How do you clean your lawnmower?

[TheGrooveking]

After mowing the lawn I thought there has got to be a better way to clean the bottom side of the mower deck than raising the front of the mower up and hosing it down. What do you guys do? My parents used to have a mower with a hose fitting on the deck where you would connect the hose and then run the water on and start the mower, it would clean the bottom of the deck great, makes me think about welding/brazing a hose fitting on my mower deck.

TheGrooveking

 

[danhoh]

Buy a 4 post lift, put the mower on the lift............ then lift it and work on it while comfortable.




Oh yah...... these also good for cars and trucks.

 

[kgorman]

I tip it up on the opposite side of the exit port for the grass and hit it with the pressure washer. It's 25 years old and looks new

 

[Greatbear]

I bought those deck washout fittings from Home Despot. They are about 13 bux a pop, and come with a quick connect garden hose fitting with internal stop as well. Attach fitting to hose, plug hose onto deck, voila. Not perfect, but works well enough right after using the mowers to get the bulk of the crud out.

I made my own undercarriage cleaning attachment for my pressure washer out of a "water broom"/floor cleaner add-on. These are made to clean floors, decks and patios, they have three fan spray nozzles mounted to a horizontal bar, directed downward at an angle, with wheels to maintain proper space as well as making the things easy to use. I modified a second one to spray upwards and slightly away from me, this is perfect for cleaning underneath cars and trucks. It also works well for lawnmowers if I set the base of the mower one a pair of concrete blocks. I should post my version for others to make. If you have a pressure washer, the results are awesome.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

'nuff said

Charles

 

[Uncle Dave]

A better question is why would you clean your lawnmower. Mine's a Honda, ten years old never had any maintaince, not even an oil change. It runs like a champ. Life is too short to spend a lot of time on things that won't really matter anyway. But, everybody's different. U.C>

 

[TheGrooveking]

Honda's have plastic decks, thus no rust or at least my HRX217, my previous Craftsman's deck rusted. On the Honda I clean it because it does get a build up from mowing moist grass which effects the windage underneath the deck, at first I though the blade had dulled, but once I checked it, I had almost an inch of build up in a few areas.

TheGrooveking

 

[nissan_crawler]

 

[TheGrooveking]

Did you buy that or build it? If I may ask where did you get it/the parts? I would love to make the same for my JD317's deck(which resides at my father inlaw's house 1+ acre lot).

TheGrooveking

 

[cowboyjosh]

Hire out the lawn care. Don't own a lawn mower

 

[rvr6000]

Only mow the grass when it's dry so no clean up necessary. Just the occasional oil change and blade sharpening. I do go a little overboard with the blade sharpening though......a couple minutes per side with the power grinder and then pull out the hand file.

 

[RivennHewn]

Clean a lawn mower?

If I had to store it under my bed, I might clean it.

Ride it hard, and put it away wet.

Burn it up and buy a new one!

 

[rockchucker]

I just tip it over to the side and hose it out. I don't start it until next time I mow so the Oil has time to return to where it needs to be.

 

[Marfark]

I've never cleaned my 10 year old Murray push mower. Once a year I change the oil, sharpen the blade, and maybe check the air filter and spark plug. That's all the maintenance it gets. The underside of the deck is pretty rusty. I don't care. Someday when the engine falls through the deck I'll go buy a Honda.

 

[mmhouse]

I just tip it over to the side and hose it out. I don't start it until next time I mow so the Oil has time to return to where it needs to be.

Same here. I tip it on one side and wash then tip it on the other and wash and it's clean as a whistle. I do this every time I mow since our grass is often damp.

P.S. My current mower is about 17 years old and still starts on the first pull and uses no oil so I'm convinced that this does no harm to the mower.

 

[onewaydave]

I'm sorry, I really don't understand the question.

Dave.

 

[nissan_crawler]

Did you buy that or build it? If I may ask where did you get it/the parts? I would love to make the same for my JD317's deck(which resides at my father inlaw's house 1+ acre lot).

TheGrooveking

http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=105617

Feel free to drop a pm if you have any other questions. A few things to note, I changed the hooks that came with the hoist, to the two chains with threaded links to go through the deck wheel adjustment. I also put a safety chain through the bolt on the pulley assembly with a threaded link on the bottom end, so once the deck is hoisted up, I attach that threaded link to the chain between the deck wheels, so it's not relying on the ropes to hold it up. I'm sure the deck is pushing the weight limits of it, so I wanted something 100% mechanical and guaranteed to hold it.

I will note, a smaller, weaker person will NOT be able to get that up there. I weigh 240, and it's not real difficult, but it's not a cakewalk, either. You have to wrap the rope around your hand to get enough grip to pull it up, and do it in short pulls. You can't just do it hand over hand.

All in all though, I'm quite happy with it as a solution to my problem.

 

[A_Pmech]

I wash my lawnmower regularly.

Every time it rains.

 

[Gary S]

Clean a lawn mower?

If I had to store it under my bed, I might clean it.

Ride it hard, and put it away wet.

Burn it up and buy a new one!

Same here. Life is too short to waste any of it cleaning a lawn mower. Maybe if I had no interests left in life, I'd consider cleaning my mower.
I figure that if it rusts out in 15 years, I probably needed a new mower anyway because other parts were wearing out too.
Lawn mower maintenance is much like toilet paper maintenance. Just buy new.

