Mo Monday: How to Raise Your Mower Blade

By Kris Stepenuck, Extension Leader and Mo Owner (Email the author)
September 14, 2020

During the #RaiseTheBlade project’s recent mulching mower giveaway, several people shared that they did not know how to raise their mower blades. To address this, today’s Mo Monday blog is dedicated to helping people understand how to raise the blade. The first thing to know about raising the mower blade is that it is done in different ways depending on the mower.

Dial on robotic mower to adjust blade height Some mowers, like Mo, have a dial that is simply turned to select the mowing height of preference. Notice the orange arrow near the top of the photo that indicates which height on the dial is selected.

The mower shown at the top of the blog has levers on two of its wheels that are squeezed towards the wheels, then rotated left or right to adjust the mower deck height. Handily, the mower shown indicates which direction to move the lever to set the mower deck to specific heights. 

On the mower below, the height is adjusted similarly, but there is no label on the mower to indicate the mowing height. Instead, the user needs to measure the height from the ground to the bottom of the mowing deck to determine if the mowing height has been set as desired. 

Traditional lawn mower with arrows showing how to adjust cutting height

This mower is set low, as we used it to prepare a site for reseeding.

Be aware to set the back wheel lever and the front wheel lever to the same “tooth” so the mower deck is level. In the image below, some of the “teeth” by the mower wheel are marked with pinks arrows to clarify what I mean by teeth. A hole in the arm of the lever allows it to be locked into position over any of the teeth, depending on what mowing height is desired. 

Arrows pointing to teeth on lawn mower blade height adjustment

Below is a great video from Cornell Cooperative Extension that demonstrates how to how to raise the deck of one model of mower and ensure it is at the correct mowing height. 

If you are buying a new mower, many hardware stores will happily teach you how to raise and lower the mower deck on the model you select.

Read more Mo Monday blogs on Kris Stepenuck's blog page.