Mower Safety while cleaning mower deck

[asker123]

Lawn Mower Safety - Likelihood of Engine starting while cleaning the bottom of mower deck

I have two mowers -
1) Husqvarna AWD Self propelled walk behind mower with a Honda GCV160 Engine and
2) Cub Cadet Zero Turn Z Force SX 54 Riding Mower with Kawasaki FR730V 24 HP engine.

It is in my practice after every mow (roughly once a week) to clean the bottom of the deck of both the mowers with a self made plastic scrapping tool. I dont use the Garden hose attachment as I feel that water will increase rusting conditions. I do move the blades a little to get access around the blades to scrape the lumps of grass cake.

Lately , reading generically, I have come across about the practice of removing spark plugs wire that has been mentioned everywhere before working near the blades. This made me think that am I doing an unsafe practice.
For the walk behind mower, I have the ignition lever disengaged and fuel shut off and then I tilt the mower to its side and for the Riding mower, I absolutely make sure that the key is out.

What do you guys think? Should I absolutely pull he Spark plug wires every time? I read that chances of pull start engines ( like my walk behind mower) to start with a small turn of the blade is less likely whereas the electric start like the riding mower has small chance of starting due to ignition or electric fault.

On consequence part, seems like it is similar to flying in airplanes. Very less chance of accident but if it does happen, result can be devastating. I am sure to lose fingers and may be entire palm till the wrist.

The darn plug wires are so tight that even for maintenance, I tried to pull them a couple times, they dont come off easily. Perhaps that makes me lazy to do it after every mow. Will these wires become loose over time and come off easily. Another point is that the Riding mower engine is so hot after the mow, pulling the wires before cleaning the deck will require me to deal with the heat and because I do the cleaning outside garage, I will have to put the plug wire back to restart the mower to park in the garage.
Again, what do you guys practice and think about this ? Thanks in advance.

 

[demarpaint]

I'd pull the spark plug wire, even if it is a little tough.

 

[slo town]

THIS^^^^^

 

[nwjones18]

Is it the right thing? Per the textbook yes it is.. Have I ever pulled a plug wire to swap a lawn mower blade? No.. There are a variety of redundant safety's that would all have to fail for the engine to miraculously start with blade movement.. On a rider you'd have to have the PTO engaged for it to even matter, and no mower I've ever used would start with the PTO engaged.

 

[zzyzzx]

I just use the hose attachment and don't worry about the rust so much. if there is any debris sticking to the underside of the deck, I figure that is way worse than any water from the hose.

 

[slo town]

Is it the right thing? Per the textbook yes it is.. Have I ever pulled a plug wire to swap a lawn mower blade? No.. There are a variety of redundant safety's that would all have to fail for the engine to miraculously start with blade movement..

For the walk behind mowers, they have magnetos. Just rotating the blade while cleaning could cause the plug to fire and the blade to kick like an axe.

Scott

 

[Tdbo]

I was always taught to pull the plug wire when doing anything under the deck.
Not worth taking any chances.

 

[RooflessVW]

I just use the hose attachment and don't worry about the rust so much. if there is any debris sticking to the underside of the deck, I figure that is way worse than any water from the hose.

It is. If the deck is clean water doesn't stick around for long.

 

[Hall]

There's probably a 0.00001% chance of accidentally causing the engine to fire up, but I'll still disconnect the plug wire.

 

[nwjones18]

For the walk behind mowers, they have magnetos. Just rotating the blade while cleaning could cause the plug to fire and the blade to kick like an axe.

Scott

On a mower with a working safety bar? I should have noted earlier that I do tend to pull the plug wire on push mowers. I was thinking of his rider mainly.

 

[55hambone]

The odds of an accidental start will never be high enough when my fingers are involved. I pull the plug wires.

 

[FZ1]

I have two mowers -
1) Husqvarna AWD Self propelled walk behind mower with a Honda GCV160 Engine and
2) Cub Cadet Zero Turn Z Force SX 54 Riding Mower with Kawasaki FR730V 24 HP engine.

It is in my practice after every mow (roughly once a week) to clean the bottom of the deck of both the mowers with a self made plastic scrapping tool. I dont use the Garden hose attachment as I feel that water will increase rusting conditions. I do move the blades a little to get access around the blades to scrape the lumps of grass cake.

Lately , reading generically, I have come across about the practice of removing spark plugs wire that has been mentioned everywhere before working near the blades. This made me think that am I doing an unsafe practice.
For the walk behind mower, I have the ignition lever disengaged and fuel shut off and then I tilt the mower to its side and for the Riding mower, I absolutely make sure that the key is out.

