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The deck clean-out hose port on my deck does seem to be very effective, or at least I don't see much water and/or debris spraying out of the grass chute.

After running the blades for a minute, the area on the ground in the exit path of the chute is barely damp, so I was wondering if the hose port is malfunctioning.
I have 85PSI on a 3/4" ID hose connected to it and I do see some water coming from under the deck on the left-hand side when hose is attached and water is turned on, but little is getting blown over to the chute with the blades spinning.

If never seen the JD clean-out system in operation, so I don't know what is normal and what isn't.

On my Cub, I get a pretty healthy spray of water coming out the discharge shoot. I would say it comes out 1.5 feet.

Slobcat said:

The deck clean-out hose port on my deck does seem to be very effective.

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They get clogged up with grass if you do not use it often.

I found a small rat-tail file fit through the side holes in the hose port and widened them some.
Now I'm getting some water being sprayed out of chute, and ran for five minutes, but not much debris came out.
It looks like I'll have to jack it up and use a power washer to get it clean, and then see how well it works with the enhanced water flow.

Slobcat said:

It looks like I'll have to jack it up and use a power washer to get it clean.

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And/or take the fitting out to clean it to see if it needs replacing.
Small sticks & rocks will plug or damage these.

Thanks, I'll do that.

After "adjusting" the holes with a file, I tossed a nutdriver and a piece of stiff wire in the storage compartment for that purpose.

Hopefully, after I get the underside of the deck clean with a power washer, just using the hose port will keep it that way.

I turned 70 a few months back, so rolling around on the ground isn't very high on the list of things I like to do. :wink:

I wanted so see how good a job the port wash was doing and all in all, I would have to say its worthless. It did remove some grass as evidenced by what came out of the chute with the water but evidently not very much.
After letting everything dry over night, i jacked up the tractor to have a look see under the deck. I ended up scraping a pile of dead rotting grass that when bagged up, was about the size of a football. I won't be wasting the time to use the port anymore.

JSB33 said:

I wanted so see how good a job the port wash was doing and all in all, I would have to say its worthless. It did remove some grass as evidenced by what came out of the chute with the water but evidently not very much.
After letting everything dry over night, i jacked up the tractor to have a look see under the deck. I ended up scraping a pile of dead rotting grass that when bagged up, was about the size of a football. I won't be wasting the time to use the port anymore.

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Did you try lowering the deck all the way, or nearly all the way? I get a fine spray @ a setting of 3, but when I push it all the way down, clumps of stuff start coming out. I change it up and down several times during a 3-5 minute cycle. Looked under the deck today and it was 95% clean.

ppearce43 said:

Did you try lowering the deck all the way, or nearly all the way? I get a fine spray @ a setting of 3, but when I push it all the way down, clumps of stuff start coming out. I change it up and down several times during a 3-5 minute cycle. Looked under the deck today and it was 95% clean.

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I did drop the deck down but I did not change its height during the process. I am glad you had such a good result, happy that this works for some people as it sure didn't work for me :laughing:

JSB33 said:

I did drop the deck down but I did not change its height during the process.

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I suppose the up and down motion tends to "shake" some grass loose and is probably a good idea.
A mower will sure but better if you keep the buildup underneath clean, and mowing wet grass will clump up everywhere.
The deck needs that air flow to suck the grass up and whack it off level.

If you want to get serious about cleaning underneath, get you one of these.
Mower Lifts Hand Trucks Lawn Mower Jacks - MoJack-The MoJack

BBO said:

I suppose the up and down motion tends to "shake" some grass loose and is probably a good idea.
A mower will sure but better if you keep the buildup underneath clean, and mowing wet grass will clump up everywhere.
The deck needs that air flow to suck the grass up and whack it off level.

If you want to get serious about cleaning underneath, get you one of these.
Mower Lifts Hand Trucks Lawn Mower Jacks - MoJack-The MoJack

Click to expand...

Everyone I know with the deck clean out for water hose does not work properly, I agree with BBO get a Mojack, lift the mower front end and clean it the deck with a small scraper.
I clean out from underneath my deck at least once per month sometimes more than that depends on how the grass is discharging.

Everything I've seen with the deck clean out ports show they are a bad idea and a poor design. In order to make them work, the grass has to be flakey dry under the deck when cut. Otherwise the moisture lets it stick and there is not enough of a spray pattern to get to everything under the deck. But the biggest I see is that they do work best directly after mowing, but why would you want to spray cold water on hot bearing housings? They will last through this but it has to shorten their life span.