[reggieperrin]

Hi

I was recently researching petrol strimmers and came across this user review on your website,

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=20837.0;topicseen,

It's not for the exact same model as I eventually purchased, but nevertheless it proved invaluable. So to return the favour I thought I would write a quick review of the Ryobi I purchased. It may prove helpful to others in the future??

My father and I co-own an allotment, I pay the bills and provide manual labour, my father tells me what to do. :-)

So we were looking for  something to tackle the grass, nettles and docs on the allotment. A quick look at the reviews for lithium battery powered strimmers seemed to suggest they were not really up to the job, e.g. short on poke, short operating time, hence a petrol strimmer…

Model Ryobi RTL30CET - Touchstart

Order on Sunday evening from Ryobi-Direct (RD), arrived Wednesday morning. The couriers text you on the morning of delivery with details of when they'll deliver it (a 1 hour window is given), goods arrived within the stated time. When you place the order you get an email confirmation that the order has been placed, but no follow up email from RD saying the goods have been dispatched. The next/final message is from the couriers.

I order the strimmer, an extension bar, the adjustable hedge trimmer and the ear defenders&facemask (all Ryobi branded). All goods were well packed in stout cardboard boxes, with no dents or damage to suggest the couriers had drop kicked the boxes into the back of the wagon.

Assembly of the strimmer: Easy apart from the handle which is a bit of a beach, in the end we threw one of the screws away and used a slightly longer self tapper to fit it. The instructions are pictograms  which are as clear as mud to understand, better manuals are available online and there are a  few good youtube videos which clarify things (search youtube for Roybi Australia).

FYI: The grey bits you see in pictures of this strimmer are made from a thick grey plastic. Metal would obviously be preferred but they look strong enough to survive allotment use.

The advert promised two heads, a real-easy self feeding head and pro-version which you insert fixed lengths of string into. Only the real-easy was in the box, so I need to email RD about the missing pro-head.

The real-easy head comes pre-strung with a good length of wire, but to fit the head to the end shaft you have to take it apart, which sets the line 'free'. Fitting the head is straightforward, no extra tools are required, as the yellow feeding knob also serves as the spanner to tighten the retaining bolt.

Re-feeding the line onto the head after it's fitted is simple. You rotate the yellow knob on the head until the line/groove on top is aligned with the eyelets that the line comes out from. Then you push the strimmer line into one of the eyelets and it pops out of the other eyelet on the other side of the reel. Pull the line through until you have an equal length each side and then rotate the knob clockwise to wind it on… simple and very quick.

The machine is supplied with 76mm of 2 stroke oil, which you mix with 4 litres of unleaded. My maths isn't what is was; this to me isn't quite 50:1, but this is what it says on the bottle

Starting the machine. The machine has an electric starter motor, the main reason I purchased it as my father is 76, and is supplied with a rechargeable battery and charger. The battery arrives uncharged and needs to be charged up overnight.

First start; Home in the back garden

First start was done using the pull cord (flat battery + 2 very impatient people eager to try out a new toy). It took 3 tugs on the cord to start and then it idled fine, but every time the throttle lever was pulled the engine stalled. After about 10 mins of starting the machine (first pull after initial start), the strimmer still refused to rev up and would just cut out when throttle was applied. We were about to give up and call RD when ..

Final attempt:- The trick appears to be start the engine, let it idle and then gun/blip the engine as if you were a frustrated boy racer stuck at traffic lights. After 3 blips on the throttle the engine came to life and revved easily to full throttle. A quick test on some dahlias that were in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and the machine was shutdown and the phone call to RD cancelled.

Second start; at the allotment:

The next day we took it to the allotment for the first time with a fully charged battery. The machine started easily using the built in starter motor. Although more throttle blipping was needed before it would run smoothly without cutting out.

In total it took about a minute to fire up, warm up, put on the goggles/facemask and start strimming. Performance more than met expectations, it tackled everything with ease, grass, nettles and docs. A full tank gives about 40 mins of use and the machine restarted with the first touch of the button, even after being left to cool for 20mins (We gave a couple of demo's of our new toy to passing people). Throttle blipping appears to be only required when starting from cold.

Conclusion:

Good points
Build quality is good, materials seem rugged enough for allotment use.
Starting is easy using either the touch start or the pull cord
Restarting is easy.
The real-easy head is simple to use and feeds line without any problems.
It 'breaks' in two for easy transport.
Tackles thick grass, nettles and docs


Bad points
Fitting the infernal handle, but you only have to do this once
Throttle blipping when starting from cold(is this normal?)


Overall; very pleased with it and would recommend Ryobi to others.

We'll probably use it a couple of more times this year and then drain and store it until spring (and buy some fresh petrol then), so I'll post a follow up on how it behaves next year.

As I said this forum proved invaluable in selecting the Ryobi, so hopefully this will be of use to someone else.

cheers
Reggie.

[arugula]

Very useful, thanks for taking the time to do that.

[Gwiz]

Very useful, thanks for taking the time to do that.

Here, here!

As for the throttle problem, If it's got a high speed adjustment screw on the carb (marked "H") an eighth of a turn anti clockwise might well sort it out.