How To Determine The Best Oil To Use For Your Lawn Mower

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

A lot goes into choosing the perfect lawn mower for your grass type. It can become overwhelming to wade through them all. If you decide on a gas-powered mower, you'll have the additional consideration of which motor oil to use in your lawn mower, as there are many different types of oil available. Finding the right one involves matching the oil's properties with your climate and estimating how often the mower is used. The easiest way to determine the best oil for your specific mower is to look at the user manual for your specific model. Don't worry if you don't have the manual — you can still easily find this information online on the manufacturer's site. 

Another piece of information necessary to determine the best oil is whether you have a two-stroke or a four-stroke engine in your mower. Mowers with two-stroke engines are very rare but they still do exist ... although buying one today would prove difficult due to EPA regulations. If you have a two-stroke mower, the oil will be mixed with gasoline and then put in the tank. A four-stroke mower does not use a gas and oil mixture, only oil. More than likely, your mower has a four-stroke engine, so you will not need to worry about mixing up oil and gas.

Outside temperature and frequency of use are the two biggest factors that will help you decide which oil to choose for your mower. A mower used for a lawn mowing service will be used a lot more often than one that is just used every couple of weeks to mow the yard. For warmer climates with higher temperatures, an SAE 30 like this Valvoline SAE 30 motor oil is a good choice. The SAE 30 is a common oil for all small engines including weed trimmers. A good quality SAE 10W-30 handles a variety of temperatures and improves starts during cold weather.  You may notice that oil consumption increases with a 10W-30 when the outside temps go up. 

Another type of oil is SAE 5W-30, which is good if you mow your lawn often, as it has low oil consumption. A good quality SAE 5W-30 improves the engine starts at any temperature and works well in cold temperatures.  Furthermore, SAE 15W-50 is a fully synthetic oil that is well-suited for a variety of temperatures and is best for continuous use like a lawn mowing business would have. 

Choosing the right oil is one of several simple ways to extend the life of your lawn mower and keeps it in good shape. This is especially true when paired with changing the motor oil once each season. Make sure you also know how to prepare your mower for winter storage once the mowing season is over for the year.