Fall Is Go Time for Everything With a Pull Cord

It’s the first warm Saturday in April.

Coffee in hand. Sun on the driveway. You roll the mower out of the garage, press the little primer bulb three times like the sticker says, and pull.

Nothing.

You pull again. And again. Somewhere around pull number fourteen your shoulder starts filing a complaint, and your neighbor’s mower fires up on the first try. Same brand. Same age. Same garage setup.

The difference wasn’t the mower. The difference was what happened last October.

Small engines don’t wear out. They get neglected out.

Here’s the thing nobody tells you when you buy a gas mower. Hard work doesn’t kill small engines. Sitting does.

Most gas at the pump is blended with ethanol, and it starts breaking down in about 30 days. Leave it in a tank all winter and it turns into a sticky varnish that clogs the tiny passages in your carburetor. Come spring, the engine can’t get fuel. So it doesn’t start. So you pull. And pull.

That’s why fall is the busiest season of the year for your gas equipment. Half of it is going to sleep. The other half is about to go to work.

• Going to sleep: mower, string trimmer, leaf blower, pressure washer
• Waking up: snow blower
• On call all winter: generator

One Saturday afternoon covers all of it.

The mower: put it to bed right

Do this after your last mow of the year, not the first mow of spring.

• Deal with the gas. Two good options. Add fuel stabilizer to a full tank and run the engine 5 minutes so treated fuel reaches the carburetor. Or run it until it dies on its own. Either one works. Doing nothing does not.
• Change the oil while it’s warm. Warm oil drains faster and takes more of the gunk with it. Old oil sitting all winter keeps working on your engine parts, just not in a good way.
• Pull the spark plug wire first. Every time. Before you touch the blade. No exceptions.
• Sharpen the blade. A dull blade tears grass instead of cutting it. Torn grass turns brown at the tips and gets sick easier. Sharpen it now and spring you gets a clean cut on day one.
• Scrape the deck. Wet clippings stuck under there all winter means rust. A putty knife and 5 minutes fixes it.
• Swap the air filter and plug. Both are cheap. Both cause hard starting when they’re tired.

Tipping it over to get under the deck? Keep the carburetor side up. Otherwise oil ends up where oil should not be.

The two-strokes: trimmer, leaf blower, chainsaw

These run on a gas and oil mix, and mixed fuel goes bad even faster than regular gas.

• Run them dry after the last use. Empty tank, run until it quits.
• Clean or replace the air filter.
• Toss any mixed fuel older than a month or so. It’s not worth the carburetor.
• If you only use these a few times a year, canned pre-mixed fuel costs more per ounce but lasts for years once opened. For light users it’s the cheaper choice in the end.

The pressure washer: the one that cracks

This one is sneaky. The engine side follows the mower rules. The pump side is the problem.

Water left inside the pump freezes, expands, and cracks it. A new pump can cost as much as half a new pressure washer.

The fix is a pump saver. Screw it onto the inlet, give it a squeeze, done. Two minutes. Store it somewhere that stays above freezing if you can.

The snow blower: wake it up now

Now flip everything around. Your snow blower has been asleep since March, and the worst possible time to find out it won’t start is 6am on the morning of the first big storm.

• Fresh oil.
• New spark plug.
• Check the shear pins and the belts. Keep a couple of spare shear pins in a baggie taped to the handle. They’re designed to snap when you hit a newspaper, and they will.
• Fresh gas with stabilizer in it.
• Start it. Let it run 5 to 10 minutes. Listen for anything that sounds new.

If something is off, right now is when small-engine shops are quiet and parts are easy to get. In December they are neither.

The generator: the one you need when you can’t fix it

A generator is a promise you made to your future self. Winter storm, power’s out, the furnace fan needs electricity, the freezer is full. That’s when it matters. That’s also exactly when you don’t want to be pulling a cord in the dark.

• Stabilize the fuel, or run the tank dry if you store it long-term.
• Fresh oil.
• Run it for 15 minutes once a month with something plugged in. Engines like a little exercise.
• Make sure the extension cords you need are actually with the generator. Not “somewhere in the garage.”

Don’t forget the gas can

Every garage has one. Red plastic, half full, age unknown.

• Write the date on a piece of tape every time you fill it.
• If it’s regular unleaded and still fairly fresh, pour it in your car.
• If it’s old or mixed with oil, take it to your county’s household hazardous waste drop-off.
• Store it in the garage or shed. Never in the house.

It’s already on your calendar

Good news. You don’t have to remember any of this.

• Winterize Lawn Mower & Equipment shows up on your HomeShape calendar in November, in every zone.
• Service Snow Blower shows up in September if you live in snow country. Missed it? Early October still beats the night of the first storm.

Rather hand it off? Small-engine shops get buried every spring. Booking a fall tune-up means no 4-week wait in April. Tap Find a Pro on the task in your calendar.

Don’t have a calendar yet? Get yours free at HomeShape. Takes about a minute.

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