Makita DUR190LZX5

Frustrating to use in real life – I don't where Makita tests this line trimmer, but obviously not in real life. If you have a block of land with a lot of hard edges don't waste your money on this piece of sh...! For me, who has to cut mostly along concrete edges, this bloody thing is nothing but frustrating *because the line breaks constantly*!! By constantly I mean exactly this: constantly! It's fine for doing garden edges, but we own a corner block with a lot of concrete kerb, where the line sometimes doesn't last for more than 3 or 4 metres - before you have to take the head apart, retrieve the broken line end, thread it through the metal eye, and try to clip the head back on! The photos in the collage are with a time stamp (and I have the originals as proof); the line broke at 11:00am, 11:04, and again at 11:07 - when I gave up in frustration... The same happens, albeit not quite as frequently, along the edge of a Colorbond fence.

This line trimmer might work well on a putting green of a golf course. I assume that's where Makita tested it. In "real life" it's not worth its money and your frustration.

Yes, currently I'm using whipper-snipper line from ALDI; the more expensive bright orange line from Makita, which came with the whipper-snipper at purchase, was even worse. It would get so hot that it would fuse (melt) together with several layers on the spool. The '1' setting speed is too slow to cut through any grass runners, at speed '2' the line constantly breaks off right at the eye of the head, where it feeds out. So you have to take the bloody thing apart and feed line back out; do 3-5 metres of cutting, take it apart again, and so on... I could be faster with secateurs trimming the edge of the lawn.

And if you own a lawn that resembles a "putting green", you can save your money on this Makita line trimmer too! I'm sure you'll find one for less than half the money that will do the same job... I had been an early adopter of battery powered gardening tools and in 2010 bought a cheap no-name line trimmer off eBay for under $90; it did a more reliable job (on the same block, same conditions) that this Makita for over $400. Unfortunately I sold it in 2013 before we went overseas for a few years.