I’ve never come across a strimmer with a rev limiter. Two strokes are generally designed to have the bollocks revved out of them. Relatively easy to construct a small two stroke survive high revs.
Tim
That's right, on chainsaws and strimmers the revs are mostly limited by four stroking a few thousand revs above the maximum power point.
Hedge cutters, drills and long reach pole saws are often rev limited by an ignition cut out. This effectively dumps a bit of unburned fuel out the exhaust on top of that which normally happens.
The modern stratified charge engines reduce this considerably but I haven't seen published comparisons.
Two strokes are very bad particulate polluters and it's the price paid for light weight portable power tools. In most cases cordless technology is taking over, 'cept I can fix most two strokes...
Smaller, lighter, cheaper
yes on all points. Lot more reliable too.
It may well, but power to weight ratio is more important to users.
Having hired a 4 stroke strimmer (£300 Honda something - I mentioned it in a thread here), I'd say the weight wasn't a problem. The thing was near perfectly balanced and the harness certainly helped.
And very roughly, i'd say it weighed about the same as a similar cheap 2 stroke a friend had lent me. Didn't use that as it wouldn't take the brush cutter blade.
Honda portable kit is often top notch stuff, but you are really comparing like with like though are you? How does it compare to say a decent 2 stroke Stihl, or Husqvarna?
My thoughts too. Honda certainly make some decent lightweight 4stroke strimmers but I don’t think they would compare that well against a good 2 stroke of the same weight in terms of power.
Tim
In the same price bracket, there's about 1kg in - 5kg for the Stihl, 6kg for the Honda.
For my use I can't see that as significant, and tbh I don't know the pros cons of either beyong the 2 stroke needing oil additive.
A top spec Honda strimmer/brush cutter (UMK435 UE 35CC BIKE HANDLE PETROL BRUSHCUTTER ) costs £592, a similar Stihl ( STIHL Brushcutters FS 91 Petrol) one £529
Power wise, the Honda is rated at 1kW, the Stihl 0.95kW so insignificantly different.
The Honda weighs 7.6 kg whilst the Stihl weighs 5.8 kg. I would call that a significant difference, especially for a tool that you may carry for prolonged periods.
Of course weight isn’t always the overriding factor in buying a strimmer but you can’t really get away from the fact that a 2 stroke engine has a better power to weight ratio than a 4 stroke.
Tim
I bought a battery one to avoid the pain of dragging extension lead. It uses same 56V battery as the mower .... works well.
A mains powered one, I think, would win over battery or petrol in all ways, include weight in use.
Yes, I think I might too.
Whether it'd inform my buying decision - not sure. I used the Honda for maybe
4 hours on and off over the day and the weight wasn't an issue - helped by the full harness. I'd be looking at price, performance, noise, reliability before that sort of weight difference based on my experience.However, if I was using it that way every day for my job . . .
Some of that 1.8kg might well be in heavier construction elswhere. But yes, point taken.
On 17/10/2022 16:43, Spike wrote: <snip>
And we're paying for this stuff. Why is your council tax so high? </politics>
I used to have a mains strimmer, and TBH I didn't use it enough to be really worth having. When it died I didn't replace it.
When we bought this house the mains mower wasn't up to the job - for a start I didn't have a lead anywhere near long enough - so I bought a Honda petrol. Self propelled which also helps, and I get a whole cut off without having to refuel.
The edges (The strimmer job)?
I have a set of manual edging shears and an old brushwood cutter. A blade on the end of a wooden handle. They do the job, and helps keep me fit.
I have a battery hedge trimmer (Ryobi). It's ... OK. Nasty habit of stalling on thick bits. I tried a more modern one (my son's), and while better it wasn't _that_ much better. Mine'll do until it dies. It's had a new battery which helped.
Andy
Yup, there are things to be said for electric cordless trimmers that have nothing to do with environmental concerns or even necessarily out and out performance. Accessibility, ease of use and being less "scary" also count.
For example, the other day SWMBO was showing me she had weeded some raised vegetable beds, and then asked if we had any edging shears since she wanted to clear the tall grass growing against the outsides of the beds. So I went and got the small 18V Makita line trimmer[1], and set about a bit of it. She quickly said "can I have a go" and then proceeded to do the rest of the beds. Had I have rocked up with the petrol Stihl combi machine, with trimmer head attached, harness on etc, there is absolutely no way she would have wanted to go near it, let alone go fetch it, assemble it, fuel it, and use it.
[1] Quick and easy for light duty trimming. Very adjustable machine (you can change the angle of the side handle, the length of the shaft and its rotation, and also the angle of the trimmer head.HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.