Damn the *! #! lawnmower. When will they make one that starts?

[Faygo Kid]

I've been cutting lawn for nearly 50 years. During that time, we've gone from small b&w TVs to huge plasmas. We've put a man on the moon. We've connected via the Internet. We've built incredible microchips. We have I-phones, email, Facebook. Our phones are cordless, and no longer landlines.

But the lawnmowers I had with the pull starters in the 1960s were better than the piece of crap Toro "guaranteed start" I have put up with for the past few years. I do everything right - fresh gas, tuned up, all of it - but I couldn't cut the lawn on a Sunday afternoon because the piece of sh*t they call a lawnmower won't start, after 20 minutes of trying. In 2012.

Rant off. Got to send a love letter to Toro now.

[mysuzuki2]

1. electric lawnmowers always start

[jobycom]

5. Second. Buying an old gas mower is like buying an old B&W TV.

The technology has advanced, you just have get the right mower. Buying gas is like buying an 8 Track and wondering why recording technology hasn't improved.

[taterguy]

6. Thirded

Well, they don't start too well when you forget they need a key.

[Major Nikon]

2. I have one that's over 20 years old and still starts on the first or 2nd pull every time

It's a Snapper self-propelled with a B&S engine. At the end of every season, I run it until the gas runs out. Other than routine seasonal maintenance and keeping the motor reasonably clean, that's all I ever do to it. I have a Snapper rider with a 14 horse B&S that I've had for 10 years. It still starts right away. For whatever reason I've never had much luck with Toro stuff. We've had a few of them at work for cleaning up around our sites and they always seem to turn to shit after a couple of years.

[Faygo Kid]

3. Thanks. I had a Simplicity that was great.

I would consider a Snapper, too, but now that I'm in my 60s, I think I'm done buying lawnmowers.

But few things made me more relaxed than getting on my wonderful Simplicity tractor in the '80s and '90s and cutting my acre and a half in Michigan. Then cutting the path through my 3 1/2 acres in the back, all wooded, that I made sure stayed healthy. Sublime. Some of my happiest moments ever. If life could only continue that way . . .

[NJCher]

4. mine took about 20 tries

But then it started. I had a mechanic overhaul it last summer. Since then it has started after three or four tries each time.


Cher

[Mopar151]

7. A little starting fluid will wake it right up!

And see if anyone around you carries this stuff:


http://www.seffuels.com/index.aspx
This stuff is formulated for engines that HAVE to start - generators, rescue equipment, and the like. The trouble with E-fuels (containing ethanol) is that a)they are not very stable in storage (Sta-Bil and others have storage stabilizers) and b) when contaminated with water, they will "phase" seperate into low octane gas, ethanol, and some stuff that may not be flammable....
If you know anyone who races, or live near a track, you may be able to get high-octane racing gasoline easily. The base grade leaded (like VP C-12)is quite stable, and it runs OK in small engines, if you richen the carb a little. Some of the exotic grades are nominally gasoline, but are nothing to mess with if you don't need 'em.

[Ikonoklast]

9. Meh. We used a little Hydrazine.

If it was good enough to help send men to the Moon, it was good enough to help start balky internal combustion motors.



Just don't use too much at once.


Unless you have a need for instant shrapnel.



Ah, the good old days when you used to be able to get dangerously unstable chemical compounds and do fantastically stupid stuff with them...and live to tell the tale about it.

[OxQQme]

12. Starting fluid may also hand grenade the engine!

That stuff was formulated to start diesels with massive internal components.
In the mower repair shop where I've been a mechanic for 2 decades, I've seen many engines that radically dis-assembled themselves instantly from the explosive-ness of said fluid.
A very good substitute is a fresh spray can of WD-40.
Or just a spoonful of fresh gas right down it's throat.

[Mopar151]

15. That's why I said a LITTLE......

What grenades engines is a crankcase explosion - in extreme cases, gasoline will do it too. If you use so much that it gets into the crankcase and makes an explosive mixture - hilarity ensues!
The legend about the stuff in my family has to do with provoking a crankcase explosion in a propane truck - in the middle of the gas plant's yard - blew both valve covers clean off. My uncle's man thought the world had ended.

The reason wd-40 works is the propane used for a propellant.......

[Chan790]

8. They make key-starting gas mowers.

They start every time, they're often better mowers too. They tend to be 4-cycle engines though and much much more expensive.

That said, I've never seen a decent lawnmower that started consistently for under $200...and I used to sell lawnmowers.

[Major Nikon]

10. Things went downhill fast when they stopped putting a choke on them

That's why I love my 20 year old Snapper self-propelled. Still has a choke instead of the shit primers they put on them now.

[OxQQme]

11. It's not the engine, it's the fuel.

I've been a mechanic most of my 71 years.
The last 20 years have been at a service bench in an outdoor power equipment dealership.
This time of the year people bring out the mower/weedwacker/rototiller/blower/pressure washer that started last year at the end of the season but won't now.

