There are a variety of trimmers on the market. There are electric and battery operated weed eaters, as well as the standard gas-powered weed eater. Which one is right for you depends on a number of factors
How Big is Your Lawn?
A lawn that takes less than a half hour to mow with a standard push mower is a fairly small lawn. It’s also a great candidate for an electric weed eater of some sort.
The lawn isn’t so big that it’s cumbersome to use a corded weed eater. It’s also not so big that a 50-100 foot cord can’t reach the entire yard.
If you prefer to run cordless, a battery powered weed eater will work fine. A single battery charge should handle the entire lawn.
Of course, a gas-powered trimmer will work just as well on a small lawn as it does on a large lawn.
How Much Trimming/Edging is Required?
Lawns that are more mid-range in size are probably getting a little large for a battery powered weed eater. A battery operated trimmer will last about a half hour per charge. It might work fine on a mid-sized lawn with few things to trim around, but that same size lawn with lots of stuff to trim around will probably drain the battery before you’re finished trimming.
It’s possible to use a 100 foot extension cord and an electric trimmer, but dragging that much cord around the yard might be too difficult for your tastes. You’ll just have to decide if you prefer the challenge of dealing with the cord over the additional noise of a gas-powered trimmer. Again, if your mid-sized lawn has very little to trim around, an electric weed eater might work just fine for you. Whereas, if you have a lot of bushes to weave the cord around, you may just want to ditch the idea of an electric trimmer and go for a highly mobile gas-powered tool.
A mid-sized lawn is starting to get to the size and complexity where you’ll want to start considering a gas-powered trimmer.
How Environmentally-Friendly are You?
It may seem, at first glance, that both the electric trimmer and the battery-powered trimmer are extremely environmentally friendly, and they are as far as keeping exhaust out of the air. However, I have to give the “green” edge to the corded trimmer. Batteries need to be changed every so often and when they do, those batteries need to be recycled properly or they become a part of the pollution problem.
Battery-powered trimmers are definitely better than gas trimmers when it comes to the environment. This is especially true if batteries are properly recycled. So, if keeping your carbon footprint to a minimum is important to you, you’ll want to think a good deal about leaving that gas-powered weed eater at the store and picking up one of the electric models.
Find the Perfect Mix
Which weed eater to get depends on the type and size of your lawn and your own personality. If you take all these into consideration when selecting a weed eater, you’ll be much happier with your choice.
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