I need a new weed eater.

Squanchy

Squanchy

Keep on squanchin
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1999 sthil fs55 died today. Tried to fix it got pissed off and made it worse. Anyway I need a new one now.

Is sthil still king? What about echo?
 
Im in Asheboro, sthil echo and Husqvarna are local
 
is electric an option for you?
i went cordless years ago.
Stihl has some.

good news/ bad news:

good: ZERO maintenance. no problems starting or anything. ever. or not yet.
bad: 3 batteries will be necessary. well, at least for me to keep going all morning.

good: easy to mess with. light. no gas/oil smell (when taking it in my car to my sister's house).
bad: loses max power quickly. like in 6 or 7 minutes. but at 70% for 30 minutes and 50% for an hour.

good: the current models are MUCH better and a Whole Lot more powerful than mine.
bad: and they cost a Whole Lot more, too. do not go lower than a 40.
 
I really liked the power of the gas and it takes me about an hour to weed eat the house. Hoping to fence the whole acre in this fall so it's just going to get worse lol.
 
  • Wow
Reactions: Me.
I have an FS55. I have to replace the carb with a chicom wonder every few years because I'm a shit owner. What is wrong with yours? Short of "I got tired of dicking with it and wrapped it around an oak tree", it's probably an easy fix.
 
I bought a makita electric. I really like it for my smaller yard. It takes two batteries instead of one big one but the plus side is they fit all my other tools. It spins as fast as I need and i don’t come close to finishing a battery when I am done.
 
I bought the cheapest commercial stihl 7.5 years ago when we bought our house. I absolutely hate weed eating and spray rm43 pretty much everywhere I can that won’t kill a tree. And once (maybe twice ) a year I’ll dig it out, put gas in it, prime it, and fire it up first pull to get around the trees. I’m not knocking any other brands, just sharing my neglectful success with the brand.

Edit: it’s an FS110R if that helps.
 
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Climberman said:
I bought a makita electric. I really like it for my smaller yard. It takes two batteries instead of one big one but the plus side is they fit all my other tools. It spins as fast as I need and i don’t come close to finishing a battery when I am done.
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I bought the same one for the women in my life that kept insisting on flooding my Stihl while I was at work. I put the Echo Speedfeed 400 head on it, and I have to say, that is the smoothest and most pleasant piece of yard equipment I've ever used.
 
I like the engines in my Stihl machines as they start reliably (no ethanol gas), but the string trimmers give me a lot of grief with failure to feed. I even took one in under warranty and the shop agreed it was a problem, but the only answer the factory gave them was the string was wound too tight (???)
 
noway2 said:
I like the engines in my Stihl machines as they start reliably (no ethanol gas), but the string trimmers give me a lot of grief with failure to feed. I even took one in under warranty and the shop agreed it was a problem, but the only answer the factory gave them was the string was wound too tight (???)
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Replace the head with an Echo Speedfeed; it's worth every penny.
 
I have a Husqvarna can't recall if I got it last summer or the one before. Got it from a dealer not a box store. Run non-ethanol, starts good, plenty of power, feed head is pretty easy to fill and has only jammed once. Trimming around several hundred feet of fence and various raised beds, edges, and trees weekly. I have no useful experience with the other brands
 
yard mongrel said:
got tired of dicking with it and wrapped it around an oak tree",
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I think the clutch is broken? Idk but there is what looks like a drum brake where the motor assembly connects to the shaft. It's broken and all jacked up. I spent 30 minutes attempting to get the cover off and ended up cracking the cover. Dropped it off my workbench and just walked off angry.

When it ran very loud screeching noise and no power at the head. The shaft is one piece, the joint at the end is also okay. But now that I've busted the cover and the bump head is already worn out figured its time to give up on the old gal.
 
Looks like I'll go with another sthil.

Are the residential ones worth a crap? Fs 56 rce is the closed number to what I had.
 
I have both Stihl and Husqvarna at work. I have a 2013-14ish KM130 that’s running strong. However I had a 2016ish FS130 last year that a piece of metal came off internally and ruined the piston. We use them hard for maybe a week total each summer so I was a bit disappointed. The Husqvarna’s are both similar size motor wise to the 130’s. One is a 2014 brush cutter model and the other is a 2014 standard weedeater. The weed eater model doesn’t seem to have as much torque as a 130 Stihl but it does a decent job.

Husqvarna in my experience is easier to crank cold but I don’t have much local dealer support. Hence I run a lot more Stihl products. I also have gone to church with our local hardware store/Stihl dealer my whole life and prefer to support his family business.
 
My Echo runs like a champ. It’ll run on old gas that other machines turn their nose up at. String loading is a 7/10. I forget the model. It’s only 3-4 years old. It’s got an easy pull system that doubles or triples your pull. Long story short, you don’t throw your back out trying to start the thing.
 
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I've had a Husqvarna for quite a while now. Awhile back I bought an item called No More Line. Best thing to get for a weeder. You replace part of the head (easy) with a part provided and then use the cutter strips (best word I know to describe them). Pretty sure it all fits most brands of weeders. In fact, when I go to Lowe's next week I need to pick up a couple packs of the "cutter strips".

Found it:

www.ebay.com

Aero Flex Universal Trimmer Upgrade Fits Virtually All Gas Trimmers 84931841987 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Aero Flex Universal Trimmer Upgrade Fits Virtually All Gas Trimmers at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com
 
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Squanchy said:
Looks like I'll go with another sthil.

