Power Tools for the New Normal, Part 1 – Cordless String Trimmer

I had a trusted guy who came in during the weekends to clean the house and care for the garden. His retirement coincided with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, making it impossible to find a replacement as skilled and dedicated as he was.

When the lock downs were finally eased, three of his co-workers offered to mow the lawn at the rate of a week’s wage for just a couple of hours. Out of desperation, I engaged their services only to feel shortchanged by their shoddy work.

[Even worse was that they only showed up when they felt like it, that is even after agreeing on a date.]

Self-sufficiency

Faced with grass as tall as my thigh and leaves blanketing every hard surface, the time had come to start doing things myself. And for this, I needed the same tools my man Friday used for the garden – a string trimmer and a leaf blower.

I have actually owned a manual lawn mower for as long as my man Friday has been coming in. This was later replaced by a gas-powered unit at the turn of the century. A few years ago, it was again replaced by a gas-powered string trimmer rented from the village office.

[I had to pay for fuel too.]

As can be expected, the manual lawn mower blades lost their edge and the mechanism seized up due to lack of use after it was replaced. In the case of the gas-powered lawn mower, it was always problematic. The carburetor had to be fixed by one of the co-workers of our man Friday right before every use.

[And yes, that guy charged a week’s rate for half an hour of work every single time.]

However, the main reason that these lawn mowers could not be utilized anymore was because our garden became terribly uneven. This was due to soil runoff brought about by a botched renovation when I was on vacation.

With the predatory pricing charged by my man Friday’s co-workers, I took it upon myself to cut the grass. Now just in case you are wondering, my children and sons-in-law all offered to do this for me, but I firmly declined. This is my house, my responsibility, my chores.

[They already have their own houses to deal with.]

Besides that, it is good to do a little manual labor at my age. Not only will it get the blood pumping, I shall enjoy getting even with the all weed infesting our garden.

Search

The decision to mow the lawn myself kicked off three months’ worth of online research and window shopping to see what brand and type of string trimmer best for me. After all this time, I settled on a Lithium-powered unit because it is lighter, quieter, and released zero emissions compared to a gas-powered one. I also did not have to worry about mixing and storing fuel as well as to bother having it tuned up every year, which the gas-powered model required.

Perhaps one of the most memorable experiences in window shopping involved a particularly aggressive salesman pushing a gas-powered string trimmer. He kept insisting that only it could handle our large garden. During our conversation, I kept telling him I wanted the cordless unit beside the one he was marketing but he would have nothing of it.

In the end, his hard-sell technique coupled with a P18,000+ price tag turned me off completely. Too bad though, because it was the same brand I would rent from the village office so it was tried and tested already.

[I might have bitten despite the high price tag, but his refusal to listen sealed his fate.]

Incidentally, mowing the lawn myself was basically an experiment at this point. I needed to see if I could do it not once, but forever. Paying for something that rivals the cost of a television set just didn’t make sense if I gave up after one or two sessions. At least if I got something inexpensive and walked away, I would be losing less money.

Getting back to my search, almost all locally available brands just had gas-powered units on display. Note that these are the same ones that have flooded the market with just about any type of manual equipment or corded power tool. Except for one or two light duty string trimmers, their shelves were conspicuously absent of battery-powered versions.

Decision

This led me to Ingco, which is a relatively unknown and comparatively inexpensive brand, especially for the bicycle-handled model. Costing anywhere between half to a third the price of popular or highly rated marques, it appeared to provide the best bang for the buck.

Other than price, it had all the features I was looking for. I already mentioned that it used bicycle handles instead of a loop handle. This meant less fatigue when working on a big garden like mine. It also came with a shoulder strap, which the looped ones did not.

It used two lithium batteries, which meant it supposedly had more power and lasted longer than those with single ones. Finally, it was fitted with a brushless motor which is expected to tack on even more power and even longer operational life per charge.

[Brushless motors also don’t have any sparks like those of brushed motors too.]

