How Should You Clean Under Your Lawn Mower? Find Out Here!

We have figured out the best method to keep your lawnmower as clean as possible without much effort on your part.

All you need is a firm wire brush and a garden hose. Then scrub at the deck of the lawnmower until all the built-up grass has been washed off.

Keeping your lawnmower clean is an important part of keeping your garden looking the best it can. So how exactly do you do that?

Why should you keep the under of your lawnmower clean?

It is the underside of your mower where all of the important parts of your mower are kept.

Therefore, if it is not kept clean, then the parts can not function properly.

If your mower's deck (the underside of the mower) is full of dried grass or bits of dirt then your blade will not be able to propel properly.

Furthermore, the dried grass could damage your blade's spinning mechanism if it has been left to build up long enough.

This could mean that not only do you have to replace the blade but also the whole rotation system.

You may find that lawn diseases are spreading across your lawn no matter how much you spend on treatment for the diseases.

This could possibly be due to leftover grass clippings getting stuck in the deck of your lawnmower that you have failed to clean out between uses, allowing the diseases to spread further.

When is the best time to clean under your mower?

It is recommended that you at least clear out the bulk of any grass clippings build-up at the end of every use. However, this is not always realistic for most people.

As long as you are able to give the deck a full clean at the at least twice during each mowing season then you should not run into any major problems with your lawnmower.

That being said, if your grass tends to grow especially thick or long during the winter months then when it does come to cutting time, you may need to clean the deck more often.

Of course, if you are using your lawn mower after a disease outbreak amongst your grass, then you will want to thoroughly clean as much of your mower as possible.

This way you are ensuring that you are doing everything possible to prevent the return of the lawn diseases.

The best way to keep on top of your lawnmower cleaning is to do a service check at the beginning of the mowing season and keep performing maintenance checks at the end of every other use or so.

If you do this then not only are you dealing with any issues your lawnmower may have at the very beginning of the season but you are preventing any build-up that may occur during use.

At the end of the mowing season, perform another service check and thoroughly clean under the deck of the mower.

By doing so, you are saving yourself one extra job at the beginning of the new mowing season by clearing out all of the dry grass clippings.

Keeping under the mower clean will also allow you to properly store your mower without letting any damp or insects find their way into the lawnmower itself.

How to thoroughly clean under your lawn mower

Before anything, make sure that you have disconnected the spark plug to stop any accidents from happening.

I also like to disconnect any other power source if applicable just to be sure.

The first step is to remove the blade so that you can have full access to the underside of your lawnmower.

To do this, use the appropriate wrench to unscrew any nuts and bolts keeping the blade in place.

Make sure that you are not touching any sharp areas of the blade as you gently lift the blade off of the mower and rest it on a table or surface where it can be stored safely.

While the blade is off, you might want to use this as an opportunity to sharpen it.

Lay your mower on its side and make sure that it will not be moved around too much as you clean it.

Now, for the actual cleaning part of the process, use a wire brush or wooden brush to scrub the deck and remove any built-up grass that would stop the blade from doing its job.

Do not worry about being too rough here, the worst the can happen is you leave a few scratched on the deck itself which was bound to happen sooner or later.

Take your garden hose or a tub of water and rinse off any grass that refuses to come off with the brush.

The important step to remember to do here is to let the mower dry off. If you do not then you may damage the blade's rotation mechanism.

And that's it! Simply replace your blade, reconnect your power source/spark plug and you have successfully cleaned under your lawnmower.