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How can I tell if the oil filter has been replaced. The one on it now is black with markings indicating it is Exmark. I don't know if this is the original or not. Paperwork isn't the solution nor is a call. If it was changed that's great, if not I'll take care of it. I do not want to make a fuss with the dealer, who has treated me very well throughout all things regarding this purchase. Another filter is just 18 bucks so not an issue, but I don't want to change it if they already did. For instance, would the factory filter be marked Kawasaki? I have the FX691V engine. If anyone knows, thanks for the help.

Dealers usually carry and use the factory parts... I would just go by the condition of the oil.. or just change it and filter for peace of mind.
In this case, exmark has it's own line of filters for the engines they use.

Scratch the hours in the filter
Then you will always remember when the service was done
In 12 years now ( boy dosen't time fly ) I am yet to find an oil filter that actually needed changing other than when a carb float had failed & filled the sump with fuel .
Don't worry weather they changed the filter or not
The critical filter is the air filter the oil filter really does not matter
For the same reason I always write either the hours or date on the bottom of the air filters .
I have seen around 30 engines destroyed because of a failed air filter , jet to come across one that failed because of a bad oil filter, unless it fell off.

Thanks Gents. appreciate the feed back. My experience with small engines is not as robust as Bertsmobile 1 or probably Chevychopper too, but... this is the first change after a few hours. I have found, when doing a new engine oil filter change that when I cut them apart, I will usually find some metal fragments. So for me, that's the point. Also, the oil was changed, of that I am sure and unfortunately it reads over the full mark by roughly 3/8s inch. So, changing just the filter may solve both problems, I won't add additional oil and when the new filer fills, the oil level may drop just enough. If I were certain the filter had been changed, I would have drained out the overfill amount. Brand new mower but has a few hours on it from testing/display (12 or so).

Chevychopper, when I was a young man I had a 67 Stingray with a 427, dual feed holly, solid lifters, and Lake Pipes. Unfortunately someone had added a 456 rear end and so it would blister the pavement up to about 60 mph and then top out on revs. It was a lot of fun though and I got into a lot of trouble too. Sold it and used the money for a down payment on a house. Back in 69 - 71 things were a lot cheaper.

Bertsmobile 1, hours scratched into the oil filter is a great idea, thank you, it never occurred to me to do that.

I have yellow paint pens. I put the date and hours on the bottom of the filter before i put it on. Same on starters.

I recently gotten multi color paint pens here as a yellow one just don't up very well on all colors. But yes they are very useful marking parts since the distributors can't send parts securely packed and the plastic bags are destroyed.

It like how I make parts with my mark when sold over the counter just keep customers from trying to cheat me with an UV marker. Sorta like the time I sold an used starter and the customer brought the same starter after he had removed the good parts and put in his bad parts. The marks didn't line up indicating the starter was disassemble.

Roll said:

How can I tell if the oil filter has been replaced.

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maybe knocking it loose will give u an idea. A Kawasaki i got recently had an oil filter that needed the Jaws of Life to knock loose- just like personal car oil filter experience.
If it easily turns I would guess it is recent but yes as posted above - look at the oil to see if it looks fairly recent and change it next time u change oil.

Roll said:

Thanks Gents. appreciate the feed back. My experience with small engines is not as robust as Bertsmobile 1 or probably Chevychopper too, but... this is the first change after a few hours. I have found, when doing a new engine oil filter change that when I cut them apart, I will usually find some metal fragments. So for me, that's the point. Also, the oil was changed, of that I am sure and unfortunately it reads over the full mark by roughly 3/8s inch. So, changing just the filter may solve both problems, I won't add additional oil and when the new filer fills, the oil level may drop just enough. If I were certain the filter had been changed, I would have drained out the overfill amount. Brand new mower but has a few hours on it from testing/display (12 or so).

Chevychopper, when I was a young man I had a 67 Stingray with a 427, dual feed holly, solid lifters, and Lake Pipes. Unfortunately someone had added a 456 rear end and so it would blister the pavement up to about 60 mph and then top out on revs. It was a lot of fun though and I got into a lot of trouble too. Sold it and used the money for a down payment on a house. Back in 69 - 71 things were a lot cheaper.

