How To Wash Your Mower Deck (and Why)
Perhaps you’re not the type to keep your equipment spotlessly clean. However, washing your mower deck is important to protect the condition of your equipment and maintain your lawn’s health.
Why Should I Clean My Mower Deck?
You’re probably more likely to make the effort of cleaning your mower deck if you know why you’re doing it, so let’s review how this practice affects your mower and your lawn. First, you know those annoying grass clippings that tend to stick to the wheels and deck? Well, they look unsightly on your equipment, but they’re a problem beyond that. If enough grass clippings accumulate, the buildup can prevent your grass from standing upright, and you won’t get a clean cut. 1
If your mower blades can’t cleanly slice the grass, they’ll shred it instead, damaging your lawn.
When your lawn isn’t completely dry, it’s even worse. Damp grass easily forms clumps that will build up quickly underneath your deck. When that happens, your deck will retain moisture, creating the ideal environment for rust to form.
Additionally, the act of mowing essentially slices open your grass blades. This can make them vulnerable to things like fungus, and if the clippings underneath your deck are carrying that fungus, you can spread it out to the rest of your lawn. 1
This information should convince you of the importance of keeping your mower deck clean. But now another question arises. How often do you clean it?
How Frequently Should I Clean My Deck?
The answer to how often you should wash your deck can depend on your specific situation. Generally, you shouldn’t need to clean the deck more frequently than two to three times in one mowing season. However, if you have a larger yard or if your yard is in a wet or low spot, you’ll want to clean at least four times a season.
Plus, if you ever mow when your grass is wet or if you mow very long grass, you may want to wash your deck each time you use your mower.
Ultimately, use your best judgment and be flexible. Depending on how dry or how large your lawn is, you can increase or decrease the number of times you’ll need to wash your deck during the mowing season.
How Do I Wash My Lawnmower Deck?
Some mowers have a built-in washing feature that makes cleaning their decks easy. We recommend doing this immediately after you get done mowing so that the clippings won’t have time to harden. Put your mower on a clean, non-grassy surface, adjust the deck to its lowest height, connect the hose, turn on the water, and engage the blades.
If you’re working with a push mower without a built-in washing feature, begin here:
- Remove the gas in your tank or run the mower dry of fuel.
- Take out your mower’s spark plug.
- Put your mower on its side with the air filter and carburetor pointing up.
If you have a riding mower, do this instead:
- Engage the parking brake on your mower and put chucks behind the back tires.
- Lift the front end of your mower with a lawnmower jack.
- Once your mower is tilted high enough that you can clean it, secure the jack position to keep it there.
How to Clean a Lawn Mower the Right Way
With those steps complete, it’s time to clean.
- Use a garden hose or a pressure washer to loosen grass clumps on your deck’s underside.
- If there’s debris that can’t be removed with water, use plastic tools, like a brush or ice scraper, to scrub it away.
- Give your deck a final rinse. Then be sure to dry it completely so that rust doesn’t form.
Check Your Mower Blades
Since your mower deck is accessible right now, it’s a great time to check your mower blades. You want to keep them sharp enough to slice your grass cleanly but not so sharp that they can cut your hand. (Ironically, over-sharpened blades dull quickly.)
If your blade is dull but appears to be in good shape otherwise, you should be able to sharpen it yourself, or you can have one of the pros at Outdoor Concepts do it. However, if you see any rust spots or large chips or dents, you’ll want to replace it.
Keeping your deck clean going forward
If you want to make future cleanings easier, you can spray a light coating of silicone lubricant—or even vegetable oil—inside your mower deck.
Additionally, at the end of mowing season, give your deck one last cleaning so that grass buildup, rust, and mold won’t be sitting on it throughout the winter.
Following these steps will increase your mower’s longevity while also benefiting your lawn. Got questions? Drop by our Bluffton or our Muncie location to chat with a member of our team.
This article was updated May 22, 2023
How To Wash Your Mower Deck (and Why)
Perhaps you’re not the type to keep your equipment spotlessly clean. However, washing your mower deck is important to protect the condition of your equipment and maintain your lawn’s health.
Why Should I Clean My Mower Deck?
You’re probably more likely to make the effort of cleaning your mower deck if you know why you’re doing it, so let’s review how this practice affects your mower and your lawn. First, you know those annoying grass clippings that tend to stick to the wheels and deck? Well, they look unsightly on your equipment, but they’re a problem beyond that. If enough grass clippings accumulate, the buildup can prevent your grass from standing upright, and you won’t get a clean cut. 1
If your mower blades can’t cleanly slice the grass, they’ll shred it instead, damaging your lawn.
When your lawn isn’t completely dry, it’s even worse. Damp grass easily forms clumps that will build up quickly underneath your deck. When that happens, your deck will retain moisture, creating the ideal environment for rust to form.
Additionally, the act of mowing essentially slices open your grass blades. This can make them vulnerable to things like fungus, and if the clippings underneath your deck are carrying that fungus, you can spread it out to the rest of your lawn. 1
This information should convince you of the importance of keeping your mower deck clean. But now another question arises. How often do you clean it?
