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I'm in the process of buying a self propelled walk behind mower. Have a few questions regarding maintenance of walk behind mowers in general.

1. How do the under deck water attachments work? I assume one attaches a water hose and then run the engine to let the cutting blade whip the water around.
... a) Does it really do a good job of cleaning?
... b) Will it have negative effects on the drive belt on a FWD mower?
... c) Will it have negative effects on bearings?
... d) How long to run the engine after cleaning to dry everything under the deck?
... e) If a walk behind doesn't come with a water hose attachment, is it worth it to install one?

2. Will turning the mower on its side to clean the under side of the deck or do other maintenance cause the engine oil to go to places in the engine that's bad? Or can all walk behind mowers be turned on their sides with no ill effects?

Thanks,
YardGuy

I have a deck wash attachment for my rider and although it could vary greatly on a walk behind I've found that it dosent do a very good job so I never use it. It seems to only wash the half of the deck where you attach the hose and not well for that matter. If my deck gets build up under it from mowing wet grass or the like I'll remove what I can with my hands and use a hose with a nozzle to wash out what I can't reach. Usually though I just use my leaf blower to blow it off when I finish mowing I like to avoid all the excess moister I can.

Sorry I missed the part about turning the mower on its side. IMO I wouldn't do that but I'm no expert (maybe one will come along and right me if I'm wrong) When I need to clean build up from under my push mower I'll tip the handle back to the ground and put a concrete block on it to keep the deck up. That provides more than enough room for cleaning. Again just my opinion it could be perfectly fine to turn it on its side but I don't want to risk it unless it was completely unavoidable.

Hi m&p45,

Thanks for your two posts. One vote for under deck wash not effective.

YardGuy

No under deck washout is perfect. If you use it every time right after cutting, you can skip scraping the deck until every third cutting. You can tip a walk behind on it's side and scrap the deck with no problems. Just remember to always tip with the carb up. That's how we do it in the shop every day. Take a sandwich bag cut open (one thickness) and put it over the tank opening and screw the gas cap on. This will prevent gas spillage while scraping.

Rivets said:

No under deck washout is perfect. If you use it every time right after cutting, you can skip scraping the deck until every third cutting. You can tip a walk behind on it's side and scrap the deck with no problems. Just remember to always tip with the carb up. That's how we do it in the shop every day. Take a sandwich bag cut open (one thickness) and put it over the tank opening and screw the gas cap on. This will prevent gas spillage while scraping.

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Hi Rivets,

Thanks for your ever present help. Appreciate all of the info you provide.

Best regards,
YardGuy