Each and every homeowner out there want their lawns, gardens, and yawns to look beautifully even. And as you already know, this beauty needs some work and dedication as it won’t magically happen by itself.
The first and most crucial step to having a beautiful lawn is trimming the scrappy plants that are usually found around your house, also known as weeds. They’re found near your walkaways, along the fences, and around your beautiful plants in your garden. You’re better off with them wholly demolished, which can easily be achieved by using a weed eater. We’ve written this article to help you learn how to properly operate a weed eater, in order to deal with all these destructive plants.
Types of Weed Eaters
First off, in case you don’t know already, there are three main types of weed eaters found in the market. A weed eater can be electric (or sometimes called corded), battery-powered, or gas-powered. Whichever brand and model you choose will usually come with an owner’s manual if you got it brand-new. Even if you got yourself a used model, you could easily find a manual of it in pdf format, all thanks to the internet!
In this manual, you’ll find a list of instructions on how to properly operate the weed eater and how to maintain it. Each time you feel like you’re having trouble with running your weed eater, the manual should be your first resort.
How to Use a Weed Eater
The following are some steps to follow when weed-whacking:
- First, you should get familiar with all the different buttons and controls that your weed eater has. Most weed eater models come with a trigger for a throttle, a switch to turn it on and off, and models might differ in the positions of these triggers and switches. Gas-powered trimmers, for example, will usually come with a starter rope, a gas tank, and a primer button.
- While checking the user’s manual of your weed eater, make sure to familiarize yourself with all the safety measures associated with it. In other words, you’ll need to make sure that all the different guards and safety attachments that your model has are all secured properly.
- Before you start trimming, tour your yard area and look for any objects that might damage the weed eater and throw them aside, for example, decently sized pebbles.
- Safety is critical when trimming, so make sure that you’re wearing protective gear. These might include eye protection, earplugs, gloves, long sleeves, closed-toes shoes, and long pants. Sometimes, your weed eater will throw some debris towards you, such as small stones, and other fragments. Wearing the proper gear will stop the debris from doing any harm to you.
- You’ll obviously need to start the machine, make sure to not do this in a building or a closed area in general, regardless of the type of your tool.
- If your trimmer is gas-powered, make sure to turn it to full choke once it’s running. And when the engine warms up, you can turn it back.
- Pick up the machine with one hand on the trigger and the other on the assist handle. Make sure to hold the throttle for about a minute which will help warm up the engine.
- Make sure that the tool is always at waist level or below when you start trimming. It should also be kept parallel to the ground through the whole operation. Simply move the head back and forth, side to side as you cut the weeds. Doing it this way should minimize the amount of debris flying into the air as you work.
- Try to find which way the head is spinning, clockwise or counter-clockwise, and use the tip of the line to cut more effectively.
- Once you’re done, simply release the throttle and leave it idle for a few seconds, then turn off the control button and let the machine rest for a while before storing it.
- If you’re not going to use your weed eater for more than a month after that, then you should probably drain the gas tank, but if you’re using stabilized fuel, you should be good.
- If your weed eater is a battery-powered string trimmer, then make sure to remove the battery and recharge it for next time.
That’s it! That’s how you can use a weed eater efficiently without damaging your machine.
