How to buy a used lawn mower: the 10-minute test, the engine’s age and a fair price

Which used mowers are worth buying

A used mower is only as good as the parts you can still buy for it. Long-running brands (Toro, Honda, John Deere, Husqvarna, Cub Cadet and the like) have blades, belts and filters on the shelf and repair shops that know them. A no-name mower from a closeout sale may run fine today and be scrap after its first broken part.

Older is not worse. A ten-year-old mower with a strong engine and a solid steel deck often beats a two-year-old budget model whose thin deck is already rusting. Commercial-grade walk-behinds from lawn-care crews are built to be rebuilt.

Used Honda gas mowers have a following of their own. Honda told its dealers in October 2022 that it would stop making lawn mowers for North America in September 2023, and it kept parts and service going. A well-kept Honda is now a used-only purchase, and the parts supply is what makes one worth paying a little more for.

Battery mowers are a different purchase. The motor and deck have little to wear out, so the battery is most of what you pay for. A mower on the same battery platform as tools you already own is worth more to you than to the next buyer; one sold without its battery and charger is a deck waiting for an expensive part.

Questions to send before you drive over

A few messages save a wasted trip.

1. How old is it, and where did you buy it? A receipt answers both.
2. When was it last serviced? Oil, blade, spark plug and air filter. A seller who knows has usually looked after it.
3. Why are you selling? Moving, upgrading to a rider and switching to battery are ordinary answers.
4. Please don’t start it before I get there. You want to see a cold start. A warm engine can hide a hard-starting problem.
5. Can you send a photo of the label? Every mower has a model and serial label on the deck or frame. For gas mowers, ask for the engine’s numbers too.
6. For battery mowers: how many batteries, what size, and is the charger included? Ask for the volts and amp-hours (Ah) on each battery.
7. For riders: what does the hour meter say?

A seller who won’t send a label photo or say how old it is has given you a reason to keep looking.

How old is it, and has it been recalled?

On a Briggs & Stratton engine, found on a great many push mowers and riders, the code number stamped or printed on the engine beside its model and type numbers gives the build date. Briggs & Stratton’s own example: in code 99011556, 99 is the year (1999), 01 the month and 15 the day, and the last two digits identify the plant and assembly line. The system dates back to 1965, so a code starting 21 means 2021.

Other engines and battery mowers carry a model and serial label too; the maker’s support site or a dealer for the brand can usually date it from that.

Then check for recalls with the brand, model and serial in hand: the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s recalls in the US, Recalls and safety alerts in Canada, and the maker’s own site, since a recall often covers only some serial ranges. A recalled mower isn’t automatically a bad buy. Ask whether the fix was done; if not, the maker usually still does it free.

The 10-minute test for a gas push mower

Bring gloves and a phone torch. The list covers the points in NAPA’s buying tips (an easy start, the blade, the deck, the oil, the service history) and a few more, in the order you can do them in a driveway.

1. Touch the engine. It should be cold. If it’s warm, ask why.
2. Check the oil. Milky oil has water in it. Oil above the full mark that smells of gasoline can mean fuel is leaking into the engine.
3. Start it. A healthy mower starts in a pull or three once primed or choked as its manual says. Many pulls, or starter spray, means fuel or carburetor trouble.
4. Watch the exhaust. A puff of smoke at start-up is normal. Steady blue smoke means it is burning oil.
5. Listen at idle and full throttle. It should hold a steady note. Revving up and down by itself (surging) usually points to the carburetor.
6. Let go of the bar and count. Under the US federal standard for walk-behind rotary mowers (16 CFR 1205), the blade must stop within 3 seconds of releasing the control. On most push mowers letting go stops the engine too; with a blade brake clutch, the blade stops and the engine keeps running. Longer than 3 seconds means a worn brake or a bypassed safety.
7. Try the self-propel. It should pull evenly on grass and stop pulling when released. Slipping is often a belt or cable, sometimes the transmission.
8. Work the height adjusters. Each should move and lock at every notch.
9. Shut it off, pull the spark plug wire, look under the deck. Ask the seller to tilt it back on its rear wheels. Look for rust holes, cracks and welded patches, especially along the edges where wet grass packs in.
10. Check the blade and shaft. With gloves on, rock the blade tip: there should be no play. Measure from one blade tip to the deck rim, turn the blade half a turn and measure the other tip at the same spot. A difference means a bent blade (cheap) or a bent crankshaft (usually not worth fixing on a push mower). Hard shaking while it ran told you the same thing.

