Gardening

Keep Your Lawn Mower Running Right

Posted: 6/8/2011

Yearly maintenance can make a big difference in how well your lawn mower operates and how long it will ultimately last.

(NAPSI)—A trouble-free season of lawn care begins with a lawn mower that’s easy to start and keeps on running. The key to making that happen may be as simple as doing a mower tune-up.

Why Tune Up?

According to the engine experts at Briggs & Stratton Corporation, a tune-up:

• Helps a lawn mower start more easily and run smoother;

• Can extend mower life because of proper maintenance;

• Reduces engine emissions, which is easier on the environment;

• Delivers a small savings in the amount of gasoline used over the course of a season.

It’s Easy to Tune Up

There are just four simple steps to complete a lawn mower tune-up: Change the oil, air filter and spark plug, and add fuel preservative to the gas tank to keep the gasoline fresh longer. Gasoline goes stale in as little as 30 days and stale gas is one of the top reasons for poor starting.

Riding mowers may also re- quire changing the oil and fuel filters, which should take only a few additional minutes.

Help Tuning Up

Briggs & Stratton has tune-up kits with everything needed for a lawn mower engine tune-up, including exactly the right amount of oil, a new spark plug, air filter and fuel preservative. The kits are at dealers, home improvement stores and online at www.mowertuneup.com. A lawn mower tune-up is something just about anyone can do—and it does a lot for the environment.

After Tuning Up

Participating dealers also have an environmentally correct way to dispose of the used mower engine oil for free. It’s important to dispose of oil properly because a single quart of oil poured down a storm drain can contaminate a million gallons of water, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. If poured on the ground, oil contaminates the environment and eventually enters the groundwater as a pollutant.

Find a participating dealer at www.recyclemoweroil.com, then drop off the used lawn mower oil in any closed container. The site also offers a useful “how to” video on oil changing.

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