Recipricator or Weedeater?

[dukester]

I've never used a recipricator. I wanted to know if any of you have tried one in you business? What do you think? It seems like the weedeater would be easier to use along a fence. But not letting any rocks in a parking lot has merit too.

[captdevo]

recipricators are nice...especially around autos, gravel lots and glass doors, but they are hell on chainlink fences.

they've got their place, that's all i can get my wife to use...when i can...lol

[JasperStorm]

I have never seen anyone using a reciprocator for edging lawns, only cutting edges on ivy or other groundcovers. It seems to me that the relatively slow action of the blades might tend to chew up the ends of the grass, not leaving a clean cut. A weedeater would also be three times quicker.

If a car or window is near an area being edged, I just turn the weedeater so the clippings are blowing the other way.

[RoewMow]

We mow several gas stations in our area and use the reciprocator(RedMax) on those in areas where there is even the slightest chance of throwing anyhing into traffic or parked cars. The weedeaters are used near any mesh or chain link fence. We learned the hard way on our own mesh fence. Luckily I could just take the bottom three inch area off and now use either with no damage to the fence. Just a side note, make sure you rotate the blades on a recipro so that you always have the sharpest edge possible.

[dukester]

Thanks for the information. Maybe I'll get a chance to use one down here is Lili leaves. Duke

[ow man]

Jasperstorm, I've used the Redmax unit and it doesn't chew grass at all. Super clean cut, better than a line trimmer. Great for golfcourse sandtraps too. The down side..... they are a little heavier and they will cut telephone lines that come out of the ground going up the side of the house!!!

[JasperStorm]

Yeah, I've cut the cable t.v. off to a couple of buildings before, when using reciprocators to cut ivy away from the siding.

I use RedMax also. I guess I'm so accustomed to dull/broken teeth from jamming the thing into the ground that I didn't consider that it could be used effectively on grass edging.