Hello everyone,

I posted on this group a while back, uncertain as to whether I should buy a
petrol strimmer or another electric to replace my recently deceased Flymo.

I just wanted to report that I took the plunge and bought the cheapest
petrol one I could find at B&Q at £80 (a McCulloch).

Tried it for the first time today and blimey! My strimming time has gone
from 45 minutes to about 10! This thing ATE my garden - fantastic. I am
chuffed to bits with it.... No cable (hooray!) PLUS you get the sadistic
thrill of gunning the throttle as you approach a meaty thistle knowing it is
going to DIE.

To anyone else considering spending the the extra 40 quid for a petrol one,
save up for a couple of extra weeks and get one.

Yours chuffedly!

Jolltax


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"Jolltax" wrote in message
. ..
Hello everyone,

I posted on this group a while back, uncertain as to whether I
should buy a
petrol strimmer or another electric to replace my recently deceased
Flymo.

I just wanted to report that I took the plunge and bought the
cheapest
petrol one I could find at B&Q at £80 (a McCulloch).

Tried it for the first time today and blimey! My strimming time has
gone
from 45 minutes to about 10! This thing ATE my garden - fantastic.
I am
chuffed to bits with it.... No cable (hooray!) PLUS you get the
sadistic
thrill of gunning the throttle as you approach a meaty thistle
knowing it is
going to DIE.

To anyone else considering spending the the extra 40 quid for a
petrol one,
save up for a couple of extra weeks and get one.

Yours chuffedly!

Jolltax

Sorry to throw cold water on your enthusiasm :-( Yes, strimming
makes things look great and tidy, etc. We do it ourselves. But,
don't think your thistle is dead just because you have taken the top
off. Nothing dies unless you kill the roots or dig it up.

Iris McCanna

On Thu, 12 Jun 2003 19:34:18 +0100, Jolltax wrote
(in message ):

I just wanted to report that I took the plunge and bought the cheapest
petrol one I could find at B&Q at £80 (a McCulloch).

Tried it for the first time today and blimey! My strimming time has gone
from 45 minutes to about 10!

Thanks for this posting, I'm just thinking about getting a strimmer and I
will definitely get a petrol one.

My petrol lawn-mower is I think far better than the electric one it replaced,
so for me it is a petrol strimmer definitely

--
Patrick

"Jolltax" wrote in
:

To anyone else considering spending the the extra 40 quid for a petrol
one, save up for a couple of extra weeks and get one.

I was thinking of getting a petrol mower...

But my plot isn't really big enough to justify one really...
Only 20ft x about 40ft

And I had a fit of embarressment when I had no idea where to get the
fuel....
My car is a diesal so I couldn't do them at the same time!

And where do you keep the extra fuel?
Can I use a regular fuel can?

And the biggie.....Are they cheaper to run than an electric?

To anyone else considering spending the the extra 40 quid for a petrol
one,
save up for a couple of extra weeks and get one.

Yours chuffedly!

Jolltax


How about doing grass edges/borders?/ I notice on the bq website its says
a edges/no next to edges.
My current electric one i can swivel the head upside down to allow me to do
the edges i suspect you cant do that with the bq petrol one.
Can you perhaps hold the whole thing upside down and do the edges?
Id really like this £80 petrol one but i need to be able to do the edges of
my lawn with it.
What are your thoughts on this?

Barry & Iris McCanna wrote:

Sorry to throw cold water on your enthusiasm :-( Yes, strimming
makes things look great and tidy, etc. We do it ourselves. But,
don't think your thistle is dead just because you have taken the top
off. Nothing dies unless you kill the roots or dig it up.

Oh yes it does! If you keep mowing an area of weeds frequently enough
and short enough you will, within a few months, end up with what is
basically a lawn. There will be a few plants other than grass that
can survive being short and flat (plantains, some clover, maybe
daisies) but it will be mostly grass and there certainly won't be any
thistles.

--
Chris Green )

Rick McGreal wrote:
"Jolltax" wrote in
:

To anyone else considering spending the the extra 40 quid for a petrol
one, save up for a couple of extra weeks and get one.

I was thinking of getting a petrol mower...

But my plot isn't really big enough to justify one really...
Only 20ft x about 40ft

And I had a fit of embarressment when I had no idea where to get the
fuel....
My car is a diesal so I couldn't do them at the same time!

And where do you keep the extra fuel?
Can I use a regular fuel can?

And the biggie.....Are they cheaper to run than an electric?

You can't be serious, the running cost of either a petrol or an
electric strimmer would be completely lost in the 'noise' of other
related expenses.

--
Chris Green )

How about doing grass edges/borders?/ I notice on the bq website its
says
a edges/no next to edges.
My current electric one i can swivel the head upside down to allow me to
do
the edges i suspect you cant do that with the bq petrol one.
Can you perhaps hold the whole thing upside down and do the edges?
Id really like this £80 petrol one but i need to be able to do the edges
of
my lawn with it.
What are your thoughts on this?

I don't think you would get razor sharp edges with the strimmer I have, the
more expensive petrol ones come with this as a feature though, guess it
depends on how much your budget would stretch.


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In message , Rick McGreal
writes

I was thinking of getting a petrol mower...

