Spring Lawnmower Service (From the Honey-Do List)

[Nick79]

Dear Downeast. No reason to get so defensive. You state that you know the preferred mentods of storing small engines during the Winter months, and yet in your original post, describe your need to drain old gas from a mower you stored. Leaving old gas in a small engine - as you know, breaks down and becomes a gummy mess. The bulk of your advice should help everyone who has stored equipment and now are experiencing difficulty starting them.

[Downeast Thunder]

I wasn't being defensive, merely providing an explanation. Perhaps I should have explained further:
This was in fact providing a common scenario around these parts of Maine (very long winters). I was trying to emulate the situation most people around here find themselves in. IT doesn't matter how many times the proper method of long term storage is explained - people just do the same thing every year because winter usually comes on fast and without warning - most people are busy with other matter and this is not important to the at the time.

Consider this a re-enactment of the common thing that takes place every spring. If you had watched the video and were fairly observant, given your apparent expertise in the subject matter, you would have noticed the gas I drained out was perfectly clear - no discoloration or crap in it whatsoever. You also might have noticed (when the float bowl was removed) the gas in the float bowl was also clear/clean and the float bowl along with rest of the carburetor was also clean as a whistle inside (how do you think that might have happened ).

The re-enactment is simply there to show people what to do when they find themselves in such a situation - it reduces the phone calls that come into my shop, asking me to work on their machines. I've already done winter prep videos in years past, and for the reasons I mentioned above, never did any good - no one paid attention.

Since you "seem" to be such an expert on the subject, I don't really understand your interest in this post to begin with. To me, the manner in which you've posed your original comment is quite negative. As you mentioned, there are plenty of videos on YouTube showing people how to winterize their engines (including mine) but here in Downeast Maine (as I mentioned) no one pays any attention. Over the years, I've learned to put myself in the shoes of local folks when I explain or show people how "I" go about doing things - they actually pay more attention that way.

I try to keep things positive and let people know there is a way to get themselves out of a pickle without having to spend a lot of money by doing things themselves.

It's obvious to me this approach rubs you the wrong way, so I would suggest you simply scroll on by any of my further posts (or past ones for that matter) and not bother to pay any attention to them. It's okay for you to disagree with the way I do things - I have no problem with that at all. Simply move on, take a deep breath, calm down, and you'll be okay eventually. My stuff is simply not your "cup of tea." I think it was P.T. Barnum that said: "You can please all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time."