The only weedeater head you should ever use!

These should be required equipment on all String trimmers!!

Use them on my echo's and about to get one for my Stihl Combi

I'll watch this later.......

The new heads come with 2-3 more pieces so may not even have to take the Stihl unit apart, will report this weekend!

Will take it into consideration. Thanks

Always looking for more man toys to add to my man toys or make my man toys more effective in a manish way.

When you run it empty, takes 30 seconds to pull the pre cut 6-8 feet of string out of your pocket, line the hole up feed it in and twist it full.

Love it...wore the first one out until the bottom piece had holes in it.

Dang my dumb butt has been turning the wrong side and getting twisted up in string,,,,,Learn something new everyday!

That is pretty much the same setup that came stock on my Echo.

Echos come with it now.

Dang now I have to buy some grease and hit my original Echo especially it's old as dirt and had a Blade on it for a long time which is down right abusive really.

Who knew????

Mike

Originally Posted by devnull

Echos come with it now.

LIKE

Stihl is so freaking overrated.

Originally Posted by devnull

Echos come with it now.

My understanding is thats Echos design.
Stihl uses it now, under license.

Guy at work bought a Stihl last year. Couple weeks ago he was grumbling
about how hard it was to restring.

I ask him if it was this head. He had no idea.
Explained how it worked. That night I got a msg.
He was tickled at how easy it worked.
Since he wasn't tearing it apart to feed it anymore.

Amazes me how so many people think they know everything.
And refuse to read manuals.

I read every manual on everything I get.
And usually pick up something doing it.

I like the combi for the edger and shrubbery trimmer attachments, just picked up a string trimmer head for it today.

Had it about 2 years I think no complaints so far except didn't come with a speed feed head.

My Craftsman weed whacker came with a head that works similar. The difference being you take two 6' lengths of line, poke one into each side of the head and then twist it onto the spool. Works slick as snot.

Echo makes great stuff & I have an Echo chainsaw & a blower.

But my trimmer is a Milwaukee M18 Fuel unit & the head works exactly the same way as the Echo unit in the video.............the M18 Fuel unit is a great trimmer & the battery is interchangeable with all my other Milwaukee tools.

MM

I have been using one like this for 15 years

Probably okay for residential use but we tried em last summer and would get maybe a month out of them.

These were used on an asphalt maintenance crew where we weedeat cracks in asphalt/concrete and curblines.

We went back to buying the $20 Stihl heads and get a couple weeks out of them before having to replace the bottom piece you bump to feed line.

Oregon builds them too.

I have one by Oregon that is similar.

it has spools of thread you load that you buy in 10 packs

its not cheap but I don't use them that often

I bought an Echo machine this year and I like the speed feed head overall, the only knock I have on it is if you get in some heavier stuff it has a little gap between the gear housing and trimmer head that tends to wrap up with debris. For instance, I have moss here and if you run through some of it, it will wrap and put a stop to the trimmer until you pull it out.....same with any kind of vines. Not a problem if you just trim grass and worth the minor annoyance for the ease of re-stringing. It is after all designed for just grass trimming and I guess I blur the line into light brush cutting along some of my ditch banks.

As far as Echo vs Stihl, I am a long time Stihl user and the differences that I see so far is that this Echo starts easier but the grass guard on it IMO is a little too big and tends to drag on the ground and hang up on stuff. Also, the engine is round on the bottom and tends to roll over when you transport the unit in say the bed of your truck. The Stihl's are flat and stay upright. This Echo has a lot of power for its size. Mine is the typical 225 unit that you see at Home Depot but it has bike handlebars and is marketed as a "brush cutter". I started to buy the next size up but the sales guy told me the 225 would do anything I wanted and he was right. I was in the market for a bike handlebar trimmer because in the last year or so the position I get in when using a loop handle trimmer kills my back. The Stihl I was using still runs fine....just decided to try something different. Both are good machines.....just with different little quirks.

As an aside, one of my good friends bought an Echo with the speed feed head from Home Depot and for some reason did not get a manual or any paper work. He was taking apart the speed feed head to re string it like you do a regular Stihl head. I saw him do it before I bought mine and just thought that was how it was. After I got mine I showed him how to do it right and boy was he happy!

I just use the really heavyweight zip ties. They are cheap, outlast any string made, and easy to zip on and off.

One of the main weeds in this area is kochia. It has a thick stem that a line won't cut through. I put one of these Stihl brush cutters on my trimmer and it stays on full time. You have to be careful with it but it cuts through kochia nicely and works well on all other weeds, too.

[Linked Image from stihlusa.com]

Been running a Speed Feed head for several years now. Worn one out and on my second one.

The weed whacking workload is way down around my place. Only use my 20 year old Echo GT around our garden edges.

Everywhere else is nuked with a 3ft wide fan pattern of gly-2,4-D and Dawn. About every 4 weeks

our farm spray rig is the 89 nissan pathfinder with 40 gallon tank and 50ft of hose. Put out 15 gallons yest even touching up around the gates and my walk in cooler

I like the system on my old Craftsman wacker. Cut a length of trimmer, feed it through a hole on the head and go. When it gets short, repeat. Simple and no auto feed to screw up.

Originally Posted by SuperCub

I like the system on my old Craftsman wacker. Cut a length of trimmer, feed it through a hole on the head and go. When it gets short, repeat. Simple and no auto feed to screw up.

Yup

I just carry a pocket off pre cut snippets.

Which is great until you’ll get into poison ivy and you have to grab that head and slip in a fresh pair of cording

tag

Got my other new head and a tube of white lithium grease, my poor old bladed unit will get some relief tomorrow

Mike

These work even better. Slightly more expensive than a string trimmer, but you can't argue the results!

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

I don't like horses though!

Manufacturers are even advertising the speed feed now!

https://www.shindaiwa-usa.com/

Probably order one, ordered a new pull string assembly, and a carb for my stilh, going to put them on today it's been sitting for a few yrs. We have been paying someone to cut the grass and haven't been able to get a hold of him for over a month, f-cking grass is waist-high in some of the backyard. Going to buy a mower and start doing it myself.

I just got done with 3 ten hour days on a stihl weedeater. I use the head that I load precut 8 inch pieces. A speedloader would not last a day with me!

Put the Speed Feed head on the Stihl attachment when I got back from lunch just now, took about 5 minutes out in the parking lot. Will put it to work tomorrow.

Mike

P.S. Just like the 1st video, used a nail to hold it still and a 3/8" extension to push the arbor out and replace with correct (green) one.

Originally Posted by Waders

These work even better. Slightly more expensive than a string trimmer, but you can't argue the results!

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

Maybe on grass, most ignore weeds.