A lawn mower is an essential tool for maintaining a beautiful lawn. Like any tool, it must be maintained and kept in good working order. The lawn mower engine runs on air, which flows through a filter into the carburetor. It mixes with the fuel before returning through the engine out of the exhaust muffler. The job of the lawn mower air filter is to prevent dust and dirt from clogging up the carburetor and engine. With use, the air filter becomes dusty and blocks the airflow into the carburetor. This leads to power loss and greater gas consumption.
Lawn mower air filters are made out of either paper or foam. A foam filter can be periodically cleaned and reused. A paper filter must be replaced.
After prolonged use, foam filters get oily and show an accumulation of grass and dust until they are brown in color. If the foam lawn mower air filter looks like that, it needs to be cleaned. That will happen approximately following 25 hours of operating time. Before changing the filter, the engine must be turned off. Disconnect the spark plug wire and remove the filter cover. The filter can be washed in lukewarm water and a simple household detergent. After washing, it must be left to dry completely. While the filter dries, the filter assembly itself should be cleaned. Then the air filter is soaked in clean motor oil, with all excessive oil squeezed out. The oil helps the filter collect dust and dirt particles and remain clean. Re-insert the clean foam air filter, replace the air filter cover and reconnect the spark plug wire.
If using paper air filters, these need to be changed according to owner manual recommendation. Between changes, however, the filter itself should be cleaned for optimal performance.
Keeping the filter clean and in operable condition is basic lawn mower maintenance which will extend the life of the mower.
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