I have an electric weedeater also. Very reliable, but like yours, the bump
feed stopped working almost immediately, so I have to pull out the string by
hand. My yard is so small that after 2 years, I'm still on the first roll of
string.
"KLM" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 14 May 2004 10:40:07 GMT, "Bob"
wrote:


I have an el cheapo Weedeater electric cuz' I need to trim only a few
places where the mower cannot get close enough to. While not directly
relevant to this tread on gas trimmers I'll put in my 2 cents about
string sizes. The bump feed doesn't work so I have to pop out the
spool and feed the string. Not a big problem but still a nuisance.
Experimented with a thicker line. I haven't seen a motor smoke that
fast and destroy itself. So I took it apart to see if I can salvage
any useful parts (none). It was obvious the thicker sting caused an
imbalance, melted the fiber or plastic bearing and then seized the
motor. The lesson then is stick to the recommended string weight.
The problem may not show up soon in a motor mounted on bearings but
the imbalance is there and will shorten the life of your trimmer.

Note: I will still buy this model, the smallest and cheapest, cuz' it
suits my needs.

It uses 0.080 line fed from a bump-feed head. In 20 minutes of
trimming
(mostly walking around), I have to feed line out at least 10 times,
usually requiring several bumps each time.