A torn bagger or missing chute is one more thing to buy. Reel mowers are simpler. They are exempt from the federal blade-stop rules (they need only a warning label), and the test is whether the blades spin freely and cut paper cleanly.

Battery mowers: test the batteries, not the motor

Battery mowers rarely fail at the motor; the batteries wear out with age and charge cycles.

Read each battery’s label for voltage and amp-hours (Ah): more Ah means longer run time, and two batteries make a different deal from one. Put a battery on the mower’s own charger and watch it charge. Then mow long enough to see the gauge drop a step. A battery that shows full and dies within minutes has lost most of its capacity. Ask how old the batteries are and where they spent the winters: a heated house is a better answer than a freezing shed.

Warranty is the part buyers miss. EGO’s US and Canadian warranty, for example, covers only the original purchaser who bought from an authorized EGO retailer, needs the original dated receipt, and can’t be transferred unless the law requires it. Treat a used battery mower as having no warranty, and price it that way.

Riding mowers, lawn tractors and zero-turns

Riders are where the big savings are, and where a bad buy costs most. Give it 20 minutes.

Hours tell you more than age. Compare the hour meter with the seat and pedal wear and the service records; a reading that looks low for a worn machine may mean a replaced or disconnected meter, so ask.

Start it cold, then drive it forward and back on flat ground and up a slope. A hydrostatic transmission (a pedal or lever for speed, no gears) should pull smoothly. A loud whine, creeping with the pedal released, or struggling on a modest hill points to a tired transmission, an expensive repair on any rider. Engage the blades and listen: a squealing belt or grinding from the deck usually means worn belts or spindle bearings.

Then test the seat switch. On flat ground, with the blades on, lift yourself off the seat. The CPSC’s riding mower fact sheet describes this operator presence control: it stops the blades if the rider leaves the seat without switching them off. If nothing happens, the switch has been bypassed: a safety problem, and a hint about how it was treated.

On a zero-turn, push both lap bars forward evenly: it should track straight, and sit still with the bars in neutral. Drifting means the bars need aligning or one side’s drive is weak. Finish with tires (cracked sidewalls, plugs, sealant), a slow crank from the starter battery, deck rust and fresh welds on the frame. Measure your gate and shed door against the deck width before you pay.

Red flags in mower listings

These listings need a second look:

• “Just needs a carb clean” or “ran when parked”. It doesn’t run; price it as a project.
• A warm engine when you arrive, after you asked them not to start it.
• Fresh paint on the deck and nowhere else. Paint can hide rust that has gone through.
• No model and serial label on a newer machine, no receipt, and a price far below the rest. That is how stolen equipment tends to look.
• A near-new zero-turn at a fraction of its price, with a seller who wants a deposit to “hold it” or offers to ship it. Mowers are heavy, local items. Our guide to deposit scams explains how this one works.
• “Moving, must go today”, pushed hard, to rush you past the test.

Pay only once the mower is in front of you and running; the payment methods guide covers each option.

Fuel, storage and why the mower starts hard

Stale fuel is the usual reason a used mower starts badly or not at all. Gasoline left in over a winter breaks down and leaves deposits in the carburetor’s small passages. That is why “just needs a carb clean” is so common, and why a mower that sat for two seasons is a gamble even if it ran well when parked.

Ask what fuel it has been run on. E15 (gasoline with up to 15% ethanol) is prohibited in lawn mowers and other off-road engines under US federal rules, and the EPA’s E15 pump label warns against using it in equipment such as lawnmowers. Regular E10 or ethanol-free fuel is the safe choice. Once the mower is yours, empty the seller’s old fuel, fill with fresh and change the oil.

