Anyone got any good experiences with whipper snippers? I think I have just killed mine and instead of 3 dead ones in the garage I think it might be better to have one good one.

2 stroke versus 4 stroke? Are there different power outputs or are they all the same?

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FormulaNova said..
Anyone got any good experiences with whipper snippers? I think I have just killed mine and instead of 3 dead ones in the garage I think it might be better to have one good one.

2 stroke versus 4 stroke? Are there different power outputs or are they all the same?

Sthil

I've had Shindaiwa T230 (2 stroke, straight shaft) for about 8 years and had good experience with it.
I bought it after moving to Perth hills and realizing that corded Ryobi from Bunnings won't cut it (pun indended).

at the time (around 2015), battery powered whipper snippers were expensive and did not have enough power so I went with petrol. Straight shaft was the recommendation from local mower shop. I also considered Stihl but I thought it was too expensive for my needs. Echo seems to be also a popular brand around here. I think both Shindaiwa and Echo are made in Japan.

If I were buying new whipper snipper today, I would definitelly look into battery powered - I have no experience with those but I think they improved a lot in past few years

Go electric. I have this one and it's great.
egopowerplus.com.au/power-38cm-powerload-brushless-line-trimmer/
Auto load saves heaps of stuffing around and it has the same power (probably more) as my old two stroke.

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westozwind said..
Go electric. I have this one and it's great.
egopowerplus.com.au/power-38cm-powerload-brushless-line-trimmer/
Auto load saves heaps of stuffing around and it has the same power as my old two stroke.

Same, got a 36v unit, 2 batteries to do my old full size suburban land allocation. So much cleaner and quieter than pissing around with fuel, equally as powerful if not more so.

Don't go electric. I'd definitely go 2 stroke. When you fire it up on a still day it can be heard up to two suburbs away.

The 18V Ryobi electric whipper snipper is underpowered. Maybe OK for some edges around the garden, but if you have anything that's overgrown it struggles.

The best option I've found is a Stihl 2 stroke. Starts every time, loads of power, and if you need to smash the daylights out of something substantial (like woody weeds, blackberries, small shrubs) you can swap the plastic line for the metal ninja star of death. Never felt like I needed more power, and I throw a lot of abuse at my whipper snippers.

Good luck with your choice.

Yep, don't waste your money on an 18V unit. 36V minimum (Mines 56V).
Watts (power) = Amps x Volts. If the battery can deliver 20A then your 18V unit is 360W, 36V 720W and 56V 1120W

2 strokes are a bit antisocial in the suburbs. What's the problem with an extension lead? Ryobi 240 v has heaps of power.

Honda four stroke, plenty of grunt

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musorianin said..
Honda four stroke, plenty of grunt

Funny, I was coming around to this conclusion. BUT I am too cheap sometimes and instead I am going to try out a Chinese Honda knockoff motor. I resurrected my 32cc Ryobi for the moment, but I am thinking a Chonda 4 stroke might be the way. If I can adapt it to match my 'expand-it' add-ons, then maybe that will be the ideal for me.

I have seen on youtube someone was adapting the honda to stihl 'kombi' add-ons, and I have read that these work with the Ryobi stuff too.

I have a GX35 on order and hopefully I can figure out the right clutch and drum setup to work.

Today I figured out why I don't like repairing my Ryobi whipper snippers. It's like they make the throttles with some sort of magic and then attach them to the shaft with a spell. How the heck you are supposed to put the throttle springs in while holding everything else together is challenging. The way they build them its almost like they make them exactly to a price and don't engineer past that.

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Ian K said..
2 strokes are a bit antisocial in the suburbs. What's the problem with an extension lead? Ryobi 240 v has heaps of power.

Last time I was using my whipper snipper was in the rain, so I am not keen on a 240v one. Maybe if there was a stepdown transformer and 50v or so to the trimmer I would be happier.

Get a quality commercial grade unit so it lasts, better for the environment than putting cheap rubbish into landfill every couple of years.

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cammd said..
Get a quality commercial grade unit so it lasts, better for the environment than putting cheap rubbish into landfill every couple of years.

Nah, I think I have changed my tune on that too. For most of my life I have repaired things to keep them going well past their normal life. The rest of society seems geared towards buying cheap stuff and throwing it away to buy a new one. People keep talking about 'the environment' but their actual approach to reducing waste is not as good.

But that's a pretty easy answer anyway as commercial units are very expensive. I think a Honda commercial grade unit is around $1000 with their lower spec non-commercial units still hitting $500.

Does driving a 20 year old car offset my ryobi-every-five-years habit?

Echo is the go. www.echo-australia.com.au/en_au/products/trimmers-brushcutters/brushcutter/

Echo is the go
is the go
is the gooo
the gooooo
goooo
ooooo



I'll get my coat.

Ego Powerplus is the go. I use one on my farm, cutting grass around trees. I like the fact I can leave the machine for six months, and it will work. Small petrol engines are the work of Satan.

Even comes with a toy

I try to use vintage stuff whenever I can.

I was going to suggest borrowing a few of these from Macro.

Then I saw the price.

www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-06/black-speckle-park-bull-born-ready-shady-world-record-price/102820140



I got a Stihl FS140 myself.

