Tips for Storing Your Snow Blower
At the tail end of the winter season, when the snow has cleared and spring has begun sprouting, use these tips to help you with storing your snow blower properly. It's served you well all winter, and now it's time to show it some love when packing it up. This will involve more investment of time if you have a gas-powered snow blower, but shouldn't take more than 45 minutes even if you do. If you don't take some precautions before storing it, you could have to deal with significant problems next season. Snowblowers improperly stored will collect rust rapidly, experience corrosion, or even fuel leaks. All in all, it's a good idea to go about it the right way so you don't have an unhappy surprise come November.
Dry Out the Tank
The first step you should take (only with gas-powered blowers) is to add some gasoline stabilizer or conditioner to the tank. Then run the engine for five minutes or so, to fully coat the inside of the tank. Then, again only for gas powered machines, you should leave the snow blower on until the tank runs dry. It's important to have the interior of the blower dry before months of storage.
Check for Loose or Damaged Parts
Next, you need to disconnect the spark plug wire from the gas powered blowers-so as to avoid accidental turn on's, or simply wasting the spark plug's charge. After this, you should go over the whole blower briefly and tighten any loose parts, like nuts, bolts, screws, or fasteners-again, as a precaution for the next time you bust out the blower. If you encounter any damaged parts, or anything worn out that needs to be replaced, now is the time to do that, which you can usually arrange by contacting either the manufacturer of your machine, or simply the nearest hardware store (they usually have spare parts for most mechanical toys you can buy, or at least the capacity to order them).
Clean and Dry the Snow Blower
Finally, get out a rag and some soap, and scrub that snow blower down. Not only does this preserve it's aesthetic attractiveness, it greatly prevents corrosion as well. Corrosion can occur any time you leave lingering substances on the body or the interior that leads to discoloration, a weakening of the material, and oxidation of any metals that are exposed. After you've done all that, it's time to wave goodbye for the spring and summer to your beauteous machine, and store it in a dry place. It's generally good to keep it off the ground as well, so as to avoid wandering puddles of water.
Now go back to whatever you were doing before you used some of your time on a valuable task to ensure the longevity of your investment, and give yourself a pat on the back. Another winter survived.
