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Years ago When I ran the lawn care company, was driving thru a neighborhood and seen a nice looking pushmower sitting out for trash, I scooped it up and brought it home, it wasnt anything special, I think it was an MTD mower...I started to inspect it and Im not joking, the ONLY thing wrong with it, was the air filter was completely clogged, Im not sure how they managed to get so much yard debris in that area, but the filter was just caked up...I replaced it and cleaned out the carb and it ran great.
This was not a wealthy neighborhood either, it was middle class. Ive never heard of someone throwing a mower out because the air filter is clogged!
Years ago When I ran the lawn care company, was driving thru a neighborhood and seen a nice looking pushmower sitting out for trash, I scooped it up and brought it home, it wasnt anything special, I think it was an MTD mower...I started to inspect it and Im not joking, the ONLY thing wrong with it, was the air filter was completely clogged, Im not sure how they managed to get so much yard debris in that area, but the filter was just caked up...I replaced it and cleaned out the carb and it ran great.
This was not a wealthy neighborhood either, it was middle class. Ive never heard of someone throwing a mower out because the air filter is clogged!
In the 1970's I was a MTD, Atlas Copco, Toro, and Gravely dealer. At that time I would run over to the National Hardware convention in NYC and buy 50 to 100 push mowers for about $25 each. My Toro's were selling for over $100 each at that time. Of the cheap mowers I sold, I would see very few back for service. The name brand mowers were coming back all the time. The more one spent, the more there was to go wrong. Plus the Toro's had white metal deck housings and some people would hit rocks that would then crack off the whole wheel. The Toro's had Tecumseh motors that changed parts whenever Sears had a whim and the cheap ones had B&S that were pretty standard.
I had one 18 inch push mower I had for thirty plus years. I loved the small mower because I used it to just clean up where it was hard to get to with my riding tractors. I probably would be using it today if I remembered to put a little Loctite on the carburetor screws. The gas tank fell off and the gas ignited and it became history! You cannot find a good cheap small mower today!
In the 1970's I was a MTD, Atlas Copco, Toro, and Gravely dealer. At that time I would run over to the National Hardware convention in NYC and buy 50 to 100 push mowers for about $25 each. My Toro's were selling for over $100 each at that time. Of the cheap mowers I sold, I would see very few back for service. The name brand mowers were coming back all the time. The more one spent, the more there was to go wrong. Plus the Toro's had white metal deck housings and some people would hit rocks that would then crack off the whole wheel. The Toro's had Tecumseh motors that changed parts whenever Sears had a whim and the cheap ones had B&S that were pretty standard.
I had one 18 inch push mower I had for thirty plus years. I loved the small mower because I used it to just clean up where it was hard to get to with my riding tractors. I probably would be using it today if I remembered to put a little Loctite on the carburetor screws. The gas tank fell off and the gas ignited and it became history! You cannot find a good cheap small mower today!
Oh wow, I had a Gravely outfront mower when I ran the lawn care company, it had a 72" PTO driven deck, with the 3cyl Yanmar diesel engine, that thing was a mowing beast! I paid around $14K for it brand new.
It ran great for many many years, until some idiot I had working for me, hit something with the transaxle and put a big crack in it, after that, it leaked Hydraulic oil constantly, and would regularly loose hydraulic pressure, I tried taking it apart and fixing the crack, (JB weld among other fixes), but it kept leaking, I looked into a new case for the transaxle but was too expensive to replace, at that point, it costs more than the mower was worth, so I sold it.
Regarding the push mowers, Ive always had the best luck with cheap ones, I eventually found an older guy that fixed up old mowers and sold them, he always had 15-20 decent push mowers for sale at his house, he would charge around $50-100. In fact, Im still using the push mower I bought from him to this day, to mow my own grass.
Years ago When I ran the lawn care company, was driving thru a neighborhood and seen a nice looking pushmower sitting out for trash, I scooped it up and brought it home, it wasnt anything special, I think it was an MTD mower...I started to inspect it and Im not joking, the ONLY thing wrong with it, was the air filter was completely clogged, Im not sure how they managed to get so much yard debris in that area, but the filter was just caked up...I replaced it and cleaned out the carb and it ran great.
