Customer Reviews

Weed Eater PE550 8-1/2-Inch 22cc 2-Cycle Gas-Powered Poweredge Lawn Edger

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I purchased this edger at my local Home Depot,used it and returned it that day. It simply does not have the power to edge. The blade stops rotating when the engine is under load. Do yourself a favor and spend a little more to get a low end McLane model, you will be glad you did

I purchased the Weed Eater 22CC lawn edger at WalMart a few years ago when they were $99. Its a compact unit that does not weight much or take up much room, which is what I was looking for. I have 3/4 acre with long walks on the frontage, and a long turned drive. I didn't want to have to drag electrical cords all over the place, and then have to wind them up later. I also didn't have $299 on up, or the room, for a big full sized edger. So the Weed Eater model fit the bill. I've read the reviews here and elsewhere, and wonder if people read about and understand what they are buying. The unit has a two cycle enging, its going to need its fuel mixed with oil. Its also going to sound like a chain saw because its the same motor thats in a chain saw. DUH!! I've had my unit now for 3 years and never had any trouble with it. Starting was not one pull, but 8 presses on the primer bulb, choke full on, two or three pulls and it would fire. Half choke and full throttle, and she always sprang to life no problem with one pull. I even neglected to clean the air filter and plug the first two years, and never had any difficulty. Performace was perfectly fine. The manual, if you read it, recommends full throttle for edging especially the first time. Remember, this is a small 22 CC motor, not a 3 HP Briggs & Stratton. It always cut the edge just fine and would only bog down when I ran it into the deep grass by mistake, or tried to rush the job. Anyway, in my third season it started fine after the long cold winter, and I used it three times without any difficulty. Then the last use it started to sound like it was suffocating, and I needed to keep the throttle full open to prevent it from stalling. Eventually, not even that worked and it died with about 6 feet of edging to go. I checked the unit, and it was getting spark, plug was new, and clean. Air filter was clean, and it was getting gas. I assumed it got debris in the carb as it would run if I poured gas into the spark plug hole and held the throttle wide open. I took it in to Suburban Lawn Equipment in Delaware, and they chraged me $25 to tell me it had low compression and that the cylinder was loose. Duh!! Try tightening it morons thats why I brought it to you. Not a recommended shop except to buy parts. So now I have a unit thats $150 new, and I think thats WAY too high as I can get a nice 4 cycle Troy Bilt for $199. So even though I had reliable service from this unit for almost three years, I don't think its a good value at todays price of $150. At $99 I think it was on the edge of being overpriced, but still disposable if presented with a situation like mine. So old betsy is going out to the trash, and a new 4 stroke Troy Bilt is com'in in.

Bought one. Love it. Light weight, easy start. I have a lot of edging to do and it works well. Take care of it and it will work well for you. The blade stops if there is more than the engine can cut. It is made that way. Perhaps some folk do not read the instructions. I would purchase this product again.

We recenlty moved to a coner lot and edging requires significantly more effort than my old weedeater combo trimmer/edger can handle (well, it is too harsh on my back, not really a problem of the trimmer/edger combo, which I has been using for 7 years). I bought this unit since my experience with the Weedeater trimmer/edger is very good and has been using it for 7 years without any problems.

The weight balance of this unit is excellent and it is easy to be lifted even with one hand. The clutch is located right under the handle and the blade can be easily tilted up for starting. The engine is powerful enough to easily handle my edging job and is easy to start. After three times of use, I would say this is a very capable edger. Highly recommended. One reviewer indicated that the engine can get covered with dirt and mud and eventually failed the engine. I wonder how much truth is in the statement. The engine indeed is located very close the ground, but the blade and the engine are separated by the blade cover/protector. My lawn mower has been constantly clogged by cut grass and dirt all the time but never had any problem once the air filter is replaced.

Anyway, only time can tell its durability, but so far, I like it a lot.

!!! Update on August 2009. Died today due to gear wear. The edger blade stopped during mowing with engine still running. Opened the gear box and found the smaller gear is totally worn out. Lot of metal debris mixed with grease inside the gear box. So disappointed! I change my recommendation to one start instead of 5. A junk product after all....

About 5 years ago I bought one of these edgers because it looked compact and easy to transport. I only have a small city lot but, after only two years, the engine siezed up. The company replaced it with a reconditioned unit under warranty even though it was one month past the two year expiration. At the end of the next two years I could see the muffler starting to disintegrate just like the first unit I had, so I stripped the motor down and removed the loose metal parts near the exhaust port. I almost got an extra summer of use, but now my second unit is siezed up, too! I should have spent the extra $50 at the time and bought a real edger with a Briggs and Stratton 4 cycle motor.

Bought this lightweight little edger 9 1/2 years ago and have only needed to replace the blade from time to time. It is so easy to carry with one hand, uses little fuel and is small enough to hang on the wall. I have a 10,000 sq. ft. lot with curbs everywhere. Keeps the lawn edge perfectly straight. Don't need a big one, I'm just cutting the grass.

First day on the job it took 45 min to get it started. Lasted 10 minutes and died. It spent one month in a repair shop. They did all they could, it still takes forever to get it started. Dont waist your money.

My wife and I bought this unit just over a year ago.

It has always had issues starting, and is really hard to get a decent edge with.

Now, just nicely outside of warranty, the starting cord completely broke off from within the housing.

After Googling this, I found the start cable is a common flaw.

There is no easy way to get in to re-attach the broken cord without, it appears, dismantling the entire machine.
The only option is to take it to a weed eater approved repair shop and throw more money into it.

I would advise to go with a cheaper electric edger, as we wasted over $150 on something that was only used maybe 20 times.

This is actually a nice edger for a smaller, lighter duty yard. The good things: Light, easy to use, compact. Bad things; Loud and it has a plastic piece (Where a 'wheel' ought to be) that you drag along the ground. This of course starts to wear out as you use the machine. (Unless your not sliding ton concrete or install a wheel or slide guard yourself)

A problem I had is that the hoses going to the gas tank to the carb have crumbled. (Fell apart.) Replacing these hoses is not as easy as one would think. First off, the gas tank doesnt come off easily. Once (If) you get the tank off, apparently their is some sort of filter thing inside the tank and once you pull the hoses, this filter comes off. I havent been able to put this back together yet so the thing is useless because of cheap plastic gas hoses. Im going to work at putting it back together but just FYI, watch those gas lines. They become gunked up and or might crumble after awhile.

I had a weed Eater PE550 for twelve plus years, and really had good luck with it, used it weekly, it finally gave up so I ordered a new one through Amazon,got it in about two days, tried it out and it works as good as my old defunct one did, it's now stored waiting for spring.