Robustness of strimmer cord and Flymo mower blades

I'm just starting out with my own gardening tools and have noticed the strimmer cord almost always gets shortened fairly quickly. Is this just a symptom of my strimming style or that I'm hitting concrete/brick while strimming the edges? I have a Black & Decker GL546, I am not sure if the strimmer cord is genuine Black & Decker brand if that makes a difference.

Next up is my mower which is a Flymo Microlite (hover style) M28. It came with genuine Flymo blades of which one broke causing it to make a horrendous unbalanced sound. I bought a 6 pack of third-party compatible blades but I have lost 4 of those in 2 mowing sessions. Is it that all third-party spares are weak or just my mowing style being too low/hitting stones etc? I bought a pack of genuine Flymo blades and on a side-by-side comparison they seem to have more flex in them compared to the more rigid third-party blades. Maybe this "stiffness" is the cause of them breaking so easily?

Anyway just wanted to see if others have the same experience. Do you all tend to go for the branded spares for your tools?

 

Plenty of adages here "buy cheap ,buy twice" will suffice, there is a vast difference in strimmer thread, BUT, I had a relatively cheap cordless strimmer "Challenge" brand from "Argos". I still have it, but the battery packed up, the original thread is still on the spool, after 3-4 years use, and I seldom had to feed more through, I now have a "Flymo" this season I have used nearly a whole spool, and every time I use it I have to remove the head to feed through at some point. So I am going to be looking for some heavier duty thread.

 

providing garden services to others? or just for your own garden?

 

Just own garden and learning the ins & outs.

 

Sorry to any Flymo fans, but my experience of Flymo is its overpriced for the quality. Their 'Hover' mowers, I'm afraid, unless they've advanced a lot in the last few years, are the perfect solution for anyone wanting a bad lawn. They push the grass down before the blades get there, so you have to go over it several times, and the two that I've used were both underpowered and didn't give a clean cut. Also you can't adjust the cutting height. If someone gave me a Flymo 'hover' mower now, it would be on Freecycle by lunch time.

After binning my last Flymo mower, I bought a cheap mower/strimmer set (about £70 in all). I can't remember the make but I think it comes out of the same factory as Argos's Challenge range (but branded with B&Q's budget brand). That was 3 years ago, and as long as I sharpen the steel blades once a year, I get an excellent clean cut every time, and I can adjust the cutting height, which I do because I let patches of my lawn get longer for the creatures). Note an important, often overlooked point in there, make sure the steel blades are kept sharp.

As for strimmer cord, I have nothing to compare with, but I'm still on the original reel of cord that came with my cheap strimmer 3 years ago. There's not much left on it, but its done alright. My strimmer is a bit pathetic, it is literally just meant I guess for doing the bits the mower can't reach, as opposed to clearing large areas. Its only 300W but it does the job I need it to do, and I've used it against tall weeds in areas where the condition of the ground is unknown at the time (and so its hit its fair share of bricks and stones).

 

I've never used one, but the mower I see people raving about is the Bosch Rotak 40 (Ergoflex)

I would only use a hover mower on a bank that was too difficult / steep to mow any other way.

You will probably be limited on the thickness of strimmer-string that you can get through the spool dispenser on your strimmer. I have a socking great big Stihl brushcutter, so can't give you can't comparative advice I'm afraid except that "thicker" (if it will fit) might help, and I doubt that super-cheap is going to last long!

 

3 years so far

 

Hehehe ... I was meaning when you strim close to a brick wall If yours survives that then you got yourself a good buy

 

Ah, no. If I strim anything that's not meant to be strimmed, I usually get away with it for a couple of seconds before that unmistakable change of tone of the cord flying off.

 

Hi clueless1,

The Flymo is actually very easy to use. It hovers on a cushion of air and it feels like vacuuming a carpet. I have a small garden lawn so I chose this one specifically and at £20 I think it was a good used buy. The blade cassette can be turned upside down giving you two cutting heights. I'm pretty happy!

Out of curiosity do you have a link to the "cheap mower/strimmer set" you bought or something equivalent? I'm really glad you've got years of use out of it as I often think of the cheaper/unbranded stuff as "too disposable" and designed to fall apart after a year. Sounds like you maintain yours though which is what we should all do.

 

This is the set I have:

http://reviews.diy.com/2191-en_gb/11337558/reviews.htm?sort=reviewTextLength

When I bought it, I was skint, and this was supposed to be to tide me over until I could afford better kit, but its just done so well and continues to do well.

The strimmer is a bit rubbish, but is fine for what I need. If I regularly needed to strim a large area I'd want something proper, but for tidying up areas that the mower can't do (my garden started off flat like many gardens, but lad and I have been turning it into an adventure garden so it has lots of nooks and crannies and steep mounds etc now ), its fine.

The mower though is excellent. It cuts really well and does a good job of picking up the clippings. Its very lightweight and easy to push, and will happily cut neatly if I push it at my normal walking pace. I usually don't have to do the same bit twice. The blades are shaped such that they double as fan, lifting the grass as I go over it so that it cuts clean rather than being pushed over. It has 3 cutting heights, ranging from a total scalping to about 6cm / 2 and half inch height.

In terms of maintenance, there isn't really much. At least once a year I take off the steel blade and sharpen it. One time it stopped picking up the clippings, so I cleaned all the dried on grass from the underside and the channel thing that the grass goes through to get to the grass box. That sorted it.

I think its great for the price. I think its pretty good regardless of price. The only downside compared to a hover mower is manoeuvrability. You just push a hover mower where you want it. No wheels. With mine you have to actually think about the cornering a bit That doesn't bother me though because I have a route that I always follow when mowing, and to be honest I'm a bit reckless with it too.