You will be spending a lot of your time mowing your lawn during the summer season. Summertime is full of amazing outdoor get-togethers, pool time, and late-night fires—all hosted right outside your back door.
To enjoy all of these activities you will need to keep your yard well-maintained and perfect for hosting all these events. Unfortunately, that also means you will spend a lot of time listening to your lawn mower making louder noises than your car.
Although it can be extremely frustrating having to wear a good pair of noise-canceling headphones every time you go out to trim up the grass, it is necessary.
Thankfully, some of the reasons behind these excessive loud noises are actually pretty easy to fix or repair, making the noise a little easier on the ears.
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Follow all safety instructions provided in your equipment operator’s manual before diagnosing, repairing, or operating. Consult a professional if you don’t have the skills, or knowledge or are not in the condition to perform the repair safely.
Why Are Lawn Mowers Louder than Cars?
How lawn mowers are designed and the jobs they face are the largest reason for the loud noises.
These machines are set low to the ground and hit every bump and lump your lawn has to offer while their blades are spinning at rapid speed to chop down thousands of blades of grass at a time.
However, just because they are designed to do more of a laborious job doesn’t necessarily mean they have to be extremely annoying to listen to.
Here are five good reasons your lawnmower may sound a lot louder than a car and some tips on how to help muffle that noise.
1. Damaged Mower Blades
Every lawn mower is equipped with long heavy steel mower blades spinning rapidly to get you clean and even cuts throughout the entire yard. That motion is going to cause some noise and rattle the machine as it works.
If the blades are damaged, bent, or loose, they will make even louder noises, causing more of a nuisance. This can be due to the rattling of loose blades or metal-on-metal grinding. You could even hear a lot of noise coming from rocks and other debris bouncing off the blades and hitting the deck.
Try replacing the blades to create a quieter cut. (This won’t help the rocks hitting the metal, but it will help with the rest.)
2. Muffler Damage
Because mufflers are made from metal and see a lot of weathering on the job, they are also very prone to cracking and breaking after damage or corrosion. This can cause the noise to break through the steel making the muffler loud.
There are also metallic pieces inside the muffler called bafflers designed to keep the noise down on the mower. When these pieces break off, they can bounce around the inside of the muffler, causing a metal rattling sound.
With that said, having your muffler repaired or replaced is another way to cut back on the noise pollution in your yard.
3. Loose Body Parts
Lawn mowers are large, heavy pieces of machinery with a lot of parts. Because of the terrain they are working with, bouncing around a bunch will make these parts wiggle a lot, increasing the chances of them becoming loose and rattling about.
If your lawnmower is extremely loud, get a quick tune-up and make sure all of its pieces and parts are in the proper places.
Some parts to consider checking up on are as follows:
- Blades
- Deck Spindles
- Belts
- Pulleys
- Rollers
- Air filter
- Fuel caps
- Pull cords
Many parts of your lawnmower are easy to replace, and you can fix a lot of them on your own.
4. Engine Trouble
An overdue oil change is one of the most common reasons for a loud engine on a lawnmower. When the oil gets too thin, the engine gets loud.
The engine fan and valve lash are also large culprits contributing to loud lawnmower sounds. Many mechanics recommend having your valve lash adjusted regularly to keep your mower much quieter and in a much better working condition.
5. Wet or Long Grass and Debris
If too much grass and debris get caught up under the mower’s belts and pulleys it can start to make some very loud clunky noises.
Make sure to clean under the deck of your mower frequently, especially if you are cutting moist grass or unusually long grass.
How to Make Your Mower Quieter
Besides the tips mentioned above, like fixing some of the mower’s broken pieces or tightening loose parts, there are other tips and tricks out there that are very helpful in making your lawn mower a bit quieter.
Purchase a Better Engine
Unfortunately, your mower could just be loud because it’s loud. Some low-cost mowers have poorly built engines that will be loud no matter what you do to quiet it down.
Invest in Lubricants
Sometimes all your lawn mower needs is a little grease behind all the moving parts to keep squeaking, squealing, and other obnoxious noises to a minimum. Using WD-40 or something similar can keep these items lubricated.
Lubricating the bearing especially can help reduce loud noises and the need to replace the bearings often.
Purchase a Good Set of Head Phones or Ear Plugs
Unfortunately, there is no way to create a completely noise-free lawn mowing experience, and no matter how much effort and hard work you put into cutting the noise of your machine, it’s still going to be quite loud for many different reasons.
The only way to get completely away from the annoying sounds coming from your lawnmower is by investing in a good pair of headphones or industrial earplugs.
Mowing the lawn can be a little boring anyway, so purchasing some noise-canceling headphones and enjoying your favorite music, e-book, or podcast while cutting the grass can really help time fly and make the experience more enjoyable and a little less noisy.
When is it Time to Replace a Noisy Mower?
Many mowers have a lifespan of 7-10 years. However, that is not always true for all manufacturers, and your mower’s parts and pieces may start to give way earlier.
If your mower is extremely loud and you have tried everything possible to quiet it down with no luck, it may just be time to replace it.
Conclusion
Your lawn mower will be much louder than your vehicle because of the parts used to design your machine.
Many factors play into just how loud the machine gets, and one of the biggest players is how well your lawnmower is maintained. Keeping up with the mower’s parts is going to help reduce the noise tremendously.