"Deck Wash" system

[twall]

Does anyone own a mower with this feature? The system where you hook up a garden hose to the deck, turn it on, start the mower, turn on the deck, and it's supposed to 'wash' the underside of the deck.

Does it work? What are the advantages/disadvantages to it? What are the problems?

I've always thought this looked like a great idea for longer deck life. At least on paper.......

 

[Kingwood990]

I tried it once on the John Deere and it did not work. It does sound great on paper though.

 

[mjw357]

Meh. I got that on the Cub Cadet. It helps some, until the little water nozzles you hook the hose up to gets all clogged with grass schmutz. :confused2: You still need to take the deck off a couple times a year and scrape the grass plaster off the underside.

 

[twall]

We had a Wheel Horse 108-3 RER when I was 17, and it had a stand-on-end feature (ala Snapper). It was great to hose off the underside of the deck.

But, as the previous poster said, the 'plaster' would really take a long time to hose off. Wondered if the blades running would help......but then again, it'd just fan out the stream, not 'pressurize' it.

Maybe SOMEONE has this system and likes it....but I'm kinda doubting it.

 

[LandN]

Does anyone own a mower with this feature? The system where you hook up a garden hose to the deck, turn it on, start the mower, turn on the deck, and it's supposed to 'wash' the underside of the deck.

Does it work? What are the advantages/disadvantages to it? What are the problems?

I've always thought this looked like a great idea for longer deck life. At least on paper.......

I have the deck wash fitting on my toro push mower.during the first several times i used it the results were very good.i lowered the deck to reduce the splashing. let the mower cool off a bit before the wash because the temp of the cold water on a hot motor/deck.as long as you 'wash' the deck while the clippings are still fresh is a lot better than washing the deck with a dried build-up of grass.i still had a very slight 'film of green' on the underside but not like it was a problem... then came the big crash with my mower and then after that i kind of lost interest in washing the deck underneith....... it might matter what blades you are running as to the results you get. 'high lift blades' vs. 'regular standard blades' but as often as i sharpen my blades anyway i just scrape out the deck while i'm there. oh ya, keep in mind my yard is smallish and i cut very often therefore i dont get a large volume of clippings under the deck anyway prior to a wash.

 

[mystreba]

I have it on my tractor and push mower, and never used them. I'm skeptical.

 

[CajunCub]

I have the DWS on my Cub Cadet LTX1046, it works well. Really neat to watch the dirt & grass come out, just wear rubber boots if you get off while it's running! (I can because I rewired my seat switch):laughing:

 

[BKBrown]

With the Ventrac (mower out front) I just lift the mower deck and pull up to our pond and lower the deck a little at a time into the water with the blades running --- CLEAN DECK ! :biggrin: :thumbsup:

 

[Jetblast]

I use it on my Z-Force S and it works well. The trick is to do it from day one while the underside is still pristine and then after every single mow, starting with the side furthest from the chute then going to the chute side. Like the manual says, two minutes on the far side, two minutes on the chute side, then two minutes to dry.

If the nozzles clog with grass and debris it's easy to clear them out from the top with a tiny screwdriver. It doesn't happen often but if it did, I'd probably find some rubber or plastic caps to put on them.

I've been mowing damp and sometimes wet grass for several weeks now so out of curiosity, I went out and cranked the mower up with my MoJack for an inspection just now. Every bit of the deck underside is clean as a whistle except for a very thin coating of grass debris on the bottoms of the spindles, and an eight inch diameter circle around them. I was glad to see that because it means the water is slinging well away from the spindles rather than washing the grease out of them from underneath. It doesn't look like I'll have to scrape the deck more than once every two or three years at the very most, so for me the deck wash system is a big hit. Six minutes of my time for a clean deck that will perform as well as it can each time I mow seems like a fair deal to me.

 

[mystreba]

I use it on my Z-Force S and it works well. The trick is to do it from day one while the underside is still pristine and then after every single mow, starting with the side furthest from the chute then going to the chute side. Like the manual says, two minutes on the far side, two minutes on the chute side, then two minutes to dry.

Thanks for the detail - definitely gonna try it next time