Are the residential ones worth a crap? Fs 56 rce is the closed number to what I had.
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I'm a Stihl guy, but in the low $200 price range I like the Echo SRM-225 over the FS-56, on ergonomics alone. The Stihl beats the Echo on paper in every category, but hold them side by side and you'll see what I mean.

I always recommend buying commercial, then I would go Stihl all day long. For another Benjamin, buy the FS-91R.

Always buy from your local dealer. Keep away from the box stores on Echo & Husqvarna.
 
Fullboost21 said:
I'm a Stihl guy, but in the low $200 price range I like the Echo SRM-225 over the FS-56, on ergonomics alone. The Stihl beats the Echo on paper in every category, but hold them side by side and you'll see what I mean.

I always recommend buying commercial, then I would go Stihl all day long. For another Benjamin, buy the FS-91R.

Always buy from your local dealer. Keep away from the box stores on Echo & Husqvarna.
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I can swing $300 I didn't realize the 56 was $200. I cannot seem to find pricing anywhere online
 
I have a Husqvarna 525LST that I bought back in 2019 and have been pleased with it. I used to mulch everything to match the radius my mower would turn and spray roundup on everything else instead of using/owning a weedeater. I broke down and bought this one because the weeds took over my blueberries and I could not spray around them and was not able to mulch them, need about 50 yds of mulch installed.

I mainly use it with one of the Forester blades that are similar to chainsaw teeth and it has done me well on the woody weeds.

I like the Husqvarna orange, 2 chainsaws, weedeater, back pack blower and zero turn mower.
 
My fs55 is still kicking after about 14 years. I can also run an hour at a time down here. used to only be 20 minutes or so up in michigan, and only once every few weeks. here it's about an hour every 2 weeks and that's only for SOME of the work... burned through 3 sets of polymer blades, using a saw wheel head a lot lately.
Just last weekend i finally blew out the starter pulley. A new backplate with pulley was a $15 fix. carb looked mighty rusty when i opened it up though, so that's probably gonna be going soon.

never done any kind of real maintenance except run it till it goes dry in the fall and let it sit until spring....
 
I bought a used Toro from our local handyman/small engine repair guy and it's been working great. Paid a LOT less than a new one! Just a thought.
 
I like stihl professional series or Shindawa but electrics make strong case for not alot of use. What ever you pick I would forsure recommend a straight shaft model.
 
Robin was the best I’ve ever owned but they don’t make the brand anymore.

I despise Stihl but I own the biggest weedeater they made. I works well.

If I had to buy another it would be a RedMax.
 
best_weed_torch_option.jpg
 
yard mongrel said:
Replace the head with an Echo Speedfeed; it's worth every penny.
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I’ve never tried one of those.

But I went through a couple different kinds that used the 3 or 4 “blades” before finding one similar to this:

E4F85095-E803-49A2-B0FF-4454C72E441C.jpeg



You simply cut a piece of string 12” or so long and double it over though the rotating orange circles in the pic. They sell packages of precut pieces, but it’s much cheaper to just buy a 100’ (or however long they are) bulk pack of string and cut it up. No bumping required and no possible feeding issues. Very satisfied with it for years…
 
BigWaylon said:
I’ve never tried one of those.

But I went through a couple different kinds that used the 3 or 4 “blades” before finding one similar to this:

View attachment 507602



You simply cut a piece of string 12” or so long and double it over though the rotating orange circles in the pic. They sell packages of precut pieces, but it’s much cheaper to just buy a 100’ (or however long they are) bulk pack of string and cut it up. No bumping required and no possible feeding issues. Very satisfied with it for years…
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I have something similar on mine, works great.
 
Ive been working in the outdoor power equipment industry most of my life. Buy a mid range commercial unit from Echo would be my choice - many of the newer Stihl trimmers are now 4 stroke instead of the 2 stroke engine your original one was.
Echo is still a 2 stroke engine , and they come standard with a better trimmer head that’s much easier to rewind when the nylon line runs out
Any of the major brands are generally of similar quality. Before buying , I would check out the trimmer head to see how difficult to rewind with line
 
BrettB said:
Ive been working in the outdoor power equipment industry most of my life. Buy a mid range commercial unit from Echo would be my choice - many of the newer Stihl trimmers are now 4 stroke instead of the 2 stroke engine your original one was.
Echo is still a 2 stroke engine , and they come standard with a better trimmer head that’s much easier to rewind when the nylon line runs out
Any of the major brands are generally of similar quality. Before buying , I would check out the trimmer head to see how difficult to rewind with line
Click to expand...

Stihl homeowner gas engines are 2 stroke. The commercial units are 4-mix engines, (except for the 94 series). A hybrid of 2 and 4 stroke engine design. They have valves like conventional 4 stroke engines, but run on 2 stroke mixed fuel, 50:1 ratio. This hybrid 4-mix engine was introduced 20 years ago.

Some brands like Troy bilt, Honda, etc. have a oiled crankcase and are heavier with more moving parts than the Stihl hybrid 4-mix engines.





Im not trying to be a internal combustion engine grammar nazi. I knew what you meant, just trying to be a little more specific for folks that are not in the industry.
On a side note, Echo has really steped up thier game in the past couple years.
 
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