How to Know if Mower Blade Is Upside Down? [5 Easy Hacks]

While mowing your beautiful lawn, you notice the blade is ruining the soil and crashing the deck at the same time. Probably it was happening for the upside-down blade. But how to know if mower blade is upside down? 

Initially, you can check the blade to find the sharp edge. This should face the ground, and the dull part should face the deck. In case you notice the opposite, rest assured that the blade is upside down. 

Apart from that technique, there are some more handy ways available to help you detect an upside-down blade. Let’s see! 

How to Know If Mower Blade is Upside Down? 

The basic nature of every standard lawn mower blade is to cut on a single side in a single direction. It basically spins anticlockwise or clockwise while cutting.

So in case the blade is upside down, this will drastically affect the position and cutting performance! 

Let us teach you the tricks of knowing if your mower blade is upside down or not:

1. Check for Stickers or Etches  

Sometimes, lawn mower manufacturers etch on the metal of the blade to ease the identification of the cutting blade’s orientation. Moreover, others do apply stickers in place of etching with labeling like “this side down” or “toward grass.” 

This is how you will get to know whether your mower is upside down or not. However, by prolonged use, the sticker may fade away, unless it is permanent!

2. Locate the Sharp Part of the Blade 

Finding the sharp end is easy as pie! Because if you compare two parts of the blade, you will see one part is noticeably dull or blunt, so the opposite one will be sharp. 

Even though each blade consists of two cutting edges, both of them are prone to face similar cutting directions, either anticlockwise or clockwise. 

After locating the sharp part, you can see faces toward the grass instead of the deck. In case you find the opposite, then the blade might be upside down, which is easily fixable, though.

Read Also: Which Way do John Deere Mower Blades Go On?

3. Wobbling Test 

An appropriately installed blade will stay firm after tightening each bolt. So in case you find that pretty unstable or kind of wobbly, then probably you have settled it in an upside-down direction.

4. Terrible Noise  

When you place the blade in the correct position, it is obvious that it will spin flawlessly with low noise. 

In contrast, if you have made any mistakes during the blade setup, or let’s say it is upside down, then the mower blade can begin creating a weird noise! Excess vibration may also occur around the deck area!

In such a case, there is a high possibility that the mower blade will be damaged way earlier than usual. Moreover, the blade sometimes gets unwanted contact with the deck frame, which causes unexpected damage.

Read Also: What Is High Lift Mower Blade | Pros and Cons of It

5. Read the Manual 

Almost every owner’s manual of mowers features necessary information from which you may get ideas on the blade installation and orientation. 

By reading this, you will be able to learn which part of the mower blade should face the deck and which part should face the ground. 

So even if you have mistakenly placed the mower blade upside down, we guess the owner’s manual will really come in handy to set up the blade accordingly. 

What Happens If You Put Lawn Mower Blades Upside Down? 

When someone fails to put the mower blade properly by keeping it upside down, it means the pointy edge of the blade faces the deck. 

Furthermore, the dull part gets to forcefully contact with the grass, which cannot deal with it in the way it needs!

Consequently, due to improper blade alignment, this will damage the deck, lawn, and eventually the blade as well. 

So we’d say significant amounts of damage will be noticeable when you put the mower blade upside down. In this situation, you should not go through any task before the correction.

Read Also: What Is the Correct Lawn Mower Blade Position? (2 & 3 Blade)

FAQ’s  

An upside-down blade cannot be worth your overall mowing project. So, to put all your doubts to rest, you can continue reading the given answers based on users’ queries –

Should every mower blade be assembled similarly when it is upside down?

No, because each type of blade has its distinctive characteristics to make it different from others. By reading the owner’s manual, you will get to learn the basic assembling process. 

How important is it to install the mower blade accordingly?

The blade must follow a specific spinning direction to deal with the grass. If not, then the dull part will seem to be useless in terms of mowing the grass, and the sharp part will drastically ruin the deck. 

What size of the mower blade do you need to use?

The size that you should use for your lawn mower depends on your mower type, project, and so on. By checking the deck’s label, you can detect the actual blade size for your lawn mower.