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B&Q? It is likely a cheap chinese machine and has high vibrations, perhaps replacing it with a professional grade strimmer/trimmer in Stihl, Echo or HUSQ / Makita / Tanaka ranges would be more suitable.
Repairing a B&Q tool is dead money, at best it is worth £25 and will cost you more than that in parts to keep it running - A good second hand pro tool can be had for £200 or so, and New £500 - and should last you 2-3 or more years with good care.
Possible causes; pull cord jammed, recoil spring broken, lugs broken where recoil spring hooks over. Once the recoil unit is off you should be able to at east get a view as to problem.
If to do with cord or spring coil has jumped, it is relatively easy to fix, if a part has got broken the issue becomes...can you get spares and / or look for clone machines for spares.
Experience shows spares can be difficult to source and then it becomes a balance between cost, time and effort.
I believe B&Q used to provide a Spares hotline for the gear they sell...worth searching around their web site first.
Strange ..was at Saltex yesterday and saw a Japanese Supplier displaying s trimmers, hedge cutters etc that seemed v similar to that sold by retailers like Northern Tool, Machine Mart etc so may be worth checking to see if its the same rebadged gear.
If being used for your job, then assess whether spares or repairs can be made cost effectively.
Good luck :-)
Hi Paul,
Has the cord snapped and been replaced? I'm no technical expert, but recoil starters require the coil spring to be wound up tight, then the new cord fitted.
I'd chuck it, personally, unless you can see an easy fix. The cost of a repair is going to be more than it cost, let alone what it's worth used.
As to using it commercially, unless it's something you need for a small job, maybe once a month or less, don't bother. The cheap petrol gear from DIY shops is shockingly poor quality, won't do the job, and will give you health issues with the vibrations if it lasts that long.
Treated well, a pro-spec strimmer used for light-ish commercial work will probably last 5 years. My Stihl combi, a horrible thing, is in it's third year now and refuses to die! I'd say it's probably a pound a week to buy a pro machine over it's lifetime, so it makes no sense to use a cheap version.