Had loads of trouble with a B&Q 2 stroke strimmer that eventually resulted in a replacement which also failed to start out of guarantee of cource!

Local specialist examined it and declared it was due to storing overwinter without draining petrol and the alcohol content in the petrol had absorbed water and dropped out of solution causing corrosion in the carb requiring a replacement _ total estimate to sort £120. Hmm apart from finding the story hard to swallow if true surely there must be thousands in the same position?

Quick troll of eBay sure enough produced a generic carb brand new for £10.80 Inc post dispatched from UK.

15 min to fit and it fired first time. Low on power and quick mixture adjustment had it running like new. As it's a 2T I let it run a little rich to avoid molten pistons and wacked some weeds for a couple of hours all is OK.

Issues are apart from the local "fix it" specialist rip off price how come my other petrol engines are OK? Ride on mower and generator all stand idle over winter.
Of course they are 4T not 2T but why should that make a difference?

Anyhow top tip is on 2T replace the carb for a tenner after winter to get it going again. Tinternet wisdom says avoid supermarket petrol and use premium grade with synthetic oil but I reckon that would cost more than a tenner

Cheers!

This is always a problem with petrol powered tools stored for long periods unused. We now use special fuel on all our petrol powered small tools on our Fire Appliances to avoid the problem, as we have to carry spare fuel in cans. Plus we test run the tools once a week minimum.

Cheaper way to avoid the problem might be to drain your strimmer over winter

When my Father had a petrol lawnmower, he would always let it run dry at the end of the season, to avoid any old fuel being left in there

Also, I rarely use supermarket fuel, in any off my vehicles, as I am pretty sure I was told years ago, that they water it down, to boost there profit,

steve

Main difference apart from 4 and 2 stroke is lawn mowers etc generally rely on gravity fuel feed to the carb from a higher mounted tank a strimmer has a inbuilt vacuum pump within the carb to lift the fuel as tanks mounted below the carb the pump works of crankcase vacuum and a set of flimsy diaframs as working on very small pressures if diaframs don't seal no workie

Electric makes more sense for tools that aren't used year round IME.