Customer Reviews

Toro 51346 15-Inch 4.4 amp Electric Trimmer

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

This 15" electric trimmer is the first I've ever owned so I have nothing to compare it to, except an old pair of rusty hedge clippers! However, that being said, my first experience with the trimmer was excellent.

The weight of the trimmer is good, although, it's possible that some people may find it slightly heavy.

Assembly was the only difficult part. The metal U-guide did not want to snap into place no matter how hard I pushed. I had to use a hammer to get into place.

The main handle/trigger design is excellent, and features a hook that you loop your cord around so it doesn't unplug itself. The 2nd handle is infinitely adjustable.

The one-tap cord release works perfectly every time. The cord and 4.4 amp motor are very strong - enough to carve through dirt when you're edging.

Overall, this Toro trimmer is a bargain, and comes from a great company with a great history of lawn-care equipment. Except for the difficulty in assembling it, it's practically perfect.

Martin

I purchased this trimmer since I used their sprinkler system and had been happy with it.

It is light weight and cheap but it has a major flaw.

The two buttons in the handle work off a switch which can burn out rather easily. A home depot guy told me. He said the one he bought lasted 3 months. Mine lasted 3 minutes.

Assembly was ok but the U-Guide was not designed to well as it took a little effort to get it in place.

The handle and trigger setup is good (excluding the switch burnout problem) and make sure you wrap the cord as suggested. The base for the plug is not tight so if you don't loop, it will wiggle loose.

The cutting cord setup was easy and the engine is decent well when it worked for the 3 minutes I had it.

Toro made a mistake with this one. I would avoid it.

The Home Depot man said to look at Black and Decker. He had been using one for awhile and has been happy with it.

I've had this trimmer for a few months now and it's still working like a charm. I didn't seem to have the same problem with the U-guide as some of the other reviewers had. The trimmer has some nice power and increasing the length of the trimming line is easy. The price is great for what you get. The "exclusive cord lock system" leaves much to be desired. It's not so much a cord lock but a hook and the cord sometimes wiggles loose. My Black and Decker blower/vac has a much better cord lock. But you can't have your cake and eat it too. It gets the job done and the cord lock isn't that much of a problem.

Over the past 10 years, I've worn out a few similar Toro trimmers - just burned up the motors over time. But I liked the model and the price point and the service life enough to keep buying the same model. But after the last one died, I couldn't find the old model any more. This model seemed to be pretty close. But I'm not nearly as happy with this one as the others.

Primary complaint - the string advance is a step backward. The old models clipped on which made removing the spool rather easy. The new one threads on and is a pain to line up with the hole in the housing. As with most other trimers, the string supplied by the factory is very lightweight. You'll find yourself needing to advance the string every few feet. To me that's a pain. And given how fast the spool tip wears down when you tap to advance, you'll find yourself needing to replace the whole spool (as opposed to just rewinding some new string) frequently.

On the previous model, I addressed the spool/string shortcomings by upgrading the string to a higher weight and just re-winding onto a stock spool. I got a LOT more use out of each string advance. BUT after attempting to do this with the current model, I had no success. The heavier string wouldn't feed with a tap on the ground. I had to stop, upend the trimmer, and push and tug. Made for a really long evening of yard work.

Needless to say, I'll be looking for a new trimmer before next weekend.

Having used the Black and Decker Grass Hog and other string trimmers,I was pleasantly suprised to find that this trimmer blows away the other brands. For the price, you would be well advised to buy this model.
I also found that the "bump to advance" cord is superior to the so called so called automatic centrifugal advance model. Mine never seemed to work. Also, this model trimmer allows for variable cord lenght.

I will write another report on long term repair experience at some future date.

Works great for a few minutes but after some advancing, the spool tends to lock up...which you might think would work better if you didnt screw the cap on so tight...but then the little eyelet that the line feeds thru can fly off (and you have to order that online and wait a week). Which I did. But, that doesnt solve the problem...neither does WD40. Last time I used this, it took an hour to trim my short walk because I had to manually advance the line every 8 feet of work. Please do not buy this machine. I wish I had spent 3x more money to get something that simply had more than a 30 minute life to it. Such a shame that I need to throw out a perfectly good engine/handle setup because the spooling mechanism is so poorly engineered/manufactured. I looked for aftermarket replacements but they dont seem to exist. I will not buy Toro again.

TORO's bump-feeding trimmers proved to be so AGGRAVATING that I promised myself that I would get on Amazon and write a SCATHEING review. I did not have this exact model, but I have 2 models -- the 12in and 15in, that were new last year. On both models, every 60sec the string broke (happens), but the string would get jammed in its own crevice of the screw mechanism, or would disappear back into itself. This required hand-untightening the string chamber. However, if hand-tightened, often one cannot untighten it 60sec later -- leave hardly tight. I don't own a gas trimmer, but I went online and spent $30 for replacement teeth for my friend's trimmer so that I will have access to his -- that bad. When I was a kid, I used a string trimmer and occasionally had to advance the string (2-3 times per yard). In 25 years, what has TORO done to FAIL SO MUCH on such a SIMPLE electric motor application?!

I bought this trimmer about 4 years ago and up until now I've never had an issue with it. From box to edging took me about 10 minutes. I wasn't a fan of the pre-loaded .065" line they supply you with.. I know the manual said to only use that line, but it got chewed up too quickly, so I replaced it with .080" line and it worked like a charm. I still haven't finished the original spool of .80" line I bought almost 4 years ago. I didn't really care for the debris shield so I removed that and the metal guide deal also. It was pretty rough looking, but worked like champ. I trimmed around rocks, wood and everything you can think of pretty much and I never had an issue with the bump line release or any parts flying off or anything like that.

The trimmer felt pretty good when held and the double handle was a really nice feature when you want to edge around the curb or sidewalks. Now I say it was a good trimmer up until now because it seems like motor has melted away the internal plastic housing it sits in so the head wobbles and doesn't cut proper anymore (Probably due to my use of the bigger trimmer line) I really just need a new plastic housing for the motor and the trimmer will still work like a champ, but I'm not having any luck finding just the plastic housing for it, so it looks like i may have to buy a new one.

All in all I really enjoyed using this trimmer the last few years and had no issues with the build quality or anything like that. I'm probably going to purchase the same trimmer again soon.

For an inexpensive trimmer, it initially seemed as if it would work just fine. The minimal assembly went reasonably well (except the metal U-bracket did not fit on properly as several others have mentioned). But it started right up, ran fairly quietly, and did a good job trimming the grass, weeds, and unwanted woody-stemmed plants. I did have to feed string a bit more often than I expected, but that could also be part of the learning curve.

I bought this and during its maiden use it lasted about a half-hour before the plastic shaft broke. I am six feet tall and, seeing as how this was designed for someone 5' 8" or shorter, I had to move the support handle all the way up the shaft (easy to do, thankfully). After about the first half-hour of trimming, I tapped the unit on the ground to feed new string and the plastic shaft broke right below the support handle. I've been toying with exchanging it, but I will probably return it and pay the extra money to get the Stihl FSE-60 that I've been looking at, partially because it has a metal shaft. I was really hoping this Toro would work well (I have a 12-year-old Toro mulching mower that bravely soldiers on), but unfortunately it failed.

I was just out using my Toro trimmer for the third time. After an hour or so of operation, the motor slowed down noticeably, and I began to see smoke. I pulled back from the weed trimming, and ran the motor at full speed to enable the maximum amount of airflow through the motor to cool it down. Instead it began to emit more smoke, and then quit working altogether.

I would not recommend this product at all. It is a cheap toy, and a waste of money.