Edge Trimmer Recommendations

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CB_24

366 posts

Ultimate Geek

#317483 20-Oct-2024 18:53

After recommendations on a decent lawn edge trimmer / weed whacker.

Currently have a nylon one and the nylon breaks off all the time and constantly needs feeding through, I was running the recommended nylon for the trimmer, and also the next size up.

To be fair some of the lawn is Kikuyu which can be tough.

After something that will trim the lawn edges, deal with the long grass growing around the fence line, not worried if its battery or petrol, just one unit that will do everything.

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2823 posts

Uber Geek

#3299223 20-Oct-2024 19:00

Very pleased with the EGO battery one I have. The line does break but the bump feed works well and in particular the power load system works really well so loading new line is a piece of cake.

RunningMan

8964 posts

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#3299226 20-Oct-2024 19:03

Apparently the Ryobi RLT26CDSN is one to avoid 😜

tweake

2397 posts

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#3299232 20-Oct-2024 19:28

CB_24:

After recommendations on a decent lawn edge trimmer / weed whacker.

Currently have a nylon one and the nylon breaks off all the time and constantly needs feeding through, I was running the recommended nylon for the trimmer, and also the next size up.

To be fair some of the lawn is Kikuyu which can be tough.

After something that will trim the lawn edges, deal with the long grass growing around the fence line, not worried if its battery or petrol, just one unit that will do everything.

what size line are you using?

most of the time its to light a line, but to run the bigger line you need a bigger machine. the bigger Makita models work well.

the other thing is change the head. something like "little chewy" means you can use a very wide range of sizes or materials.

tweake

2397 posts

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#3299233 20-Oct-2024 19:34

btw makita is running an outdoor tools promo at the mo rule the outdoors i highly recommend having spare batteries.

neb

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#3299251 20-Oct-2024 20:44

I use an Ozito (Einhell) PXC one because I've already got the necessary batteries and whatnot, pretty happy with it except for one huge annoyance, they've taken the mechanical trigger mechanism used with petrol trimmers and created an electrical analogue, which makes it a huge pain to hold/run for extended periods of time. Apart from that it does a great job.

mentalinc

3244 posts

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#3299260 20-Oct-2024 21:30

What do you currently have?

Where are you getting the line from?

Are you using the 'tips' of the line or hitting what you're tying to cut with the middle a lot?

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mattwnz

20177 posts

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#3299268 20-Oct-2024 21:53

My parents used a stihl one which had plastic blades which they find good for their lifestyle block. They found nylon line broke too easily

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Ge0rge

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#3299270 20-Oct-2024 22:08

I have one of these.

You do need a grunty tool to use it, but it goes through just about anything and holds an edge well as long as you keep it out of the rocks. Manuka, gorse, long grass, reeds - all just get spat out with a vengeance.

neb

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#3299273 20-Oct-2024 22:26

Gymjunkky really doesn't like those. NB: Entertaining but very NSFW: "Would I recommend this? F--k no!".

sidefx

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#3299278 20-Oct-2024 23:09

johno1234: Very pleased with the EGO battery one I have. The line does break but the bump feed works well and in particular the power load system works really well so loading new line is a piece of cake.

Another vote for EGO. Far better than the cheap one I used to have which also used to break all the time (Bosch I think?) The EGO breaks far less.

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openmedia

3333 posts

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#3299284 21-Oct-2024 05:24

neb:

I use an Ozito (Einhell) PXC one because I've already got the necessary batteries and whatnot, pretty happy with it except for one huge annoyance, they've taken the mechanical trigger mechanism used with petrol trimmers and created an electrical analogue, which makes it a huge pain to hold/run for extended periods of time. Apart from that it does a great job.

Do you have the single battery or dual battery one?

I tried the single, but the plastic cutting blades are useless.

We switched the the dual, but the head broke. Replacement has a better design so hopefully this works better. The standard white nylon cord they use breaks quite easily so I swapped it and re-roll the head with a green line I got at Mitre 10 or Bunnings. Lasts a lot longer and I usually don't need to adjust the line more than once during a session.

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Bung

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#3299287 21-Oct-2024 06:20

tweake:

what size line are you using?

most of the time its to light a line, but to run the bigger line you need a bigger machine. the bigger Makita models work well.

the other thing is change the head. something like "little chewy" means you can use a very wide range of sizes or materials.

It's "Little Juey" . I tried one and didn't like it. I think Tanaka or similar alloy heads are better as a manual feeding heads. They hold the line further out from centre and give more flywheel effect. If you go up line size on most trimmers you slow them down and it's the line tip speed that counts. A lot of cheap line is very brittle. Hitachi/Hikoki line is good quality without having to buy large reels.

fearandloathing

504 posts

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#3299291 21-Oct-2024 07:32

I have occasion where my trimmer line breaks prematurely, or sticks inside the spool.

Soak the trimmer line in a bucket of water for a day or two. This has solved my issues with trimmer line breaking or sticking.

trimmer line is hygroscopic

EDIT: clarity

Earbanean

945 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3299304 21-Oct-2024 09:06

One thing to maybe look at, if edges are a big part of what you're looking for, is a dedicated edge trimmer tool, rather than using a line trimmer for the job. For us, it's never been worth getting a dedicated tool for edges alone However, when our Stihl petrol line trimmer is eventually replaced, we might look at an Ego multi tool with a line trimmer head. Then a separate edge trimmer head for it would be only $279, which would be worthwhile. I haven't looked at reviews/opinions of the multi-tool yet though.

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traderstu

332 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3299320 21-Oct-2024 10:17

I have an AEG battery trimmer, mainly because I have a lot of other AEG power tools, but I do find it good and would recommend.

This originally came with a reinforced nylon trimmer line which has a steel wire inside the nylon. This went really well but I had trouble sourcing replacement line at a reasonable price. I'm trying this stuff out from Aliexpress and finding that it lasts really well. At $7 for 30m the price is good too.

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