Hey guys,
I had this problem (and many others) with the Ryobi weed wasp I used before the echo. Constant battles one way or the other, line feeds blocking and jamming, engine suffering strokes, changing fuel lines and go know what else.
I swore never to buy cheap crap after that, and hearing a few people I know rave about these little echo trimmers, I decided to get one. Best decision I ever made. Reliable running, easy replacement of line (I do this after every 2 mowing sessions) and I stress this last point; don't buy cheap crap line. Get some decent quality line and use it. Its lasts longer and doesn't seem to jam at all.
I agree, you wouldn't expect so much power from 21.2cc engine - but they just go
The speedfeed heads which you wind up are pretty good in my opinion - the later ryobi speed feeds are good as well. Much of the issue I have found is using more than 2 mm line - I had 2.4mm in my ryobi on sunday, and had to manually advance. Ryobi recommend 2.0mm line.
Might stick with my old late 1980s Tillotson carbed Ryobi lawn hornet with blower attachment.
Annoys the neighbours but effective.
I did find a Ryobi blower vac once with the chunky outlet and Ryan engine (same design as lawn hornet) but never got around to trying to get it going. The cynic in me didn't believe I could make it run. Long gone now. Wish I still had it. Would have been a fun tinker.
I saw one just like the orange one in the last pic in my local Home hardware recently going for $162 and was toying with getting it. Not there now.
If it was that price MF, it probably would have been the Parklands (or maybe Morrison or Yardforce) knock off as well - same weight as the aldi one, but aldi was $99. If it was echo, that would have been a great deal.
Go down to bunnings, and see if (at the far back of a shelf), they have one of the split shaft curved blowers. It sounds like you already have one, but they have been discontinued. They are now on "Stage 3" clearance - I got one for $12. no, not a misprint - apparently there are 4 left in WA
