Getting a new piece of equipment can be very exciting. You are thrilled that you have new machinery that can handle your task seamlessly. I believe this is what people experience when they get new lawn mowers. Alas! There’s a new challenge here. We have also heard people complain about how to start lawn mowers when they acquire them newly. Well, worry no more as you’ll find a lot of helpful tips in this post. In fact, apart from people who have just gotten a new lawnmower, we have realized that people who used to use older models, or models that are not the electric type generally might have one challenge or the other when starting it.
You can start your lawnmower simply by pulling the recoil starter handle (in case of a gas lawn mower), or flipping the switch (in case of an electric lawn mower). Sounds too easy, yea? Well there are a couple of things you might still need to verify before you start the lawn mower. Some of these include: checking the engine oil of the mower, making sure that there is fuel in the tank as well. You might want to check the primer (if the lawn mower has one) as this is an important feature we will be discussing later. Let us now look at how to start different types of lawn mowers.
Electric
If your mower is battery powered, make sure that you have it fully charged before you insert it into the lawnmower and use it. The mower will not work at all if the battery is not fully charged, as you have cut off its source of power.
If the lawnmower is corded, make sure it is safely connected to the mains, with its switch turned on. Also, if your yard is big, you will need to buy a lawnmower with a cord long enough to cover ground space.
Electric lawnmowers do have a safety key that is used to complete their circuitry and start the electric motor. It also helps to make sure that the lawnmower does not start up accidentally when you are doing maintenance work on it.
Locate and check that this key is inserted properly. You can find the key slot close to the battery of the mower, or around its handle.
This is the device that is actually needed to kick start the electric lawnmower. This switch is usually located close to the handle of the mower. Find it and flip it. Simple!
Some manufacturers have an extra safety measure that comes in form of a handle that you have to hold down before you turn the lawnmower on.
So if you have the switch of an electric lawnmower turned on and it does not work, you might need to check if it has a safety handle. And that should do the trick!
Gas Powered
The first thing to do is to make sure that there is engine oil and fuel inside the engine of the lawn mower. These fluids have to conform to the standards set out in the operations manual as the better their quality, the better your lawn mower will work. Learn how to change lawnmower oil here.
If your gas powered lawn mower has not been in use for a long time, you will need to press the primer for as much as three to five times. If it is a totally new one, you will need to press the primer even more to allow fuel move quickly into the carburetor.
Possibly you are unsure of what a primer is or where to find it on your lawnmower, kindly refer to the instructional manual.
Next, you will need to pull the safety lever close to the handle and hold it down before you pull the starting cord. Failure to do this, the mower will not start.
When pulling the starting cord, do not yank or jerk on it, just give it a smooth long pull. If it does not start the first time, you can try it a few more times until it eventually powers on.
Robotic
Before you start your robotic lawn mower, there are some things you need to fix up like the charging dock and the signal strength of the lawnmower.
The charging dock is important because before the battery power of the lawnmower runs down, it always finds its way back to the charging dock to power up its battery.
The signal strength of the lawn mower is for the Wi-Fi connection. Some more recent versions make it possible to power on and operate from your mobile device once you download the App and then connect via Wi-Fi.
After all of these have been set up, you can now power it. The “ON” button is usually found at the rare of the robotic lawn mower. There’s a control panel where you have a variety of buttons to press to select basic functions.
After powering it up, you need to select the number of hours you want it to mow your lawn for and then turn on the rain sensor so it can return to its charging dock safely if it starts to rain.
Push/Self-propelled
To properly use a self-propelled lawn mower, you will have to first press the quick-adjust lever so you can have the handle of the lawn mower in its proper mowing position.
After this, you will have to release the handle locking clamps and fully extend the handle. You must note that the handles of the self-propelled lawn mower must be fully extended before it can start up.
When you have fully extended the handle, make sure you close the locking clamps of the lawn mower again.
Next, press and hold down the safety key and then hold the bail switch towards the handle of the self-propelled lawn mower. Once you have the bail switch and the handle in one grip, you can let go of the safety key. With this action, the lawnmower will start up by itself and you can begin mowing.
We advise that you start mowing on the pavement so that it can help make the blade ready for more intense cutting. Or you can simply raise the lawn mower above the line of the grass. Once it is powered on, you can now lower it to the grass level.
Hoover
The unique thing about a hoover lawnmower is that it does not need wheels to move it around the yard – hence its name, hoover! Turning it on is also easy that even a child can do it.
Before you start it up, you will need to hold down the safety bar to the handle of the lawnmower. When the engine is running, this safety bar activates/deactivates (when released) the blades to start cutting the grass.
So after you use your left hand to clamp down on the safety bar, you can place your foot on the hoover lawnmower so when you pull the recoil starter, the mower will not be moving back and forth.
Once it is powered on, you can now start mowing your lawn. You should also note that once you release the safety bar, the hoover mower goes off.
Battery powered
The first thing to do is to make sure that the battery is fully charged. Once you confirm and insert it into the lawn mower, press it firmly in. After this, the next thing to do is to make sure that the safety pin is in its position, if not the lawnmower will not work.
When you have the battery and pin in place, shut the compartment and move to position yourself behind the battery-powered lawn mower.
So once you pull the safety lever to the handle of the lawn mower, it automatically starts. Do not forget to adjust the handle and possibly the height of the lawn mower, depending on how you want it to cut.
Riding
With this type of lawn mower, it seems like you are driving a car that’s doing the actual lawn mowing. So once you get on the seat, turn on the engine.
Some engines of riding lawn mowers will not come on unless you are firmly seated on it. Once the engine has started, you will have to step on the brake pedal, press it down, and put the mower on “neutral”.
After this, you have to locate the throttle lever of the lawnmower. Move the throttle lever until it engages the choke. The throttle level determines the speed of the mower.
Now, insert the key into the ignition of the mower, and crank the engine. You also might need to hold it in the start position until the engine finally turns on.
Once all of these are done, you can now finally drive the riding lawnmower around the yard and cut the grass as you deem fit.
Conclusion
Even if you do not have the ones listed here, I’m sure the starting procedure of the one you have will not be far away from at least one of the ones listed. Lawnmowers can be challenging to start sometimes, but by applying the right techniques, you’re sure to get it right.