What's a decent petrol strimmer ?

Emp_Fab

...that's under £120 ?

Anyone have experience of these things ?

Ta bigly.

Fretwired

Get a lithium battery powered one - cheaper and lighter.

hywelg

Get a fourstroke. Two stroke give you horrible earache. Even with ear defenders.

Emp_Fab

Fretwired said:

Get a lithium battery powered one - cheaper and lighter.

What about the power ?  It's for my niece whose garden may well house a family of gorillas for all we know...  it's very overgrown.  Will a Li-Ion be up to the job ?

octatonic

Emp_Fab said:

Fretwired said:

Get a lithium battery powered one - cheaper and lighter.

What about the power ?  It's for my niece whose garden may well house a family of gorillas for all we know...  it's very overgrown.  Will a Li-Ion be up to the job ?

In my opinion, no.
I have a cordless strimmer that I use for cleaning up the edges of a lawn and it does a decent job but it isn't up to heavy duty work- for that you really need a brush cutter/strimmer and I think petrol ones are best for that.

Get a nice powerful petrol strimmer- I'd spend around £150-200, something like a Mitox 435L.

Budgie

If you have lots of work to do with it then a second hand Stihl is as good as it gets for the money. Stihl tools last forever... well, mine have anyway and they've done a huge amount of work. If it's just occassional use around the house any would do I guess. I borrowed a Shindaiwa strimmer from a mate and that was pretty good as you can fit different attachments for different jobs.

Budgie

... or you could just hire one if it's a one off job

Fretwired

Emp_Fab said:

Fretwired said:

Get a lithium battery powered one - cheaper and lighter.

What about the power ?  It's for my niece whose garden may well house a family of gorillas for all we know...  it's very overgrown.  Will a Li-Ion be up to the job ?

If it's overgrown it should be a one-off job. Hire a pro strimmer which will eat through it in no time - you'll then only need to maintain the garden. A pro unit would cost about £500 to buy and £20+ to rent for a day.

Emp_Fab

Actually, I might go down the road of hiring someone to clear the garden, and then get her a petrol mower for her to maintain it.  It's a bit pointless buying a strimmer that is only really good for initially clearing but not ongoing upkeep.

I've just measured her garden on Google Maps.  It's 100ft x 30ft.  Any know what that might cost me to clear ?  I'll ring around for quotes later, but I'm in work at the mo !

VimFuego

buy a scythe. Even if you only use it once, you'll still own a scythe. Everyone should own a scythe.

Emp_Fab

Can I go around saying "You haff sunk my bettelship !" ?

Film reference anyone ? :-)

Fretwired

Emp_Fab said:

Actually, I might go down the road of hiring someone to clear the garden, and then get her a petrol mower for her to maintain it.  It's a bit pointless buying a strimmer that is only really good for initially clearing but not ongoing upkeep.

I've just measured her garden on Google Maps.  It's 100ft x 30ft.  Any know what that might cost me to clear ?  I'll ring around for quotes later, but I'm in work at the mo !

Around £200 where I live.

ESBlonde

You might hire a beast of a petrol slasher and get the jungle managable. Then buy a battery/plastic one will keep it that way and it will be light/low noise/manageable for the operator.

A decent petrol rotary mower will do quite a lot of area and even clean up after itself with a grass box. Use a strimmer for just the edges, under shrubs, around posts/trees etc. Swinging a petrol stimmer for a long time if you're not used to it will make your arms ache, pushing a mower less so. Again hire a beast of a mower for a one off.

Emp_Fab

Fretwired said:

Emp_Fab said:

Actually, I might go down the road of hiring someone to clear the garden, and then get her a petrol mower for her to maintain it.  It's a bit pointless buying a strimmer that is only really good for initially clearing but not ongoing upkeep.

I've just measured her garden on Google Maps.  It's 100ft x 30ft.  Any know what that might cost me to clear ?  I'll ring around for quotes later, but I'm in work at the mo !

Around £200 where I live.

Holy Brambles Batman !!  I'm not paying that.  I'll hire a.... hang on... I've just remembered.. (you're not going to believe me, but it's true !)....  I've just remembered I already have a petrol brushcutter in my greenhouse.

Jesus....  senile at 52.  

Fretwired

Emp_Fab said:

Fretwired said:

Emp_Fab said:

Actually, I might go down the road of hiring someone to clear the garden, and then get her a petrol mower for her to maintain it.  It's a bit pointless buying a strimmer that is only really good for initially clearing but not ongoing upkeep.

I've just measured her garden on Google Maps.  It's 100ft x 30ft.  Any know what that might cost me to clear ?  I'll ring around for quotes later, but I'm in work at the mo !

Around £200 where I live.

Holy Brambles Batman !!  I'm not paying that.  I'll hire a.... hang on... I've just remembered.. (you're not going to believe me, but it's true !)....  I've just remembered I already have a petrol brushcutter in my greenhouse.

Jesus....  senile at 52.  

:-)

Invite people to a BBQ with some free beer .. they just have to clear the garden first .. :-)

Babones

Emp_Fab said:

Can I go around saying "You haff sunk my bettelship !" ?

Film reference anyone ? :-)

Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey

Sporky

Emp_Fab said:

Jesus....  senile at 52.  

Dude, you were senile a long time ago.

Emp_Fab

Babones said:

Emp_Fab said:

Can I go around saying "You haff sunk my bettelship !" ?

Film reference anyone ? :-)

Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey

Wiz awarded :-)

pintspiller

Emp_Fab said:

Fretwired said:

Emp_Fab said:

Actually, I might go down the road of hiring someone to clear the garden, and then get her a petrol mower for her to maintain it.  It's a bit pointless buying a strimmer that is only really good for initially clearing but not ongoing upkeep.

I've just measured her garden on Google Maps.  It's 100ft x 30ft.  Any know what that might cost me to clear ?  I'll ring around for quotes later, but I'm in work at the mo !

Around £200 where I live.

Holy Brambles Batman !!  I'm not paying that.  I'll hire a.... hang on... I've just remembered.. (you're not going to believe me, but it's true !)....  I've just remembered I already have a petrol brushcutter in my greenhouse.

Jesus....  senile at 52.  

You need a kick in the bollocks for that!

mr-mac

Got myself a cheap s/h Stihl one (proper harness thing), returned he carb and jobs a goodun.   Though do be careful It will easily take chunks out of wooden fence posts, swings, even tore it's way through some reasonably tough wire fencing (not as thin as chicken wire).  So if not for clearing larger areas and just edging etc be careful whether you want best or not...  If it's for edgings etc mostly then you want the cutting head with the plastic places not the one with strimmer string