A little while ago I went to a Briggs update class and they talked about their new “just check and add” engine. Now you never have to change your oil again. Before I get to what I think about this, I'll go over why they are doing it. Marketing did some surveys and the number three issue that the people they surveyed brought up was a concern when figuring out what king of mower to buy was whether or not they had to change oil. Corded electric mowers have been around for a long time and now battery powered mowers are starting to be more common, so there are options that do not require oil. So in the end marketing told engineering to make an engine that did not require oil changes.

Briggs has done a few things that make this possible, first they have changed their boring process. The normal “break in” oil change is just getting rid of any materials that the manufacturer has left behind in the manufacturing process, so now they have a cleaner boring method. They are also using a better oil filter to help keep more impurities out. So they have done a few thing but the real issue is that they still only warranty the engine for two years.

Any mower engine, under normal use is going to last for two year without changing the oil. In today's society this is going to be just fine, most people only expect 2 to 3 years out of a machine any more and rather than fix any problems they just throw it away and buy a new one anyways, so for most people this is going to be fine.

Now if you are the kind of person that takes care of your equipment and wants it to last then I would recommend changing the oil. Impurities and grit are always going to build up and if you don't want to wear the engine out prematurely then the oil needs to be changed.

So really this just seems like Briggs is just saying that people don't expect things to last so it really doesn't matter anyways, and remember they are still only warrantying it for 2 years. It's too bad, there are many Briggs engines from the 70's 80's and 90's that are still running but 20 years from now I don't know that you'll be able to make the same statement about so many 20 year old engines still being around and still running.