Midsummer Mower Maintenance (+ Bonus Mowing Tip)

By the time the middle of summer rolls around, you’re probably well into your general lawn maintenance routine. But while you might feel pretty great about all you’ve been accomplishing, your mower may be in need of some special attention.

Here are some lawnmower maintenance tasks you can be doing around midsummer so that you (and your mower) can finish the year strong.

1. Clean up your mower

Sure, it’ll give you the pride of having clean, well-maintained equipment, but keeping your mower clean—especially your mower deck—is also important to the health of your lawn.

Think of mowing as doing surgery on your grass. Would you want to perform surgery with dirty instruments? Of course not! Doing so could cause serious infections. Like with surgery, when you mow your lawn, you’re basically creating a (tiny) open wound. This means you want your “instrument” (i.e., the mower blades) to be clean so that you don’t spread fungus or disease around.

Keeping your mower clean is also an important way to take care of your equipment. For example, if you let damp grass clippings build up on your mower deck, that moisture will encourage rust to form.

A clogged mower deck will also impact your mower’s suctioning capacity, so if you feel like your mower isn’t performing as well as it could, maybe it’s time for a good cleaning.

Here are the steps for cleaning your mower deck.

2. Lubricate your mower

Generally, moving parts = need for lubrication. However, just being told to “grease” your mower can be a little vague. Where do you grease? How much? How often?

Unfortunately, the answers to those questions depend on factors like what mower you have and how much you use it.

However, a great starting point is to identify the grease zerks on various points around your mower, such as the wheels and the blade spindles. You should see a small protrusion that looks like a knob with a tiny ball at the center.

Once you find the spots to grease, make sure they are nice and clean. After that, you can use a grease gun to apply lubricant to them. Put the gun’s tip over the zerk and secure it in place. Then squeeze the trigger to add a few pumps of grease. Be careful not to add too much.

Remove the gun’s tip and wipe the area clean of any excess.

3. Check your mower blades and sharpen them if necessary

4. Add air to your mower's tires

Since you’ve probably experienced a flat tire or two in your life, we probably don’t need to explain why letting your tires go flat is a bad idea. However, you also shouldn’t make the mistake of overinflating your mower’s tires, since that will give them less traction.

The ideal PSI for your mower’s tires can likely be found in your mower’s user manual. However, here are a couple of examples for zero-turn mowers to give you a ballpark idea of what PSI might be appropriate.

• Toro TimeCutter 42 inch riding mower:
  • Front caster wheel tires: 30 PSI (or as indicated on sidewall; whichever number is lower is the one you should use)
  • Rear drive-wheel tires: 13 PSI
• 2023 Gravely ZT HD 60”:
  • Front tires: 20-25 PSI
  • Rear tires: 12-15 PSI

What if you have a push mower? Well, you might not have to do anything. For example, this Toro push mower uses semi-pneumatic tires, which don’t require you to inflate them.

Keep it simple by checking to see if the tires even have stems you would use to inflate or deflate them.

If your mower’s tires are semi-pneumatic, simply keep an eye on them and replace them when they start going flat.

5. Clean out your radiator screen

Typically, consumer mowers are air-cooled. However, if your unit does happen to be liquid-cooled, don’t forget to clean out your radiator screen.

You don’t want debris from weeks of mowing to clog up your radiator, do you?

There are some tools available on the market that can make this task easier, such as Grasshopper’s low-pressure Radiator Cleaning Wand.

The process itself isn’t too involved: pull out the screen, spray it until it’s clean, and replace it.

6. Monitor your mower’s air filter

Your air filter probably does a great job of preventing dust, dirt, and debris from making its way into your mower’s engine. But that comes at a cost.

As the air filter becomes more and more filthy, the amount of air that can get through it decreases. As this continues, you may find that your mower struggles to start or stay running.

If you find your filter looks clogged or dirty, it’s time to do something about it. If yours is made of foam, you can wash it with soap and water, let it dry, and reinstall it. Paper filters, on the other hand, should simply be replaced.

7. Keep an eye on your oil

Make sure that you don’t forget about your oil.

Some mowers claim that they don't require oil changes, but this isn’t the case for every unit. If you have it, consult your owner’s manual to see what the manufacturer recommends for your mower.

A common recommendation for changing your mower’s oil is to do it every 50 hours of use, but you can certainly do it more frequently if you find it to be necessary—i.e., if your oil gets dirty quickly.

Finally, don’t forget to look at your mower’s oil level from time to time to make sure it’s within the recommended range and that you aren’t leaking oil.

A bonus midsummer mowing tip: raise your deck

So now you're all caught up with your summer lawnmower maintenance. But is there anything special you should be doing with your mowing technique during this time?

As a matter of fact, there is.

Expect the unexpected

Perhaps your summer mowing is going fantastically well—we hope that’s the case for you. However, breakdowns and malfunctions can happen, even if you've completed all of the lawnmower maintenance steps suggested above.

If you’re in need of replacement parts for your mower, you can always browse our selection. (And even if your mower is working flawlessly, it’s always good to be prepared!)

Need help troubleshooting problems on your mower? Reach out to our customer service department or check out our mower troubleshooting blog to help you identify the issue.