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I've just purchased a new, rather expensive petrol lawnmower (on line)
I rang the company (a Honda dealer), and they suggested that I should drain all the oil from the mower before storing for winter.
Now my own logic would be, at the end of the season empty the old oil and fill with new. Start it up and let the oil circulate, and then drain fuel, periodically over winter start the mower.
I just dont know if the bloke was getting confused between petrol and oil, but I would have thought leaving the mower without oil is absolutely a receipe for rust !?!?
I have a Hayter mower with a Briggs and Stratton motor which I bought in 1997. My winter maintenance schedule has been to put it in the garage after the last cut and get it out again when the lawn needs cutting in spring. It might take a couple of extra pulls to start the first time but other than that it hasn't missed a beat.
I have a honda engined mower, had it probably 20 years. Never had a plug or oil, a bit different from a vehicle as it usually gets run up to operating temperature and not subject to cold starts on a regular basis. The oil is quite clean looking but I do turn the tap off and run the carb dry before storage, the only part I have fitted was a float bowl that rusted through with the water that had collected in the bottom.
I always use the top grade petrol just to ensure less residue and less chance of the seals and pipes getting attacked. I mix some fresh fuel with the old in the tank before the new season but have never experienced any severe fuel degradation.
I wouldn’t drain sump oil as it will expose all those bearings to moisture and then corrosion.
Lol! My 15 year old Izy has had one oil change and a few spark plugs/filters. As above, I isolate the fuel line and run it dry before winter, that's it.
It's an Izy, you could feed it vegetable oil and run it on bleach, it would still keep going until the deck rusted through.
Thanks - so everyones thoughts are similar to mine, well dont drain oil.
Interesting on the lack of maintenance bit - To keep the Honda 7 year warranty I will need to get it serviced at Honda every year. However thats just stupid and stupidly expensive given my nearest dealer is 40 miles away and they all want about £85 to change a filter, filter and rub it with snake oil 🙂
it would still keep going until the deck rusted through.
Thats why it cost a small fortune, went for one of their plastic mowers - so will never rust
why on earth would you drain the oil?
just run it regularly to keep fresh fuel moving through the carb, stale stuff isn't so good.
you can buy snake oil to "stabilise" the fuel if you like, but I can't imagine that's actually cheaper than running it for five minutes every month
I can understand why they would say, using standard forecourt fuel will over time allow the oil to sludge (ethanol), not always but we've seen it happen enough in the industry. Way round that is to use a specific gardening/forestry fuel liek Aspen Alkylate -or even one of the new fancy sustinable versions from sustain-fuels.co.uk 😉 (super 33 if you must ask)..
I've had a Honda IZY for about 20 years. It gets put in the garage after the last cut of the year with me fully intending to service it over the winter.
Every winter I forget to service it, but every spring it starts up after a few pulls and runs fine.
In all the time I have had the mower it has had 2 new blades, 1 new filter and 1 new spark plug.
Maybe this year will be the year I actually get round to stripping it down and giving it a proper service. Maybe...
I can't remember doing anything to prepare mine for winter other than scrape off the mulch from under the skirt, and the shed it lives in gets damned cold over winter.
The electric/robot one gets taken in, cleaned and put in a warm place over winter.
As above.
I drain the fuel tank and then run it to use the bit in the carb.
I used Aspen when it was newer, but currently use E5 which may or may not have any ethanol in.
Drain the old oil and then clean the underside of the steel deck. Refill with oil and squirt a bit in through the sparkplug hole too.
Visual check of the spark plug and air filter, which most of the time responds well to banging it on the bench to get rid of excess dust.
The only hardy perennial surgery is grinding/sharpening the blade
I have a Hayter mower with a Briggs and Stratton motor which I bought in 1997. My winter maintenance schedule has been to put it in the garage after the last cut and get it out again when the lawn needs cutting in spring. It might take a couple of extra pulls to start the first time but other than that it hasn't missed a beat.
I have a B&Q special with a B&S engine (approx 12 years old now) and my winter maintenance is the same as yours. It almost always starts first time (even after storage), but does put out a little oil smoke on the first run.
I do add that additive stuff that you are meant to for older engines now that the standard unleaded mix has changed.
Mine gets run out of fuel as best I can, then a clean down so that grass does not rot underneath. It is then pulled out the shed in spring filled with fresh fuel and given a few minutes to warm up and get oil going before use. I have done this for 20 years and only two mowers in that time - and this one is only 4 years old and the last one was second hand....
Mine get a filter an oil every other year as well, but I tend to do that mid-summer on a nice evening....
This is motorbike related, as it also spends the winter months stored in the garage, unused.
The advice is to change the oil for fresh before being stored.
But I usually ignore that advice 🤣
Mine gets run out of fuel as best I can, then a clean down so that grass does not rot underneath. It is then pulled out the shed in spring filled with fresh fuel and given a few minutes to warm up and get oil going before use. I have done this for 20 years and only two mowers in that time - and this one is only 4 years old and the last one was second hand....
Mine get a filter an oil every other year as well, but I tend to do that mid-summer on a nice evening....
Yep, this. The engine seems to be the last thing to go wrong (ie never) vs belts, decks, fixings etc in my recent mowers. I'd make sure there are no moisture traps above everything else.
mine lives in the shed regardless of season
It's an Izy, you could feed it vegetable oil and run it on bleach, it would still keep going until the deck rusted through.
Ha - I put a new deck on mine this year. The ID sticker said it was built in 2002 so not a bad innings. As it's new I'll be making sure to clean the underneath of it and then treating the engine with my normal extensive maint...
No I won't, I probably won't realise that this was the last cut of the year and just put it away as normal and it'll fire up fine in March. It has been serviced a couple of times in my ownership, the only thing that has ever needed actually fixing, (except the deck) is adjustments to the choke cable when it gets difficult to start.
Another 'me too'. I change the oil, clean and set/check the spark plug and clean the air filter foamy thing in petrol annually. I use that stabiliser stuff though not sure if it actually does anything. My Nonda is at least 25 years old and will probably outlast us all...
TL:DR Don't be daft. Change the oil before/after the season whichever suits and maybe run it on SuperDoopa if you're worried about modern fuel misbehaving.
For info. In many areas Tesco Momentum E5 is actually zero methanol.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cdHZsgiuXVQ&t=4s&pp=2AEEkAIB0gcJCR4Bo7VqN5tD
Ahh the annual mower winterising thread. Sui is the pro so listen to him. Or as I and others do, use 97-99 Ron E5. Unfortunately now BP have stopped guaranteeing it as ethanol free no providers do, but it may still be e free and is definitely better than e10. I also use a small splash of one of the various fuel stabilisers in every 5 litre can I buy but that was mainly to baby the chainsaws , the mower just seems to be tough.
Mine did get an oil change 2 or 3 years ago and seemed much better for it tbh. What i really ought to do is take the file to it to sharpen the blade.