strimmer advice

[jellied]

after  years of struggling with hand shears then a battery strimmer I bit the bullet and got a petrol strimmer. it's two stroke meaning you need to use special stuff rather than pure petrol.

for the life of me I can't tell if the stuff I bought needs to be used neat or not. I have a litre of semi-synthetic 2-stroke oil and it says "use to manufactures guidance". of which there are none.
I've contacted Ryobi and the company that sold the stuff but no answer yet. I've filled the little tank but not yet turned it on for fear of knackering it on the first attempt.

[loadsabikes]

Woa! do not put the oil in neat!
You must mix petrol with the twostroke oil.
Most new machines are 50:1 petrol to oil but you will find the ratio in the handbook.

[Moultonaught]

yup, what loadsabikes said. 

adding a bit of hopefully helpful detial...  conventional (4 stroke) engines have oil in them to lubricate them and stop them seizing up, 2 stokes rely on you adding the oil to the petrol to provide the lubrication the engine needs - hence them bring more smokey, as the oil is burnt along with the petrol.

as is, you'll need to drain it out of the tank, mix it with the petrol in the right ratio (as said prob 50:1 but could be 25:1) snd refil the tank.

[jellied]

thanks everyone - perhaps i shouldn't be trusted with things! 50:1 - could be tricky to measure that

[Wobbly John]

My 2 stroke stuff runs either 50:1 or 40:1 - I use a 500ml fizzy drinks bottle to mix the fuel

• Fill the cap with the 2 stroke oil (they hold about 10ml)
• Fill the bottle (ish) with petrol
• Pour the oil from the lid, into the bottle with the petrol, screw the cap on & shake.
• Pour prepared fuel into tank

It's best not to use old fuel - if you do, shake it well.
It's best not to leave fuel in the tank for too long - drain out any unused and run the engine again until it cuts out due to lack of fuel.

If you've filled the fuel tank with oil, I'd empty it and let it drain overnight, then put in a cup full of petrol, shake, and give it a run for a minute to flush it.

Drain & refill with the correct mix.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Wot Wobbly said.

Personally I prefer using a sickle.

[Pancho]

My two stroke seems to run under a wide range of conditions. I just slop some oil into the petrol can and shake from time to time.

[longers]

If I may add my own strimmer question here please - I was using the communal strimmer last weekend and it cut out mid strim on me after a fair bit of use. I couldn't get it going again. Are there any pointers you can give me to try and get it going again this weekend?

It wasn't lack of fuel that was the problem and I checked the air filter and waited till it cooled to try to start it several times. I had the hedge trimmer attachment on and had been using it on an angle for quite a while if that would make much difference to the happiness of the engine?

[ferret]

for people who have problems working out the mixes, you can get a rather convenient container that holds a litre of petrol and then has extra graduations showing 3 or 4 different ratios, so you just add the oil and keep an eye on the line/level easy peasy, also great for when your in a rush.
 

[rogerzilla]

Buy Aspen 2, which is premixed and burns cleanly.

[Tewdric]

Buy Aspen 2, which is premixed and burns cleanly.

Absolutely, and you can leave it in the tank over winter with no ill effects.  Aspen fuel is the way ahead for garden and wooding  kit.

[Pancho]

At five pounds a litre, I'll stick with regular unleaded thanks.

[ferret]

just bought a litre of 2 stroke oil with a little bath with graduations on from 1 litre to 5 litres giving a 50:1 mix, makes life really easy.
also my old howard Rotovator circa 1972 has to have 4 star, unfortunately not any left, so I have to add a lead mix to the petrol,
back in the day when BSA Bantams and other villiers 2 stokes were flying around the manufacturers very wisely included a measure built into the fuel cap so even the most stupid of people would get the mix right. 

[Moleman76]

for we Usanians they sell little 6-packs of suitable oil in just the right quantity to mix with a non-imperial gallon of gasoline for the 50:1 mix.

So after mixing that up, I just need to shake the fuel can to mix it, before pouring into the tank.

[jamesld8]

You`ll be OK with 25 :1 to 50:1 range (petrol :oil) mix, slightly more oil may decrease fractionally power output but too little oil will potentially damage engine as it`s acting as a lubricant.

You can purchase individual Stihl / Husquvarna 100ml 2 stroke bottles to mix into 5 litres or an `auto dispensing` 1 litre bottle which has a side 100m chamber you fill by squeezing main 1 litre bottle. It`s coloured too so that you can see that you`ve added oil to your 5 l can (classic error being to use neat petrol which seizes engine due to lack oil)

Re over winter and fuel---if you`re not going to use it then drain out fuel, both leaving petrol and oil mix in carb etc can give problems (had this with a leaf blower); seems depend a bit on engine though, both my hedgetrimmer and chainsaw are OK with leaving fuel in for months without use.

Happy strimming