I HATE these things. The current one I am working with is propane powered and lightweight, but every damn time the strong comes in contact with an object (ie a rock, or I’m trying to trim weeds against a wood deck), the string breaks, I have to shut it off and pull the string out. Now, I’m out of string.
The string thing is what bamboozles me. Is there a weed whacker out there that’s easy to work with when it comes to string? Is there a stringless option that works well? Is there another tool that does the same thing as a weed whacker?
The only caveat: I don’t want a fuel powered unit. Also, I trim my yard maybe at most a handful of times a year, so I’m not looking for the $1000 Weed Whacker Turbo 5000 either.
I recently bought a Ryobi 40v string trimmer for $150. It advertises “Gas-like power!” and that has so far seemed true. Runs for about 30-40 minutes on a full charge, and the battery fully charges in about 90 minutes. Also has the ability to attach to other tools like an edger head, blower, pole saw, tiller, and others.
As for the string problem, there are those “blade” trimmer heads like this. I’ve never used one myself so I can’t vouch for their effectiveness. I’m certain there must be other alternatives.
Up until about a week ago, I would have recommended the Black+Decker battery-powered string trimmer that I have. In about a year and a half of light use, I’ve never had to do anything to the string. But the last time I used it, a few days ago, it mysteriously quit running.
Is it possible you’ve been using sub-par quality string?
Nah, the string is all the same assuming you’re using the right diameter for your trimmer–it’s just supposed to be a wear item, that’s how it works. I’ve had the blade replacements for previous trimmers and they tend to be fucking awesome, but a lot of the newer string trimmers are made so you can’t just put blades on instead. Which sucks, because I’d change out the fucking string for a blade on my current model (Black & Decker corded) in a hot minute.
My dad’s been using a cordless Black & Decker for many years now. His hasn’t conked out yet, knock on wood. He’s quite happy with it. I don’t think it has the same battery time as DCnDC’s Ryobi, tho.
I admit it has been many years since I used a weed whacker, do they still come with the bump feed system where you put the whole spool of string on there and when the line breaks, you bump the bottom on the ground to feed more line out without stopping the unit?
It has been decades since I used a trimmer, but I recall that the best way to avoid constantly having to untangle it was to take care when winding the spool. I seem to remember you could get prewound spools but I used to get it in bulk and just kept a couple of already wound ones lying around
The solid blades are f*ing dangerous so if you go this route be sure to get some safety glasses
I just kill the grass near fence lines and right next to the mailbox and any other spots the mower can’t reach. Haven’t even started the trimmer in nearly a decade.
My battery one lets out a tiny amount of string every time it starts up. So if I keep the button pressed I eventually run out of string. 4-5 times of start / let it stop and the string is back to a usable length.
I have an older B&D trimmer that I lent out to someone and got back broken because you just can’t make some people understand that there were only SOME brands of trimmer that did the bump thing and the one I loaned out was NOT one of those–and now the head is cracked. Cost to fix was comparable to replacement so I did that instead. Jerk never did pay me back for fucking over my yard tools. This is why I don’t usually loan things out–truly, no good deed goes unpunished.
And who doesn’t wear eye protection when weed whacking? My BFF wanted to try it (she’d never used one before) and was a little head scratchy when I told her to change into long pants, closed toe shoes and eye wear before I’d let her learn how to run it. Fifteen minutes later she figured out I’m not an alarmist. I have stealth blackberry coming up all over, you do NOT want that in your eye! Or your leg either. Ow.
I just switched to that Ryobi - its a most excellent trimmer. Easy to reload as well. I’ve fouond the Ryobi branded ‘twisted’ string to be surprisingly good.
To the OP - a few things to extend string life -
a) don’t trim so close to the object - you should be hitting with the tips of the string, not close to the head of the unit.
b) you don’t have to trim at ‘full speed’ all the time - sometimes trimming slower around some of these objects helps quite a bit.
c) buy good string.
(a) + (b) usually means your overheating and weaking the string closer to the head, which will lead to breakage - if the tips are cutting the grass, they don’t heat up as much and they have nothing to ‘flex’ against to weaken.
If you’re trimming around serious stuff (serious weeds, not just high grass at a fence line) - you may need blades instead - they make these - just watch your toes.
I’ve a commercial grade Husqvarna. And live in the Rocky Mountains. As my location suggests, we have lots and lots of rocks. That’s pretty much all my ‘yard’ is.
We don’t ‘mow’. We do string trim the entire ‘yard’ about twice a year. Around the fire pit and such.
A rule at this elevation is to always wear good sunglasses. You just have to. So that’s not a problem But if you don’t wear full length pants when running the thing, you will get bloody.
I’m sorry to not have good advice for the OP other than in my experience, it’s always worth the extra money to buy the best you can find when it comes to tools.
Thank you for the replies everyone. I decided to give this model a try—-it’s on sale for $100 with free ground shipping plus for $8 they’ll throw in 2 replacement spools!
If I think of it I’ll report how I made out for anyone that cares.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
