do you use synthetic oil in outdoor power equipment ?

[rfuerst911sc]

Yeah I'm bored but do you use synthetic oil in your outdoor power equipment like mowers,tractors etc. or any cheap crap you can find ? Seems to me they use so little volume maybe synthetic is the way to go ? I have a Cub Cadet 16 hp tractor with 277 hours on it bought it used. I've been using straight 30 in it but I'm thinking of going 5-30 synthetic maybe a motorcycle oil ? Watching the Broncos-Jets game is like watching steel rust

[Evans, Marv]

Most of mine use a mixture of oil & gasoline, so I use dino oil in them. I use cheap oil in my lawn mower, that I've had for 20+ years. I recently repowered an old log splitter with a HF 13 hp engine. I will be using synthetic in it after the break in period, because I have enough synthetic 10W30 in the garage to last for years in that engine.

[Don Ro]

A few summers ago I came across a several qt. bottles of Reline 20w-50 left over from a case that I bought some 30 years ago.
Using it in my Honda 21" Commercial mower.
Why not?

[johnsjmc]

I am sloppy about oil changes in my lawnmower, snowblower etc. they might sit a year or several for all I know between changes. Because of that I use synthetic oil when I do change them . most use less than a qt. anyway. I also try to use premium gas without alcohol because that gas can can be sitting around a long time too.

[Bill Douglas]

Interesting question. I thought the same too so I bought the most expensive 2 stroke oil I could for my chainsaw. It's Stihl synthetic oil. Sure it may be good for the engine but the smell/stench of the burnt stuff makes me ill.

[Rick V]

I always have extra M1 from car oilchanges so I use it in the lawn stuff

[M.D. Holloway]

pissing money away...but if your bored its beats various alternatives!

[LEAKYSEALS951]

I use spare Mobil-1 synthetic in everything... tractor, generator, chipper/shredder, power washer. Everything except for my old kohler K321 flat tappet engine on my (about 40 year old) ford lgt 145 lawn and garden tractor. It gets my used BRAD PENN!!!!

(since pelican isn't doing so well on pics today, here's the link to my self gratuitous garden tractor pic!)
Ford Lgt Snowblower Photo by DUALRESPONSE1731 | Photobucket

[gamin]

Syn 5-30 in the Toro zero turn 24 hp Kawasaki. Change yearly without fail.

[rfuerst911sc]

Originally Posted by M.D. Holloway

pissing money away...but if your bored its beats various alternatives!

Curious on the comment, seeing that most outdoor power equipment only uses a quart of oil or less and conventional is 4.00 a qt. and synthetic is 5.00-6.00 for decent not much difference.

[bri450sl]

I went to Walmart to buy oil for my lawn tractor. Looking over the different brands, I found the Wallmart brand synthetic oil cheaper than the dino oil. So that's what I've been using.

[Robert Coats]

Honda recommends petroleum-based oil for small (< 25 hp) air-cooled power equipment engines, as this is the oil used under all certification testing.

Nothing wrong with using synthetic at all, but it is just not necessary.

Except for snowblowers, SAE 10W-30 is perfect in most 4-stroke power equipment engines. Mostly, just change it every 100 hours. Don't be fooled into thinking you can "go longer" just because you're using synthetic.

FYI, 90% of the no-start/hard start problems I see are due to stale fuel.

[vash]

i'm not the best power tool owner. changing oil is a huge milestone for me. i use whatever i have laying around the garage..and that typically is synthetic. i wont make a special trip to buy tool specific oil. clean oil is better than what my tools are suffering with, most of the time. thank goodness for two strokes.

[74-911]

I use Wal-Mart's brand of dino oil in all my 4 cycle engines. The 11 year old JDeere
LT-160 with over 600 hours has never missed a beat. Change oil, filter and air filter every spring and a new spark plug ever couple of years and that is it. Can't see any reason to switch to synthetic, The cost differential is irrelevant for the small amounts of oil required for an oil change.

[flipper35]

I change oil in the lawn tractor every spring so I just use the cheap stuff. The same with the snow thrower but it gets changed in the fall.

[johnsjmc]

My snowblower recommends 5w30 synthetic considering the duty cycle it,s probably a good idea.
(It still has the factory fill in it since purchased in 2006 ,Same "factory air" in the tires too.) going strong. I said I was sloppy/careless about my yard equipment.
My cars and boats are a different story.

[M.D. Holloway]

Originally Posted by rfuerst911sc

Curious on the comment, seeing that most outdoor power equipment only uses a quart of oil or less and conventional is 4.00 a qt. and synthetic is 5.00-6.00 for decent not much difference.

bad use of the phrase - should have said 'over kill'

[mattdavis11]

Had a nasty rod knock in my mower before it seized, oil dipstick registered nothing. Now it burns gear oil, 80W90, IIRC.

[FrankyV]

After I went to synthetic in my ten year old mower it began leaking from the main seal like a sieve. Went back to conventional but no joy - still leaks.

[Hugh R]

I use Mobil 1 in my Honda 2000 watt generator. Otherwise, I have no idea what the illegal hired help uses in their lawn mowers and leaf blowers.