M18 string trimmer observations

[autobon7]

After much debate I purchased a M18 string trimmer kit. Special online only kit that came with a 5.0 an 8.0 and charger. Used it for the first time today and this is my initial observations. Trimmer runs great and has plenty of power. Bump feed works well. The batteries do not seat completely and has just a tiny bit of wobble. Also don’t like how the batteries don’t lock into place in the charger. This is my first M18 tool (have several M12 tools) and I’m fully vested into the Bosch 18v series so I’m directly comparing to my Bosch experience. I have 9 18v Bosch tools, four of their 4.0 batteries two of the 2.0 batteries one 6.3 battery and one 8.0 battery and not one of them have even a smidge of wobble. They also snap into place on the chargers. I was really expecting the Milwaukee to have at least as good tolerance. Is this typical? The trimmer runs great zero complaints but hoping this won’t be an issue down the road. Had recently created a post asking about folks real world experience with this trimmer and all were positive on this forum but I included a link to another forum where multiple people had issues with the battery melting.

 

[Komet]

I just got mine and my battery seats tight all the way in. Maybe yours has some molding flash hanging things up somewhere?

 

[ArtisanFarms]

I have been using my M18 trimmer for a year now. I like it, but haven’t been pleased with the bump head. It doesn’t seem as robust as the ones I had on my Stihl trimmers. My only other issue has been runtime and I’m now using a 12amp hour battery to address that.

 

[autobon7]

I just got mine and my battery seats tight all the way in. Maybe yours has some molding flash hanging things up somewhere?

Looked yesterday and didn't see any excess flash.

 

[Cheepbeer]

I've had mine for 3 or 4 years or so. Works great yet. I use it most at the girlfriend's place in town. I really like it for cruisin' down the road in the mule trimming around the pole and ****.

Yeah...if there's one thing that I don't like about Milwaukee, is the two handed chargers.

My batteries fit in the machine OK though.

 

[William Payne]

If I may ask as someone who has considered a battery line trimmer. What made you go with Milwaukee over a more conventional outdoor tool brand such as Stihl?

Compared to the stihl battery tool is what I am meaning.

 

[tamaraw]

I have their M18 mid-torque 1/2" impact and their M18 brushless drill with one 5.0 battery and two 2.0's.

If you hold the tool with one hand and wiggle the battery with the other (or twist the handle with the battery sitting on a flat surface), then there is a little bit of wobble or play present. But at the same time, the battery is securely locked in and not going to fall off by any means. It is the same with both of my tools and all three batteries, so I think this is simply by design and not a manufacturing flaw.

It is a little weird when you first notice it but I could see some advantages in that design. For example, if you are working in a very dirty or dusty environment, a latch/rail mechanism with wider tolerances won't get clogged up or stuck. Or if you bump against something, there is a little bit of give and the shock isn't transmitted directly into the tool. The charger is a friction fit slide, not a latch like on the tools and is quite a bit tighter. YMMV

 

[White Shadow]

I went with EGO and have not been disappointed. It has plenty of power and the battery lasts long enough for me to do both sides of my aluminum fence, edge my front and back sidewalks, my entire driveway, all of my mulch beds, including around my trees and even the Belgium Block on the road.

I'm really loving electric yard equipment. I have an EGO backpack blower, the string trimmer, and even a mower for cutting in. Only my zero turn mower is gas powered. Sometimes I wish I would have gotten an electric zero turn too, now that there are some good options for them. My property is a 1.1 acres with about 35,000 sq.ft. of grass to cut. I would probably get about three cuts off of a single charge with an electric zero turn.

 

[sleek98]

I just recently swapped to the M18 FUEL trimmer from my Stihl gas 70R model. I will be selling the Stihl after using the M18 once yesterday. There is no need for me to keep messing with the gas one. Next I am going to grab a M18 FUEL blower and sell the gas Sthil blower too.

I dont use the trimmer enough to justify keeping the gas one.

 

[Komet]

If I may ask as someone who has considered a battery line trimmer. What made you go with Milwaukee over a more conventional outdoor tool brand such as Stihl?

Compared to the stihl battery tool is what I am meaning.

For me it was mostly about getting some larger m18 batteries to interchange with my other tools, and sticking with one platform for convenience. I only had two 3.0 m18 batteries before, and the 8.0 is a much better match for my circular saw. The Milwaukee unit performed well in the Project Farm test, and I like that it has pole saw and edger options if I need those features in the future. If I wasn't invested in m18 already, I may have considered a little 2 stroke jobber, but I also like the maintenance free electric and not having to store 2 stroke fuel, winterize another gas engine, etc.

