As the title says, we all see a lot of different equipment and sometimes many of us even shell out some relatively decent coin on new ones. Usually, you get what you pay for, other times you are left p*ssed off with machinery that is damn near useless.
In my case, the only (petrol) equipment I would consider as stupid money wasters is my victa vce1640 chainsaw and homelite hedge trimmer.
I got burned on a Victa chainsaw - first petrol chainsaw I ever bought. Save for their major marketing points "genuine walbro carby and oregon bar" it was $250 RRP for the same basic crap Rover sold for $220 and mitre 10 and 100 others sold under off brands like Ross for $99. Thankfully i bought the victa as a floor model for $99. Looked good - tool free tensioning, nice bar etc. Went like a knife through butter - religiously cleaned it spotless and sharpened. Then 2nd use it developed a problem - it will very nearly break your wrist trying to cold start it - it kicks back that hard. Runs beautifully, carby is dialed in spot on but it persists. Have tried the other brands of this type and they are often the same. Still sits in its case like new - pretty much unusable unless I stump up the courage to try.
The other thoroughly stupid purchase was a homelite full crank hedger - I had cracked it with the old talon one I had and saw the display model out for $89 and bit. this was right when they bought out the current 1/2 crank model.
It was running lean as hell from factory but the adjuster screw for idle mix was epoxied at factory setting.
Ran well but every time you came off the throttle it would just drop dead and take 20 pulls to kick over.
Did it to me about 10 times in a 15 minute period and I after about the hundredth pull I gave it a god almighty reef and I felt the motor pop and then run backward so well that it pulled the rope back from full extension, shattered the starter eyelet and pulled the guts of the eyelet into the cord reel. Fixed that.
Ended up pulling the jet block from the carby and heating it nearly red hot until the epoxy melted and I could adjust it.
Got it dialled in spot on but guess what – still dies coming back to idle (though less readily).
Used it 2 months ago – died twice in 15 minutes – I am confident the crank seal on the pull start side has always been defective as a hiss is getting louder and its definitely not the carby or cylinder base.
That’s the worst of them really – only honorable mentions are that I bought a display model victa hedger for $50 after the homelite and have never used it in 3 years as the 24in bar on it is a bit heavy and a $99 aldi blower is good but weighs a tonne.
Guessing Norm's worst will be those bloody gcv engined victas haha
