Customer Reviews

Black & Decker ST4500 3.5 amp 12-Inch Electric Trimmer/Edger

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

I bought this for about $40 thinking I'd gotten a good deal on a weed eater (hadn't looked around too hard)... used this twice then the spool housing wore out quickly. Doesn't look like the replacement spool has the part that wore out which is extremely unfortunate because its construction seems to be a hideous oversight, as least in my opinion.

Here's why: The spindle mechanism which causes the spool to spin and thus cut weeds is a small metal die with very shallow metal grooves. The spool housing connects to this and has a small die opening with shallow plastic grooves. When brand new these fit together snugly and create a tight fit for the spool to spin. What happens though in application is if there is any moderately dense vegetation and the spool does not get completely free, it will slow down but the die will still spin inside the plastic housing whereby causing the spool container to strip out on the inside. Soon, the spool housing just fell off and will not reconnect to the die.. it just falls off as soon as you start it up. I was hoping I could buy a replacement for this but it seems as though the replacement spool just contains the wire/ wire holder. The part that stripped out was the part that connects to this which is not, ridiculously, part of the replacement part. Two uses and my weed whacker is now whacked.

A classic example of a disposable society which we desperately need to get away from.

After I started using this (brand new) ST4500 trimmer, the bump feed failed immediately and then jammed time after time.

If you want a trimmer that forces you to stop, dis-assemble, re-thread, re-assemble every time the cutting string gets short (or jams) -- this is the unit for you.

For everyone else - a complete waste of money.

I concur with the other critical reviews here. This product is defective by design.

The symptom is excessive line breakage which results in the end trapped inside the feed spool.

The problem is undue wear at the metal grommet through which the line feeds from the spool. After some use, the end of the cord wears down 1/2 to 1", but the fatal flaw is that simultaneously the cord at the feed grommet has worn through 1/2 the diameter of the cord, significantly weakening the cord strength and causing eventual breakage near the spool exit point. The cord then retreats into the spool housing, disabling the bump feed feature. As another reviewer stated, it then requires disassembly to fix.

A pox on anyone who sells this piece of junk. Ironic that it is such a bad product that one big box store (HD) doesn't even carry it.

The only positive thing I have to say for this thing is that it is one of the lightest weed whackers you'll find, at just under 4 pounds. It was also easy to assemble. However I couldn't seem to get it to actually cut anything effectively. It did chew up some grass a bit, but for the most part it just seemed to blow the grass around. After 5 minutes of trying to get this unit to clear a small patch, the engine just stopped working. Five minutes out of the box, and it stops working?? I checked the electrical cord on both ends, but it just wouldn't turn on anymore. By the way, it does not come with an electrical cord. You must supply an extension cord. All it has is two metal prongs sticking out for you to plug in your extension cord.

It was so much faster for me to use a pair of lawn clippers and trim the grass by hand.

The bump feed never has worked and the string breaks off very short within seconds of trimming. It took me an hour yesterday to do triming that usually takes 15 min. I have only used the thing twice. I am going to trash it and buy something that works.

The bump-feed system on this is junk. The worst I've seen in 20+ years of doing my lawn. You need to stop and rethread every few minutes.

I recently bought the trimmer for the place I am renting due to the small area involved. It is light weight enough for my wife to use but yet powerful enough to get the job done. It is cumbersome to bump the string feed when in "edge" mode. I wish I had bought the extra spool of trimmer line but got it at the local hardware store. Overall, it is a good machine for the price.

This B&D piece of junk is hobbled by a bad engineering design that others have noted below. The problem is part #24 on the exploded parts diagram, the plastic "Fan," in the center of which is a round plastic hole slipping over the round metal engine shaft. There is no "key" to keep the metal shaft from slipping within the plastic hole. Any engineer knows you don't expect friction fit alone (especially between plastic and metal) to keep a shaft aligned within a hole, particularly under high torque situations like a string trimmer gets. There needs to be some sort of a key or grub screw or other locking device. So when enough wear or friction accumulates, the metal shaft simply slips inside the plastic hole, wallows out the hole to oversize, the unit starts to vibrate like mad and the whole string unit slips off the end and goes spinning across your lawn. Absolute junk, the worst of the worst. A six year old could have designed a better machine. Most of my daughter's toys have keys to keep wheels on shafts.

A fix possible? Well, to replace the fan (part 833912-01) you spend $20 from B&D, that's over half what the machine cost, and you'd have the same problem in short order. Can you epoxy the fan back onto the shaft? It's tricky, because you have to get the wallowed-out hole just perfectly aligned so you don't get vibrations. I actually did that, using a quality 5 minute epoxy which I let dry overnight...got one more lawn's worth out of the trimmer before the epoxy gave way due to heat and friction. Could you machine an aluminum insert with grub screws, to lock onto the shaft? Yes...but is it worth 3 hours of machine time to do it?

PS: Yes, the bump advance never worked for me either, I always did it manually. Yes, there's another engineering problem with a grommet chewing up the string, requiring lots of string changes. This unit was designed by a true mental midget.

I usually check Amazon reviews before I buy anything, but this instance I didn't. I will never do that again. This "trimmer" is a joke. The guard sticks out too far for it to actually trim anything. If you remove the guard the string breaks within seconds of CUTTING GRASS. The bump feed does not work. If I could give this thing half a star I would. Invest the extra money and get a grass hog. They cost more and they are heavier, but they WORK.

My ST5400 broke beyond repair 2 weeks after the warranty period expired. I have to throw it out and get another. A different brand next time.