ok so heres the deal. a year ago i bought a weed eater feather lite brand blower and hedge cutter. the reason i bought these sub $70 pieces of junk is that i dont have alot of blower or hedge work to do. i figured these entry level consumer grade machines would work ok for quite a few years since i only put about 10 hours a year on each one and the engines are rated for 50 hour emissions compliance before requiring a tuneup.
ill talk about the blower first.[image]http://www.poulan.com/getImage.php?m=FL1500LE&s=l&t=BLOWER[/image]
i liked this blower because it was super lightweight. i think its about 6lbs total weight. also its very compact and stores away in a very small space. however the problems i have had are numerous. the very first day of use the recoil starter broke. the spring which rewinds the rope came undone. i pulled it apart and fixed it. next thing to go wrong was some screws on the housing came lose. 1 actually came out and is lost forever. this is within 3 hours of use mind you. finally this week the flywheel key sheared off after only about 10 hours of use. the flywheel key on this cheap piece of junk is cast right into the aluminum flywheel. the key is aluminum just like the flywheel and actually a part of the flywheel and is not replacable. i dont know how the key sheared since the blower doesnt get kickback like a lawnmower or chainsaw. it just blows air at a constant speed. perhaps the crank nut was loose? ill never know. i took it back to walmart and got a new replacment blower on an exchange basis.
the new blower worked great except it would intermittenly die for no reason. finally it quit all together and wouldnt start. i wasnt getting any spark and determined the coil to be bad since a new plug didnt help and everything else looked OK. also the pull start wasnt fully recoiling. this is on a blower thats literally 25 minutes old. off to walmart again for another replacment. lets see how long this one lasts untill it gives up the ghost.
a year ago when i bought the blower i also bought a weedeater hedge trimmer.
[image]http://www.poulan.com/getImage.php?m=GHT195&s=l&t=HEDGETRIMMER[/image]
this hedge trimmer has actually been pretty good. it starts up easily and has good power for its size. i also REALLY like the fact that its very light at under 7lbs weight. makes for less tired arms when cutting hedges and such. this hedge cutter hasnt actually broke on me yet. i keep the cutting bar lubed with motorcycle spary on chain lube which works good. the hedger has had a couple problems though. its lost 2 machine thread screws already. one of them that was lost helped hold the blade on. i had to source a new one from lowes which cost 14 cents. about a dozen screws on the machine were loose, some of which were finger lose and halfway out by the time i noticed. a drop of loc-tite seems to have cured this issue however. also the gearbox was VERY noisy. it turns out that weed eater doesnt lube the gearbox very good at all. after only a few hours of use i pulled the gearbox cover off and found the gears and ball bearings and sliding parts to be virtually dry. there was a hint of grease in the cornders of the gearbox, but this did no good as grease needs to be on the moving parts, not wadded up into a corner where it doesnt touch anything. so i filled the gearbox with some nlgi # 1 grease and you guys cant imagine how much quieter the gearbox is. the gearbox also seems to run cooler to the touch. i do notice it takes more throttle to cut the same hedges, i attribute this to the increased drag of the grease. however ill gladly use more throttle in exchange for a quieter gearbox and hopefully longer service life. i had thought about using an oil instead of grease for the gearbox but this cheap brand doesnt have oil seals on the cover or the input/output shafts so any type of lubricant that can flow will leak out and make a mess. other than those 2 items this hedge cutter has been great.
ive been using 87 octane gas with some castrol super 2 stroke oil designed for atv's and dirtbikes that is JASO FC rated. ($2.37 a quart at walmart) i expiremented with oil mixing ratios and found that i get a 30 degree cylinder tempature drop if i use 30:1 oil ratio compared to 50:1 which is what the factory recomends. i tested this with a digital infrared remote temparture gun. the blower runs at 280F at 50:1 and full throttle. it runs at 250F with 30:1 mix ratio. i tried even richer oil mix but the temp only went down a few degrees, so it appears 30:1 is the sweet spot for the weedeater brand engines. on both the hedger and the blower, the plug and muffler/spark arrestor remain clean at 30:1 so im not worried about it. i figure something else will break before the engines do.
all in all, if you are considering any gas powered yard care products, i would stay away from weedeater brand machines unless you are going to use them very little, and are mechanically inclined like me so you can fix them. buying them from a store with a really good return policy helps too.
