Looking for a good trimmer/edger

I just bought on line from home depot this trimmer that had a lot of positive feedback and features, which to the best of my limited knowledge in the subject am not aware of any other brand that does the same thing. Unfortunately, the first couple of minutes of using it, the spool would 'eat' up completely the line that was exposed. Each time i manually had to feed the line and each time it would eat up the line. I suspected a malfunction of the spool. It was so chintzy looking that I just couldn't see myself having to go through the same process each time I had to use it. I called the company and they said it that it sounds like a spring problem. They refused to send me another spool to see if that were the case, unless I buy them. Judging by the chintzy look of that spool, i was not encouraged to do it and i returned it to my local home depot and got my refund. I had 2 weeks to go before I would not be able to get a refund at all, then it would be repairs. BTW, the company is WORX. Designed in Italy, manufactured in China. The feature that i liked most was that just by stepping on the bottom of the trimmer, it would go into a horizontal position, which in my backyard would have been handy. Does anyone know of a good trimmer that is capable of doing the same? Oh yes it was a ni-cad battery cordless ( not sorry to see that part go anyway ).I am talking about a $100 tool.

Reply to
Anthona
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I saw an attachment at Home Depot that you replace the auto-feed mechanism with. You manually insert four of the largest diameter plastic line you can buy.

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" Apparently, the reason the plastic line breaks so quickly is that all the stress is right where the line exits the hole in the cutting spool enclosure, but this doesn't happen with this device.

It says that it's for "gas trimmers" but I think it might fit some of the higher end electric trimmers as well.

There's only one review, but it raves about it because the plastic line lasts so long.

Reply to
SMS

For a cordless I like the Black and Decker 9". My mom has one and although I'm not a fan of corded or cordless electric trimmers I'd have to say this one is one of the better ones. I use it when I mow and trim her 1/2 acre lot instead of dragging one of my two Echo gas trimmers. It is almost as heavy as my small Echo trimmer, has auto line advance and uses a good diameter line. And it's not a bump and go line feed it does it when the line reachs a certain length. It has plenty of speed an power to do your basic trimming and edging and can be purchased at Lowes.

Reply to
Jeff The Drunk

If you bought it at HD why didnt you just exchange it. one commercial shop near me sells them, Works cant all be junk as this shop sells all top tools. With HD you might have 90 day on an exchange.

Reply to
ransley

My only comment is that trimmers/edgers are limited mostly by the experience of the user. These things are not indestructible, although you can buy spinning blades that are better than the spinning strings. Knowing how to use the tool can allow you to use it to the maximum capacity THAT THE TOOL WILL PERFORM AT. Going past that brings up the conversation you have brought up.

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

I don't see how the spool can eat up the line.

What eats up the line is running it against, too close to, something it can't cut, like the sidewalk, a wall, a fence.

Have you prior experience using a string trimmer? If so, perhaps at your previous location you trimmed around flower beds where there was nothing to break the line, or around sidewalks that were lower into the ground, so the grass could be trimmed without hitting the sidewalk.

That's strange if it is still in warranty.

A lot of them do that these days.

Reply to
mm

Good point about how to use a trimmer, my 300$ Sthil was eating line till I learned "How" to use it. Someone new expects miracles from a tool. On my Echo I use the heaviest line made, gauge of line makes all the difference in life

Reply to
ransley

Well each new tool introduces a new dimension, even if one has had previous experiences. I had a weedeater for a little over 3 years and had no problems with that one until the motor just upped and died. In this case I just wanted to try at edging first to see if the line would work. In a matter of a few seconds the line would completely disappear into the spool, not even showing at all as it was cut off..this happened 3 times after manually feeding the line. The only thing i had hit was the soil not a sidewalk or whatever..Today, I noticed at Lowes that they are selling WorX for the first time, the same machine i bought online for $119, so i may give it another go Possibly i got a lemon the first time.

Reply to
Anthona

A new string trimmer will likely have a smaller line gauge. They want it to break, so you buy more.

Take a piece of your line and then compare that to a replacement line gauge. Same?

(they call them "string" trimmers, but the thing uses "fishing" line)

Reply to
Oren

Well, the weedeater that i used and this one and I must say most of them use the .065 line. So they are the same guage. I do not see the problem in the line itself, in the mechanism that controls it...the spool

Reply to
Anthona

P&M

I dind't know until today that you had bought a WorX. Is that a Worx GT, the same one that has 30 minute commercials on late-night tv? ONe just started at 1AM on 7.3, Retro TV. Originally I was only watching it because Alfred Hitchcock Presents was over and I was reading usenet and didn't want to get up to change stations in the other room.

Now it's 9 minutes in and they haven't given a price, and probably won't until the very ned. I generally avoid buying anything that has an infomercial, but there may be things I've bought that have infomercials I had never seen.

Indeed they push that it does both edgining and trimming, but IME most trimmers do, although without the box in front of one, one can easily miss it.

Another thing, they started out saying that if the string gets shortened, it "automatically advances more string". I thought that part might not be working and that might be your problem, but 5 minutes later they said that you had to pull the trigger and then it automatically advanced more string. They clearly don't know or don't care what the word automatically means. If you have to pull the trigger, it's not automatic.

I can see how a missing spring, if they forgot to put it in, more likely I think than a broken spring, would cause it not to feed the string. Lots of trimmers enable you to feed the string without bending over, and even without bumping the bottom on pavement (or grass?) I have a black and decker with a feed lever near the top and it works well. My model requires an extension cord. I doubt it was more than 50, I got it used, and I don't know how much of that price difference was because it's not battery powered. Batteries wear out

(Would anyone call a toaster automatic if you had to lift the lever at the end or push a button when you wanted the toast to come up and stop toasting?) The commercial is over now and I saw no evidence who is running this infomercial. It could be the company or some distributor, I think, but they still shouldn't permit it to be called automatic.

They say no more winding a line on a spool, but most weed wackers have available pre-wound spools. It's just cheaper, and maybe more convenient, to buy line and wrap them. It says you get a lifetime supply of sppols, but maybe that's not true the way you bought yours.

Well, they gave an 800 number 800-583-0994, which had two options, buy and check on order. They answered the phone quickly and she spoke a couple lines and asked if she could continue. I said I just had one question, price, and she said 3 payments of 39.95 and one payment of xxx, I forget but then she said 120 plus 26.12 shipping and handling.

That's a little more than you paid, and maybe that pays for the extra spools or maybe somehow you

Now at 20 after they give the 3 payments part, butand shipping, but they don't say how much shipping is. Free wall mount, Free lifetime supply of noine, 30 day no risk money back guarantee and they pay return shipping (but they don't say they refund original shipping and they probably don.t.)

aCCORDding to the commercial they have been making tools for 15 years and make blowers (which I think are a big waste of time money andnoise, but others make them too) and lawnmowers.

Googling worx gt I don't see a page that compares prices including shipping, although I'm sure there is one, but just with my own eyes not counting shipping (which can vary a lot)

there's more than one model WG150 and 151 and sears sells both at 100 and 130. So I'm not going to try to compare prices after all.

You were smart to buy from some place you could return in person, no

2nd shipping charge. Did they refund the first chipping charge, and even if not, it was probably less than 26 dollars like this place is chagering.
Reply to
mm

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