My Father wants a petrol powered strimmer for "normal" garden work - i.e. infrequent use on smallish triffidry.
Previously had a McCulloch which broke due to metal fatigue (I think) on the long drive shaft casing.
Any recommendations and/or advice appreciated.
TIA
stihl/ryobi
Cheers.
I have a big Ryobi and it's excellent but don't let it overheat or the bolthead in the line cassette melts the surrounding plastic.
Bill
Cheers Bill. When you say 'big', how big?
My Ryobi is doing well I don't know if it's a "big" one or not. It's dual line with a maximum cutting dia of at a guess 15". Dual line means that the thing is in balance so less vibration compared to single line.
Never had any great problem starting from cold even after being just left in the garage overwinter.
Not had that, the bump feed doesn't work (it did at one time) but as the ground I generally strim is hard and lumpy not having bump feed saves line. B-)
If "smallish" and "normal" are the same as I think, forget the petrol and get one of these:
I have been extremely impressed. It's as powerful as any other small domestic line trimmers (I had a Ryobi before). Of course, petrol goes bigger with heavier lines, which is why I said "domestic".
Does about 40-50 mins on eco speed, less on high speed. Battery recharges in a similar time, so get 2 batteries if continuous use is important.
I also find the line feed is a lot better behaved than my old Ryobi and it doesn't keep chopping the line off at the reel.
It's electric. It's about five foot long. It cuts a radius of about 7". You can fit a brush cutter. It cost £99. It's very effective and easy to use. You have to adjust the shoulder strap exactly though, or you get arm ache.
Bill
I have a "Fuji Robin" one which is excellent.
I would advise against buying a Chinese one.
Stihl.
Yeah 'tis a bit vague. I picked up on "triffidy". Triffids ain't small and have thick stems...
Dad got an mains electric strimmer, I tried it on the very narrow row of grass leaves (not stems) along the side of a cold frame after mowing. Shears would have been quicker. I guess if you only have a small amount of fine grass to trim around things (I note you use the word "trimmer" not "strimmer") and bending or kneeling is difficult such a thing is fine.
Our strimmer has to cope with 3' high nettles over several square metres. Nettles have very fibrous stems and can wrap them selves around the head. The grass is also stems not just leaves.
Yes, I do use mine mostly for edging work on grass (so I appreciate the lack of fuss of a battery tool).
But it will take out nettles, cow parsley and smaller brambles.
I would make a counter proposal though that if the trimmer is light and very low-fuss, it's a lot easier to pick it up twice as often and deal with the weeds whilst they are smaller.
I found that when I put up a small plastic "lift lid" storage unit for my mower and garden tools (old shed is knackered) and it was a lot easier to get the mower out rather than fighting though lots of crap in the shed, I cut my lawn every 1-2 weeks in growing season. In turn I can get around the garden on half a tank of petrol instead of 2 and empty the grass box 1-2 times instead of 10 times.
Ease makes chores a lot less chore-y...
Indeed. String won't cope. But a steel blade in place of the string certainly will...
If I cut the lawn once a week, I get away with about 10 grassbox emptyings.
Ours starts to need cutting after about five days. Trouble is with the recent weather it can be another 5 days before it's dry enough, miss that chance then another few days...
Cut ours Friday, "short meadow" would be a resonable description with all the grassland plants in flower and a foot high. Probably got two dumpy bags of cuttings. Didn't even start to count the number grassbox empties.
so get a bigger mower?
Jim K
It's quite big enough, thank you. A ride-on might help but SWMBO says I need the exercise.
+1
The Black & Decker electric units I had 'some time ago (10s of years)' were not much use.
I hired a Stihl some time (years) before I made my purchase.
"36V" is the key - a lot has improved in the last 10 years with battery tools.
We've had two B&D mains units, one in the US, one here, and although they have started out fine, they both eventually stopped advancing the string, to the point where they became shed ornaments. I have found nobody who can explain what happens, and how to fix it. I now have a new Stihl, and have yet to use up the first spool.
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