IT'S THE FUEL!

Inside of every carburetor there is a chamber that holds the fuel for instant delivery into the in-rushing air stream.
Said chamber may only hold a teaspoon amount or a half cup.
Said chamber is fed either by gravity into a bowl and controlled by a float acting against a needle valve to maintain a fuel level, or by a pulse driven fuel pump.
Said chamber will hold an amount of fuel even if you run the engine until it dies of starvation.
Fuel is then pulled into the air steam from this chamber through a final 'main jet' in an atomized condition suitable for that engine.
This main jet's orifice is tiny. A human hair is enough to cause the engine to either not start or run very raggedy.
The main jet's size has been changed to pass less gas in virtually all equipment due to EPA regulations.

Daily, I dis-assemble many carbs for customer's machines to clean out all the passages, nozzles and screens.
Inside, I've encountered:
- rubber bits and pieces that have become either hardened or 'gummy'.
- metal pieces rusted or corroded.
- liquids no longer resembling or smelling of gas even though the user just went to the gas station
and there's fresh gas in the tank.
- I encounter a crystallized jelly-like remains frequently.
- hardened varnish/shellac deposits that reduce the orifice size even further than EPA did.

IT'S THE FUEL!

Ethanol is such a bad choice for (especially) small engines that sit un-used more than they are used.

Any race team that uses alcohol as a fuel immediately flushes the whole fuel system with 'straight' gas prior to loading onto the trailer.

If you can locate a gas station that dispenses non-ethanol gas, use that for 4-cycle engines. A low octane is fine for those types of engines.
If you are mixing the gas with an oil for 2-cycle use, at the least, an 89 octane rating (more is better as adding the oil reduces the 'octane' rating).
Don't buy more than will be used in a month.
Keep it tightly sealed out of direct sunlight.
Gas is like a beer or soda---it loses it's 'fizz' in contact with air.
Don't buy gas from 'off' brands.

StarTron and SeaFoam are good additive choices if you are stuck with ethanol. Add some to FRESH gas, not last years supply.

When mixing oil into gas, always use oil that's formulated for air-cooled 2-cycles and not one that says it also suitable for liquid cooled outboards. There's a huge difference in the operating temperatures.

end of FYI

[Manifestor_of_Light]

13. Get one with a primer button.

Rubber button you push to put a bit of gas in the carb before you start it.

I got a TroyBilt at Lowe's. I am a small woman and could never do the string pull thing until I got this mower.

[Evasporque]

14. your answer...

I bought one just like this a decade ago. Guess what. It still works.

ON Edit:

If you still push a mower....then there is no reason to not own one of these....they weigh about the same and the reel spins pretty freely and cuts a nicely tended lawn very well. If you don't mow the lawn untii it is up to your hips then no mower is good and you need a weed whacker.

[HopeHoops]

17. Same here - 25 or so years old and works fine. Not so great in tall grass though.

[HopeHoops]

16. We got a new Craftsman with an electric start and rear-wheel drive.

Damn is that a nice machine - and rather quiet as far as mowers go. The drive is geared (two handles with two positions) and if you pull both at once it takes off like a dragster. But just touching a button to get it running is sweet. It has a pull cord as a backup (in case the battery needs to be recharged).

[Chan790]

18. Those are the ones I used to sell.

In Brooklyn. Where nobody has a yard large enough to need a lawnmower. Along with tractors bigger than the yards, snowblowers where people have no driveways or no more than 30' of frontage, chainsaws in a locale where it's illegal to cut down trees, sheds where it's illegal to put up any outdoor structure without a permit. You get the idea.

We sold a lot of weedwackers. Weedwackers generate shit commission. We used to poach sales from the absentee salespeople in mattresses and appliances until they combined Lawn and Garden in our store with Fitness and Tools so we wouldn't revolt.

Worst job ever!

[HopeHoops]

19. Um. I ordered it at the Sears online store for in-store pickup.

All of the mowers I've had (going back to 77) have been B&S engines on a Craftsman chassis. They all well outlived their service lives.

[Chan790]

20. That's cool.

That specific store was a terrible place to work...everybody in my department was hired with a promise of a move to a different department...but then they'd hire new people to fill vacancies in other departments and when you said something about being promised a move to "Electronics" or "Kitchen Appliances", they'd tell you that you had to get someone in that department to switch with you...which was never going to happen because everybody knew that we were all making so little that the state of NY was forcing them to pay us minimum wage if base + comm. was less-than minimum wage for any given pay-period. Meanwhile the people in electronics were making like $45K/year.

I have no issue with online-selling or Sears as a company, the pay-system is fair for most people. No Sears store inside NYC should have a dedicated Lawn and Garden dept. separate from Tools though.

Yeah, you can't kill those mowers. Avoid the electric Craftsman though...I saw more of those things coming back than going out.

[HopeHoops]

21. We've got a B&D with a flip handle (so you don't have to turn it around).

That's a cool little box - double blades.