World of Mowers: Winter Lawn Mower Maintenance

November! The calendar slowly ticks forward to 2018, the weather gets colder, the nights get darker quicker and the work in the garden is slowing down…

We recently looked at what you can do to take care of your Lawn in November, but it’s not just the greenery that you need to prep for Winter.

Your Lawn Mower, Battery or Petrol, will need a few bits of maintenance in Winter to make sure it’s at 100% when needed in Spring.

So grab your gloves, the operators manual and… a stick, and follow these essential tips for winter lawn mower maintenance.

Remove the Battery

For your Battery Mower you will need to remove the battery. (The same goes for your other battery powered items). Firstly disconnect it (starting with the negative lead) and give it a clean with a cloth.

Store the battery indoors as keeping it at room temperature over Winter will help to extend its life.

Some batteries might also benefit from a charge over Winter, but some will not so make sure you check the manual to see what it suggests.

Also, if it’s going to be 30 days before the next charge then try to keep your lithium-ion battery around 40% but again, check the manual to see what it suggests.

S46HP Li 46 cm 4 Wheel 1500W Battery Push Lawn Mower - £529

Clean the Mower

Get rid of all the leaves, grass etc from your Mower. Obviously be EXTRA careful cleaning the deck which is necessary to help performance and stop the spread of disease.

Again, consult the manual before doing any of this but the first step will be to disconnect the spark plugs and empty the fuel tank (more on that later) and tie/tape up any moving parts.

Put the Mower on its side and give it a spray with a hose pipe to loosen anything you can’t reach. No matter what, don’t risk putting your hand somewhere dangerous, use that stick I mentioned earlier to knock loose anything the hose can’t get.

Empty the Fuel tank

On a Petrol Mower there are a couple of things that are important. We’ve mentioned them before but they’re important, so I’ll do it again.

Fuel goes off so you need to get it out of your Mower

An empty tank is bad too!

So (and again, check the manual to be sure) you need to empty the tank and refill it.

Empty the tank, then refill it with fresh fuel with a fuel stabiliser or fuel preserver to keep the fuel fresh in the tank. Run the engine for a couple of minutes to make sure the newly preserved fuel is in all parts of the engine.

The reason you don’t want to keep it empty is that if the tank fills with oxygen is creates condensation, condensation creates rust and rust in your carburetor can clog up the system, decreasing performance.