Manufacturer: Briggs & Stratton Power Products Group, LLC. Date of Manufacture: March, 2005-February, 2008 Identification: See photo (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080403/AQTH535)
Note: The manufacturer has received no reports of hazardous failure on these chargers during the period of manufacturing stated above.

Recommended Action: Due to the violation of UL’s trademark the manufacturer recommends that you discontinue use of the charger and contact the Briggs & Stratton consumer call center, 1-800-935-2967, with any concerns relating to this charger. Replacements will be provided upon request by the consumer.

Sold at: Chargers carrying the counterfeit labels were included in lawn mowers sold at Lowe’s stores and John Deere dealers.

Briggs & Stratton Corporation is the world’s largest producer of gasoline engines for outdoor power equipment. Its wholly owned subsidiary Briggs & Stratton Power Products Group LLC is North America’s number one manufacturer of portable generators and pressure washers, and is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of lawn and garden and turf care through its Simplicity(R), Snapper(R), Ferris(R) and Murray(R) brands. Briggs & Stratton products are designed, manufactured, marketed and serviced in over 100 countries on all seven continents.

http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080403/AQTH535″ mime-type=”application/octet-stream”/> Photo: NewsCom:

http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080403/AQTH535

PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com Briggs & Stratton Corporation

Just found this thought I would pass this on since snowy weather is coming and were all checking out our winter equipment. The picture to the left displays where to find the numbers you will need to make sure wether or not you need to return your snow blower for repair. FREE of charge.

Briggs and Statton Models–12, 15. 20 and 21 OHV engines are being recalled.

The brands these engines are found in is Ariens, Canadiana, Craftsman, Frontier Equipment, Husqvvarna, Poulan Pro, Simplicity and Snapper snow blowers.

The problem is over priming the snow blower engine, it can cause excess fuel to overflow the carburetor. posing fire and burn hazard damage. So far this damage has been limited to the snow blower.

If you have any of these name brand snow blowers with this engine please discontinue use and return it immediately to be repaired.

You can

1. Contact an authorized Briggs and Stratton dealer to arrange dor a FREengine repair

2. For Frontier brand snow blowers you may contact any authorized Frontier dealer to arrange a FREE engine repair.

3. For Craftsman brand snow blowers Call Sears toll-free 7 a.m.–9 p.m. C.T. Mon.– Sat.

1-877-659-7017

4. You can contact Briggs and Stratton 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri. 1-866-478-7855

This safety notice applies to all Briggs and Stratton OHV snow blower engines manufactured between date code 000601xx and 07030xx beginning with the following model numbers that are installed on snow blowers.

12A1xx, 12A3xx,12A4xx, 12c1xx, 12c3xx, 12c4xx, 12D1xx, 12D2xx, 12D3xx, 12D4xx, 12E1xx, 12E3xx

12E4xx, 12R1xx, 12R2xx

15A1xx, 15B1xx

20A1xx, 20A4xx, 20B4xx, 20C1xx, 20C4xx, 20E1xx, 20E2xx, 20E3xx, 20E4xx, 20F4xx, 20G4xx

21A1xx, 21A4xx, 21B4xx, 21C1xx, 21C2xx, 21C3xx

Hopefully you will not have these numbers on your snow blower. But if you do please return them to be repaired FREE of charge. Please don’t take chances, Safety first.

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN – June 22, 2007- Briggs & Stratton announced today that it would discontinue operations at its Port Washington, Wisconsin facility. The facility manufactures riding lawn mowers and snowthrowers for the outdoor power equipment industry. The Company will move production from its Port Washington location to other company-owned U.S. facilities.

“We cannot possibly describe to our employees or people in the Port Washington area how difficult this decision was for us,” said Vince Shiely, President Briggs & Stratton Yard Power Products Group. “We appreciate all the help we have received from various government agencies including the City of Port Washington and Ozaukee County during this decision-making process. In the end, the issue was not whether we should invest more in this facility to make it competitive. The issue was that our business has excess manufacturing capacity and we concluded that folding the Port Washington production into our other operations was the most appropriate business decision.”

The Company has notified District No. 10 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO—Local 1430 that it will honor the work commitments required in the current agreement with the bargaining unit that runs through October 15, 2008. Products will continue to be built in the Port Washington facility through this date.

Approximately 325 employees at the Port Washington location will be affected. Shiely stated that the Company is working closely with employees to provide assistance benefits and outplacement services.

