OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Off Topics Worst Piece of Power Equipment You Have Ever Bought

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

Just thought, an honourable mention must go to the bg66 stihl leaf blower. I didn’t buy it but have used one a few times. Basically, it is a bg86 stihl but low noise. They achieved this by a dirty great foam silencer on the nozzle … and a motor limited to 5800 rpm instead of 7200rpm

It did sound quieter than a normal blower, but so does a blower at half throttle haha. Bloody gutless it was.

\ Hi Tyler,
The GCV's are a bit crappy and I have a couple of them on 24's that I picked up a few months ago. Got one running fine with a new carby, the other is a no go and they are not worth my while bothering with them once I have done the basic tests. I did buy 2 of those Victas with GCV motors new years ago and they were a good motor once you got them running with starter fluid. They ended up thrown in the back shed for years before I decided to pull them out and see why they wouldn't start from cold. Once I saw that the choke was the problem and I fixed that they started straight up. They were faulty from new. Since then I have fixed countless numbers of Honda/Chondas with the same problem, it is a dodgey design fault
I bought a new electric Flymo mower when they first came out and it was a dud. I also bought a GMC shredder that was useless but Bunnings gave me my money back so that didn't burn me.
Obviously I have bought other bits of junk over the years but I have removed them from my memory bank

i haven't bought a new piece of equipment for 50 yrs, but I remember most of stuff I bought was good.........
Why buy a new mower when You have 7 good mowers ready to go....... I'm cutting down now, with eveything.
Gonna do more fishing....... it's more relaxing...... but I'll still have to mow the lawn......
speedy

C'mon speedy, spoil yourself, if you can find anything worth getting new these days.

I got a Solo 425 blower vac on run out a couple of years back. Had a problem with the cutout wires. Sorted under warranty by Masport at my local mower shop.
Was a little peeved when I found they substituted a different screw to the others for the casing. The owner scavenged a matching one of another machine, acting abit like I was the one causing a fuss. (Gotta love Australian customer care -just don't expect me to.)
Then it got a bit of a flat spot when revving. Took it back and a more accommodating guy there said that wasn't covered but was good enough to give it a tune at no charge. Has been running well ever since.

Before that I bought the most expensive line trimmer at Bunnings in 05 a Kaaz of Japan powered by a Mitsubishi TU -26. Still a good machine but parts can be tricky.

If I had my time over, I'd have gotten a Stihl FS-85 trimmer or similar and a BG-86 blower. Both impressed me when I fixed them for someone.

I haven't bought anything new for about 20 years now, when I bought my Echo whipper snipper.

Apart from that, I got the near new 2016 Mustang a few years back. Still going strong. Everything else is fairly ancient but working fine.

Is there anything worth buying these days? I see Bush Ranger and Superswift still putting out mowers, with a choice of Chinese, Briggs, Honda and Kohler motors on them. God knows what they are like these days.