Any lawn power tool experts?

[MikeMike]

own an echo Chainsaw, and some random brand weedwhacker, no clue think it starts with a T (Tanka?), both have lasted us years upon years.

well into the 10 year range i believe.

MIKE

 

[everman]

All you need is a goat to roam around the yard, they'll eat anything. No fancy tools required.

 

[Ornery]

Originally posted by: Phoenix15

Ignore the tools. (hehe). If you listen to them you'll buy a Porshe to go to the corner market for milk...

Under no circumstances, will buying a Porsche over a Chevy save anybody money. However, buying quality tools WILL save money over the long haul.

I made the mistake of buying crappy power garden tools... once! Didn't make that mistake a second time. I'd feel pretty stupid if I did!

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: de8212

Originally posted by: Ornery

Originally posted by: de8212

Originally posted by: Ornery
My Ryobi string trimmer has cut its last weed...

It's "good enough" yet it's dead and you're looking for a replacement...

What's so confusing? It has cut its last weed. Meaning it worked the other day, now it doesn't. Past tense. It was "good" becasue it lasted me ~3 years. and I have 4 or 5 attachments that I used with it amost every time I used it.

Looking to save a buck, yet that $75.00 "investment" met an early grave. Its equally cheap replacement will do the same. After wasting $150.00 on junk, will you then cough up the money for decent tools, or keep following the same pattern?

I can see how you got so many posts.

I guess I should take all the attachemnts I have that are ~$50/each and just throw them away. That sounds like a smat investment. Look, it's obvious you are not a fan so just move on. Your expertise is well noted.
the ryobi has lasted me almost 3 years of weed eating, edging, hedge trimming, blowing, etc. It's worth it to me even if I pay 100 bucks for another one to last another 3 years. Or I could go out and buy spereate stihl trimmer/edger/blower/etc. and spend three times the $$$.

And actually mine isn't completeyl dead. I think it's just the clutch. But I want to get a new one so I can keep from switching attachments so often.

You still don't get it.

An engine should NEVER be dead after merely 3 years of use. Especially yard equipment that is only used for a couple hours at a time, a few months out of the year!

Imagine using a brand new car so little, and having it break down after only 3 years and 20,000 miles....

 

[Ornery]

He did say it was probably the clutch, and he has already poured a pile of money into their "system", so it would be tough at this point to just bail and switch to other brands. I hate throwing good money after bad, though. Man, the whole situation is just kind of sad...

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Ornery
He did say it was probably the clutch, and he has already poured a pile of money into their "system", so it would be tough at this point to just bail and switch to other brands. I hate throwing good money after bad, though. Man, the whole situation is just kind of sad...

True..

Well, does the engine start or not? If it's just the clutch, it will start, run and rev fine.. but it just won't turn the attachment.

If you're set on keeping all your attachments, why not just get another Ryobi?....

 

[de8212]

Eli, go back and read again. I never said the engine was dead. The engine starts just fine. It's the attachments that sometimes work and sometimes don't??? Originally we thought it was the shaft now it *may* be the clutch.

Doesn't matter. I bought a troy built today and will look into getting the ryobi repaired. SO, ornery, I guess I am just stuck with two pieces of crap now. ANd if this makes you sad then maybe you should just stop reading this.

Thanks for the info everyone.

 

[MustISO]

I got a homelite when we moved into this house. It works but it's a POS.

 

[Ornery]

I just look at the bright side, Dennis. Hundreds of others can learn from our mistakes!

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: de8212
Eli, go back and read again. I never said the engine was dead. The engine starts just fine. It's the attachments that sometimes work and sometimes don't??? Originally we thought it was the shaft now it *may* be the clutch.

Doesn't matter. I bought a troy built today and will look into getting the ryobi repaired. SO, ornery, I guess I am just stuck with two pieces of crap now. ANd if this makes you sad then maybe you should just stop reading this.

Thanks for the info everyone.

You're welcome.

Also stick with the straight shaft weed trimmer, the flex shaft breaks and is very hard to get replacement.

