I’ve gone thru 3 lawnmowers, 2-self propelled, and 1 push mower in the last 4 years. I believe it’s a problem with the carbourator and ethanol, but I’m not sure which part of the carbourator is at fault. After a while, the mower is hard to start, then it won’t start at all. Any suggestions?
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You really shouldn’t use ethanol in small engines. Ethanol contains water and corrodes the aluminum parts in the carberator. It would probably be better is you had a shut off on the gas tank so that you could run the engine out of gas after each use but most are not made that way.
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Also if you are going to put the lawn mower in storage for more than 30 days, you need to add fuel stabilizer to the gas tank or run the tank completely dry before you put it in storage. This will prevent the fuel from turning into a varnish.
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If all you can find is crappy ethanol gas, then I would suggest using marine sea foam (a fuel additive for power boats) available at most auto supply stores, it mixes with the water and keeps it in suspension limiting the attendant corrosion. I add stabil and sea foam to each of my gas cans before I fill them ( use the correct ratios!) and then I fill them with premium, it seems to help quite a bit and the gas stays fresh much longer.
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Ethanol is bad. Ethanol also is a complete energy negative, takes roughly 140k BTUs to make one gallon of ethanol, when you burn one gallon of ethanol it provides approx. 87k BTUs. Ethanol destroys alot of gasket materials and tubings. Unless your car or outdoor power equipment is certified for ethanol, it probably will suffer if you use ethanol in it.
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I had the same problem until I bought a Troy-Bilt with the Honda engine. It is going on 3 years now and runs perfectly and starts with an easy tug on the rope. I will never but any equipment without a Honda engine again.
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Thanks everyone for your replies. I did install a Briggs and Stratton in line fuel shut off ($7) on my 19 H.P. tractor this morning. When I turn the shut off in the off position, the engine runs for about 20 sec. and then stops. I turn it on, with no issues in starting. The fuel line is relatively horizontal with no dips in it. It all worked out GREAT!