Ego string whacker review?

[Torvy]

For most people, they can only really compare their battery unit to a gas unit. I love my Echo battery unit, but they orphaned the 58v line. It still works great, but I just got a Dewalt that swaps the string trimmer with a brush blade. Both work well for me. I tend to use the echo for lighter work and the DW with blade for heavier work. We had a Greenworks one. I didn't like it. The guard made it useless and it had less power than either of these.

Ego gets a lot of press. I guess I prefer a tool company that added battery option to a battery company that makes tools.

 

[ArlyA]

I think we'll go with the makita.

 

[Ericredslslingshot]

Sorry guys, its a string machine she wants. Disregard blower.

spouse wants a battery powered blower to bring along and use, at her dad's place which is 7 hours drive from us. Any of you folks using the ones Ego makes? Hows it working for you? We already have there batteries. Thanks!!!View attachment 3620887

I have the self feeding one. Top of the line. Best decision I've made in awhile. Also has self loading string. I have 3 batteries because I also have their blower and hedge trimmer. I'm 77 and not having to gas up and pull start is great. Battery lasts a long time and with 2 extra I never have to worry about running out of gas! Pun intended.

 

[ultrarunner]

Like many I have orphan battery tools with obsolete battery sizes.

Spending the money for Stihl in large part with the hope Stihl wouldn’t abandon their battery size for another.

 

[bgr]

If anyone wants an easy loading gas trimmer head, the ECHO SpeedFeed head just lets you wind the line in. Like the electric ones but you have to wind the line in by hand, not with a reverse switch for the electric motor. Much easier than any other head for gas trimmers. ECHO makes SpeedFeed versions with adapters to fit many other gas trimmers. They do not make a version to fit any Stihl units as they have a unique thread only used by Stihl. Stihl heads are slower to load as they have not copied SpeedFeed yet.

 

[Aquabird]

My son has a couple Ego products and likes them.

 

[Davenj4f]

Sorry guys, its a string machine she wants. Disregard blower.

spouse wants a battery powered blower to bring along and use, at her dad's place which is 7 hours drive from us. Any of you folks using the ones Ego makes? Hows it working for you? We already have there batteries. Thanks!!!View attachment 3620887

Just winding down a 9 year lawn mowing gig. Have had several Ego weedeaters, a blower, an edger, and the chainsaw. Love every one of them. Yes, batteries go bad eventually, and aren't cheap. Never compared the cost of battery replacement vs gas and oil, but don't care. The convenience to me was worth it.

 

[Davenj4f]

I bought an EGO weed trimmer and liked it so much that I bought another so that my wife and I can both trim weeds at the same time. I bought the model with a carbon fiber shaft and auto line load. I really like the auto load feature. You just thread the line through the head so that equal amounts stick out of each side of the head, press a button, and the line is fed into the head. Last two summers we put many hours on the trimmers. HOWEVER, this year when I went to use the trimmers, one of them won't load the line. I press the button and the thing clicks once and then nothing. If I wait a minute and press the button the same thing happens. So I took the head apart and can find nothing wrong. Now, even though I would love to give the trimmer a great review maybe I can't. The head has a 1 year warranty and the rest of the trimmer has a 5 year warranty. I suspect the problem is not in the head but is instead in the control circuitry, which is not in the head. I am going to contact EGO and see if they will replace the trimmer. So, out of two trimmers one still works great, and when they are working they do a great job, especially the auto load feature. The auto load feature is especially nice for someone who has arthritis, which I do. And I also have nerve damage in both hands from when my wrists were crushed. For anybody with neuropathy the auto load is a great feature. Auto load makes a huge difference for me, not having to wind the line in by hand.
Eric

I have had that happen a few times, but after taking the head off I found straw/grass that accumulated inside that prohibited the windup function from working. Maybe you didn't dig deep enough

 

[don.sizemore]

I have three of them and wouldn’t trade them for the world. All have the carbon shaft and auto wind for string. One of mine has a weak spring and it uses too much line releasing it too easily. They are replacing the spring for me even after 3 years.