Given the cost of lawn mowers, it's important to service yours regularly as a means of protecting your investment and keeping it running at peak efficiency. After all, a 3.5-horsepower lawn mower, if it's poorly tuned, will emit the same amount of pollutants in one hour as a new car driven 340 miles. Mowers should be serviced on a regular basis, ideally at the beginning or at the end of every mowing season. A typical lawn mower tune-up is much like a car's, including installing a new spark plug, belts, hoses and filters and inspecting all the parts. Also, remember to drain the gas from the tank before you put your mower away for the winter.
Old gas left in the tank can gum up engine parts and cause all kinds of problems.
And speaking of gas, the EPA claims that 17 million gallons of fuel, mostly gasoline, are spilled each year just fueling lawn equipment. That's more than all the oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez , in the Gulf of Alaska.