Am I just unlucky.
So some background, growing up, around 10 15years ago when ever my parents small engines wouldn’t run, (mostly lawn mower/edger) I would take apart the carbs, clean with bristle brush, gasoline, picks to clear small holes on the bottom bolt, that always fixed it. Now I have my own property/life/lawnmower/snowblower. This year alone both went down after 4 years of seasonal use. I took apart the carbs, they were squeaky clean both of them. I did the usual take apart to brush, clean, I didn’t see any holes in the bottom bolts so just did what I’m used to doing. And both time, it would run, then shut off, or run and start back firing like a Honda civic. I took apart again used carb cleaner, compressed air and still same outcome, I then learned after both times I went on eBay/amazon bought a brand new carb for around $20 bucks, swapped it in and first pull it ran perfectly. The amount of time, cleaners and spark plug purchase was way more money than the carbs, which also came with spark plugs and gaskets. My question is what am I not understanding when cleaning carbs? I took apart the jet, cleaned those small holes, made sure float was cleaned and holes were cleared, bowl was spotless.