I'm on my 20th year with this Toro lawnmower and the manual recommends every 50 hours or once per season. It didn't rack up many hours with the short summers in Alaska and Canada, and my lawn the first time I lived in Houston took 7 minutes to mow. My current Houston home the lawn takes about 45 minutes and even though I'm mowing 9+ months a year I'm still not hitting 50 hours. I'm a beginning of year guy and have made it part of spring start up - empty oil (gas already empty), sharpen both sets of blades, install a set of blades on the lawnmower (no chance of getting any oil in muffler), fill the oil, fill the gas (every gas can has Sta-bil added prior to trip to gas station).

I was beginning of year guy too with my monster snowblower when I lived in Alaska.

I can see the merits of end of the year, but I'm a "if it ain't broke don't break it" kind of guy.

quote:

Originally posted by Sportshooter:
I read somewhere that it was advisable to change the oil in a portable generator every 30 hours of operation. That seems easy enough to do to keep my little engines happy.

My old, reliable B&S portable had 50 hour oil changes in manual. I always made sure I had a 5 Qt jug of 5w30 on hand for hurricane season. Motor oil becomes a scarce commodity between closed stores and everybody needing oil for their generator.

My mower is lucky if it is started more than 12 times a year. My pressure washer probably 3 times, 10 in a busy year. I haven't started my snowblower in 3 years.

As a mechanic...I know that used oil is not good to sit. IF we're wanting to do the best thing, the MOST CORRECT thing, we'd change the oil twice a year. Once at the beginning of the season, and once at the end of the season. ADDING a mid-season oil change if use or abuse dictates.

With that said, I use synthetic, and change based on look, feel, & smell. I use more of the (what's my engine worth) type of method. My small engines that are worth less than a couple hundred bucks get this treatment. My wheelers, vehicles, and anything else that my life depends on...get babied. They get the full spa treatment several times a year. I even run an oil analysis program on several of them. My diesel truck has been on the analysis program and maintained to the severe duty standard since mile 0 and hour 0.6 when I bought it. My polaris ranger xp1000 that is worth more than my wife's ford fusion...gets the full treatment with the best of synthetics twice a year, and greased after every trip. It is also on the oil analysis program....though that's ending soon as its not looking to be a useful program for this unsophisticated engine with high hours and really low miles.

It is best for engines to sit on clean oil. So if you're only going to do it once a year, store it with clean oil.

I'm practical about it. I don't want to change oil and filters during the winter since I don't have a heated space, so everything that runs in the winter gets done late fall. I don't like things stored with old oil so everything stored gets done before storage. I have zero concerns about new oil sitting in engines for extended time periods.
The 2 strokes I don't do a thing. non ethanol fuel year round and just put it away.

I had an old Craftsman lawnmower. It had a Briggs and Stratton engine with a metal deck.
I never changed the oil in it for 10 years. The only reason I got rid of it was because the deck rotted out.
I did check the oil and added when I needed to.

quote:

....IF we're wanting to do the best thing, the MOST CORRECT thing, we'd change the oil twice a year. Once at the beginning of the season, and once at the end of the season....

That would be dumping out perfectly good, unused oil, at the beginning of the season.

The manual for my small generator says to change the oil, lubricate the the upper cylinder, and store with a full tank of stabilized fuel. That's the only thing with a storage cycle. My pressure washer gets used periodically year round.

Currently, my mower is the only piece of outdoor equipment that requires regular maintenance. My string trimmer, blower, and power washer are all electric. My snowblower is manual (shovel).

I change the oil, replace/sharpen the blades, and change the air filter in the mower every Spring. I change the spark plug every couple Springs.

But there's no reason that I couldn't do the same in the Fall either. I'm just not in the habit of doing so.

I do it whenever the mood strikes me. As my Applied Fluid Mechanics professor liked to say; "You guys aren't makin the Mars rover, don't make a science project out of your homework".

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:

quote:

....IF we're wanting to do the best thing, the MOST CORRECT thing, we'd change the oil twice a year. Once at the beginning of the season, and once at the end of the season....

That would be dumping out perfectly good, unused oil, at the beginning of the season.

It is quite common in expensive engines, well actually any engine going into long term storage. Long term is typically described as 6 months or more. It isn't perfectly good oil, it's storage oil, it was used for storage. In some cases a pickling oil is advised, but most oils these days are stable enough to qualify for pickling oil.

Maybe there are some exotic engines that dump the oil at 6 months or use some special oil. But none of those exist for the kind of engines I think most of us are talking about. My most expensive engine is in my excavator which might be stored for long periods and in discussion with an Exxon engineer (who makes the oil I use) they have no issues with storage periods of up to 2 years with respect to the normal engine oil actually recommended in the engine.
With today's engines and oils the most correct thing is to change the oil when its needed by hours or use and before any storage.

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
Maybe there are some exotic engines that dump the oil at 6 months or use some special oil. But none of those exist for the kind of engines I think most of us are talking about. My most expensive engine is in my excavator which might be stored for long periods and in discussion with an Exxon engineer (who makes the oil I use) they have no issues with storage periods of up to 2 years with respect to the normal engine oil actually recommended in the engine.
With today's engines and oils the most correct thing is to change the oil when its needed by hours or use and before any storage.

A diesel engine and a gasoline engine are different animals.

I really don't care what ANYONE does to their engines....the OP asked a question.

I certainly don't get your point on diesel versus gas. Nor your comments above describing the "common" dumping of oil from "any engine" after being in long term storage which also makes no such distinction between diesel, gas, expensive or not. To the OP original question there is no question in my mind that it is not "common" to dump brand new oil out of small engines after storage (which is what we are talking about) because it has sat for 6 months. And in conversations with oil suppliers and prior testing on the engines I maintain there is not a single reason to do so.

October for me - just before the weather turns sour.