This was not a wealthy neighborhood either, it was middle class. Ive never heard of someone throwing a mower out because the air filter is clogged!
Maybe, probably a woman? My old house had a small amount of grass so my husband used a push reel mower. The house I'm in now has front and back grass so I wanted a normal lawn mower. I really had no idea lawn mowers needed oil and filter changes. Also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb9TizwNvZM&t=234s
"Steve picked up this lawn mower for free. Watch as he troubleshoots the problem and easily repairs it without spending any money."
Maybe, probably a woman? My old house had a small amount of grass so my husband used a push reel mower. The house I'm in now has front and back grass so I wanted a normal lawn mower. I really had no idea lawn mowers needed oil and filter changes. "Steve picked up this lawn mower for free. Watch as he troubleshoots the problem and easily repairs it without spending any money."
Many small push rotary mowers with B&S engines were practically given away for free. Briggs and Stratton motors have a white metal flywheel key and if you hit something hard like a rock, you can sheer or dent that key. It used to cost me just pennies and a few minutes to make the repair. Now I see that Walmart sells the keys for over $4 each. Advanced Auto Parts is advertising them for about $.20 each (10 for $2). Regardless it was a quick, cheap, fix if you knew what you were doing and what to look for. You would also have to sharpen or replace the blade with many of these mower and that can cost a few dollars. Once that key was damaged you could pull the starter rope until your arm fell off and the mower would not start - that is why so many wanted to get rid of them without knowing what to look for.
Anymore we live in a disposable world. For many of our vehicles you can only buy OEM parts for ten years and then you have to scrounge. Factory authorized service will only install the OEM parts and not the 'after market parts' (that are easy to come by years later). People don't want to take the time to know what is wrong with their mower, they just want to cut the grass.
When my brother and I were mowing yards for money in the late 60s/early 70s ( I was mowing yards for $3 and $4 when I was 12) my dad had one of the cheaper mowers knowing there was no telling what all we would hit in all those yards. After we both graduated high school and moved on, he bought a Craftsman push mower for his own use. That was around 1975. He still had that mower about 10 or 12 years ago when he decided he was getting too old to mow his own yard. Only major problem he had was the gas take came loose. But a good piece of bailing wire took care of that!
Years ago When I ran the lawn care company, was driving thru a neighborhood and seen a nice looking pushmower sitting out for trash, I scooped it up and brought it home, it wasnt anything special, I think it was an MTD mower...I started to inspect it and Im not joking, the ONLY thing wrong with it, was the air filter was completely clogged, Im not sure how they managed to get so much yard debris in that area, but the filter was just caked up...I replaced it and cleaned out the carb and it ran great.
This was not a wealthy neighborhood either, it was middle class. Ive never heard of someone throwing a mower out because the air filter is clogged!
It's scary isn't it, that some people are so dumb.
It's scary isn't it, that some people are so dumb.
Actually not so surprising. Farm kids with lot equipment around rare anymore. Farm equipment mostly computerized diesel anymore. Cars gave up carburetors long ago now and most people rarely even open hood on car and if they do everything is behind huge plastic shields to discourage tinkering.
Push mowers are still carburetor and magneto and people simply arent familiar with these systems. Yea they can learn, via youtube if nothing else. But why learn, just toss your $200 mower and buy another.... Low end mower for $200 seems crazy to somebody my age, I still remember when the low end mowers were less than $50. And they were around $100 forever. Until the relatively recent big boost in prices on everything. Squeeze out as much profit as possible.
Have an old Briggs and Stratton that I mow mom's small lawn with...just gas it up. Did take it to the shop for maintenance, etc. 5 years ago or so...was having starting issues. Beginning to do it again...took over 20 pulls to finally start it last time. Never changed the oil/filter on it...dumb question...where do you drain the old oil out of it? May just do it myself...or take it back to the shop? Still runs good once gets going, but taking too many pulls to start...
Took about 20 pulls to get going again this morning...is a Briggs and Stratton 4HP "Quattro" model.
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