How Frequently Should I Clean My Deck?
The answer to how often you should wash your deck can depend on your specific situation. Generally, you shouldn’t need to clean the deck more frequently than two to three times in one mowing season. However, if you have a larger yard or if your yard is in a wet or low spot, you’ll want to clean at least four times a season.
Plus, if you ever mow when your grass is wet or if you mow very long grass, you may want to wash your deck each time you use your mower.
Ultimately, use your best judgment and be flexible. Depending on how dry or how large your lawn is, you can increase or decrease the number of times you’ll need to wash your deck during the mowing season.
How Do I Wash My Lawnmower Deck?
Some mowers have a built-in washing feature that makes cleaning their decks easy. We recommend doing this immediately after you get done mowing so that the clippings won’t have time to harden. Put your mower on a clean, non-grassy surface, adjust the deck to its lowest height, connect the hose, turn on the water, and engage the blades.
If you’re working with a push mower without a built-in washing feature, begin here:
- Remove the gas in your tank or run the mower dry of fuel.
- Take out your mower’s spark plug.
- Put your mower on its side with the air filter and carburetor pointing up.
If you have a riding mower, do this instead:
- Engage the parking brake on your mower and put chucks behind the back tires.
- Lift the front end of your mower with a lawnmower jack.
- Once your mower is tilted high enough that you can clean it, secure the jack position to keep it there.
With those steps complete, it’s time to clean.
- Use a garden hose or a pressure washer to loosen grass clumps on your deck’s underside.
- If there’s debris that can’t be removed with water, use plastic tools, like a brush or ice scraper, to scrub it away.
- Give your deck a final rinse. Then be sure to dry it completely so that rust doesn’t form.
Check Your Mower Blades
Since your mower deck is accessible right now, it’s a great time to check your mower blades. You want to keep them sharp enough to slice your grass cleanly but not so sharp that they can cut your hand. (Ironically, over-sharpened blades dull quickly.)
If your blade is dull but appears to be in good shape otherwise, you should be able to sharpen it yourself, or you can have one of the pros at Outdoor Concepts do it. However, if you see any rust spots or large chips or dents, you’ll want to replace it.
Keeping your deck clean going forward
If you want to make future cleanings easier, you can spray a light coating of silicone lubricant—or even vegetable oil—inside your mower deck.
Additionally, at the end of mowing season, give your deck one last cleaning so that grass buildup, rust, and mold won’t be sitting on it throughout the winter.
Following these steps will increase your mower’s longevity while also benefiting your lawn. Got questions? Drop by our Bluffton or our Muncie location to chat with a member of our team.
This article was updated May 22, 2023
Repairing a rusty lawnmower deck
I was lucky enough to be given a petrol lawnmower last year which although well used was still running fine, but the only downside was a large rusty hole in the bodywork, also known as the deck. I was lazy and untreated this hole has got bigger and bigger and in the end did effect the performance of the mower.
The issue is that the grass ended up not getting sucked into the bag but instead followed the path of least resistance and spewed out of the side!
As you can see it was a pretty big hole in the mower deck!
Tools for the job
All the things you need you can get from Halfords as there’s not too much difference between the mower bodywork and a car’s so here’s what I used:
If you’ve not got a Halfords near you then all this is also available online from Amazon.
Bosch AHM 38 G Manual Garden Lawn Mower, Cutting Width: 38 cm, Height of cut: 15-50 mm, Weight: 6,7 kg (in Carton Packaging)
Remove the rust
If you don’t get rid of the rust then there’s no point in doing the job as the whole mover will fall apart at some point so here’s where the Hammerite Kurust comes in.
- Clean the area. Ensure the area is clean from grass and dust etc and then get at it with a wire brush. This will remove any loose paint and rust and give you a sound surface to work from.
- Apply the Kurust with an old brush. The Kurust will convert the rusty area into a solid and inert surface. If you want to get geeky then it actually converts iron oxide to stable iron complexes. Please note you shouldn’t put the brush back into the original pot as that could spoil it, so first off transfer any Kurust you intend to use into a separate pot.
- Leave it to dry and do it’s magic. It only actually takes 15 minutes so this really is a job you can do all in one go.
Glass Fibre Kit
The great thing about the glass fibre pack is that it’s got everything you need to finish the job along with simple instructions.
- 500ml of resin
- hardener
- matting
- mixing cup
- gloves
- stirrer
- application brush
Repair the hole
Job done and a new body of polyester resin and glass fibre! It’s amazing how hard it sets and I’ve still got lots of resin and fibre glass left. The gloves, brush, and pot all went in the bin as they weren’t worth keeping especially as they were covered in resin but they were cheap enough.
So there you go. For less than £20 I’ve saved the life of my mower and can confirm it works fine as I was using it later in the day.
It’s not pretty but it does the job.
