Start your engines
The time has come for landscapers and gardeners to haul out their tools, knock the dust off and fuel up for this year's season of gardening.
Equipment like tractors, rototillers and weed eaters make gardening and landscaping work faster and more efficient than ever. But to get the most out of those tools, it is important to take care of them and provide them with the proper maintenance and upkeep.
According to Gary Kalkbrenner, owner of Gary's Small Engine Service Center in Butler, equipment upkeep is all about the details.
“Every manufacturer gives you books when you buy (equipment),” he said. “And they tell you what to do to maintain it.”
The problem many people run into, Kalkbrenner said, is not looking close enough at the specifics of parts and procedures needed for their particular pieces of equipment.
“We see everything,” he said. “We see people don't put the right spark plugs in the engine; they just see one in the store and get it.” He also sees equipment that need more frequent replacements, things like air filters and oil.
“(If) you use it in dirty conditions then it should be changed more often, otherwise it should be changed once a season,” Kalkbrenner said. “If you ingest dirt in an engine, that's like throwing a handful of sand in there.”
This is obviously detrimental to the health of the machine.
“You're decreasing the life of that engine, and that's something people don't understand,” he said. “I have engines with thousands of hours and engines in worse condition that are just a few years old.”
The life and quality of your engine depends on its maintenance.
Kalkbrenner suggested before trying to fix or maintain equipment yourself, pay close attention to the manual.
The most frequent issue Kalkbrenner sees day to day is a lack of understanding about how to store and treat fuel, particularly ethanol-based fuel.
“The other real big problem — that is probably 95 percent of the problems we see — is fuel,” he said. “If the fuel has been left in there untreated, it can gum up the carburetor and then we're replacing parts. In a car, you usually don't see that effect because you're going through the gas so fast.”
Shane Rodgers, owner of Stan's Lawn and Garden in Cabot said, “The biggest thing we see people have problem with is the ethanol fuels. We recommend people use their gas up in 30 days because it goes stale in 30 days.”To prevent this, Rodgers and Kalkbrenner each recommended treating the fuels or simply using it before it goes stale.“If you're going to store it long term we highly recommend you treat it with something,” Rodgers said. “The ethanol oxidizes and its basically like a loaf of bread, it gets moldy basically.”He also recommended emptying equipment of all fuel before putting it away for the winter.
