I change the oil in my cars at 5000 mile intervals using a quality synthetic oil of the proper grade. Yet in my 47 years I have never changed the oil in a lawnmower or any other piece of yard equipment. Seems to me something else always breaks before the engine goes.
Maybe the new mowers where one doesnât change the oil come from the factory with synthetic oil. I revived my old mower with 10W-30 synthetic. Before I switched to synthetic oil, I was fogging for mosquitosâ while I mowed. The synthetic oil cut the consumption by 75%. However, at the beginning of this season, I did have to change the oil. When I started it up and mowed, it began smoking again. When I drained the oil, it was really black. After I put in fresh, synthetic oil, the mower quit smoking.
I suppose with a new mower with syntheticâ oil with piston rings that arenât worn, the engine might last a long time without an oil change. However, I think that this move of manufacturersâ advertising that the oil doesnât need to be changed is just reinforcing a throwaway society.
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I think one factor that is as important as changing the oil is replacing the air filter if it is the paper type or washing and reoiling it if it is the foam type. I do this every year.
Warning: This blurb contains car related content!
I service nearly everything myself, cars, mowers, appliances big and small, furnaces, etcetera. I even service things that are not intended to be serviced or ones that are not practical to service. I canât help it. I like being independent.
I remember years ago when I first saw claims by a small appliance company that advertised products that never need servicing. I thought, âWow! Cool. Howâd they do it?â
The way they did it was by making appliances that were not able to be taken apart and had no parts available for them. So, when they broke they were thrown out! Truly, they never needed servicing, only total replacement. Lovely.
Now, many items consumers buy are not repaired, but rather thrown away.
My point is that there is a difference between never needing service (oil changes, etcetera) and canât be serviced.
Labor rates are so high these days and products so relatively inexpensive that most folks would be fools to pay a guy $30+/hour to fix a $15 toaster (an item once repaired)!
We are/have become a throw-away society. First it was appliances, now moving into mowers, etcetera, and then on to cars.
At first not the whole car will be thrown out and replaced when it needs service, but rather major components. Oh wait. Thatâs already happening. Starters and alternators were always repaired, not so much now.
I remember seeing a TSB for a car that had a short diagnostic flow-chart and not too far down the chart was Replace entire transmission and exchange instructions.
Often times engines are just exchanged instead of repaired/rebuilt. Hybrid/electric cars get whole new batteries rather than individual cells.
Soon entire cars will be replaced/exchanged when something more than very minor problems occur.
Knee hurt? Hip a little sore? Schedule an appointment and our staff is standing by to slap in a new one!
Young folks are growing up in this environment and donât remember the days of being independent and accepting the challenges of repairing oneâs stuff, but we old guys are having a little trouble choking it down. 
CSA
P.S.
I agree! Oh, and one more thing⊠âGet off my lawn!â
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Many of those things are still rebuilt, just not one at a time in a local shop. Thatâs why thereâs a core charge. They are more economically rebuilt on a line, in volume.
No? Stuff still gets rebuilt, just not at first-world labor rates, right?
So I read the manual,
âImportant: Change the engine oil after the first 5
operating hours; change it yearly thereafter. Refer
to Changing the Engine Oil (page 13).â
change oil by tilting mower, does not come with a drain plug or synthetic oil. Like the little cars of the future, tilt to drain oil 
@oldtimer-11
Never heard of a Kohler motor before, now I have one.
I donât know how the kohler motorâs are now but they used to be very good.
My 3 yr old toro has no drain plug. Manual says turn it over and dump oil out fill port. Starts on 1 pull. 30" twin blade walk behind. Great mower. Got a free snow blower on CL due to stripped auger gear. $23 part and it works fine. I really like the elec start. Crank motor, keep pumping primer and it runs, eventually. Using the recoil on that would be torture. Maybe.i have never tried it.
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You are unfortunately 100% correct. Long ago manufacturers took pride in their product lasting a lifetime +. Then came the stockholders quickly followed by the bean counters who convinced the manufacturers that they are in the business of keeping stockholders happy by selling the maximum amount of their product and increasing profits (dividends). Product reliability is directly counter productive to sales volume.
âSoon entire cars will be replaced/exchanged when something more than very minor problems occurâ. We are already there. A 10 year old car involved in a collision that could be economically repaired is now totaled due to the cost of replacing deployed airbags.
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Havenât purchased a new lawnmower in years, but the Sears gasoline 4 stroke 3.5 hp lawnmower Iâve owned since the 1980âs has always started right up, first or second pull. The only exception is if the air filter is clogged or if I let it sit too long without running the engine. Thereâs a really tiny hole in the fuel bowl banjo bolt on carburetor that gets clogged. When that hole is clogged it wonât start no matter how many times you pull. Itâs easy enough to unclog, just unscrew it from the bottom of the fuel bowl, without removing the bowl itself. Some wd40 or carb cleaner will blow the hole free. Most diyâers get stuck at this point b/c they canât see the hole that goes through the bolt, it is so tiny. I usually have to use a magnifying glass to see where it is. Works out well for me b/c neighbors are constantly throwing their Sears lawn mowers away b/c that hole is clogged. I have spare parts for life, and the thrown away mowers I donât use for spare parts, I clean out that hole & sell the lawnmowers at garage sales for $10.
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I canât let the opportunity go guys. My grandfather was, among other things, an independent and ornery old coot in later years and when the family forced him to move to a small house near his oldest son and took his pickup and license away he found a discarded riding mower and patched it up to ride to a coffee shop a few blocks away every morning and to a good fishing spot on the river about a mile from the house whenever he had the urge. Everyone was worried but the best we could do was install a dune buggy flag on it and ask everyone in the area to give him a little space. He had gone to work at the age of 13 then worked until he was 70 then died 1 week short of 80 and only missed 7 days work. He could remember the days he missed and reasons the last time I spoke to him. I guess he expected as much from machinery as he expected from himself.
And if anyone knows who Werner Von Braun was my grandfatherâs arsenal pass given at retirment was signed by that man.
I did not do the get off my lawn @common_sense_answer but crotchety old fart strikes again. A couple of kids visiting the neighbors kids left their bikes laying down in our drive apron. They came to get them 1/2 hour later so I went out, and asked, do you know where you parked your bikes?
No where.
In a driveway I said, People use driveways for driving, so please donât park your bikes there. They were good kids and said ok, Was thinking the grass between the sidewalk and the street was called a parkway, ie where you should park your bikes but did not go there.
Wow! Good job. You turned a âGet off my lawn!â into a full-blown âlearning experienceâ and some âgiving back to your community.â
I hope you didnât hurt their feelings or youâll be contacted by the authorities for âbullyingâ or âchild endangerment.â (if they felt threatened). 
Did you remember to say, âBless your hearts!â to the kids? I just found out recently that southerners use that expression and others in situations like this. (Hint: It doesnât really mean bless their hearts.) 
Itâs a whole new world of language to me.
Example from the Urban Dictionary (urbandictionary .com): "That girl is the most fowl mouthed, idiotic, bitch there is, bless her heart." Ha, ha, ahâŠ
Oh, well. Good luck. 
CSA
I was very friendly, they were friendly, it was a pleasant exchange, no worries about upset parents, bless their little hearts 
My Kohler says no oil changes for life of engine.
Not many people ever change the oil anyway.