thoughts, with the world shut out underneath the safety ear muffs.
Which is all nice and dandy, but just like a Formula One race cars is tuned and calibrated to it can perform within an inch of its life, if you want your lawn mower to cut grass well and to work a long and happy engine life, you need to maintain it.
Here's some tips and tricks to help you better understand grass and the art of lawnmower maintenance.
Some lawn mowers NEVER have their spark plugs changed - and it will eventually show when it becomes troublesome to start - you've added fresh petrol but no action on the pull-start?
Guess what, it's time to change the plug. Here's how to replace a spark plug in a lawn mower.
So after you've mown the lawns a few times, you might be tempted to use your grass cutter to mulch up some thin branches, or maybe an old rose bush, even some flax (here's an idea, don't). Over time the blade will dull and lose its edge. In case it's time on how to sharpen a lawn mower blade safely.
Once you're done for the day, the question becomes, where do you store your engine. If you have a big garage, all good - if you keep it outside, then you might want to consider using a cover to keep dust and debris off your lawnmower
Lawn mowers are obviously small engines but perhaps what's not so obvious is that they do not run well on car engine oil. These smaller engines operated at different temperature levels than cars so the characteristics of the oil required to run an efficient engine need to be different.
So knowing what kind of lawnmower oil to use is really important. Are you going to use a traditional Briggs and Stratton type oil or are you going to use a synthetic engine oil? The answer often lies in the temperature of the climate in which you will use the lawnmower. World renown small engines engine experts Briggs and Stratton advise that "Engines on most outdoor power equipment operate well with 5W30 Synthetic oil. For equipment operated in hot temperatures, Vanguard 15W50 Synthetic oil provides the best protection."
Overall, a standard lawn mower, used in standard back yard conditions will operate very well on standard SAE 30 (sometimes referred to as 30W). Synthetic oil will work continue to work in fringe temperatures - i.e extreme cold and extreme heat. But we reckon if it's that cold, why bust your ass cutting grass anyway?
You might one day find yourself when you need to add oil to the engine and you only have two stroke oil when your engine is a four stroke.
I know what your thinking, we've all been there.
Yes, you can add two-stroke to a 4 stroke machine - but it will only work in the short term. 2 stroke is designed to be used with the fuel inside the engine and not in a 4 stroke engine so it's qualities will not be what the engine needs over the long term. So sure, you can do a quick top up, but eventually you will need to replace the oil you added with 4 stroke.
Don't be that lazy guy that keeps on using it - add proper oil, because that's all part of grass and the art of lawn mower maintenance.
If you've moved your lawns, cleaned the engine up, and re-filled it with petrol, then well done. Sit back and relax with a cold homebrew beer or learn how to re-start a chainsaw that's flooded or refuel the fuel caddy!