So my bargain Stihl has destroyed itself in quite an exciting manner (bang, boing, whoosh…bits of metal from starter all over the lawn…)
Fixing is too expensive (£80-£100 of parts… 🙁 )
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Options are cheaper petrol strimmer (Ryobi, £110 from Screwfix) or a new fangled cordless one (B&D 18v Li-Ion job for £80
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It is not a big garden – maybe 50m of edge strimming and one long bank I can’t get mower on.
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Does anyone have experience of the cordless jobs? Lot less hassle it seems, as long as they are powerful enough and last for about 10-15mins of strimming….

cordless strimmer I had was shit, I’d avoid them at all cost lasted about 3 months.

^ applies to pretty much any cordless tool you care to mention, aside from maybe drills, and you pay a premium for equivalent performance compared to a mains one with them.
50m of strimming? why not mains?

applies to pretty much any cordless tool you care to mention

Not necessarily true – my DeWalt cordless angle grinder is a wonderful thing to behold.

That said, a petrol strimmer would be a far better idea than a battery powered one.

50m of strimming? why not mains?

Because the end of the garden is 50m from the house, where most of the strimming is needed…

Looks like petrol FTW.

I’m normally one for spending more on tools than strictly necessary, but my ryobi petrol strimmer does a sterling job for a budget option. Streets ahead of mains ones I’ve used (so I assume cordless will be even worse). Had to replace the head unit for a newer, better designed version, but it wasn’t expensive. Starts easily, for garden duties its bang on.

Depends on size of garden and how long you’re going to use it in one go.
My Bosch cordless strimmer is great. Lasts about an hour of normal use.

Enough for my medium sized garden. I’ll never bother with a corded one again.

Petrol, same for lawn mowers, cordless is generally not good, cables are a pain.

Petrol all the way. Whatever about cordless, 240V cables hanging around strimmers is always a bad idea.

Been using the cheap petrol Ryobi, switching between hedge trimmer and strimmer attatchments for a couple of years with no probs. Only faf is mixing the fuel but not that much trouble tbh.

Petrol, it’s an engine and therefore way more kudos than an electric motor.

Buy a long extension cable…

Petrol all the way. Whatever about cordless, 240V cables hanging around strimmers is always a bad idea.

This is true. You’ll need I have a ready supply of electrical connectors and duck tape. Three so far in my strimmer cable.

get a scythe. no seriously, much quicker than a strimmer, whisper quiet, and doesn’t splatter bits of grass etc everywhere, and provides exercise

You could always go old skool: shears, lawn edgers etc etc

spchantler – Member

get a scythe. no seriously, much quicker than a strimmer, whisper quiet, and doesn’t splatter bits of grass etc everywhere, and provides exercise

Great fun, but you need real skill to do a decent job, not something I would use at home tbh.

Matt, I would go for another cheap petrol strimmer over an electric, even though you had a Stihl pop on you, they are stihl the brand I would go for 😉

Petrol all the way. Whatever about cordless, 240V cables hanging around strimmers is always a bad idea.

Yet you’re quite hapy to cart about highly flammable liquid in a machine that has a good chance of going bang…

Scythe is tricky to master, but very satisfying when you get it right. Best for really long grass though.

B&D are not known for the quality of their battery drills. i doubt the battery for the strimmer is much better.

surely in the long run it is cheaper to buy a mains strimmers and an extension lead.

I had a cheap cordless strimmer, which was fine for a small urban garden – until the spool split and I couldn’t find another one…

Now have a 1/2 acre and bought a cheap petrol (Amazon – Trueshopping), does the job well although noisy. Wanted this over the Ryobi as its got the ‘cycle’ bars.

of course you could always go the green route . . .

DSCN1173 by manoirdelourde, on Flickr

How big is your garden and how much strimming time do to need?

My back garden is 25 x 30m and the front is about half that size. As I said above, my Bosch battery strimmer is fine for strimming all the edges etc. on one charge.

If you’ve got more “wilderness” type stuff to contend with then go petrol.

even though you had a Stihl pop on you, they are stihl the brand I would go for

Well, it *is* 26 years old… 8)

sthil expensive but last ….. if you get them serviced then they will last even longer….

MY only caveat on that is – they were great and reliable when used every day but on our less used tools – IE the short blade hedge trimmer and short bar chainsaw. they were always a bugger to get started even primed with fresh fuel and needed the plug heating the first time in the day to day tools that started easy.

that short blade hedge cutter is now in my garage and the strimmer is coming the same way now the boss mans retired.