Hmm. I've been using a bump feed poulan (weed eater) for about 13 years
now, 1-2 gallons a fuel per year, never been a problem. Prior to that I
have hundreds of hours (and at least 150 gallons of fuel and 2000 ft of
string) thru other string trimmers without bump feed.

looped through the business end. When it wears out, stop the trimmer,
pull
the line out, insert a new one. No tools, 5-10 seconds to change line
(if

Compared to one second and keep on going with bump feed.

sdb

I went through a few different bump feed trimmers (so I'm a slow learner).
Granted, they were all cheapie models. But my experience is that the line
tends to get tangled very easily with a bump feed trimmer. Plus, even if it
doesn't get tangled, it almost never feeds correctly. So it's not one
second and keep on going. It's more like bounce the thing for several
seconds, give up, shut the thing down, tear it apart to untangle the line,
then start it up half an hour later and keep going.

Compare that to the Craftsman I bought. The line is tough enough that it
will easily do our entire yard without needing to be replaced. (we use the
black color line, the thicker line) So before we even start it, we just pop
in a new length of line (a procedure which takes about 10 seconds). No
tangled lines! I haven't compared the cost of the line vs. a bump feed
trimmer. My guess is that the line on the trimmer we use is probably more
expensive. Still, we only use about 10 cents worth of line every other
week, so cost of line isn't really an issue. But even if it was, it would
be worth the extra money not to deal with a bump feed trimmer. IMHO -Dave