How to Maintain a Power Mower

Video Transcript

"I'm Bill Elzey with Showplace Lawns. How to maintain your power mower. Four basic things you need to know; your spark plug, your air filter, your gas and your oil. Make sure that you always have oil in the machine. Just in the everyday use of it, the heat and things, you will need to monitor that oil. Most mowers today have a dipstick on 'em. What I would recommend is to clean it off first, put it back in, then take it back out to get a more accurate reading. Always check your oil before every use. Check your plug regularly, once a month. Make sure that it's not too corroded, or has a lot of carbon. And if you think it does, run the wire brush over it, and stick it back in. Now you want to be sure that when you put it in, you don't put it in too tight, but you also don't want it in too lose in, either, because it will shoot out, and you'll know it when that happens, because it will sound like a shotgun. The other thing to check is your air filter. More times than anything, if you have trouble starting it, it's because the engine cannot breathe 'cause the air filter's clogged. This is where all the dirt and everything goes as the engine breathes, it goes through the air filter. That's why you have it, so that your engine will have clean air. But eventually what happens is, you have clean air, but you can't get it in, because the filter's clogged. Air filters will differ from machine to machine. But you always want to make sure that the filter itself is not too dirty or too clogged up. Lightly, very lightly, tap the filter, blow on it, and then you're ready to go. Do not, I repeat, do not take an air compressor and blow on your air filter. Yes, I know, people do it, but you take a big, big chance in damaging that filter. And one of the things is, you will rip a hole in it, and then you will not longer have clean air coming in, but dirty air to your machine. These are a few simple things to make sure that this engine is going to continue to run and perform for you and do the job that's expected of it."