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Four stroke strimmer


McSpredder
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Does anyone have experience of 4-stroke strimmers?    Small 2-stroke engines are not always keen to start after being stored for several months, and battery life with cordless strimmer (using two 5Ah batteries) is not long enough for my requirements. 

Honda and Stihl appear to be out of my price league, just wondering about something like the Hyundai HY4BC31 (£180) or Makita EM2654LH (£280).   Electric power tools from Makita are usually pretty good, but I know nothing about their engine-powered stuff.

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5 minutes ago, McSpredder said:

Does anyone have experience of 4-stroke strimmers?    Small 2-stroke engines are not always keen to start after being stored for several months, and battery life with cordless strimmer (using two 5Ah batteries) is not long enough for my requirements. 

Honda and Stihl appear to be out of my price league, just wondering about something like the Hyundai HY4BC31 (£180) or Makita EM2654LH (£280).   Electric power tools from Makita are usually pretty good, but I know nothing about their engine-powered stuff.

Doing a bit of manscaping 🤣

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I brought a Honda 4 stroke this year and it’s rubbish, first you have to leave the choke on for some time or it will stop, the thing will just stop randomly when on tick over even though the engine is running fast enough not to. The power is not as much as an equivalent 2 stroke one, I will stick to 2 Stoke next time which will not be that long off with this one, and when you fill it up you can not see the clear petrol in the tank so expect to over fill it every time.

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A decent 2 stroke is fine, the secret is not to use petrol from the pump if you only use the equipment intermittently. Find you local Aspen fuel stockist, get the premixed 2T and you are good to go. Its expensive compared to unleaded but as a hobbyist you wont use much and it will save you lots of headaches and actually work out cheaper wen you don't have to replace equipment all the time. The number of people i see selling garden machinery for peanuts or even throwing it away at the tip every spring boggles my mind.

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Our syndicate has a Honda with cross bars. It takes no prisoners with the blade and will also cut most things with nylon.
 

I change the oil after every few hours, which is really easy as the correct level is the overflow point. Shaft needs grease through a small nipple, other than that it’s never missed a beat. 

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I bought a cheap petrol trimmer brand new, only ran it on Aspen. Didn't use it for three years, put in some fresh Aspen, it started third pull.

The reason that small two-stroke engines get bad publicity is that when they are stored with fuel in them the petrol goes off (something to do with long chain hydrocarbons breaking down or something), petrol evaporates and leaves the two stroke oil behind that starts to clog orifices, the petrol overtime starts to make diaphragms in carbs go stretchy.

Aspen is a synthetic fuel, yes it is expensive but for me as a casual user of chainsaws etc it means I can always grab a saw and start cutting.

I've recently been reading up about 'fogging' two stroke outboards to store them over the winter, so that they dont suffer the same sort of problem.

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I have a 4 stroke Honda (the bigger model), have had for years.  I bought 4 stroke after bad experiences with (old) 2 strokes.  The first one was stolen.  Insurance supplied a 'like for like', so I have now had the second about 10 years.  Works well, starts well, idles OK, plenty of power.  I use normal unleaded.  It did get difficult to start once, and though the old plug looked perfect, a new plug sorted that.

I also have two Stihl 2 stroke engines on a blower and a chainsaw.  Both start and run well on a mix of unleaded and Stihl 2 stroke oil.  I have not so far had any problems after out of use periods despite both being a few years old and having only occasional usage.

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Thanks for all the replies.  

For years, people have been telling me “Buy Honda, you can’t go wrong with a Honda”, but so it is interesting to learn that their smaller 4-stroke strimmers  have not been entirely problem-free.

My personal experience with 2-strokes is very limited and very much out of date (Mobylette, Bantam, Villiers 9E, etc), but it sounds as though a decent modern 2-stoke strimmer and a gallon of Aspen might be the best solution, and obviously a lot cheaper than an equivalent quality 4-stroke.   Local Stihl agent is only 5 miles away, so I’ll go and have a chat with them.

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