 

[tarbellb]

I've got the Multi head trimmer w bump action.

Been awesome, plenty of power and run time from the 8amp battery for me.
Zero issues with the bump head so far

M18Fuel blower

 

[Crazyjake8493]

I've been using the original model M18 string trimmer since it was released and really haven't had a single problem other than the original guard being hilariously small. When they released the 2nd gen trimmer I bought the wider guard from Milwaukee and installed it on the old model. The battery seats well, bump feed is fine, and it cuts great.

Not sure if the newer models were changed much but hopefully they didn't make them worse.

 

[Cheepbeer]

If I may ask as someone who has considered a battery line trimmer. What made you go with Milwaukee over a more conventional outdoor tool brand such as Stihl?

Compared to the stihl battery tool is what I am meaning.

I went with the Milwaukee trimmer because I've got plenty of batteries and other tools. It also came with a blower, so it was a pretty good deal.

Milwaukee tools carry 5 yr warranty where stihl is two, I think, so for the price of things, it's a lot better deal.

 

[Terra Nova]

If I may ask as someone who has considered a battery line trimmer. What made you go with Milwaukee over a more conventional outdoor tool brand such as Stihl?

Compared to the stihl battery tool is what I am meaning.

My thinking; while Stihl is a world class producer of gas powered out door equipment I'm not real sure how much they know about cordless tool technology. Milwaukee on the other hand has been at the forefront of that for the last 20+ years.

The trimmer head and shaft are the simple parts of the machine; battery, motor, and charger technology is where it counts. And as others mentioned, many already have M18 batteries from other tools.

 

[Newell33]

All of my M18 tools have a slight amount of play in the battery when it's attached. I also noticed this right away when I got into the M18 line. You'd think the tolerances would be a bit better, but I got over it right away and started enjoying the performance of the tools.

 

[webscrounger]

Just FYI - I posted earlier that I had so much trouble with my M18 trimmers (2) with string binding that I replaced the heads on both with a Grass Gator bladed heads. They work great on heavy stuff but are overkill for grass. I had tried other strings and had twisting/binding issues inside the M18 head with them as well. I watched Project Farms string comparison, then bought and tried the Husqvarna .095" Titanium Force line is the stock M18 trimmer head. so far, that seemed to cure about 99% of the string release issues which made me happy. Once in a while I have to manually press the puck and back it off a half notch and then give the string pull to get the string to loosen up and release manually but that is like 1% of the time.
This is it: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000N1XPMG/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[Jmellc]

I may have to go battery too, so I'm starting to follow this. My Toro just acted up after 3 seasons. Mechanic can't find a carburetor. That one had been doing well. New gas trimmers look to start about 300 so far. I've seen a few cordless for just under 200.

 

[Cooter Brown]

tried the Husqvarna .095" Titanium Force line is the stock M18 trimmer head. so far, that seemed to cure about 99% of the string release issues which made me happy.

I got the M18 a couple of years ago--not sure of the iteration without going to the shop to look at it--and I've had terrible problems with the bump feed. I've probably spent more time messing with the string and manually feeding it than I have actually cutting weeds with the thing. Switching from the twisted looking Milwaukee stuff to standard round Stihl .95 has helped a fair amount, but I still mess with it too much. The bump feed on the 30 year old Stihl it replaced worked flawlessly. It's frustrating that the most mature technology on the tool is the one they couldn't get right.

 

[CJM8515]

I got the M18 a couple of years ago--not sure of the iteration without going to the shop to look at it--and I've had terrible problems with the bump feed. I've probably spent more time messing with the string and manually feeding it than I have actually cutting weeds with the thing. Switching from the twisted looking Milwaukee stuff to standard round Stihl .95 has helped a fair amount, but I still mess with it too much. The bump feed on the 30 year old Stihl it replaced worked flawlessly. It's frustrating that the most mature technology on the tool is the one they couldn't get right.

i had same issue and bought an echo speed feed head, not a single issue since. the milwaukee head *****, my only complaint so far

 

[Cooter Brown]

i had same issue and bought an echo speed feed head, not a single issue since. the milwaukee head *****, my only complaint so far

It's frustrating for sure. Even more so that when I called Milwaukee about it they claimed they never heard such a complaint when I've seen numerous references to it here. Milwaukee--at least the company as it's constituted now--has a history of releasing stuff before it's ready. Lesson learned.

I only need the thing once a week or so and I'll deal with it until something else breaks and not throw more money at it. I have no expectation that the service life will be anything close to the Stihl it replaced--the only reason I stopped using it is that the spring housing for the pull start broke and there was no good way to repair it and the parts were impossible to find.

