The Echo SRM-210 Gets My Vote! I have been in that family since the late 90s. My 200.00 trimmer was recommended by a Echo Dealer/Friend who said many of his commercial customers used them. Best of all he told me that I could save 10.00 off his price at the Big Box Stores and my warranty would be just as good.

My bad experience with some commercial trimmers was too much weight and power for my home use. I felt it was needed to run the hard blade trimmer but later cables are lighter and stronger.

Yeah, the Echo is a good one. The problem with some sites, is that they may have a hidden agenda, not necessarily give advice best for the reader, but selling what is best for them. Go with Echo or Stihl's lower end units and you will be happy.

Follow-up question: I also would use the trimmer for edging my sidewalk/driveway. I see three option:

1) Use the string trimmer turned the other way.

2) Get the Echo (or similar) power unit and then swap out the functional head units (so the same device could be a cultivator, trimmer, edger, etc)

3) Just get a dedicated edger.

Trying to keep costs down, but durability, quality, usefulness up, what are your thoughts? I do number 1 now with the Craftsman corded, but it's kind of a pain.

If all the jobs are avg residential related I feel you can do all with the string vs needing the hard blade in my case (with two old Echo pre 2000s serving ea need). I need the hard blade because I have not mastered using the string (vs my good initial 10 yrs, 70s with an electric Craftsman).

I had a dual split shaft Green Machine that worked good except it was too short and hard on my back. Some newer split shafts will probably let you stand straight vs back issues.

My electric Craftsman died after over 12 years. I thought about replacing it with another electric but my current yard is 300' by 120' so we have a cord length problem with electrics.

I liked the no hassle situation with the electric. So I ended up buying a Cub Cadet Trimmer BC509 4-Cycle Trimmer. Mine came with both the string head and the blade, but I believe the same model comes with out the blade. I believe the head comes with multiple attachments in other model packages.

The reason I bought it was that it was a 4 cycle engine. While it is a few oz. heavier than a 2cycle, there is no mixing of gas and oil, and I am not putting heavy oils into the fuel system to clog it up the fuel jets.

It starts easy when done per the manual. Because it is more powerful than my old electric, the job takes about half as long.

For about $200, I would highly recommend it.

This post was edited by knuttle on Mon, Feb 24, 14 at 15:11