No Hassle with gas and oil, quiet string Trimming

User: mduclos1@icloud.com

Vendor: Drive Green - Green Energy Consumers Alliance

Action: 3571 - Switch to Electric Lawn Equipment

After our third gas powered string trimmer started leaking oil in my basement and refused to start, I decided I had enough of the hassle dealing string trimmers two cycle oil mix and gasoline. I have a fairly large yard (over 3/4 of an acre) with a fair bit of trimming to do, so I invested in a quality battery powered string trimmer with all the 'bells and whistles' including auto line feed and self loading of the string trimming line, along with a substantial battery. It has been a real pleasure to use, there is no running out to get more gas or two cycle oil, no mess of mixing fuel and oil, etc. The battery has a charging cradle, when I'm done I just slide  it in, and it runs the charging cycle. The trimmer is super quiet, there is just the sound of the string spinning around, no loud gas engine, no noxious fumes or odor. It is also super powerful, I turned it down to the low setting and that is more than enough for fairly thick weeds. I'm really pleased with how well it performs, and the only thing I'd consider doing differently is to get a smaller battery. The battery I have is fairly heavy, I could easily use one with 1/2 the capacity.  One strategy I use is to do a bit of lawn mowing, then take a break from that to do string trimming, then go back to finish the lawn mowing while the string trimmer battery recharges, it just takes a few seconds to put it on the charger. Since the battery charges so quickly, I think I could get away with a battery perhaps 1/4 the size of what I have, doing half the string trimming, then mowing half the lawn while it charges, then finishing the lawn mowing while the battery is charging a second time, that would make the string trimmer a LOT lighter, since a large part of the weight is the battery. A smaller battery would also reduce the first cost, since the battery cost is a large fraction of the purchase. Best of all is since we have in Hudson Light and Power a very progressive utility company, I received a $40 credit toward my electric bill !