if i had to do it over again i would have bought echo brand machines. i have 2 echo chainsaws and some other echo stuff and they are bullet proof but expensive.
ill talk about the blower first.[image]http://www.poulan.com/getImage.php?m=FL1500LE&s=l&t=BLOWER[/image]
i liked this blower because it was super lightweight. i think its about 6lbs total weight. also its very compact and stores away in a very small space. however the problems i have had are numerous. the very first day of use the recoil starter broke. the spring which rewinds the rope came undone. i pulled it apart and fixed it. next thing to go wrong was some screws on the housing came lose. 1 actually came out and is lost forever. this is within 3 hours of use mind you. finally this week the flywheel key sheared off after only about 10 hours of use. the flywheel key on this cheap piece of junk is cast right into the aluminum flywheel. the key is aluminum just like the flywheel and actually a part of the flywheel and is not replacable. i dont know how the key sheared since the blower doesnt get kickback like a lawnmower or chainsaw. it just blows air at a constant speed. perhaps the crank nut was loose? ill never know. i took it back to walmart and got a new replacment blower on an exchange basis.
the new blower worked great except it would intermittenly die for no reason. finally it quit all together and wouldnt start. i wasnt getting any spark and determined the coil to be bad since a new plug didnt help and everything else looked OK. also the pull start wasnt fully recoiling. this is on a blower thats literally 25 minutes old. off to walmart again for another replacment. lets see how long this one lasts untill it gives up the ghost.
a year ago when i bought the blower i also bought a weedeater hedge trimmer.
[image]http://www.poulan.com/getImage.php?m=GHT195&s=l&t=HEDGETRIMMER[/image]
this hedge trimmer has actually been pretty good. it starts up easily and has good power for its size. i also REALLY like the fact that its very light at under 7lbs weight. makes for less tired arms when cutting hedges and such. this hedge cutter hasnt actually broke on me yet. i keep the cutting bar lubed with motorcycle spary on chain lube which works good. the hedger has had a couple problems though. its lost 2 machine thread screws already. one of them that was lost helped hold the blade on. i had to source a new one from lowes which cost 14 cents. about a dozen screws on the machine were loose, some of which were finger lose and halfway out by the time i noticed. a drop of loc-tite seems to have cured this issue however. also the gearbox was VERY noisy. it turns out that weed eater doesnt lube the gearbox very good at all. after only a few hours of use i pulled the gearbox cover off and found the gears and ball bearings and sliding parts to be virtually dry. there was a hint of grease in the cornders of the gearbox, but this did no good as grease needs to be on the moving parts, not wadded up into a corner where it doesnt touch anything. so i filled the gearbox with some nlgi # 1 grease and you guys cant imagine how much quieter the gearbox is. the gearbox also seems to run cooler to the touch. i do notice it takes more throttle to cut the same hedges, i attribute this to the increased drag of the grease. however ill gladly use more throttle in exchange for a quieter gearbox and hopefully longer service life. i had thought about using an oil instead of grease for the gearbox but this cheap brand doesnt have oil seals on the cover or the input/output shafts so any type of lubricant that can flow will leak out and make a mess. other than those 2 items this hedge cutter has been great.
ive been using 87 octane gas with some castrol super 2 stroke oil designed for atv's and dirtbikes that is JASO FC rated. ($2.37 a quart at walmart) i expiremented with oil mixing ratios and found that i get a 30 degree cylinder tempature drop if i use 30:1 oil ratio compared to 50:1 which is what the factory recomends. i tested this with a digital infrared remote temparture gun. the blower runs at 280F at 50:1 and full throttle. it runs at 250F with 30:1 mix ratio. i tried even richer oil mix but the temp only went down a few degrees, so it appears 30:1 is the sweet spot for the weedeater brand engines. on both the hedger and the blower, the plug and muffler/spark arrestor remain clean at 30:1 so im not worried about it. i figure something else will break before the engines do.
all in all, if you are considering any gas powered yard care products, i would stay away from weedeater brand machines unless you are going to use them very little, and are mechanically inclined like me so you can fix them. buying them from a store with a really good return policy helps too.
if i had to do it over again i would have bought echo brand machines. i have 2 echo chainsaws and some other echo stuff and they are bullet proof but expensive.