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I can’t say that I’ve had much success with garden trimmers so far. The story so far goes something like this: I spontaneously acquired a cordless Black&Decker GLC2500. It didn’t work since the battery capacity was way too low. Unlike the price which was quite high. So I returned it. I then bought a Black&Decker GL701 at a sale. It worked for a while until I noticed that the line feed mechanism was screwy. Fine, so I replaced it with a new trimmer of the same model.
Now, another year later I get the same line feed problem and have finally figured out the anatomy of the problem. So I email B&D support and they tell me to exchange the trimmer. No word on if they’ve fixed the problem. So I call their sales and support and they tell me there is some sort of a problem, but can’t offer a solution besides exchanging it. Eventually they offer to send me a new spool, hopefully of an improved model. They’re not really sure. Then, an hour later and much to my amazement, the sales rep calls me back and claims B&D has a special “upgrade kit”, specifically for this problem, and that he’ll send one of those along to solve the issue once and for all.
I must either be unbelievably unlucky, or an incredible nitpicker because it was a very long time since I bought something that worked out of the box and didn’t have any major defects.
July 11: Got a complimentary spool and in a separate package the “kit”, namely a new spool housing (exploded diagram). Looked an awful lot like the old housing at first. Then I noticed some cosmetic changes. The reflex plus lever mechanism is slightly lighter by the looks of things and the housing itself is 5 grams heavier in total compared to the old version. Will it make a difference?
July 12: First problem: The spool housing didn’t fit! A few minutes with a drill fixed that problem though. it was just a fraction of a millimeter off. Now, first impression is that the line feed mechanism does offer more resistance. Seems to be more economic. Too economic even, but I like it. It reminds me of the workings of professional trimmers. The real test is obviously when the line is down to the last third or so. And I have a month or so before I have to return it so I’ll keep trimming.
