In case you're wondering how complaining about lawnmowers fits into a fitness blog, it's one way I get more exercise in. I refuse to pay someone to mow my lawn as long as I'm physically capable of doing it myself. It might be at the expense of my sanity, though.
I sold both my riding mower and push mower before I left Ohio, so I needed to purchase at least a push mower when I got here to NC. I found a good deal online and eBay was offering a 20% off coupon one evening, which made it an even better deal, so I jumped on it. The mower arrived two days later without issue, or so I thought.
When I got the lawnmower out of the box, I realized that the inside piece of one wheel had popped off, and it was hard plastic so wouldn't bend to go back in. The level that adjusts the height was also bent pretty bad, enough that when you tried to adjust it, it wouldn't stay in the little groove thingie. I might have been able to bend that back into place, but if it broke or otherwise damaged further, anything that I had done would have voided the warranty, and I didn't want to take that chance. It was a hassle, but I boxed it back up returned it.
While waiting for the refund, I opted to go to Lowe's and buy another. By now my lawn was a crazy overgrown mess, so I needed to get this thing up and running. I pulled it out of the box, followed all the directions in the order specified, and got ready to make things happen.
Only they didn't. The pull cord wouldn't pull. It would come out a few inches, and stop. I could get it to come all the way out if I stopped when I felt resistance, and pulled a little again, and pulled a little again,but that didn't do me any good in starting the mower as of course you have to give it a good yank to fire it up.
I tried numerous times with the same result, and after griping about it on Facebook, I searched online for a possible solution. One troubleshooting recommendation was to make sure that there was nothing under the mower that blocked the blade from turning. Oooh, maybe that was it! Since I had just taken it out of the box, perhaps there was packing material under there that I hadn't known about.
Nope. What I found underneath was something completely different. There was what appeared to be a black rod sticking out that prevented the blade from turning freely. What the heck? It took me but a second to realize that it was actually the end of the handle that wasn't pulled up all the way.
I scratched my head, then looked at the directions again to see if I'd missed anything. Nope. One part said to pull up the handle and line up with the holes on either side, and insert the bolts and tighten. I had done that. There were two sets of holes, and I lined up the one that made the handle a little lower, that felt more comfortable for me (I'm not really short, but certainly not tall). Well that was the problem. Once I moved it to the other hole, the bottom of the handle was out of the way of the blade.
Why would a manufacturer make two sets of holes available if lining up one of them prevented the blade from turning? Definitely a design flaw.
Once I had the handle moved in the highest position, the pull cord functioned properly and I got it started on the first try. I let it run for a few seconds, then stopped to change into my yard shoes before tackling the front yard. When I went to start it again, the cord was acting wonky, like it was meeting resistance again, but I tried pulling gently a few times and it finally 'gave' and fired up. I was pretty tired by this time (I had run 4 miles earlier in the day, and it was now 84°), but I made sure to finish the whole front yard without stopping just in case it wouldn't cooperate again, leaving a job half done.
I still have the jungle in the back yard to get through, but was too pooped to tackle that yesterday, so it's on the to-do list for today. If the pull cord doesn't work again ...
~ Marie Anne
I sold both my riding mower and push mower before I left Ohio, so I needed to purchase at least a push mower when I got here to NC. I found a good deal online and eBay was offering a 20% off coupon one evening, which made it an even better deal, so I jumped on it. The mower arrived two days later without issue, or so I thought.
When I got the lawnmower out of the box, I realized that the inside piece of one wheel had popped off, and it was hard plastic so wouldn't bend to go back in. The level that adjusts the height was also bent pretty bad, enough that when you tried to adjust it, it wouldn't stay in the little groove thingie. I might have been able to bend that back into place, but if it broke or otherwise damaged further, anything that I had done would have voided the warranty, and I didn't want to take that chance. It was a hassle, but I boxed it back up returned it.
While waiting for the refund, I opted to go to Lowe's and buy another. By now my lawn was a crazy overgrown mess, so I needed to get this thing up and running. I pulled it out of the box, followed all the directions in the order specified, and got ready to make things happen.
Only they didn't. The pull cord wouldn't pull. It would come out a few inches, and stop. I could get it to come all the way out if I stopped when I felt resistance, and pulled a little again, and pulled a little again,but that didn't do me any good in starting the mower as of course you have to give it a good yank to fire it up.
I tried numerous times with the same result, and after griping about it on Facebook, I searched online for a possible solution. One troubleshooting recommendation was to make sure that there was nothing under the mower that blocked the blade from turning. Oooh, maybe that was it! Since I had just taken it out of the box, perhaps there was packing material under there that I hadn't known about.
Nope. What I found underneath was something completely different. There was what appeared to be a black rod sticking out that prevented the blade from turning freely. What the heck? It took me but a second to realize that it was actually the end of the handle that wasn't pulled up all the way.
I scratched my head, then looked at the directions again to see if I'd missed anything. Nope. One part said to pull up the handle and line up with the holes on either side, and insert the bolts and tighten. I had done that. There were two sets of holes, and I lined up the one that made the handle a little lower, that felt more comfortable for me (I'm not really short, but certainly not tall). Well that was the problem. Once I moved it to the other hole, the bottom of the handle was out of the way of the blade.
Why would a manufacturer make two sets of holes available if lining up one of them prevented the blade from turning? Definitely a design flaw.
Once I had the handle moved in the highest position, the pull cord functioned properly and I got it started on the first try. I let it run for a few seconds, then stopped to change into my yard shoes before tackling the front yard. When I went to start it again, the cord was acting wonky, like it was meeting resistance again, but I tried pulling gently a few times and it finally 'gave' and fired up. I was pretty tired by this time (I had run 4 miles earlier in the day, and it was now 84°), but I made sure to finish the whole front yard without stopping just in case it wouldn't cooperate again, leaving a job half done.
I still have the jungle in the back yard to get through, but was too pooped to tackle that yesterday, so it's on the to-do list for today. If the pull cord doesn't work again ...
~ Marie Anne
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment on my post. Much appreciated!