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Bed redefiners?

9K views 17 replies 11 participants last post by  lukemelo216 
#1 ·
Has anyone used the Echo bed redefiner. There has to be a quicker way to get a good edge on a mulch bed. If this tool works well I am going to invest the $600.00. Thanks for reading my thread.
 
#3 ·
I bought one this week and trust me it is more than a "fancy edger." What would have normally taken me 1 hour this week to re cut flower beds took me all of about 15 mins! Love it, love it, love it!! An edger has one single blade running, this has about 5-6 wide blades running!

I recut an entire yard this week in about 35 minutes and 175.00 dollars later! people love it!!

Thanks!
 
#5 ·
Save your money. Buy a brown or bluebird. It does okay on soft soil but I doubt its abilities on clay or roots. 600 is way too much for a fancy edger blade.
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Disagree

I bought one this week and trust me it is more than a "fancy edger." What would have normally taken me 1 hour this week to re cut flower beds took me all of about 15 mins! Love it, love it, love it!! An edger has one single blade running, this has about 5-6 wide blades running!

I recut an entire yard this week in about 35 minutes and 175.00 dollars later! people love it!!

Thanks!
Agree

Stay away from the echo bed edger, it is junk. Trench Master makes a good one, costs more but well worth it.
Disagree
 
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#7 ·
If you have ever used both there is no comparison.
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The machines you guys are talking about are all over $2000. I would hope they are better. The Echo is a bed REDEFINER. It's does a fantastic job at REDEFINING beds. It will also pay for itself in short order.
 
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#8 ·
No way. I bought one 3 years ago and it was the biggest waste of money that I ever paid for. At best it will put an edge about 1 1/2" deep. Which is not an acceptable edge. If you are looking to provide a quality service to your customer do not use this piece of junk. Not to mention it makes such a mess everywhere, you spend more time picking up afterwards. If it was $275, then maybe it would be worth it. But for $600? Forget it.
 
#9 ·
I bought one last summer. We have been using it all spring. It cuts a 2.5 inch deep edge. The edge holds up fine. It is not great for new beds/edges, but it is very good for cleaning an old edge before mulching. For $600, you can make serious cash with this thing if you charge by the foot to re-edge.

You must walk it backwards like in the video, or it gets messy. If you do it right, there is almost no cleanup...we just run the blower along the edge to clean up the dust.

It can clog up if the conditions are wet.
 
#11 ·
Must be a northern thing. When we do a mulch job we cut a new edge. Regular mowing gets maintained with the curved shaft edger. I have never been asked to just redefine the edge and charge by the foot. Might be just me.
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What is the need to cut a new edge when you can just redefine the existing one? The only point I could see is if the bed needed to be bigger or shaped differently.
 
#13 ·
We have both, well a real bed edger.. The little wonder BedShaper "the yellow one" with a 13hp kawasaki twin cylinder engine on it and a mulch blade kit.

And the echo redefiner.. they both have seperate purposes..

The Bedshaper will cut out full blast new beds and haul along anything in its path for cutting edges.

A handheld Echo just "refines" the original path/shape/look of what was there, it is a fancy edger... but thats all it needs to be.

Echo is a ton faster than having to have a $3,000+ walk behind hydro machine with you at all times, and sure beats the snot out of a normal handheld "edger" or string trimmer when just trying to liven up someones garden bed edges for susie homemaker!
 
#14 ·
If you want the most versatile tool to re-define edges and also use it for other stuff, then I would just get the yard boss tiller head for a stihl trimmer and call it a day.

I've tried the echo-redefiner once and hated it. The blade spun too fast for my liking and the defined edge just wasn't as wide and deep as I like it to be.

The tiller head has enough aggression to re-define beds and grade out the spoils when done.
 
#15 ·
Southern grasses are very "creepy" by nature. A neglected bed line quickly gets obscured. Plus you need to go deep enough to cut the roots. Bermuda especially is very invasive that way.
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I have problems with that on one lawn/garden I maintain. The yard is pretty much quack grass and the running rhizomes can go up to 2-3 feet. My cut edges on the beds are at least 6 inches deep to keep the grass out of the beds. They almost look like golf bunkers.
 
#16 ·
I have problems with that on one lawn/garden I maintain. The yard is pretty much quack grass and the running rhizomes can go up to 2-3 feet. My cut edges on the beds are at least 6 inches deep to keep the grass out of the beds. They almost look like golf bunkers.
A tip I learned is a layer of Preen and mulch on top helps with running rhizomes.
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#17 ·
The machines you guys are talking about are all over $2000. I would hope they are better. The Echo is a bed REDEFINER. It's does a fantastic job at REDEFINING beds. It will also pay for itself in short order.
I encourage you guys to check out the Turfco edger. Much cheaper than the browns, bluebirds etc and it does a damn good job.
 
#18 ·
I agree with ramair. We utilize both. Each has there seperate uses. A real traditional bed edger will do wonders in the spring time when you re-edge all the beds for fresh mulch (you can set it a little deeper and get the edges really good.) After that we use a redefinder which is what it is ment to do redefine bed edges, not create new ones. And wth the way we do our work, it works out perfectly. During the spring we will take our bluebird edger and go and re-edge the flower beds usually creating a 3-4" deep edge. Then we remulch at 2" minimum usually, so that right there leaves our edge at about the 2" depth usually. Well each month we take the redefinder and go through the beds and re-edge them and it cuts 2.5 inches deep most of the time so its perfect.

Works much quicker than lugging around a huge bed shaper, creates less mess. Two guys, can re-edge the beds in no time. One goes and rakes the mulch back, the other re-defines and then they both go rake the mulch back into the edge and its done. Typical house in our area would take about 15-30 minutes for 2 guys to re-define.

If we redefined with a trencher, we would want to utilize 3 guys, and it would easily take 30 minute to 1 hour most likely to do it properly. The bed edgers need to be pulled back, so that takes longer, they create a larger mess (spinning up more dirt that needs to be raked flat, and you need to pull the mulch back further so you can spread out the soil better
 
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