Yes, both those brands are owned by MTD.
Ryobi Trimmer-Repair Ideas(or Replace?)
- Thread starter bunnspecial
- Start date
I met a guy at a flea market with a whole trailer full of string trimmers. I asked him where he got so many. He told me he picks them up when they are put out for the trash. Some looked almost new. I asked him what he had to do to repair them. He said he puts on new fuel line and put a 1/4 cup of seafoam in the tank and primes it and then adds his 2 stoke gas mixture. I had a Weed Eater blower that my Dad had in his shed. It sat in the shed for about a dozen years and never touched. I tried his system on it and it started on the third pull. I ran it all day and used another tank of gas. Ran great all day. Maybe he found the secret to make them work.
This can and will work when the metering diaphram and pump diaphram is on the verge of getting stiff or out of shape. This trick will not work at all when the diaphram eventually dry rots or gets so firm and brittle that it will not move. Soaking in dot 3 brake fluid will get you thru a week or so but they will firm back up again. The great news is cheap throw away equipment may alreay use a plastic thin film pump diaphram, and all you need to replace is the $0.15 cent metering diaphram + his trick.
Thanks everyone.
Some more tinkering with this and I think I'm ready to throw in the towel.
There's an OPE shop right by my work that sells Echo and Toro and I'm going to swing by Friday and see what they have.
I've read a bit of mixed stuff as to whether or not Stihl attachments are compatible with what I have-some people mention making modifications to get them to work. Ace stores in this area sell Stihl so I'll visit and look at them.
Some more tinkering with this and I think I'm ready to throw in the towel.
There's an OPE shop right by my work that sells Echo and Toro and I'm going to swing by Friday and see what they have.
I've read a bit of mixed stuff as to whether or not Stihl attachments are compatible with what I have-some people mention making modifications to get them to work. Ace stores in this area sell Stihl so I'll visit and look at them.
The Stihl and Echo won't work, but the Toro will. Stihl, Echo, and Husqvarna seem to have their own attachment systems. The other attachments won't fit, I've tried. Some of them even clip in but are too loose. I have the Toro powerhead, and I've been happy with it. I have a few different Ryobi and TrimmersPlus attachments.
Thought I'd report back on this, or actually have been meaning to.
I finally just decided I'd get a good stand-alone trimmer and bought an Echo SRM 225. I'm super happy with it all around-it definitely feels a better quality piece(even though I know it's close to the least expensive Echo you can buy) and just feels unstoppable even though I've only used it a couple of times so far.
Meanwhile, the dealer actually included a can of Echo brand fuel with it. He insists it's the best out there(better than Tru-Fuel) but whatever the case it was "free" and it's all I've been using in it.
I threw a little of that in my old Ryobi, adjusted the carb, and it seems to be running better. I'm not sure how much life the trimmer head had in it either, but I'll keep it around and it seems to be fine running the pole saw and hedge trimmer now.
So, I'm happy is all I can say!
I finally just decided I'd get a good stand-alone trimmer and bought an Echo SRM 225. I'm super happy with it all around-it definitely feels a better quality piece(even though I know it's close to the least expensive Echo you can buy) and just feels unstoppable even though I've only used it a couple of times so far.
Meanwhile, the dealer actually included a can of Echo brand fuel with it. He insists it's the best out there(better than Tru-Fuel) but whatever the case it was "free" and it's all I've been using in it.
I threw a little of that in my old Ryobi, adjusted the carb, and it seems to be running better. I'm not sure how much life the trimmer head had in it either, but I'll keep it around and it seems to be fine running the pole saw and hedge trimmer now.
So, I'm happy is all I can say!
You will love that trimmer. I do find the Echo fuel to be better than the Tru-fuel. If you don't use a lot of mixed fuel, it's worth it to buy the Echo fuel if you only have ethanol gas in your area. I mix my own fuel, just because I go through a decent amount of it every year.
Thanks, and yes already thrilled with it.
It's not super easy to get E0 around here. I know of one station, and it's hit or miss as to whether or not they'll have it on any given day.
I DO mix gas for my lawn mower, as I go through enough that it doesn't sit long. I have gone to using the Lawn Boy branded oil(after I got my hands on a bunch of it) and mix 2 gallons at a time a the recommended 32:1. I don't want to risk crudding up my other 50:1 stuff with it.
I realized the other day that the gallon of 50:1 I mixed at the beginning of the summer looks barely touched, so I think from now on that I'm just going to keep using the canned pre-mix in the trimmer and blower. Heck, the Homelite blower I bought in a pinch at the beginning of the summer(I know, not the greatest, but I needed something in a hurry and it was cheap) I've not even used a full tank of gas in-I need to dump that one and get some canned fuel in it so that I can get all the ethanol out of it before winter.
Even though I'm now mowing two yards(ours and the neighbors) the trimmer gets 20 minutes of use at most a week and the blower maybe 5 minutes. I seem to use even less in the Echo trimmer since I can just start it and go and not mess with it every few minutes.
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