 

[jmdirk]

I went with EGO and have not been disappointed. It has plenty of power and the battery lasts long enough for me to do both sides of my aluminum fence, edge my front and back sidewalks, my entire driveway, all of my mulch beds, including around my trees and even the Belgium Block on the road.

I'm really loving electric yard equipment. I have an EGO backpack blower, the string trimmer, and even a mower for cutting in. Only my zero turn mower is gas powered. Sometimes I wish I would have gotten an electric zero turn too, now that there are some good options for them. My property is a 1.1 acres with about 35,000 sq.ft. of grass to cut. I would probably get about three cuts off of a single charge with an electric zero turn.

EGO seems to have really good run times on their products. The batteries are pretty sizeable though. I bought the leaf blower and have been fairly happy.

Considering the multihead system with a string trimmer and show shovel.

 

[RStewart]

Makita string trimmer and tiny but capable makita blower. I’m a convert. Still keeping the huskvarna backpack blower.

 

[PCMusicGuy]

I've been using the Quik-Lok M18 string trimmer for a few years now and I like it. I did take the guard off and ran it that way for a while, but under heavier use (cutting a small section of my back yard), it would stop working. I assume this was due to overloading the motor or the battery with longer string. All the issues disappear with the guard (and trim blade) in place.

 

[Ton ton]

I put a Stihl weed eater head on Milwaukee M18 fuel string trimmer. So far it's working ok.

 

[davethorik]

interesting, i have had zero issues with the trimmer head on my Milwaukee. i really have no complaints with the tool, I can weed whip my whole property on 1 bar of an 8.0 battery, if i have to edge sidewalks it uses 2 bars.

 

[Ton ton]

I wore the bottom completely off the Milwaukee string trimmer head. Gravel and rocks tend to eat plastic quickly.

 

[beemerphile]

i had same issue and bought an echo speed feed head, not a single issue since. the milwaukee head *****, my only complaint so far

^AGREE^ Speed Feed head for the win^.

 

[ALTEREGO]

Hello Fellows,

I've had my 2825-20 Quik-Lok string trimmer for almost 5 years (just found out) and I mostly use it for trimming the edges on a small 800sqft patch of grass in my house back and the front yards. It has held good all this time until last weekend. I went to clean a property owned by a family member that had grass way overgrown. I knew the string trimmer was not the correct tool for the job but I was already there and only had the trimmer so I decided to only do a "small area at the front". Seeing that the trimmer had no issues whatsoever I kept going. Long story short I went through the almost full string in the head plus another half and 1 and a half 12.0 batteries and trimmed the whole front and back yard of the property.
I got home and I had enough momentum to do the small patch of grass at our backyard and when I was finishing the trimmer head stop spinning and the trimmer sounded "off".
At first I thought I overheated the motor but in spite all my carelessness I was mindful of the battery and motor temperatures and checked every once in a while when I felt I needed the battery and motor needed a break.

Since the issue didn't seem that the motor stopped running I thought maybe I wore off the head or something like that but upon further inspection and research I now believe the shaft comes slightly off the motor preventing engagement when the trimmer is tilted down (natural work position).

Has anyone experience such issue? If so, how did you fix it? I found a video on Youtube but if I recall correctly the fix is not very clear so I though I would ask the GJ folks.

EDIT: In case it helps someone else, this is how I fixed the issue:

I looked online for someone with the similar problems and I couldn't find a solution but I did find a bunch of reviews and one common minor complain: lots of vibration which I didn't even noticed and dismissed until the very end.

I took the attachment apart of the motor and looked at the shaft and the retaining c-clip and looked for any damage or missing parts. I looked at the attachment and the shaft and did the same thing and nothing obvious came up.

I went to reattach the string trimmer head attachment to the motor and it didn't work, I had two male shaft end.... how was that possible?! I was missing a part, but as far as I remember nothing felt or broke off, the attachment was secured to the motor when it stopped working and I took it off.
I looked around and I saw the part missing on the floor, I didn't took it off, I didn't even loosen it off at all!

It appears that after using the trimmer all this years and particularly for an extended period of time, the vibration caused the middle part (quick release assembly is the official name) that connects the motor shaft to the attachments shaft came loose causing the shaft to come out of the motor enough to prevent engagement.

I took the screws from the quick release assembly out, added a bit of Loctite, put everything together and the trimmer is back in business hopefully for many more years!

 

[finn]

I have bought maybe a half dozen or more M18 tools over the past year, and I understand how the op feels, after reading his post.

They just seem to have a cheesy feel to them compared to my Bosch and Dewalt tools. They seem to function fine, but the fit just isn’t there.