The lawnmower is the crucial equipment to have in your home if you have a garden or lawn. Your lawn might need consistent cutting to keep its aesthetic look. It also helps your grass to grow healthy by preventing any insects or parasites to feed on them.
Usually, lawnmowers need constant maintenance to keep them working. Most of the maintenance will be regarding the carburetor, fuel passage line, air filter, etc. But most people forget to charge their lawnmower battery periodically.
The battery gets to get low on charge eventually. So we need to charge them once in a while especially if you are leaving your lawnmower idle for months. The charge in the battery will get drained sooner. So we have to charge our lawnmower battery. Or you can replace it with a new one which is an expensive option.
In this article, we are going to show you how to charge a lawn mower battery easily at home.
When Should You Charge The Battery?
Before getting to know how to charge your lawnmower’s battery, you should know when to charge them. You don’t have to recharge them if they are in their best condition. So, we are going to see under what circumstances, you should charge your lawnmower.
The first thing to understand is that people tend to leave their lawnmowers without putting them to work in winter because they don’t need to mow their lawn in the cold weather. As a result, the mower’s battery will get drained. So, it is ideal to recharge them after long inactivity. Then you can charge your battery before putting them in a shed in winter. You can either recharge them before or after the inactivity in winter and it’s totally up to you.
Finally, you have to recharge your battery if the battery is suddenly dead. You can find whether the battery is still dead or not by pressing the self-start button.
If the engine doesn’t make the starting noise you can be certain that there is some problem with the battery and can try to charge it. If the engine starts and off suddenly, then it might not be a problem with your battery rather some problem with the carburetor or other parts.
OLD vs NEW Battery Chargers
Before charging, check whether your battery charge is an old model or new. This is to ensure your safety. The old model battery charges can’t stop charging after a certain point. They instead overcharge the battery which results in the release of toxic vapor substances in the air.
This can cause serious discomforts or can also result in health problems. So, if you are using an old battery charger, make sure to remove it from the power socket at the appropriate time. Stay with the battery until it stopped charging.
However, you don’t have to be concerned about this problem if you are using a new type of battery charger. These chargers have an in-built sensor that will stop the battery from charging after reaching a certain threshold.
So you don’t have to worry about the release of toxic gasses if you leave the charger unattentive. You can come back after hours and turn off the power source safely.
These new model battery chargers also have advanced features like different modes of charging. For example, if you are in a hurry and need to charge your mower’s battery instantly, you can use the jumpstart mode to immediately charge your mower. There are also other charging modes like slow and fast. You can use the desired charging mode depending on your situation.
Caution:
The first thing you should check before charging your battery is to check your battery’s voltage. Most of the lawnmowers manufactured before the 1980s contain a 6 volts battery whereas mowers created after that year usually contain a 12 volts battery.
It is vital to check your battery’s voltage because you should equip the charger according to that. Don’t use a 12 volts battery charger to your 6 volts battery which can cause your battery to overheat which in turn can result in fire or explosion.
How To Charge Your Battery
- First things first, make sure you are wearing protective gloves and goggles.
- Switch of the electric charge or better to unplug them from the electrical outlet.
- Now you have to find the battery. Most batteries will be under the seat. So lift your seat and find the battery and take it out.
- Now you have to connect the charger to the battery’s positive terminal first and negative terminal second. Do it in the order as said here.
- We are almost done here. Now all you have to do is put the charger into the electrical socket and switch it on and wait.
Make sure that you are not touching anything that could carry electricity before switching on the charger. Then let it charge for a few hours while ensuring no one gets near that.