I vaguely remember a prolonged discussion with my ex-husband about whether or not weed trimmers should run on electricity; he convinced me that the only good trimmer was one that runs on gas, so that you needn’t worry about a plug and extension cords and such.
So we bought a gas trimmer. It smelled horrible, stunk up the garage, and—the very best part—almost never agreed to start. Fabulous.
I’ve since been keeping my eyes open for a nice little electric one, and I think I may have spotted a winner: Check out this Black & Decker string feed trimmer
True, it’s not a fabulous pair of shoes… but sometimes a gal just has to be practical. Sigh.
It’s back up to $39.99 already. Has anyone found one with a rechargable battery that they like? I, too, would like to go away with a cord, but I refuse to put one more gas-powered item in my garage.
Try a nicely sharpened weed scythe. That’s how they did it before gas and electric trimmers and they sell them on Amazon.
I’m an all-electric power equipment guy. The B&D electric mower, B&D electric edger, and Toro string trimmer. I hate dragging out the cord, but my garage doesn’t reek of gas (from the mower’s carburetor) and there are no winter storage hassles (gas stabilizer), oil changes, stubborn starts, or deafening engine roar. Squeeze the switch and go.
Personally, though, the best electric trimmer (weed wacker) is the Toro job with the motor IN THE HANDLE. It drives a blade using a cable that runs through the shaft, just like the gas ones. The thing is much better balanced than the ones with the motor down at the business end, which means it’s MUCH less tiring to use. I only wish they’d make an electric one with a straight (rather than curved) shaft. The Toro one is also able to spin a pretty good diameter string. (Thin string just means you’re changing the spool all the time as any kind of contact with conrete, brick, etc. will eat it away in a hurry.)
Thanks BB!
We lost the charger to our Toro weed-whacker, and then found one, charger and whacker, at a rummage sale. We bought both. Now we have two weed-whackers and one charger. No, it’s not logical, but it works.
MamaChristy: I hate our rechargable Black and Decker. It’s light and doesn’t have a cord, true, but the charge lasts for about fifteen minutes and that’s it. If you want to take any time doing the job and don’t have a miniscule yard, you’ll need to recharge it, which takes a good chunk of the daylight. Sigh. But I so hate those gas trimmers that are constantly breaking down.
To clarify what products I have, none of them use batteries. They’re all tethered to their extension cords. Batteries for these kinds of things will all wear out, and be expensive to replace. The corded stuff will last a long time. Also, they never really talk about the quality of their chargers. Many of them have no circuitry to avoid overcharging the battery, and, indeed, many of them, have no protection on the charger. (My Skil cordless drill had a charger that had no protection against a shorted battery. The usual cause of death for NiCd batteries is an internal short, which kills chargers without such protection, generating fun new revenue for the manufacturer.) Thus, I generally avoid expensive rechargeable items.