How to Use a Weed Eater

Every homeowner wants to have beautifully landscaped lawns, gardens, and yards. As you know, this beauty doesn’t happen by itself- it takes work and dedication.

One job that pays off in spades is trimming the weeds. Weeds are scrapy plants which makes them tough to eradicate. They tend to pop up in the most annoying places. You’ll see them along fences, near your walkways or choking out your plants in your garden.

They need to be demolished. A weed eater is a perfect tool to handle these destructive plants. This article will explain how to use a weed eater.

There are three main types of weed eaters that you can find in the market. A weed eater may be an electric type, a battery powered type, or a gas powered type. If you are buying your weed trimmer brand-new, it should come along with an owners manual. Even if you have a used model, you’ll often be able to find a pdf of the manual online. Search by model number to start.

In the manual you’ll find instructions on how to operate and maintain your machine. You should always refer to your manual first – it’s your information line to the engineers that created your weed wacker.

Steps To Follow When Weed Whacking

Here are some general steps on how to operate a weed eater:

1. You should familiarize yourself first with the buttons and the controls of the weed eater that you have. While in general each weed eater has a trigger for a throttle and a switch to turn on and off, different types have these switches in slightly different locations. Gas-powered string trimmers will usually have a starter rope, gas tank and primer button as well.
2. You also need to make sure that you also know the safety measures associated with utilizing this device. Make sure that the attachments and guards of the tool are all secured properly.
3. Before you start your task, assess the yard or area you’ll be working in. If there are objects that might damage the string of the weed eater or might be thrown by it, remove them from the area. Pets and other people should be restricted from the area while you work to avoid accidents.
4. You need to ensure your safety whenever you will be using this tool for your weeding task. For this matter, you should be wearing protective gear for any weeding project that you will be doing with a weed eater. Protective gears may include eye protection, closed-toes shoes, gloves, long sleeves, and long pants. At times, the weed eater might throw some debris towards you, such as stones or even poison oak and other toxic plant fragments. The gears will protect you from the injuries that the debris may cause. Ear plugs can also be used if you are using a gas powered weed eater.
5. You will need to start the machine. You must not start up the weed eater inside any building or closed area. For a gas powered type, you should be pressing the primal bulb several times as recommended by the manufacturer so that gas will flow to the carburetor. For electric, have the power source in place and press the trigger.
6. Once a gas trimmer is running turn it to full choke. You can turn it back after the engine warms up.
7. Pick up the weed eater with one hand on the trigger and the other hand on the assist handle. You should be holding the throttle for about thirty seconds or even a minute. This action will get the engine of the machine warmed up.
8. Keep the tool at waist level when you start. The attachment should be kept parallel to the ground. Move the head back-and-forth, side to side as you cut. This should minimize the debris flying into the air as you work. It’s also easier to cut an even height using this method.
9. Try to use the tip of the line to cut. You will need to see which way the head is spinning (clockwise or counter-clockwise) to know which quadrant in the front is more effective. Heavy cuts should not be forced as it will overload the engine.
10. Once you are done, you just need to release the throttle and leave it idle for several seconds. Afterwards, turn off the control button. Don’t store a hot engine.
11. If you are planning on storing your weed eater for more than a month, you should drain the gas tank or use stabilized fuel.
12. If you have a battery-powered string trimmer, make sure to remove the battery and recharge it. That way, you’ll be ready to go the next time.

Have any additional tips or steps we forgot to include? Please leave them below in the comments!