New Propane powered weed trimmer

[Wallys World]

My wife and I were in Sears today replacing a ratchet that I broke and we were going thru the lawn and garden section when I saw the weed eater I had been researching finally in person. It is a 25cc straight shaft Propane powered. The motor is by Lehr, and is a 4 cycle. It takes the little camping type propane cylinders. It has been $299.99, I have seen it as low as $229.99, but it was on sale for $99.99 with a 10% employee special "sharing" discount til noon. $299.99 to $89.99, so we bought one. No gas mixing, no ethanol gas worries, just start and go. No choke, just check the crank case oil. I guess they are proving to be not to popular, maybe why the great price. It will take all the accessaries that they make. Started up after a few pulls, instructions said on the first start it may take a few more than normal. Tried it and it sounds different, at idle iyou can hardly hearit. Time will tell......

[Magicman]

Do you have one of those refillable propane bottles?  That would certainly knock the operating cost down.

[Tom]

They might be a little more palatable if you could refill the cylinders, or if you could use a larger refillable one that would strap to your back.  Expense and cylinder disposal were the reasons we used gasoline or Coleman fuel over propane in our camp stoves.

[ErikC]

 MM, are you talking about the refill adapter that uses a bulk tank to refill the disposable green cylinders? I have a hard time getting the refills very full. Probably about 75% at the most. Wondered if that was the normal thing. I guess it isn't much trouble if you take along enough of 'em to cover the difference.

[D Hagens]

I have one, it works great but the cost of the propane bottles makes me use the gas trimmer for big jobs. Cool idea though!

[fishpharmer]

MM, are you talking about the refill adapter that uses a bulk tank to refill the disposable green cylinders? I have a hard time getting the refills very full. Probably about 75% at the most. Wondered if that was the normal thing. I guess it isn't much trouble if you take along enough of 'em to cover the difference.

Freeze your little green "camping" cylinder before refilling from larger cylinder.  It should fill to capacity when "cold."

[Magicman]

I've never been able to get them as full as new, but for a weed trimmer that is not leaving home, that should be good enough..... ;)

[sawdust]

I drilled and tapped a "D" size aluminum oxygen cylinder to take a propane valve. Has the 80% fill tube and I just siphon it full from a big tank. Cracking the 80% open allows me to fill it properly full. I also relabeled the tank! I use it for camping.
Somewhere I have an adapter hose that goes from big tank fitting to little green bottle so I could run my last bbq.  
The tanks normally have 2200psi in them, so I don't worry about the pressure.

sawdust

[PineNut]

I have refilled the disposable cylinders a number of times. I have a 3 ft hose with appropriate connectors on it. I invert and elevate the large cylinder. The smaller cylinder is placed in a bucket of ice water. Doesn't take long. Important thing is not to overfill the cylinder. I usually check this by placing an old torch body with no orifice in it on the cylinder, tipping the cylinder over by 45 to 60 degrees and breeding off the liquid propane. Another problem I have observed is that after a few refills, the cylinder may start leaking. So store in a safe place where a leak will not blow you up.

[fishpharmer]

Pinenut, I like the ice water bath idea for the small cylinder.  Have you tried freezing them?  It works.  I'll have to watch for the leak problem.  I suppose the bucket of water helps in detecting that.

[logwalker]

Just be aware that the DOT prohibits transporting the cans after they have been refilled. I am not sure they would know unless you admitted it.

Joe

[PineNut]

The leak is from the internal valve so would not show up while refilling. I usually just smell of the valve area. Also I store mine in a shed with other POL products, away from the house.  I use mine around the house so hopefully DOT (big brother) won't some snooping around here. 

[SwampDonkey]

Here the dispenser guy probably won't fill them modified disposables. Unless it's changed in recent years, Joe BBQ guy wasn't allowed to come bye and fill his own tanks. An attendant does it and they check cylinders. They check a date and valves and if they say no, your out of luck.