Maintaining Your Lawnmower Properly: Tips from Peter Sauk

Did you know that maintaining your lawnmower properly not only extends the life of the machine but it could also give you a better looking lawn and save you money on fuel? I am here with Peter Sauk, our resident lawn and garden expert, who has been testing lawn mowers for 30 years. He's going to tell us what we need to know.

First things first, start your mower by getting rid of last year's gasoline if it's still in there. Take it out and either drain it out or run it dry, then put fresh gasoline in. Secondly, due to the problems we're seeing with all this ethanol in the gasoline, use fuel stabilizer every time you go get your gasoline. Pouring it right into the can is easy and has an easy-to-use measurement to tell you how much to add. This does several things: it keeps the gasoline stable, it keeps the ethanol in suspension, and it prevents the gasoline from going old or stale.

Another important aspect of maintaining your lawnmower is changing the oil every year. Oil is very important for the life of your engine, so make sure you change it at the start of the season with fresh oil that's up to the full level. Running on a low level of oil shortens the life of your engine. As for spark plugs, they're essential for getting a good start, and most people recommend changing them every year. However, Peter finds that you can probably get away with changing them every other year, but periodic changing with a brand new spark plug will give you a much faster and better start.

Now that we have the basics covered, let's talk about cutting performance. To achieve this, we need to look at the deck. Why is it important to keep the deck clean? The material in there blocks the air flow, so you don't get as clean a cut and you get clippings that come out in clumps. Peter recommends washing out the inside of the deck with a hose every time you finish mowing.

Next up is the blade. You should have a sharp blade, and most people only sharpen it once a year. However, Peter thinks you should be sharpening three or four times a season, basically once a month. To do this, buy two blades: one to keep on the mower and another to take off when you need to sharpen the first one. With a sharp blade, you'll get a much nicer cut, slicing through grass easily while a dull blade whacks the grass ends, causing them to split and turn brown. This results in a slight brown hue on your grass, making it look less than perfect.

So there you have it – maintaining your lawnmower properly is key to extending its life, saving money on fuel, and achieving a better-looking lawn. By following Peter's tips, you'll be well on your way to becoming a lawn mowing pro!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: endid you know that maintaining your lawnmower properly not only extends the life of the machine but it could also give you a better looking lawn and save you money on fuel I am here with Peter Sauk our resident lawn and garden expert and he has been testing lawn mowers for 30 years he's going to tell us what we need to know what's up first okay well first you want to start your mower so if you have last year's gasoline in there get it out of there take and either drain it out or run it dry and put fresh gasoline in and then secondly because of all of the problems we're beginning to see with all this ethanol and the gasoline use fuel stabilizer use it right every time you go get your gasoline pour it right in the can it has an easy to use measurement to tell you how much to do you just squeeze this and it fills right up so it's very easy what will that do what will that do for the what this does is it keeps the gasoline it keeps the ethanol in suspension and it also keeps the gasoline so it doesn't go old or stale what about the oil should change your oil every year oil is very important for the life of your engine change it at the start of the season so you've got fresh oil and make sure that that oil is up to the full level running on a low level of oil shortens the life of your engine what about spark plugs well to get a good start you should change the spark plug now a lot of the people recommend every year but I find you can probably get away with every other year but certainly uh periodic changing that spark plug with a brand new star spark plug will give you a much faster better start okay my lawn mower starts up now what we got to get cutting performance so we want to look at the deck all right why do we need to keep this clean okay you can see the material in here it blocks the air flow so you don't get as clean a cut and you get clippings that come out in clumps and what I recommend is every time that you mow when you finish mowing turn the mower on its side and wash out the inside of the deck with the hose and what about the blade well you should have a sharp blade and most people will maybe sharpen once a year I think you should be sharpening three or four times a season basically once a month buy a second blade buy a second blade and then you can put the sharp blade on take the old blade off and you've got a month to go get it sharpened and a sharp blade makes a big difference how so well first of all it slices through the grass while a d blade whacks the grass ends of of the grass kind of split and get brownish and so you have a slight Brown Hue to the surface of your grass as opposed to a sharp leg which will give you a nice clean cut while maintaining a good mower of course you're going to start you're going to go and you're going to need a much nicer lawn when you finish great thanks Peterdid you know that maintaining your lawnmower properly not only extends the life of the machine but it could also give you a better looking lawn and save you money on fuel I am here with Peter Sauk our resident lawn and garden expert and he has been testing lawn mowers for 30 years he's going to tell us what we need to know what's up first okay well first you want to start your mower so if you have last year's gasoline in there get it out of there take and either drain it out or run it dry and put fresh gasoline in and then secondly because of all of the problems we're beginning to see with all this ethanol and the gasoline use fuel stabilizer use it right every time you go get your gasoline pour it right in the can it has an easy to use measurement to tell you how much to do you just squeeze this and it fills right up so it's very easy what will that do what will that do for the what this does is it keeps the gasoline it keeps the ethanol in suspension and it also keeps the gasoline so it doesn't go old or stale what about the oil should change your oil every year oil is very important for the life of your engine change it at the start of the season so you've got fresh oil and make sure that that oil is up to the full level running on a low level of oil shortens the life of your engine what about spark plugs well to get a good start you should change the spark plug now a lot of the people recommend every year but I find you can probably get away with every other year but certainly uh periodic changing that spark plug with a brand new star spark plug will give you a much faster better start okay my lawn mower starts up now what we got to get cutting performance so we want to look at the deck all right why do we need to keep this clean okay you can see the material in here it blocks the air flow so you don't get as clean a cut and you get clippings that come out in clumps and what I recommend is every time that you mow when you finish mowing turn the mower on its side and wash out the inside of the deck with the hose and what about the blade well you should have a sharp blade and most people will maybe sharpen once a year I think you should be sharpening three or four times a season basically once a month buy a second blade buy a second blade and then you can put the sharp blade on take the old blade off and you've got a month to go get it sharpened and a sharp blade makes a big difference how so well first of all it slices through the grass while a d blade whacks the grass ends of of the grass kind of split and get brownish and so you have a slight Brown Hue to the surface of your grass as opposed to a sharp leg which will give you a nice clean cut while maintaining a good mower of course you're going to start you're going to go and you're going to need a much nicer lawn when you finish great thanks Peter\n"