What do you guys think? Should I absolutely pull he Spark plug wires every time? I read that chances of pull start engines ( like my walk behind mower) to start with a small turn of the blade is less likely whereas the electric start like the riding mower has small chance of starting due to ignition or electric fault.

On consequence part, seems like it is similar to flying in airplanes. Very less chance of accident but if it does happen, result can be devastating. I am sure to lose fingers and may be entire palm till the wrist.

The darn plug wires are so tight that even for maintenance, I tried to pull them a couple times, they dont come off easily. Perhaps that makes me lazy to do it after every mow. Will these wires become loose over time and come off easily. Another point is that the Riding mower engine is so hot after the mow, pulling the wires before cleaning the deck will require me to deal with the heat and because I do the cleaning outside garage, I will have to put the plug wire back to restart the mower to park in the garage.
Again, what do you guys practice and think about this ? Thanks in advance.

Just clean the bottom with an old broom. One and done.

 

[slo town]

On a mower with a working safety bar? I should have noted earlier that I do tend to pull the plug wire on push mowers. I was thinking of his rider mainly.

I'm not sure the safety bar would prevent the blade from kicking.

But like others have said, pull the plug. Just losing a thumb would drastically change your life.

Scott

 

[Wheel]

Wouldn't both of these have a deadman's switch or operator presence switch that needs to be held to start anyway ? That said, I clean my push mower when it is out of gas to prevent that from spilling, and the tractor and rider with the deck off.

 

[walterjay]

It would probably never happen with a newer motor as you have to engage the handle to get it to fire. That being said it never hurts to err on the side of safety by pulling the plug wire.

 

[football]

For the walk behind mowers, they have magnetos. Just rotating the blade while cleaning could cause the plug to fire and the blade to kick like an axe.

Scott

Every push style mower in the last 30-40 years have a safety bar that has to be pushed down to start the engine. The coil is deactivated. You could spin the blade and nothing will happen.

 

[shortyb]

As mentioned so many times, the chance of an accidental start, or even a blade kick are very small with my mower (Honda). At least 3 redundant systems would have to engage before the engine fires or the blades will move. HOWEVER, I value my appendages and it only takes a second to pull the plug wire, so I do that every time I work underneath it. I use a blade locking tool to prevent rotation of the blades, even if I'm removing them for sharpening. I also put a dab of dielectric grease in the spark plug boot to ease removal/replacement. Never had one loosen up on me. Since I work on lots of neighbor's and friend's mowers too, makes it easy to just get in the habit of pulling the plug wire before doing any work on them.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Pull the spark plug, and regrease it every time you plug it back in

The new electric mowers have a safety key for this same purpose, to not be able to start while you're working under the mower

 

[B6_Dolphin]

In the world of E-mowers, after mowing with my walk-behind EGO bagger, I push the release latch for the 56V battery (and stick it back on the charger) before I clean the deck.

 

[Brian123]

I have two mowers -
1) Husqvarna AWD Self propelled walk behind mower with a Honda GCV160 Engine and
2) Cub Cadet Zero Turn Z Force SX 54 Riding Mower with Kawasaki FR730V 24 HP engine.

It is in my practice after every mow (roughly once a week) to clean the bottom of the deck of both the mowers with a self made plastic scrapping tool. I dont use the Garden hose attachment as I feel that water will increase rusting conditions. I do move the blades a little to get access around the blades to scrape the lumps of grass cake.

Lately , reading generically, I have come across about the practice of removing spark plugs wire that has been mentioned everywhere before working near the blades. This made me think that am I doing an unsafe practice.
For the walk behind mower, I have the ignition lever disengaged and fuel shut off and then I tilt the mower to its side and for the Riding mower, I absolutely make sure that the key is out.

What do you guys think? Should I absolutely pull he Spark plug wires every time? I read that chances of pull start engines ( like my walk behind mower) to start with a small turn of the blade is less likely whereas the electric start like the riding mower has small chance of starting due to ignition or electric fault.

On consequence part, seems like it is similar to flying in airplanes. Very less chance of accident but if it does happen, result can be devastating. I am sure to lose fingers and may be entire palm till the wrist.

The darn plug wires are so tight that even for maintenance, I tried to pull them a couple times, they dont come off easily. Perhaps that makes me lazy to do it after every mow. Will these wires become loose over time and come off easily. Another point is that the Riding mower engine is so hot after the mow, pulling the wires before cleaning the deck will require me to deal with the heat and because I do the cleaning outside garage, I will have to put the plug wire back to restart the mower to park in the garage.
Again, what do you guys practice and think about this ? Thanks in advance.

If you cannot mow when it is dry, do what I do, get the Pressure Washer out and have some fun then let everything Dry up!