Can't fault it - line, swing back blades or disk. Takes a fair bit of abuse. Makes enough noise to piss off my neighbours. Starts every time - although you do need to follow the Stihl starting method like all Stihl motors. Might be a bit big for a suburban block ?



Issue I have with battery power is that the modern tools are awesome. The brushless motors are fantastic.

But - the batteries are ****e. Heavy, slow, gutless, limited life and friggin' expensive. All batteries.

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cisco said..
Echo is the go. www.echo-australia.com.au/en_au/products/trimmers-brushcutters/brushcutter/

Absolutely. My Echo GT-222 line trimmer had a breather hose break last week, 1st issue since i bought it in 2011/2012. About 75hrs of use a year as well.

I have had 2 Echo line trimmers over the years. Paid $50 for each of them. No more than a couple of pulls and they would go. Plenty of guts for the heavy stuff. First one I sold for what I paid for it and only sold it because we moved into a unit.

Second one I had a problem with the carby because it got drowned. Got a full carby kit from the Stihl shop and it goes like a charm.

Rctestflight went a different route for garden maintenance.

1/14 scale RC bulldozer with saw blades mounted.
Totally ridiculous but looks fun

I went with a Chinese honda copy engine and the bits to bolt it to my old Ryobi bits and pieces. I guess you could call it a Chyobi or a Chonobi. I wasted a bit of money buying extra bits that were not needed, but I think you could do the conversion for $195 if you knew what you were doing first time around. It sounds like a lot but I am not sure I could get the same unit for anything less than $500. Plus I can use my existing Ryobi attachments.

It's not bad. 35cc and it has heaps of grunt compared to my 25cc and 32cc 2 stroke Ryobis. If anything else I find I am running out of line too quickly. Do you need to upgrade the diameter for more powerful machines? I am using 2.4mm which is what I used before, but now it seems to eat it too fast.

It certainly doesn't bog down like the other units will when cutting through a lot of grass.

Do I think it will last as a genuine Honda unit will? No, but I don't own one to compare with either.

Those china Honda copies aren't too bad though, as when a part breaks you can replace it with a Honda part.

I had one that ended up 50% Honda with new fuel tanks, exhaust, head gasket, carby float and bits and pieces. The Honda bits were pretty cheap and easy to get, and they fitted perfectly.

This was just my recently retired electric snipper. It was first a 50cc Echo salvaged from a friend and I put a 100mm outrunner with 200amp speed controller. Batteries started out at 53v A123's but had to be scaled back to 22v due to the metal line head suffering gyroscopic precession issues. Had it for close 10+ years and only blew up the 1 speed controller in that time and I built this well before electric garden tools were around. The power and smooth running of this compared to an IC version was amazing with the power output double that of the IC version. The only reason I decommissioned it was the A123 batteries were very old and are difficult to get now and todays cells don't do it for me as I could charge this in 10 minutes safely.
I now have a Makita which is nice, light and quiet and does a very good job which I'm happy with but miss the turbine whine of the old one.

Wow. Very impressive.

I am guessing that you know a bit about RC models.

Why did you put the motor where the original was instead of at the trimmer head? Easier?

I was watching youtube recently where they were trying an RC motor to power an e-bike and I think the cooling was a serious problem as they may be small motors but they need a lot of air running through them.

Sthil fs38 $199. Dont touch it for ten years. If it starts to get hard to start consider a new sparkplug maybe. Then Sell for $90. By another newie. They do good battery ones as well. Dunno why anyone would go chinese. Work for a bit then get hard to start.

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myusernam said..
Sthil fs38 $199. Dont touch it for ten years. If it starts to get hard to start consider a new sparkplug maybe. Then Sell for $90. By another newie. They do good battery ones as well. Dunno why anyone would go chinese. Work for a bit then get hard to start.

You raise a good point, most tradies use Stihl. Ozito for around the home.

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myusernam said..
Sthil fs38 $199. Dont touch it for ten years. If it starts to get hard to start consider a new sparkplug maybe. Then Sell for $90. By another newie. They do good battery ones as well. Dunno why anyone would go chinese. Work for a bit then get hard to start.

I don't understand your argument. You say sell it when it gets hard to start, and then that Chinese stuff works for a bit and then is hard to start. I am seeing a pattern here... petrol whipper snippers get hard to start It makes sense that things wear out no matter what they are.

I am not sure how many hours my stuff gets but I have edging and pruning attachments that have copped a lot of use over the years.

Mehh, I have committed anyway and this thing is a beast. It feels like going from a toy to a serious machine. Maybe it lasts ten years, maybe it will be lucky to last one? If the Honda knockoffs are good enough it should be okay. Plus it works with all the stuff I already have.

I think most stuff is made in China these days and the only difference is probably quality control. Even Stihl are made in Asia somewhere except for some stuff in the US which is probably only for the US market.

I am getting worried that I treat my tools badly. My Ryobis have had a hard life, but the crappy parts are getting to be the problem. You have all sorts of carby combinations and it looks like Bunnings just go for whatever the latest (Chinese) unit is and nothing seems to stay consistent.

The throttle cables seem to be a drama. At least with the Honda copies all the parts are copies of an original and will replace the "original" Chonda bit. I can get new throttle levers, with switch and cables for $20 delivered and they all seem to be the same and they are not likely to stop making them.

If the unit breaks down next week I will meekly switch my allegience to Stihl

I reckon feel goes off very quickly these days.