 

[rieferman]

My 48" walk behind is heavy, so every couple of mows I prop the front up on an old drywall bucket and scrape with a piece of scrap wood or whatever is laying around. Now and again my neighbor will borrow the mower and he usually hoses it out before returning it. He sells high end mowers for a living, and this is all the maintenance he's suggested. Once a year he'll grab the mower and have the blades sharpened for me at one of his accounts. We change the filter every other year, grease the fittings. That's really it.

 

[ket-tek]

 

[5lima30]

Just a tip I learned from my buddy who used to have a rental business. Once you get the underside of the deck clean and dry (leaf blower) spray PB Blaster on the underside of the deck. It is amazing how much longer you can go between cleanings. As long as as don't mow wet/ damp grass it doesn't stick well and makes future cleanings much easier. He also did the same with rental cement mixers. YMMV.

 

[Leadfoot3232]

I don't mow wet grass, so I've never needed to clean any of mine..

 

[michael Mccoy]

Now and again my neighbor will borrow the mower and he usually hoses it out before returning it. He sells high end mowers for a living, and this is all the maintenance he's suggested. Once a year he'll grab the mower and have the blades sharpened for me.

Your neighbor sells high end mowers and he borrows yours?

I cannot understand you guys who do NOT take care of your small engines.
My Honda walk behind, if it didn't have a couple of scrapes on the sides it could go back on the shelf and sell as new.I even armorall all plastic and rubber parts including the chute and grass does not stick.As far as the guy who said mow when the grass is dry does not live in Georgia.For the past month when the grass is dry its about 100 degrees outside.It has been 90 at 8pm.Only time to mow is morning until it cools off.

Spray the underneath with PAM,the grass won't stick.

I remember a saying when I was a kid"A Man who doesn't polish the back of his shoes doesn't know how to wipe his ***."

 

[rieferman]

michael wrote:

Your neighbor sells high end mowers and he borrows yours?

Ha ha, ironic, I know. For a couple of years when my kids were little babies (and I didn't have as much time or energy) he mowed my yard for me with one of his demo mowers most weeks. Usually a zero turn rider. Eventually, it was time for me to take back the responsibility so I bought a nice one through him. Best purchase ever, I save hours every week and love mowing. Anyways, his yard it tiny, so he never needed a nice big mower. But since his next door neighbor has one, the deal was: I buy it, you maintain it, we both use it. Win win.

 

[Paco Pena]

I scrape the thing clean in the fall and paint a little motor oil on the underside of the deck. Its a cheapo with 18 years on it and still going strong.

Paco

 

[Sterff]

I hook a chain to the mower and lift it up with the loader. Then I prop it up so it won't fall on me.

 

[darkk]

Dude really? you clean your mower? Hmmmm....I can't even tell what color mine used to be. hahahaha!

 

[cashishift]

Same here. Life is too short to waste any of it cleaning a lawn mower. Maybe if I had no interests left in life, I'd consider cleaning my mower.
I figure that if it rusts out in 15 years, I probably needed a new mower anyway because other parts were wearing out too.
Lawn mower maintenance is much like toilet paper maintenance. Just buy new.

ah yes.. the throw away society at work.

 

[dittle fart around]

I always buy the cheapest mower available. Never service it and run it till the wheels fall off. Toss it and buy a new one.

 

[eldirector]

I hit mine with the power washer a couple of times a year. Underside of the deck, too. I might go after the deck with a scraper if it is bad. It cuts SO much better when it is cleaner.

 

[barnee]

My John Deere 304 has a garden hose connection on the top of the deck. Just hook a hose to it, open the spigot, start the blades, sip on a beer, and viola.

 

[SweetD]

I scrape the thing clean in the fall and paint a little motor oil on the underside of the deck.Paco

Same here, and used motor oil at that!

Dave

 

[Buxfan]

Mow when it's wet... right!?

 

[ZeroSignal]

I tip mine up and hose off every other mowing... I have the honda with the nexite deck so it releases pretty good.

 

[dreamingmuscle]

My wife mows so I don't usally get to it before it's dried and caked on. If it's real bad I take it down two the dirt road set the deck down on low and do a couple of figure 8's

Minute or two of that and it's clean as ne---, Well h'mm. Well it's clean at least.

Glen

 

[thammel]

I have a JD LX280. I use my backpack blower after I mow and blow off the tractor completely, including the underneath - as best I can. Then twice a year, when I sharpen the blades, I flip the deck over and scrape and paint the underside. It's a pain. I wonder if the newer models with the water nozzle attachments really keep it any cleaner?

Tom

 

[Racecarl]

I never mow when it is wet so deck cleaning is minimal. I have a 2 Deeres: a JX75 and an old SP21. Both have aluminum decks and grass clippings don't seem to stick. We had a customer who had allergies and preferred to mow when there was dew on the grass. We painted the underside of the deck with slip plate paint, which is a paint that has graphite in it. It is supposed to be used to lubricate planter internal parts for longer wear. This stuff worked VERY well for keeping the wet grass from sticking to the deck.

 

[drmarkr]

Lawn? What's a lawn??

 

[metalgodlb]

I usually park the snapper in the middle of the freshly cut grass and I have a 2 foot air hose extension and just go over it with that. Only takes a couple minutes and as long as its done every time, I find I don't have to go the water hose route very often. This also keeps the garage cleaner by not driving a mower in there while lawn clippings are falling all over the place.