Spring Lawnmower Service (From the Honey-Do List)

It’s Spring (we call it “Mud Season”) in Maine and it’s now time to service the lawnmower for our very short “warm season.” We don’t really have a lawn, but the weeds must get knocked down occasionally. I personally don’t care about such things, but my wife added this task to the “Honey-do List.” This means I had better get to it or dinner might not be an option.

This is the routine I follow each and every year. If you have never serviced your own mower, this might help to save you a few bucks.

Here's the video:

https://youtu.be/AvhdQhZEfuQ

"drain old gas" etc. WHY would you leave old gas in the system? Run the mower/motor completely dry at the end of every season. Might be a good idea to add some gas stabilizer to your fuel and run your motor with that all the time. There are so many youtube videos on how to "Winterize" a mower for the Winter. You should not need to revitalize the carb every year.

Thank you so much for your astute observation, Nick. What you're not aware of is I make a lot of how-to videos to help others that happen to encounter such problems - and this is a common one. I'm well aware of how to store and maintain equipment, however (because I used to have a small engine shop years ago) local people are always trying to get me to work on their equipment but I'm retired and have no interest. Therefore, a series of how-to videos have been produced to show folks how to take care of things on their own. Not everyone is aware or knowledgeable on the subject of small internal combustion engines, but they can certainly learn. I'm surprised an expert like yourself would even bother to spend any time with this post. For people that have no prior experience with this subject and are trying to save themselves a little money during the present state of world affairs, I hope they will find this helpful.

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.

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 :D).

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."

Downeast - clearly you are beyond defensive. Keep up your good work.