The trimmer was probably straight-gassed or possibly could have had regular starting fluid used in it, then stored in a humid location, seizing the piston, which could have broken a piece off a ring or the thin separations in the exhaust port. I would not waste five cents or five minutes on it. When the cheap trimmer engines are used properly, they can last for many years. I threw away a 14 yr-old Ryobi power head that was still perfect in every respect except the carb went bad. New ones are about $100, so you can't afford to spend much on them. I've tried to work on those Walbro-type 'box' carbs before without success, so I try to avoid carb trouble by using a fuel Stabilizer for Ethanol-blended fuel, synthetic-blend 2-cycle oil and some Marvel Mystery oil. I wasn't doing that on the old Ryobi but several years in on the new one and all's good. BTW, one of my sons gave me several attachments for the 'Expand-It' trimmer, including a hedge trimmer that I just used for the first time. Beats the heck out of an electric one and surprised me with its speed in cutting and how it handled the larger stems.

Copy and past or type this last line into your search web window and select search. I believe you will find plenty info. Better still, you need to search your community for a personal user's opinion and demo. OR! Rent one for your job and personal opinion. I feel the ads on the cordless trimmers will be hard to pass. Be Strong! Keep your goal of POWER in mind. consumer report on electric grass trimmers Good Luck! Reply your findings. loger PS. Also search electric grass trimmers on this site upper right if you have not.

I agree with bambooo here. If one of your main complaints against the electric trimmers you have is the diameter of branches it will cut, you would be disappointed with the low-end gas models. I am not sure how the expand-it hedge trimmer attachment works, but to cut the thicker branches, you want to make sure that you have dual action cutting on the blades. The weedeater that you mentioned has one fixed blade, and one moving blade. This will limit the cutting thickness to a maximum of about 3/8". In other words, the Weedeater gas models will cut the same diameter branches that your current hedge-hogs will. If you want the larger capacity, check out Echo, Tanaka, Stihl, Shindaiwa, etc. gas models. These models will however begin at around $250. For what it is worth, I have a set of Homelite HT-22 (3/8" capacity variety) gas hedge trimmers. I really like the hand-held gas type for the ease of use and no electric cord. The 3/8" capacity is adequate for my use. The major down-side to the gas trimmers is they are significantly heavier than a set of electrics. Good luck.

I went through the same exercise a year ago and chose the 36" Wolf cooktop, a Wolf single oven with a Wolf convection/microwave on top. I have been using them for four months and am very satisfied. I chose the cooktop because (1) Wolf has a good reputation for quality and service, (2) I liked the layout of the burners, the placement of the knobs on top and the backlit indicators that a burner was on, and (3) the appearance of the grates which are very solid. I was also influenced by the fact that we are using propane and Wolf makes both an LP and a NG version, rather than having the system retrofit by an installer, which is true for some brands. I cook a fair amount but don't need all the burners to be high BTUs as they are on the range tops. I purchased a separate All Clad griddle which straddles two burners nicely. Previously I had cooked only on electric stoves. The one thing I notice with the cooktop is the need to be careful not to turn the burners too high or the flames come up the sides of the pot and cause scorching. It may be that the Thermador star design is better in this regard as the Wolf burners appear to heat the edges of the pot faster than the interior of the bottom. However, the simmer is fantastic. It never needs to be adjusted. The ovens were a more difficult choice for me. I went with the Wolf in large part because of appearance. My ovens are placed next to the Sub Zero fridge and everything matches nicely. The regular single convection oven is a good size. It bakes and roasts well; the broiler is nothing special. I have put three trays of cookies in at once and they all cooked perfectly. You do have to remove the racks for cleaning. Some GE ovens are attractive because the racks can stay in. I notice that there is much more spattering of grease in a convection oven than my older conventional one. Therefore I remove unused racks when roasting meat or poultry. The controls look complicated but are actually fairly intuitive once you go through them once. All in all an excellent choice but I am not sure the performance is any better than less expensive ovens. I was unsure about the convection microwave. It is, as Wolf readily acknowledges, a Sharp or Panasonic product with an expensive trim kit. The exterior is black plastic and not up to the standard of the regular oven. However, the microwave works well. It has about 100 watts less power than a regular microwave but that does not seem to make a huge difference. I was surprised that I use the small convection oven as much as I do. I use it for warming bread or leftovers and cooking small pieces of fish or chicken. It heats up quickly and is probably much more energy efficient than using the large oven for these tasks. It worked well for baking a single pie crust but I use the larger oven for cakes. I also use the convection oven for warming plates or holding side dishes as I did not get a warming drawer. Hope this helps. Wolf was a good choice for me but I am sure there are other options.