But my plot isn't really big enough to justify one really...
Only 20ft x about 40ft


Nah I don't think it is worth it for that (our lawn is of a similar
size)

And I had a fit of embarressment when I had no idea where to get the
fuel....

In a petrol station........

My car is a diesal so I couldn't do them at the same time!

And where do you keep the extra fuel?

In the garage/shed etc.
Can I use a regular fuel can?

You just use a standard petrol can - a 5 litre plastic can from the
garage is fine.

And the biggie.....Are they cheaper to run than an electric?

I don't think the relative running costs are really significant.

Petrol mowers are more powerful so good for larger mowers and larger
lawns, but they probably require more maintenance, are noiser and
smellier to use, heavier and more expensive.

Electric mowers are cheaper, the mowers are lighter, it is cleaner and
require less maintenance.
--
Chris French and Helen Johnson, Leeds
urg Suppliers and References FAQ:
http://www.familyfrench.co.uk/garden/urgfaq/index.html

I just wanted to report that I took the plunge and bought the cheapest
petrol one I could find at B&Q at £80 (a McCulloch).

I recently bought the same model - but from Homebase. I also waited for one
of their 10% days so got it slightly cheaper.

This thing ATE my garden - fantastic.

Now go out and buy some extra strimming line as what came with the strimmer
won't last very long at all. :-(

It's easy to do grass edges, btw. Just rotate the whole thing around.

Have fun....and remember those goggles.....

- h

Helen wrote in message

It's easy to do grass edges, btw. Just rotate the whole thing around.

Have fun....and remember those goggles.....


I use mine to do the edges of the allotments by turning it over but you
won't get a good straight edge unless it has a suitable attachment; AND you
will need goggles if you try it or you just might loose an eye as it will
kick up a lot of stones etc. in the process.
You can buy a good face guard for about £14.

--
Regards
Bob

Use a useful Screen Saver...
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/
and find intelligent life amongst the stars, there's bugger all down here.

The message
from contains these words:

Barry & Iris McCanna wrote:

Sorry to throw cold water on your enthusiasm :-( Yes, strimming
makes things look great and tidy, etc. We do it ourselves. But,
don't think your thistle is dead just because you have taken the top
off. Nothing dies unless you kill the roots or dig it up.

Oh yes it does! If you keep mowing an area of weeds frequently enough
and short enough you will, within a few months, end up with what is
basically a lawn. There will be a few plants other than grass that
can survive being short and flat (plantains, some clover, maybe
daisies) but it will be mostly grass and there certainly won't be any
thistles.

You must have a wimpy variety of thistles then..ours happily adapt to
strimming/mowing and thereafter spend years being short and flat unless
someone digs up their root.So do docks.

Janet.

On Thu, 12 Jun 2003 22:31:44 +0100, "H"
wrote:

I just wanted to report that I took the plunge and bought the cheapest
petrol one I could find at B&Q at £80 (a McCulloch).

I recently bought the same model - but from Homebase. I also waited for one
of their 10% days so got it slightly cheaper.

This thing ATE my garden - fantastic.

I have also just taken the plunge, but in a moment of madness I bought
the larger 25cc McCulloch brushcutter. It has certainly eaten my
rather neglected allotment - now I just have to work out what to do
with a six-foot-high haystack...

Now go out and buy some extra strimming line as what came with the strimmer
won't last very long at all. :-(

I noticed this - it may be that my lack of experience means that I'm
bumping the line out more quickly than I need, but the first time I
used it I ran out of line before I had cleared my allotment.

It's easy to do grass edges, btw. Just rotate the whole thing around.

Have fun....and remember those goggles.....

The Cabrio 246 that I bought came with a face mask. It is only a basic
mask - no swivelling for example - but it is still far better than
goggles because a) it doesn't mist up and b) it protects the whole of
your face from flying grass and twigs and macerated slugs and snails.
--
Stuart Baldwin
news\at/boxatrix\dot/co\dot/uk

wrote in :

And the biggie.....Are they cheaper to run than an electric?
You can't be serious, the running cost of either a petrol or an
electric strimmer would be completely lost in the 'noise' of other
related expenses.

Oh....My neighbour has a petrol mower and his is not that noisy...

But I swear his cuts his grass MUCH faster than mine does does....

Chris French and Helen Johnson wrote in
:

And I had a fit of embarressment when I had no idea where to get the
fuel....
In a petrol station........

Oh...Its just normal 4star fuel then?
(Boy do I feel an idiot now!)

And where do you keep the extra fuel?
In the garage/shed etc.

Didn't know you could store fuel at home....
Even in such small quantities

And the biggie.....Are they cheaper to run than an electric?
I don't think the relative running costs are really significant.

Petrol mowers are more powerful so good for larger mowers and larger
lawns, but they probably require more maintenance, are noiser and
smellier to use, heavier and more expensive.

Ok...The smell would be an issue...But I dpon't think that the noise level
would be...Its only for an hour a week or so...And the council makes more
noise than that just about everyday with its huge ride-on mowers it has
running around (Not cutting the grass btw!)

Electric mowers are cheaper, the mowers are lighter, it is cleaner and
require less maintenance.

In that case I will stay with my electric....
It just seems easier!

Thanks!