Maintaining Your Brush Cutter

With the warm summer fast approaching, there are plenty of jobs to be done in the garden this spring. One of many that jumps to mind is brush cutting. Brush cutting any unwanted long grasses can often be the difference between a looked after lawn, and a luxury, highly sought after garden. That’s why maintaining your brush cutter is so important in order to keep achieving fantastic results time and time again. To ensure maximum results, the machine needs to be serviced thoroughly and regularly.

Before using your brush cutter it is important to make checks and test if the throttle trigger lock and the throttle function correctly, and whether or not the guard has any cracks or damages. If there are any damages then you must replace or fix these before using or the machine will not be safe to use. This also applies to checking the trimmer head to be certain of no cracks or damages. It is also a good idea to ensure that the locking nut, as well as other nuts and screws are tight and that the stop switch functions exactly how it should do.

After every use of your machine it is encouraged to clean the outside of it and make sure that the harness is not damaged to keep you (or any other users) safe. You should also clean the air filter and replace it if necessary so that you won’t forget next time you want to use it.

Roughly once a week (if you use your brush cutter quite regularly) it is important to clean the harder parts of your brush cutter, such as the cooling fins, the outside carburettor area, and the outside of the spark plug. It is also encouraged to check that the air intake into the starter unit isn’t blocked and that the angle gear is three quarters full of grease.

Jobs like cleaning the fuel tank, fuel filter, fan, carburettor and fuel pipe are all tasks which should be performed monthly, especially during heavy use seasons such as spring and summer.

If you know you won’t be using your brush cutter for a while and plan on storing it, there are a few things you must do first, to guarantee that it will still be in good condition next time you want to use it.

First you must drain the fuel tank after cleaning it, and then remove and examine the spark plug. If they need cleaning or replacing it is a good idea to do so before you store the machine. The next job is to remove and clean the metal cutting blade, check for damages, and protect it from any signs of corrosion. It is then a good idea to store your brush cutter hanging up. It saves plenty of space as you can fold the handlebars in so that it will easily hang in the garden shed.

If you follow these routines then your brush cutter has more chance of lengthy working life.