The company was founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1908 and today is based in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. Their engines are known for their durability and low maintenance requirements.

The company started in 1908 as an informal partnership between Stephen Foster Briggs and Harold M. Stratton. The original intent of the founders was to produce automobiles. In 1922 the company set a record in the automotive industry, selling the lowest-priced car ever, the Briggs & Stratton Flyer (also called the “Red Bug”), at only US$125-US$150.

Eventually the company settled on automotive components and small gasoline engines. Briggs purchased an engine patent from AO Smith Company and began powering early washing machines and refrigerators. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1928.

During World War II, Briggs and Stratton produced generators for the war effort. The generators and the engines were made with aluminum, a major advancement for small engines. This development, along with the post-war growth of 1950s suburbs (and lawns), helped secure Briggs and Stratton’s successful growth in the 1950s and 1960s.

Stephen Briggs went on to purchase Evinrude and Johnson Outboards and start the Outboard Marine Corporation. Harry Stratton served as Chairman until his death in 1962.

In 1995, Briggs & Stratton spun out the automotive component business. The resulting company is Strattec Security Corporation.

In 2003, the company acquired its consumer generator business from the Beacon Group and formed Briggs & Stratton Power Products. The Beacon Group had previously purchased the Consumer Products Division of Generac Corporation (now Generac Power Systems) in 1998. In 2005, the company added Simplicity Manufacturing Inc, Snapper, Inc, and Murray, Inc to the Briggs & Stratton Power Products line.lawn mowers, tillers, snow throwers, portable generators, pressure washers, welders, and other related products.

Lawn and garden equipment manufacturers are their biggest customer.

Engine products include the Classic, I/C, Sprint, Quattro, Quantum, INTEK, and Vanguard brands. The engines are made in the US and are sold worldwide through its own sales and service centers.

Today I got an email from Dave Cluka, the Internet Marketing Manager from Briggs & Stratton Power Products. It seems that Briggs is aware of the Internet.

I asked Gregg to give him a call and after Gregg had spent some time talking to him, Gregg asked if we could remove the post here and start fresh. I did not want to do that but I will post the information we got from Dave.

Briggs & Stratton is redesigning their website and has hired Dave Cluka to start doing some internet marketing. Dave is more than willing to work with us and provide us with information on products that are already on the market and products that are in the works.

I am hoping for a long and happy relationship with Dave and I am very happy that Briggs has started to take notice of the Internet.

1. There is no competition in the lawnmower blogging market. I started this blog that talks about nothing but lawnmower and I became the only one in the world doing it. And this blog has started to rank and is getting over 500 unique visitors per day.

2. Most of the lawnmower manufactures are unaware of the Internet. I looked at many of their websites and most were poorly designed and others did not have one at all.

I decided to call a couple lawnmower manufactures up and see if they would be interested in sending me information on new products as they came out. This would allow me to keep fresh information on this site.

First company I called was Snapper and they seemed to be more interested in selling manuals then anything else. Guess lawnmower sells have not been all that good. I remember when manuals were free. I asked for their marketing department but was told they no longer had that department. Maybe that’s why they have had to turn to selling lawnmower manuals instead of lawnmowers.

No big deal. I decided to give Simplicity a call and see if they were interested. Oops they forgot to put their phone number on their website. It seems these guys have missed the boat.

I felt at this point it was time to go to the big dogs. I got the number for Briggs&Stratton and gave them a call. The good news is that they have a marketing department. The bad news is the lady who answered the phone told me that I had to know the name of someone in marketing before I could talk to someone. I tried to explain that anyone in their marketing department would do but she said I had to know the name of the person I wanted to talk to. She then decided to be a little more helpful.

I was told to go to the Briggs&Stratton website and search through the website for the name of the person I wanted to talk to. I asked if she could just give me the name of someone there. But she said no. I then asked if she had any idea of where to look on their website for the information I needed, she said she had no idea. She told me to just go to the site and search until I got the name of the person I wanted to talk to.

I explained that I just wanted to give my blog members information and it would not cost Briggs&Stratton anything. Again I was told to go to the website and search for the name of the person I wanted to talk to. I decided to go to their site and search for the information I wanted. I was not impressed with their site and their navigation was not a lot of fun to figure out.

I now know why no one is blogging about lawnmowers. But I’m going to do my best to let companies like Briggs&Stratton know that not only does the Internet exist but it is a voice for the little guy or girl.