When buying a lawn mower, many people will look to buy a used mower instead of new one. A used mower can be remarkably cheaper than a new one, and there are auctions of used farm equipment in most states. You can get anything from a push mower to a commercial riding mower used, but the bigger the machine, the better off you are by buying new.

The Advantages of Buying New

The reasons to buy a new lawn mower over a used one are roughly the same as buying a new car instead of a used one. You get a manufacturer's warranty on a new machine, and you know its whole history. With a used vehicle, you never know what kind of damage may have been done in the past.

However, with a lawn mower, maintenance is almost more important than with cars. Grass clippings can accumulate in the mower deck, and cause undue strain on the belts and blades. This long-term wear and tear isn't readily apparent, and there is little way to tell whether the previous owner was vigilant about washing the mower after each use.

On top of this, mowers are usually only used part of the year. In most parts of the world, a lawn mower is used at most nine months of the year. Thus, a lawn mower must be properly prepared for winter storage by draining any old gasoline and disconnecting the battery. Proper storage increases the life of a mower dramatically, but again, there is no way to tell how well a used mower has been cared for.