weed wackers anyone?

[jabumbo]

so i'm in the market for a new weed wacker. i don't really know much about them.

a cordless one would be ideal, but i don't know about battery life. would it last 5 minutes while i trimmed around the whole yard?

i don't mind paying a little bit of money for it, but i'd prefer to keep it reasonable. i'll probably be shopping at home depot or sears (since thats where i have gift cards for) unless somewhere else has some unbelievable deal

[DIGI]

I believe Ryobi makes a decent one and they're not expensive.

[kll]

i bought one at home depot for about $30. it has the plastic "string" that wacks. i bought it to trim a small patch of grass that was too small for an actual mower, as well as stuff in my flower beds, etc. it has a cord though, so i can't tell you much about the battery ones.

[TurdBerglar]

this thread is fucking awesome

[ericlee]

I'm pretty sure PENisland is a weedwacker.

Almost certainly.

[Pres Zount]

We call them line trimmers.

They sell them where I work.

Generally battery life on things like this is very low unless you want to get an expensive brand. Ryobi would probably be the best middle of the road option, I would say Victa too but I don't know if they have them in your foreign country.

Most people will buy one and not use it enough in a lifetime to use up all the line, if you plan to actually use it more than twice you may want to think about getting one that allows you to either buy pre-wound spools that you can use to replace the entire head of the machine, or get one that has a short strand of line that can be clipped into place every time you use it, rather than one that feeds the line out as you go. Hard to explain without a visual aid. This one has it but is petrol http://www.victa.com.au/index.cfm?p=3118DAB1-A69B-46CA-AA064C06C64A3F4A anyway, get one with those features because winding the line onto the spool can be a headache if you haven't done it a million times before.

When people bring back a line trimmer that they can't get to work and tell me it is broken, then I have a go and I get it started first try... well looking smug afterwards is the only redeeming feature of my job.

[bigblu89]

I have this one, and have never had it run out of charge in the middle of a job.

http://www.blackanddecker.com/ProductGuide/Product-Details.aspx?ProductID=6427

[marsdaddy]

I need one too. I told some family a few holidays back, but someone got me a leaf blower, instead. Not to look a gift in the eye, but my kids are naturals with the rake.

[Fern]

I have a gas one and it is awesome. Are you specifically avoiding purchasing a gas weed wacker, jabumbo?

[scotty]

I've got a Stihl F85, powered by a 2-stroke engine. It's designed for medium-heavy duty work which is necessary for me, but probably not for you. When we lived in town we had a battery powered Ryobi and it was crap. It hardly cut anything and the battery wore down after about half an hour. So I'd recommend a petrol powered job with a dual-line head rather than a single.

[jabumbo]

i'd kind of prefer to stick with electric, but i feel like a cord would be a hassle


how long is a "job" for you, blu? i'd probably need a whole hour to do the entire yard, so if each battery got me a half hour, i'd be cool with that.