Multi-Sharp 1301 Multi-Purpose Blade Sharpener for Rotary Lawn Mower, Spades, Hoes, Lawn-Edgers, Shears, Axes and Other Garden Tools
What is the best way to clean a lawn mower deck?
Especially when it comes to removing the caked-up grass from the underside of the deck.
So, what is the best way to remove caked-on grass from your mower deck?
Is there a product or method that works best to get rid of the grass?
That’s exactly what we are going to get into today.
After all, removing caked-on grass from your lawn mowers deck is part of regular lawn mower maintenance.
Below you will find the INSIDER methods lawn care pros use to clean their mower decks.
How do you clean a lawn mower deck?
Well, a good place to start is using the leaf blower to remove the grass off of the top of the deck at the end of each day.
But that will only get you so far.
And if you want to prevent your lawn mower’s deck from rusting out or failing prematurely. You really need to remove the caked-on stuff on the bottom of the deck.
So how do you do that?
Getting to Your Mower Deck’s Underside
The first step to cleaning your lawn mower’s deck is to get access to it.
If you have a common residential riding mower, you can pull the deck off in about 10 minutes once you get the hang of it.
And if you have a flip-up deck, you don’t have much to figure out.
On the other hand, if you are trying to clean a commercial mower. Getting to the underside of your deck SAFELY can be a challenge, and may require a bit of innovation.
You could build a ramp like the one pictured above, or you could purchase a jack to help you get to the underside of your deck.
Using a Scraper to Clean Your Mower Deck
Here’s the deal, when it comes to the underside, most lawn care professionals simply scrape their mower decks.
That’s it, that’s the BIG SECRET.
And they typically don’t use any product when it comes to removing caked-on grass from the underside of the deck.
So when it comes to cleaning the underside of your lawn mower deck, you may just have to get your hands dirty.
You can use several tools to scrape your mower deck including a:
However, it may be a good idea to treat the deck after you clean it to prevent grass from caking on the next time. To learn more on that keep reading.
What is the best product to clean a mower deck with?
When it comes to cleaning the rest of the mower. Including the top of the deck, what product should you use?
According to our research, the resounding answer for the best product to clean your mower deck with is Purple Power. Which is a commonly available degreaser.
41% of lawn care pros reported purple power as being their favorite deck cleaning product.
Further, we found that Simple Green was a close second taking in 31% of the vote.
Finally, the 3rd product recommended by lawn care professionals when it comes to cleaning a lawn mower deck was Ballard’s Mower Magic which snatched up 7% of the vote.
Ballard’s products are not as commonly available as its competitors are, so they can be harder to get a hold of. And many lawn care pros simply have not gotten to try the product, but they work great.
Good news! If you want to give it a try we have partnered with Ballard to get you exclusive deals. Not only do they sell great mower cleaning products, but they also offer a great lawn mower deck scraper.
One of the many benefits of being a GreenPal Vendor is access to exclusive deals!
“Just use a pressure washer”
20% of the lawn care pros that responded to our poll suggested that they don’t use ANY cleaning product. But simply use a pressure washer to clean their lawn mower.
While others reported using one of the products mentioned above along with a pressure washer.
Either way, a pressure washer is a much better way to clean your mower and mower deck than a garden hose.
Whether or not you use a product.
How often should I clean my lawn mower deck?
This is crazy but some lawn care pros find they NEVER have an issue with caked-on grass.
While others need to clean their lawn mower decks 2-3 times a week.
So really, how often you clean your lawn mower deck will depend on how often the need arises.
For example, lawn care pros that cut lawns in sandy areas find that the deck tends to clean itself.
The most common answer lawn care pros give is that they scrape the deck each time they sharpen their lawn mower blades.
And as we have covered in other articles, 75% of lawn care pros sharpen their blades at least once a week.
Ideally, you want to scrape your lawn mower deck before any caked-on grass has time to dry.
Due to the varying conditions you may experience, the answer to how often you need to clean your lawn mower deck can vary from after every lawn, to never.
Treating your Mower Deck After Scraping
Once you have scraped your lawn mower’s underside, some suggest that it’s a good idea to treat the deck with a product to prevent caking next time.
Simply using a product like WD-40, or even Pam can prevent grass from caking on your lawn mower deck in between cleaning.
That’s really all there is to it, scrape your deck, and wash with a product if you choose to.
And once the deck is dry, treat the underside with a quick spray to prevent buildup down the road.
Cleaning Your Lawn Mower’s Deck at the End of the Day
When it comes to cleaning the top of your lawn mower’s deck and underside. You will need more than a little bit of toilet paper.
Here’s the secret, most lawn care pros find that simply scraping the deck is more than enough to maintain their lawn care equipment.
But when you do wash the rest of your mower you may want to consider a product like Simple Green, Ballards, or Purple Power to really make your equipment shine.
Finally, don’t forget to post-treat the deck with a product like WD-40 to prevent build-up on the underside down the road.
Looking for more to read? Check out our guide to starting a lawn care company.