What’s your lawn mower maintenance schedule look like? If you’re like most, then your push, rider, or zero turn mower maintenance occurs once, maybe twice per year. If you want to get the absolute most from your lawn equipment, lawn after lawn and year after year, then it’s time to make maintenance a seasonal fixture.
Why Seasonal Maintenance Matters in Georgia
Always needed, often neglected. That sentiment sums up the importance and reality of seasonal maintenance, particularly in northeast Georgia. While other parts of the country—and even the state—have one or two seasons, northeast Georgia sees all four seasons. Those fluctuations expose your lawn equipment to damage from humid air, freezing, rain, snow, and leaves.
Only a consistent lawn mower maintenance schedule can protect against the damage each season throws at your equipment. The time invested in maintenance can even save money by preventing more extensive damage and extending the lifespan of mowers, trimmers, blowers, and anything with a small engine.
Spring Maintenance Checklist
Landscaping work is year-round, but it really picks up when those first frost-free days become weeks. As nature shrugs off its winter sleep and surges back to life, most people naturally start to break out last year’s tools for tomorrow’s job. Before you break out the mower for the first hacks, check these items off your zero-turn mower maintenance checklist.
- Visual Inspection: Give everything a once-over with your eyes, inspecting every surface and part for damage, cracks, wear, and excessive tear.
- Clean: As you inspect, you can also begin cleaning your mower and other lawn equipment. You can even clean the engine, being sure to first disconnect any spark plugs.
- Change oil and filters: It’s a good idea to change the oil and start fresh for the new season. The same goes for air filters; replace them if you didn’t at the end of last season.
- Check belts: Examine the belts to make sure there’s no wear, tear, twisting, or other damage.
- Lubricate parts: Grease up any moving parts to ensure easy movements, especially after months of inactivity.
- Prepare: Tighten bolts, check wheels and tires, charge batteries, and make sure all your equipment, like trimmers, edgers, and blowers, is ready for a busy season.
Summer Maintenance Checklist
Summers are when our lawn equipment tends to see some of its heaviest and most consistent use. Hot, humid, and loooong days put equipment through major stress. If you use your lawnmower frequently, be sure to change the oil after 100 hours of use and sharpen your blades every 25 hours. Don’t know how to sharpen mower blades? Just search ‘zero turn mower maintenance near me’ and drive straight to Harco when we pop up in the results.
The rest of zero turn mower maintenance is best addressed through your senses—primarily your sight, hearing, smell, and touch.
- Sights: Do you see any dirt, damage, or uncut grass? Rinse off dirt and grass from the mower and other equipment. If there appears to be extensive damage, consult an expert for help repairing or replacing.
- Sounds: As you’re running your zero-turn mower or other lawncare equipment, listen carefully. If you hear unusual sounds from the engine or cutting deck, these could be indicators of problems to address.
- Smells: Foul smells can indicate dirt and grass that wasn’t cleaned off. Or, especially when the equipment is in use, these smells can indicate mechanical troubles ahead.
- Touch: As you use the mower or other lawn equipment, does it seem to move more slowly? Does it seem to work less smoothly? These are key signs it’s time for summer zero-turn mower maintenance.
Fall Maintenance Checklist
Grass growth may slow as daily summer heat gives way to crisp autumn evenings, but that doesn’t mean lawn care slows. Fall marks the start of “cleanup season” as we clean up our lawns in preparation for winter. That means blowing, mulching, and clearing leaves just as much as it means those final mows of the year.
All that leaf work exposes your equipment to damage-causing debris. Take proper precautions with zero turn mower maintenance that includes:
- Check filters and oil: Dirty filters can let leaf debris damage your lawn equipment’s engine in a heartbeat. And after a long season, it’s likely the oil needs another change for the heavy work ahead.
- Clean: Fall calls for consistent cleaning because your equipment can easily become overwhelmed by grass and leaf refuse.
- Replace spark plugs: Check spark plugs and replace any that aren’t up to par—these inexpensive replacement parts can save headaches and money down the line.
Winter Maintenance Checklist
While the year and lawn care season wind down to a close, there are still crucial steps remaining on the lawn mower maintenance schedule. These steps help your equipment survive the winter and save you time come next spring.
One of the most important tasks is fuel stabilizing. About a month before you plan on ending your season, add fuel stabilizers to your supply. Fuel your equipment as you would with the fuel stabilizer-enhanced fuel. When it’s time to store your equipment, let the machine run until it runs out of fuel. Now, any remaining fuel left in the tank or fuel system will be stabilized, preventing the buildup of gums and debris that could destroy the engine.
Other key tasks include:
- Take the mower blade off for safer storage
- Inspect and replace filters for next year
- Completely clean all lawn equipment
- Fog your mower by spraying fogging oil into the air intake of a running engine. This prevents corrosion during the cool, damp winters.
When to Repair vs. Replace
In an ideal world, a well-kept lawn mower maintenance schedule would make both repairs and replacement unnecessary. Unfortunately, that’s not the reality, making it essential to know when something crosses from repair to replacement. Here are some signs that replacement is needed more than repair:
- Repeated engine failures: When new spark plugs and filters don’t resolve the issue, it may be time for a new mower.
- Excessive smoke: A little smoke is normal, but continuous smoke or a large belch of smoke indicates serious complications.
- Cracks: Cracks in the body of a mower or on the mower blade aren’t easily repaired. While a blade can be replaced without abandoning the mower, cracks in other locations may not be as easily repaired.
- High repair costs: If the costs to repair a cost are more than a replacement option, then, sentimentality aside, it makes sense to simply repair.
If you’re ever in doubt whether something can be repaired or if your equipment should be replaced, just stop by your nearest Harco Equipment for expert advice.
Why Service Your Equipment at Harco Equipment
Consistent and dedicated maintenance are what every piece of equipment in your shed deserves. Unfortunately, we don’t all have the time for lawn equipment and zero-turn mower maintenance. Or we just don’t know how to sharpen mower blades safely. Instead of letting your equipment degrade, just pop into any one of our three locations in Buford, Jefferson, and Winder.
When you bring your mower or other equipment in for service or maintenance, you can rest assured it’s receiving the same attention and care you’d give it. Even more, it’ll receive the expert work of our certified technicians, replacement parts that fit the first time, and a speed that gets it back before it’s missed. With technicians experienced with brands like Gravely, Ariens, and Stihl, you can trust your equipment will be running like new when the season starts.