The last lawn cut in autumn raises the question: What should be done to ensure that a lawn mower survives the long downtime in winter? This checklist gives a compact overview of how to properly winterize petrol and electric mowers.
How to prepare a lawn mower for wintering?
To prepare a lawn mower for winter storage, clean the device thoroughly, service the gasoline engine (if equipped), and store the mower in a dry, frost-free location. For cordless mowers, the battery should be stored separately and treated according to the type of battery.
Check 1: Clean the lawnmower
Every type of lawnmower should go into the winter break sparkling clean. How you clean a lawn mower depends on the drive. How to do it right:
Cleaning a petrol mower
Use a damp cloth and cleaning agent to clean the mower housing in top view. Before you tackle the heavily soiled underside, important safety precautions must be taken:
- Pull spark plug cable
- Turn off the fuel tap
- Lawnmowers tilt with spark plugs up
- Put blocking on the knife block
- Clean grass residue from the knife block with a brush
Stubborn dirt on the housing can be removed with a high-pressure cleaner.
Cleaning electric and cordless mowers
When cleaning electric and cordless mowers, different requirements must be taken into account than those for gasoline engines. What you should pay attention to:
- Disable the power supply: Pull out the power cable, remove the battery
- Dry cleaning: Clean the electric mower housing with a dry cloth
- Brushing the knives: Remove grass residue from the knife block with a brush
For cleaning, you can either tilt an electric mower on its side or turn it upside down.
Check 2: Service the petrol engine
With petrol lawnmowers, cleaning goes seamlessly into the following maintenance program. How to properly prepare a gasoline engine for winter storage:
- Empty the tank: Set the mower to idle and let it run until it switches itself off
- Change oil: use an oil suction pump (€14.00 on Amazon) to replace old oil with fresh lawnmower oil
- Replacing spark plugs: Replacing spark plugs, cleaning recently installed spark plugs
- Check air filter: remove, knock out, blow through or rinse with water
With an electric lawnmower, maintenance is limited to greasing all moving parts. Please do not insert the battery again.
Check 3: Winterizing the lawnmower
Lawn mowers prefer to overwinter in a dry, frost-free location. Primarily for mowers with a starter battery, the freezing point should not fall below the winter quarters.
If you properly winterize a cordless mower, there are important criteria to consider. Store the battery separately from the device at ideal temperatures between 5° and 12° Celsius. Nickel-cadmium batteries (CiCd) must be discharged before winter storage. Nickel-metal hydride (NIMH) batteries hibernate fully charged. Modern lithium-ion batteries can easily last for many months when half-charged.
Tip
When you wake a lawnmower from hibernation depends on the weather and the condition of the lawn. The best time to cut the lawn for the first time is when the temperature is consistently above 10° Celsius and the green area is noticeably dry with blades of grass 8 to 10 cm high. Mow according to the golden one-third rule from the start.