There was one major issue I had with this brand – there was hardly any relevant review on the internet. Even their online advertisements are the same thing from one country to another. So to say this was one of the riskiest purchases I ever made is an understatement.

[I was actually expecting to lose money if it conked out.]

In the end, the price was just too hard to resist. Using the amount charged by my man Friday’s co-workers as a basis, I expected to get a return on my investment in as little as eight uses, when coupled with a leaf blower from the same company.

[It would be shorter without the leaf blower’s cost factored in.]

Incidentally, eight uses is not long, especially now that it is the rainy season. And since it rains just about every day, the weed and grass growth will see me using this Cordless String Trimmer every three weeks or so.

Test

While I had the principle of its operation worked out in my mind, I have never used a string trimmer in my life. Lacking the confidence to test it all by myself, I sought the help of a fellow writer of Anything Under the Sun.

Fortunately for me, I caught his garden in between trimmings, meaning the conditions were similar to what I had at home – tall and thick.

My fellow writer handled reading the manual, assembling the machine, charging the batteries, running the initial test, and even taking pictures for this essay, before turning it over to me for my own testing.

This model has two speeds – high and low. Between the two, I was pleasantly surprised that the low setting was good enough to handle all the thick grass and weed. At the low setting, a pair of fully charged Lithium batteries lasted approximately 45 minutes of continued use. Being satisfied with the low setting, I did not to bother running it on high anymore.

This runtime was good enough to mow half my co-writer’s lawn so I needed to recharge the batteries for the second half. Using the bundled single battery charger took us almost two hours to complete both power sources.

After the second battery cooled down, it was my turn to run the string trimmer. The experience was just as I envisioned, meaning it was not difficult at all; certainly not anywhere near what my wife made it out to be.

[Ah, she of little faith.]

After the second charge ran out, it was already late in the afternoon. Seeing that I wouldn’t have any time to do my co-writer’s front lawn, I called it a day. I shook off the weed and grass that stuck to the string trimmer and packed everything into my vehicle before heading home.

Incidentally, one unexpected outcome of the tests I did was that the string trimmer smelled strongly of tobacco. At first, I thought someone had smoked a cigarette near my vehicle but then noticed the same pungent odor in my house.

With the unit at home, my wife feared there was a cigar-smoking Kapre nearby. My initial reaction was that the neighbors were having a cigar party. It turned out we were both wrong because the string trimmer was the culprit. The rapid spinning of the nylon string caused some of the weed and grass to burn. For this reason, I had to transfer this power tool to a small shed far away from the main structure our my abode.

Final Thoughts

I have been using this string trimmer for several months now and am pleased with it so far. I even used up the nylon string that came with the unit. Annoyingly, it was impossible to acquire replacement string trimmer line from the same company. I ended up purchasing the brand Stihl because it was the only one on the market.

[It’s sad that local stores have no concept of DIY.]

Seeing that this power tool did not conk out on me, I purchased a leaf blower from the same company. This has enabled me to use the same batteries to push away all the cut weed and grass.

While cannot attest to its longevity or to any service or warranty-based concerns, it has already surpassed the outrageous price that was quoted to me by my man Friday’s co-workers. Sure, it takes a little elbow grease running it under the burning sun, but it is worth hearing the cracking sound of weed as the string cuts them down.

Some may be wondering what happened to my man Friday’s co-workers. Well, after standing me up multiple times, the leader of the group rang the doorbell to ask if I needed the lawn mowed. It turns out he heard I purchased a string trimmer from the grape vine and now suddenly became available. To this, I calmly replied that our lawn was already done.

[And I never saw him again.]

The only issue I have with battery-powered tools is that they cannot be used under wet or even damp conditions. With so much power packed into the lithium batteries, an explosion initiated by a short circuit may be lethal under the worst of conditions. In the case of this string trimmer, the two batteries are located behind the user.

[Extreme care should always be taken when using any battery-powered tool.]

Well, this ends the first half of my contribution in this series. Please join me as I test the leaf blower in my next essay entitled Power Tools for the New Normal, Part 2 – Cordless Leaf Blower.