 

[de8212]

Yeah, the one I bought today is the striaght shaft one. The ryobi is a curved shaft. So I can still use the curved string trimmer attachment from the ryobi as well as the straight one that came with it.

 

[SuperSix]

Originally posted by: rickn
every piece of ryobi equipment i've ever bought was crap. I won't buy anything they make

Maybe you should learn to take care of your power tools?


I have a Ryobi 725r (I think) that I've had for nearly 10 years. Still runs!

Once the piston froze in the cylinder (Don't lend your tools to your neighbors), and I decided to take it apart for sh1ts and giggles. I used a dowel through the sparg plug hole to knock out the piston, and removed it from the crankshaft. Upon inspection, the cylinder walls and piston were badly scored.

With the creative use of some sand paper, some files, and some luck, I cleaned it all up, and reassembled it.

... that was 3-4 years ago. And it's STILL RUNNING.

The pull-start mechanism is skipping, I need a new blade for the edger attachment, I let the hedger attachment get a little rusty, but other than that, it's still running..

OP - wanna sell the pull-start mechanism?

 

[rickn]

Originally posted by: SuperSix

Originally posted by: rickn
every piece of ryobi equipment i've ever bought was crap. I won't buy anything they make

Maybe you should learn to take care of your power tools?


I have a Ryobi 725r (I think) that I've had for nearly 10 years. Still runs!

Once the piston froze in the cylinder (Don't lend your tools to your neighbors), and I decided to take it apart for sh1ts and giggles. I used a dowel through the sparg plug hole to knock out the piston, and removed it from the crankshaft. Upon inspection, the cylinder walls and piston were badly scored.

With the creative use of some sand paper, some files, and some luck, I cleaned it all up, and reassembled it.

... that was 3-4 years ago. And it's STILL RUNNING.

The pull-start mechanism is skipping, I need a new blade for the edger attachment, I let the hedger attachment get a little rusty, but other than that, it's still running..

OP - wanna sell the pull-start mechanism?

hey, I took small engines class in HS, I can tear a lawn mowever engine down to nothing but the engine block and put it back together. The problems with the ryobi were not due to lack of maintanence. they're just a bunch of overpriced home depot selling junk

 

[de8212]

Super, you must be mistaken about your ryobi lasting 10 years. It's not a $250.00 stihl therfore you must be dillusional. Either it's a mislabled stihl or your concept of time is waaaaay off. Haven't you been reading this thread. Ryobi and the likes are crap.


But seriously, that's the same model as mine, 725r. It's funny you ask. As soon as I told a co-worker baout it this morning he mentioned needing the screw/knob off of the quick connect. I',m just goingg ot hold onto it and get it running sometime in the future or use it for parts if I ever need.
That was pretty creative of you to recondition yours. And to think your ~100.00 investment has lasted you almost 10 years. I'm sure mine will be back in action in the near future but I haven't edged in about 2 weeks and I needed to just get another one so things won't get out of hand.

 

[Ornery]

Originally posted by: SuperSix

Maybe you should learn to take care of your power tools?

I have a Ryobi 725r (I think) that I've had for nearly 10 years. Still runs!

Once the piston froze in the cylinder (Don't lend your tools to your neighbors), and I decided to take it apart for sh1ts and giggles. I used a dowel through the sparg plug hole to knock out the piston, and removed it from the crankshaft. Upon inspection, the cylinder walls and piston were badly scored.

With the creative use of some sand paper, some files, and some luck, I cleaned it all up, and reassembled it.

... that was 3-4 years ago. And it's STILL RUNNING.

The pull-start mechanism is skipping, I need a new blade for the edger attachment, I let the hedger attachment get a little rusty, but other than that, it's still running..

I kept my POS Homelite running for a decade. After having to pull the carb apart for the third time, I said, fvck it! I've nursed my POS mower along for over 20 years, but if I had it to do over, I'd get one with a better carb, which of course costs a LOT more. It's been hard starting since it was new, and spending a few dollars more (even twice as much), would have been money well spent instead of struggling with starting it for two decades!

 

[alm4rr]

Any lawn power tool experts?

is mutually exclusive to

Maybe Home Depot/Lowes employees?


