Homelite weed whacker question

[Joel_BC]

40 - 50 hours a YEAR!?!?!?

I don't know that I'll have done that much weed whacking in my entire life!

Realize that I probably use it usually for 30 minutes each time I start it up - over a six or seven month period when we work outdoors a lot here, if I do a session with it every three days or so... that puts the use to up in the vicinity of 35 hours. And I know that sometimes I run the machine 50-75 minutes in a single session, which requires re-fuelling partway through.

Joel, what kind of head do you have on your trimmer? Have you used string and blades in your trimmer? I have 3 - 4 types of attachments I can use and I've found I really like the durability of the blades for brush, but have to use string for going around trees, rocks, poles, etc.

Yeah, I use a brush-cutting blade with it sometimes. Very necessary. More of the time, I'm using "string" that is .095 diameter, and that is square-profile plastic over wire. The wire gets wound into a quick-loading head that you give a whole series of twists. The twisting winds the wire onto spool inside the head.

 

[Flytyer24]

A couple of things with any of these small motors...

1. I like marine grade sta-bil... Since the intro of ethanol these engines have taken a hit.

2. Every year dispose of all gas that has set for more than a month. Just dump it in you truck a little mix won't hurt it. On a fullish tank so it dilutes.

3. Clean that air filter after ever couple of uses.

4. Most of these have a fuel filter that floats inside the tank. Change this and the spark plug when you have troubles.

All the other advice is good too. Just my quick tips.

 

[meriruka]

The mechanic at our landscaping shop told us to use gas without ethanol. Something about the enthanol turns the fuel lines to gunk inside.

 

[Nifty]

Great advice guys, I definitely need to do all those things, especially since my gas has been sitting around and I also don't know if I've put sta-bil in recent batches of gas in containers.