Having long battled with a ryobi strimmer which starts reluctantly then stops as soon as it meets a blade of grass OH instructed me to take it somewhere for someone to look at. Having asked around i was advised to take it to a lawn mower repair place nearby. It's the sort of place that probably doesn't see many women! I drove up a very bumpy lane, through a HGV yard and found a ramshackled shack labelled "reception". I lugged it in and was told to take it next door to darren who would look at it to decide whether it was worth repairing or not (they don't like ryobis apparently).
darren was sat at a workbench, fag dangling. He took said fag out of mouth, took cap off petrol tank (at this point I'm edging backwards towards the door!)
then, fag still in hand, poured fuel out of tank onto his hand and sniffed
Showed me the tank and one he was working on. Turns out OH had, at some point, decided to put pure petrol in without additive, thus wrecking the engine.
Told OH this, who looked decidedly sheepish.
Now have a petrol strimmer with electric push button start ryobi so we can use the old attachments. It's not brilliant, but it does at least work!