Bertsmobile 1, hours scratched into the oil filter is a great idea, thank you, it never occurred to me to do that.

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Dates or hours or both is good because it does not look like you are marking parts because you do not trust the workshop .
Metal debris inside the filter is where it needs to be
The dirtier a filter gets the better it filters till of course it activates the bypass.
The bulk of the lubrication is splash so that oil is the unfiltered sump contents .
They are NOT car engines co most of what you think you know does not apply.
I have engines here with no filters at all fitted to low end current model Craftsman & MTD mowers.
The exact same engine as the ones with filters, except these do not have the crankcase drilled for a filter .
They run just fine and will run for just as long as the filtered ones.
It is basically a con to make the owners think they are getting a quality product.
Look at the Hp/cc for your mower and then compare that to your car or a motorcycle to see just how low quality mower engines are .
For us who know the reality of the situation it is side splittingly funny watching people beat themselves up over nothing .
Mower engines are the cheapest engine it is possible to make they are lazy, low reving , fairly low compression with fixed timing , which makes them on par with a 1920's motorcycle and I have some 1920's motorcycles that have substantially higher Hp/cc ratio that have done thousands of hours with no oil filter .

Well this was all for naught anyway. Turns out when the dealer told me the unit had 11 hours on it that was incorrect. Today I learned more. The first number that pops up is battery voltage which was 11.2 then the hours of operation show which was 2.3. LOL
So, the battery needed to be charged, that's done. Then at 2 hours it didn't need an oil change or a filter according to the recommended maintenance schedule in the manual. The final insult to my pride was that the oil was not overfilled. I saw it 3/8 of an inch over the full mark but I didn't read the instruction on the dip stick, it says not to screw the cap of the dipstick back on the tube when you check oil level. So I followed the instruction and sure enough the oil level was exactly at the full mark. It didn't need a filter and it didn't need oil. But... it did need a charge. Then I took it out to get accustomed to driving it and nearly took out our mailbox. LOL

Thanks all for the responses.

Depending upon what brand of hour meter installed, a lot of them show battery voltage when the engine is turned off so you know if your batteru is going flat.When running they show the engine hours & with the blades on they show the mowing hours .
Others just flash through from one to the other

Hammermechanicman said:

I have yellow paint pens. I put the date and hours on the bottom of the filter before i put it on. Same on starters.

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The same for me!
If I use a WIX Oil Filter, I write the date and hours on the filter with a Sharpie Pen. If I use an eXmark or Dealer filter, I use a yellow paint pen, because those filters are black! I even do the date and mileage on my oil filters on my vehicles. (a habit I got into when I hung out at a garage as a teenager!) But I also keep a little (3"x5") spiral notebook on each on each vehicle and write everything I do to them in them.

I'm with the respondents who don't replace their oil filters too often. I usually replace every second oil fill (even this is possibly to frequent). It would be diffrent for commercial high hour engines and for engine service providers who are pretty well obliged to go with a new filter every oil change.

Aquadisiac said:

The same for me!
If I use a WIX Oil Filter, I write the date and hours on the filter with a Sharpie Pen. If I use an eXmark or Dealer filter, I use a yellow paint pen, because those filters are black! I even do the date and mileage on my oil filters on my vehicles. (a habit I got into when I hung out at a garage as a teenager!) But I also keep a little (3"x5") spiral notebook on each on each vehicle and write everything I do to them in them.

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Standard practice for me is to write the date / hours on the oil filter and also on the underside of the air filter with paint pens ( not sharpies )
So I know when they were replaced because while I do keep comprehensive records I do not keep customer cards either as paper or electronically .
SO when I do a service I can se when I last serviced the mower & go to the appropriate diary to see what was done last time .
I use a duplicate book to invoice customers so on the book I writ the date of the previous service

Had a guy just the other day bring in a JD445 and said I serviced it 2 years ago. The oil filter said 2021 on it. When I showed him he was surprised.

Hammermechanicman said:

Had a guy just the other day bring in a JD445 and said I serviced it 2 years ago. The oil filter said 2021 on it. When I showed him he was surprise

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I bought this repair run back in 2011
I still get people I have never ever done a job for trying to get me to do warranty work because "they only had it serviced a year or so ago "