Battery tools are much better today than they were years ago, but if you need long run time gas can't be beat.
If you choose gas, make sure to NOT use the gasoline sold at gas stations for cars unless they have a pump with ethanol-free gasoline. We have one about 12 miles from us and I buy 5 gallons every year or two, but if you don't have a E0 (no ethanol) pump at a local gas station, marinas have the E0 fuel.
E0 (or pure gasoline) will not eat the plastic fuel lines that are on outdoor power equipment. If you use E10 (the standard stuff we put in our cars), expect to replace the fuel lines every few years as they disintegrate. You can buy better fuel lines, but there's more to the story.
The ethanol they add to fuel for cars draws water into the system and will mess with your carburetor. Yes, you can buy additives like Sta-Bil that are supposed to help prevent that but since I've switched to E0 gasoline in my outdoor power equipment, my equipment starts every new season a year later. With the regular gasoline, I was having to do carburetor rebuilds or replacements every year or two.
The price is higher, but considering the time you'd invest or money to pay someone to clean or repair the carburetor, the extra dollar or so per gallon is certainly worth it.
If you haven't bought a trimmer yet, if you are considering cordless electric ones, get one that will deal with your weed situation. For me, the Ryobi refurbished one that's one of their smallest ones works well. It's 18V and I have plenty of Ryobi One 18V system batteries since I have other equipment that uses the same battery system. They make heavier duty cordless trimmers to take on heavier weed whacking (avoid the 40 volt systems--they've had problems with both their batteries and chargers and the batteries are over $100 each!). Mine would not be suitable on a country lot with thousands of feet to trim, and it doesn't do well with thicker weeds. It uses something like .065" line, while the commercial gas trimmer I sold to get rid of because I wasn't using it was using .095 line, which would tear up thick weeds quickly and even had a metal blade attachment. It also cost a lot more, even as a refurbished product. The small Ryobi was on sale refurbished with a battery for under $30. I already had a few chargers, so I didn't need one, but I believe it did come with one.
If you plan to add other electric cordless tools to your stash of tools, pick a "system" and stay with it, so you can swap batteries and have spares handy, already charged. In the case of my Ryobi cordless tools, I bought a convenient 6-battery charging station that can be set up vertically or horizontally, and it will charge one at a time in sequence as needed, then maintain the charge if the voltage drops. I have 8 or 9 batteries, so I occasionally charge one that hasn't been on the charger for a while.
One other thing, don't be taken in by aftermarket batteries on eBay. Most of those I bought didn't last long, one even died after one use. I would buy a used genuine brand battery before a new Chinese one that won't work in a short while.
This message was edited Oct 17, 2021 3:48 PM
