How to Start a Push Lawn Mower

By Philip Yiga | November 10, 2016

As the world advances in technology, many people are opting for lawn-mowers as a way of keeping their yards/compounds clean and neat. However, starting a lawn-mower can actually be intimidating especially when you have never used it before and this actually implies that you will have to thoroughly read through a user manual/guide to get more information on how to start a push lawn-mower. In fact, starting a lawn-mower can be very simple if you get to know where to power it on from and how it functions. All in all, in this article I have provided with some of the basic techniques that you can follow when starting a lawn-mower and I think they will be of great use it followed carefully.

Steps On How To Start A Lawn-mower:

1. Prepare the lawn-mower for startup: preparing the lawnmower will actually involve moving it to an open, grassy area that is clear or free of rocks and kids-toys. In fact, you should make sure that all debris like rocks and other solid-items are removed from the grass before you begin trimming it because such debris can heavily affect the lawn-mowers performance.

 

2. Fill the lawn-mower with gas and oil or charge it if its rechargeable: in case your lawn-mower is equipped with a 4-stroke engine then you need to first check for oil-levels by opening the oil-tank and if the lawn-mower features a 2-stroke engine then you need to mix oil into the gas for optimum performance. On the other hand, if you own a rechargeable lawn-mower then you need to fully charge it before you start using it for mulching.

 

3. Checkout the spark-plug: lawnmowers with engines are actually equipped with a single spark-plug that sticks out from the side or back-section of the motor coupled with a thick-wire and rubber-cap attached to its end. In fact, it’s this plug that gets the motor running and this implies that you need to make sure that lead thick-wire should be firmly attached onto this plug for best startup results. In fact, if the spark-plug is not firmly attached then the lawn-mower is most likely to give you hard time on start-up of the engine and you should also consider changing the spark-plug for at least once a year in order to achieve optimum-performance of the lawn-mower.

 

4. Prime the lawn-mowers carburetor: you will have to locate the prime-button on your lawn-mower which is usually black or red in color and then press this button for about 3 to 4 times in order to let gasoline move into the transmission lines of the engine. However, don’t over press this button because you may end-up flooding the engine with gasoline/fuel which is not good. On the other hand, in case you can’t find the prime-button then refer to the user-manual and if the lawn-mower is not equipped with a prime-button then just skip this step.

 

5. Open-up the throttle: this is usually in form of a lever that is equipped onto the lawn-mowers handle or onto the engine-body. So, you will need to put this throttle-lever in a medium-to-high position for best operation results. In fact, if you don’t open-up the throttle then engine won’t be able to keep running after starting it.

 

6. Set the choke: incase your lawn-mower is cold then consider setting the choke before powering it on. Setting the choke will actually help to provide a richer fuel-air mixture into the engine and this will help to keep it running until it warms-up. However, once the lawn-mower runs on engine-power for about 5-to-10 minutes, turn-off the choke because the engine will have gained enough heat in order to achieve optimum performance.

 

7. Pull-up the starter cord: incase your lawn-mower is equipped with a horizontal-lever next to the handle, then hold against the handle and after grip the starter-handle which is usually attached onto the end of a rope/cord. Pull the starter-handle upwards quickly and firmly in order to power-up the lawn-mowers engine. In fact, you will have to do the pulling for several times before the engine powers-up. However, if the engine doesn’t start then the spark-plug may be having a problem and this implies that you should consider checking the spark-plug and then try pulling again. on top of that, sometimes the engine may fail to startup incase there isn’t enough fuel/gas in the tank so make sure that your lawn-mower is always filled with enough gas/fuel before powering it on.

 

8. Press the start-button for rechargeable lawn-mowers: if you have an electric, rechargeable lawn-mower then you should know that its equipped power-on button which you can simply press to start the engine. However, there also some advanced gas/fuel lawn-mowers that may be equipped with a start-button in order to make powering-on the lawn-mower very easy and quick.

 

Tips To Consider If You Own A Push Lawn-Mower:

• Avoid storing the lawn-mower off-season with the tank filled with gas/fuel because the gas may clog-up the gas-lines hence making the lawn-mower very hard to start-up.

 

• Never fill a tank with fuel/gas while lawn-mower is running because it is very risky and you even be wasting some of the fuel/gas during the process.

 

• Always check for motor oil-levels before you start using the lawn-mower especially you have taken long with it. So, check for the fill-line on the oil-tank and if the oil-level is below the line then consider adding more oil in order to fill-up that gap. However, never check for oil-levels when the lawn-mower is running because this may put you at risk of hot-oil spills.

 

• Always clean-up the lawn-mower after using it because it will be full of grass-fragments and dirt which may clog up the system if it’s not cleaned-up quickly.

 

• Never put any of your body-parts next to the lawn-mowers blades especially if it under operation. In fact, the blades of this machine run at a higher speed and this implies that they chop-off anything that comes into contact with them. So, only inspect the blades of a lawn-mower after switching it off with even the spark-plug removed in order to prevent any potential accidents.