:thumbsup: Stihl and Husqie

 

[compudog]

Tthe Ryobi model is based on an engine (31CC) design, tried and true and proven for almost 20 years. The original engine was first produced by IDC (Inertia Dynamics Corp) and marketed under the Ryan Brand name (mostly by Service Merchandise.) I have an original Ryan that still runs and has continued to run for almost 18 years. There is some solid engineering that went into the underpinnings of this Ryobi trimmer. If you have all the accessories, just get the Troy-Bilt and use it.

As is the trend, Ryobi=Troy Bilt=Yard Man=Cub Cadet=Yard Machines=MTD. They are all MTD

 

[SuperSix]

Originally posted by: de8212
Super, you must be mistaken about your ryobi lasting 10 years. It's not a $250.00 stihl therfore you must be dillusional. Either it's a mislabled stihl or your concept of time is waaaaay off. Haven't you been reading this thread. Ryobi and the likes are crap.


But seriously, that's the same model as mine, 725r. It's funny you ask. As soon as I told a co-worker baout it this morning he mentioned needing the screw/knob off of the quick connect. I',m just goingg ot hold onto it and get it running sometime in the future or use it for parts if I ever need.
That was pretty creative of you to recondition yours. And to think your ~100.00 investment has lasted you almost 10 years. I'm sure mine will be back in action in the near future but I haven't edged in about 2 weeks and I needed to just get another one so things won't get out of hand.

Sorry - I only paid $75.00 for mine. I may try to order the replacement starting assy - just to see how long I can keep this thing going. I never thought it would run after by redneck repair. I just run a bit more oil. It runs, and doubles as a handy mosquitoe fogger.

 

[dman]

Originally posted by: de8212
As soon as I told a co-worker baout it this morning he mentioned needing the screw/knob off of the quick connect. I',m just goingg ot hold onto it and get it running sometime in the future or use it for parts if I ever need.

I started out with a Homelight curved shaft trimmer a few years ago at HD. The first thing that broke was that attachment nob, it stripped off at the plastic side. Then it stripped at the nut side after using it a while with a screwdriver to tighten it. Then it was leaking oil (dripping pretty bad), even after tuning it. That was about 5-6mo's into owning it, so, I went to HD and returned it and bought the John Deer Straight Shaft Model. The John Deere model has/had a MUCH better engine. It started easier, runs smoother, and doesn't smoke/leak like the homelite did. I really figured they were the same engine since the specs were nearly identical and the same manuf produced them, but, the difference was huge in performance.

So, the motor was better, but the attachment clamp still sucked. That one lasted about 9mo's before it too broke, this time the knob was fine but the threaded side (nut) was worn down to being useless. I'll point out that I was very careful with it the whole time, because I already knew that was a poor design and prone to stripping. I tried to exchange the trimmer again but HD said they changed their policy and now they only send them out for service. No complaints, just shows that if they changed their policy they must have been getting a fair number of returns on that stuff.

So, rather than be without for however long they take to service it via Home Depot, I went to the local John Deere service center. I inquired about getting a replacement clamp assembly, well, they don't just sell the clamp, it comes as part of the whole shaft assembly that goes into the motor assembly. In fact, if you look at the clamp, I'm pretty sure it's designed NOT to come off the shaft. I ended up buying the whole assembly thing and replacing it myself because it wasn't a warranty item, I think it was $30 or so, can't remember.

Fortunately, the new assembly has a modified clamping design, the nut part of the clamp is now reinforced (more threads) and has lasted me over a year since I've swapped it (I'm still very careful not to over tighten it). I saved the old assembly and may try and fashion a backup-clamping system for that one. I've noticed the new(er) models at the stores have the updated design as well and that homelite was not on the HD shelves for a while there (haven't checked lately, they may be back).

//Cliffs Notes: The motor's ok on John Deere Model, the clamping system still sucks--I believe the plastic knob will still come off if you are not careful, but so far so good for me. If I could start over again I'd probably buy the tools separate and get the pro stuff--even though I don't like the idea of having a motor for each of those tools, it's less hassle in the long run.