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DALE NAPIER
As a lawn care service professional from Nixa, Missouri, it is my goal to answer some of the most commonly asked customer questions about lawn care. |
DALE NAPIER
As a lawn care service professional from Nixa, Missouri, it is my goal to answer some of the most commonly asked customer questions about lawn care. |
One of the most common question I receive on a weekly basis is "how do I get my mower to cut better". I've also been asked "how do I get my mower to cut like the lawn care professionals." Now there is a big difference between a home owner mower and a commercial mower but I have a few tips that will help you out and give you better results that you are looking for. These tips are easy and any DIY tacklers can navigate these steps to get best out of their mower. Sharpen your mower blades One of the most common reasons why a mower isn't performing the way it should is due to dull blades. The first step to improve the cut quality of your mower is to sharpen your mower blade(s). Dull blade(s) not only result in poor cut quality but can also lead into lawn diseases. How can you tell that your blade(s) need to be sharpened? Look at the photo below. If the tips of the grass looks yellow after cutting, it is a good sign that your blade(s) needs to be sharpened. This is caused due to the grass tearing and not actually cutting. With sharp blades your grass should have a nice flat, smooth, and even cut. One question I get asked quite frequently is "how often should I sharpen my mower blade(s)". There are a few factors that go in to this question. How often are you cutting? Are you mowing over rocks and other debris? These things will take into consideration on how often you should sharpen your blade(s). A good rule of thumb is that you should sharpen your mower blades every 10 hours of use. To learn how to sharpen your mower blade check out this video we have provided for you. If you are needing a tool to sharpen your mower blades here is a link to an affordable set that won't break the budget . Clean the underside of your mower deck A dirty mower deck is another popular reason why you might be getting poor quality out of your mower. A dirty deck that is caked with grass clippings can reduce the air flow that is needed to side discharge, mulch, or bag the grass clippings. The layer of grass on the underside of the deck can also cause more damage then just a poor cut quality. A dirty mower deck can lead to fungus diseases, weeds, rust to your mower deck, and unwanted pests in your lawn. To determine how often you should be cleaning the mower deck will be based on weather conditions in your area. Here in Nixa, MO it rains quite a bit in the spring and should be cleaned more often then what you would need to in the summer. A few of the signs to tell that your mower deck is dirty without tipping your mower over or jacking it up is to pay attention while you are cutting. If your mower is leaving clumps, this is an indication that your deck needs to be cleaned as the air flow is restricted. Another sign is that if you stop after a couple of passes on the lawn and notice there are some straggling pieces that didn't get cut, its a good sign that your deck is dirty as the build up can slow the speed of blades down as well. The only thing you will need for this task a deck scraper. Adjust your anti scalping wheels The anti scalping wheels (also known as anti rollers) is probably the most under looked thing on your mower. Now this section of the blog might only be beneficial for you if you have a rider mower. We didn't want to leave you out. Now this took me several years mowing commercially before I even noticed this small change. I knew the rollers were there, but I didn't realize they had to be adjusted to the height you normally cut at. I thought they where pre-set to where they needed to be from the factory. Once I realized that these needed to be adjusted to match my cutting height I saw better results. The anti scalping wheels are designed to help your mower deck to move up as it rolls over a high part of the lawn to reduce the chance of scalping the lawn. In Nixa, Mo and surrounding areas this is very important because of all the rolling hills we have in our area. This is a super easy task to do even if you are not the "do it yourself" type. All you are going to need is to have a few tools that you might have laying around the house already. Make sure your deck is leveled This is another one of those things that is easily looked over. Uneven decks can cause uneven cutting as you can already guess. The obvious sign of an uneven deck is if one side of the pass you just made is lower then the opposite side. Now one of the things you might not know is that your deck should be leveled from side to side but have a small pitch towards the front of the mower. This helps with airflow and the striping ability of the deck. Now the pitch is different for each mower and we recommend that you refer to your owner's manual for the right measurements. You can use a tape measure to level the deck or you could use a bubble level to check the deck as well. Have the correct mower blade for your grass type
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