What to pay for a used lawn mower

There is no blue book for mowers, but you can price one in five minutes:

1. Find today’s price new for the same model, or the one that replaced it. That’s your ceiling: new comes with a warranty, so used has to come in well under it.
2. Check what the model sold for. eBay’s sold listings show real prices for common models, and Marketplace can show items already sold near you.
3. Compare local asking prices for the same model and age. Our guide to judging a fair price explains how to read them.
4. Subtract what it needs: a blade, a tune-up (oil, plug, air filter), a belt, tires or a battery, at what each would cost you.

For a clean, running mower a few years old, half of today’s new price for the same model is a reasonable opening offer. Come down from there for anything in the right-hand column:

Then negotiate on what you found: “the blade’s bent and it’s due a tune-up” beats “would you take less”.

When to buy a used mower

Spring brings the most listings and the most buyers, and sellers have little reason to come down. Late summer and fall favour buyers: people who upgraded, moved or switched to battery clear their garages while few are shopping. If you can wait, buy in the fall. If you need one in spring, set alerts in February for the model you want, so the first April listings reach you before the weekend crowd.

Getting it home

A push mower fits in most hatchbacks. Ask the seller to run the tank low, and check the owner’s manual before tipping it on its side: tipped the wrong way, oil can soak the air filter and the mower will smoke or refuse to start until it’s cleaned. Riding mowers and zero-turns need a trailer or a pickup with proper ramps, straps and a second person. Take the key, the manual, the bagger and any spare blades or belts.

How to search for a used mower on Marketplace and Kijiji

On Facebook Marketplace, in the app or on a computer:

1. Search for the type or the model. “Lawn mower”, “riding mower” or “zero turn” for a broad look; a model such as “Toro Recycler” or “Honda HRX” for a short list you can compare. Try both “zero turn” and “zero-turn”.
2. Set a price range that cuts out toy mowers at the bottom and dealer stock at the top.
3. Set Delivery method to Local pickup, so mowers that retailers ship drop out. See making Marketplace local only.
4. Set Sort by to Date listed: Newest first. Good mowers go fast in spring.
5. Set your location and radius to how far you’ll tow a trailer.
6. Save the search in the app, or tap Notify me, and turn its notifications on. Our Marketplace notifications guide covers why they arrive late.

On Kijiji, search the same terms with a distance set, then set a Kijiji alert. Finding deals on Kijiji covers the rest, and finding deals on Marketplace lists the spellings sellers use.

Find the right mower faster with Sift

Facebook’s filters reset and can’t read listings. On a computer, Sift, a free browser extension for Facebook Marketplace, does that part. There’s no account to make, and it takes about a minute to set up. Its general tools clear the clutter, and the 10-minute test stays yours.

In Sift’s settings, turn on the broken-or-for-parts filter to hide repair and parts listings (leave it off if you want a project). Add your own Block words: toy, kids, “blade only”, “deck only”, or snowblower if combo listings get in the way. See excluding words on Marketplace.

• Distance limit hides anything past the line you draw from home and puts the real distance on each card. See the distance filter.
• Hide shipped and partner listings clears new mowers that retailers ship.
• Always sort by newest keeps every search in the order spring buyers need.
• Hide listings with no price clears posts with no asking price, and equipment dealers get a Dealer tag, or disappear if you prefer.

On what’s left, Sift marks Price drops and shows each listing’s price history, so a mower reposted three times and cut twice is easy to spot (the price tracker). Search one model and Sift compares each asking price with similar listings: cheap ones get a Below typical badge, overpriced ones get Above typical, and a price far below similar listings gets a red Very low price flag. Check elsewhere links on every listing open eBay sold prices, a reverse image search and shopping results, plus the same search on Kijiji in Canada. And a seller who asks for a deposit to hold a zero-turn gets a red Pay first chip.

Then watch the search in Sift, and it lets you know when new mowers that pass your filters are posted. See new listing alerts. Sift works in Chrome, Edge and Brave on a computer, not on phones.