Description
From the manufacturer
Flymo Contour 500E Electric Grass Trimmer and Edger, 500W, Cutting Width 25cm
Designed for medium sized gardens, the 500W Contour 500E has a cutting width of 25cm, this versatile 4-in-1 trimmer allows you to trim, edge and shrub with ease. The 1.5mm dual auto feed line tackles extra tough conditions. Weighing 3.1kg the Contour 500E is lightweight and easy to use.
Cutting
Cutting width 25cm
Cord diameter 1.5mm
Equipment
Power 500W
Battery voltage 500V
Cable length 10m
Weight 3.1kg
Bonzo –
Lightweight and powerful enough for medium domestic use. Particularly good for lawn edging.My 18 year-old Flymo grass trimmer recently gave up the ghost. The plastic joint on the shaft had snapped and whilst the motor was running as well as ever, it was rendered unusable. I did my usual research and decided upon this particular 300W version as a like-for-like replacement.The main selling point for me was its lawn edging ability and in particular, the design of the edging wheel. Many trimmers seem to have only one or two small rollers which I though may not last the test of time whereas this one has a large central wheel – much sturdier and more practical looking. It’s performance on paper is slightly higher than my old one with 50 extra watts of power and a 2cm larger cutting diameter. It doesn’t seem like much of a difference but in practice, is very noticeable.If I had reviewed this strimmer immediately after using it for the first time, I’d have said it was horrible and wouldn’t have recommended it. It was a bit of a faff to build (mainly because I found the instructions to be poor due to the lack of text) and I ended up just looking at the photo of the trimmer on the box to see what it should look like once assembled. It’s a wee bit heavier than my old trimmer – probably because its bigger but is still pretty light. However, the shaft flexes at the plastic joint and this means that it wobbles about a bit when you’re using the trimmer to cut tall grass. I’m not entirely convinced of its longevity but we’ll see.The main issue I had when I first used it was that when used as an edger, you have to strim from right to left. With my old one, I did the edges from left to right so found it quite difficult to control and had to work out an entirely new route around the garden instead of the one I’d followed for 18 years. This meant that some plant leaves met with an untimely end and the lawn edges looked ‘less than linear’ (a mess!) in some places. With my old trimmer, you only had to flip the entire thing over to swap between edging and long grass trimming but with this, you have to push a button and flip only the trimmer head over; a case of slightly pointless ‘progress.’ However, with an open mind, I thought that I’d gradually get used to this new approach and I certainly have. I’m 5ft 10in and find that the overall length of the trimmer is just fine and I don’t have to stoop at all, especially when using it as an edger as most of the weight is over the large wheel.I mentioned the slight step up in specification compared to my old Flymo trimmer. The extra 50 watts makes this trimmer feel significantly more powerful than my old one to the degree that wearing PPE is a must. Even a stray bit of strimmer line pinging off can feel like you’ve been shot with a BB gun and will leave a 5p-sized red, painful lump on uncovered legs. It’ll easily kick up small stones when you’re trimming around gravel beds and generates enough dust in dry conditions to make me appear as if I’ve served a shift down t’pit. I’m exaggerating about that but a shower is definitely in order after using this! The extra 2cm cutting diameter means that the trimmer will do a better job of edging further down the sides of the lawn where grass can grow outwards. I’m not finding the rather flimsy-feeling leaf protector to be much use though and just take a bit of extra care around tree trunks and overhanging plants instead.I’ve had no issues whatsoever with the twine breaking during use. I’ve always found that the trick with auto-feed systems is to stop completely every 45 seconds or so and allow the trimmer to spool out more line, thereby preventing it from getting shorter and shorter then eventually becoming unclipped from the reel and having to be re-loaded. It’s certainly cut through everything I’ve asked it to – and then some!I have about 300 linear meters of lawn edge to trim each week during the growing season and (now!) find that this trimmer is well up to the job. It’s a mixture of straight and curved edges against soil beds, patio and gravel, with a couple of tree trunks thrown in too. I’ve included some photos showing the type of edging I do and the results I’ve achieved. This is a good trimmer, especially for lawn edging. It’s more than powerful enough for general domestic use and with a bit of practice, gives excellent results. My only reservation is that plastic joint in the shaft and if that was sturdier and of a better design, the trimmer would be worthy of five stars.
lisalightweight –
Omg so heavy and loud!Oh, how I wished I hadn’t bought this on impulse and had taken heed of the reviews which warned about the weight of this beast. It’s far far too heavy to be a used as a basic electric strimmer! I’m used to pushing an electric mower over bumpy, dreadfully uneven , patchy lawn in my sloping garden, so I’m no lightweight, and I struggled to to use this for more than five minutes. My sole reaSon for getting a powerful, Electric strimmer and edger was to cut down on the amount of mowing I’m doing, and to make gardening less of a chore. I specifically went for a plugged strimmer as I thought petrol strimmer would be too loud and heavy. This strimmer was a very bad choice!! It’s equally as loud and cumbersome as any cordless or petrol strimmer, and incredibly difficult to manoever into the small spaces a mower doesn’t reach. I don’t know if it’s my technique that’s off, but I’m finding that to Use it for strimming , I Have to hold it raised right off the grass and with the cutting head tilted downwards which is really tough. Normally I would keep practising and persevere until I got the hang of using it properly, but as it’s so darn heavy, I Simply can’t. Plus it’s so so noisy, I feel very self conscious using it as neighbours can’t help but hear it revving on and off again. I also find that it keeps switching off if I’m strimming an area that is quite easy and less dense. To save power and to stop it being used at full throttle the whole time it’s in use, it is self regulating and on,y powers right up when the task is a heavy duty one. For light Strimming with little resistance, it automatically reduces the output and, I found it either Cut out entirely Or needed to be repositioned to get the motor revving back up. It was very frustrating and caused a lot of unnecessary stop starts …..at full volume. The weight of the machine stops it from being a tool that will be frequently whipped out the garage and used for quick tidy ups. There’s nothing quick or convenient about lugging this around.The edge facility is very aggressive and it’s going to take a lot of trials to get the hang of this feature. My first attempt wasn’t accurate and instead of edging the flower border, it took out a few inches of turf all the way round! Literally cut into the lawn so it could be removed in one long strip. I was horrified! Oh and lastly, it comes flat pak. The instructions are useless if not confusing and it was stiff and again heavy to put together. I regret thus purchase immensely.ŷUPDATEOn using for the second time the engine once again cut out despite having both buttons fully depressed….and didn’t come back on again immediately. It was neither hot to the touch or smelled as though it had overheated So one must presume this is a mechanical or electrical wiring error. When it finally did ordain itself to spark back to life half hour later, it wasn’t to be for work as it only stayed on for a few seconds before again,dying. On off on off on off. After ten minutes of this, the entire spool was empty of line! Replaced with my own FLYMO line i purchased separately and away we went. All good ,or so I thought. But once again, less than a minute in and it cut out. …on a plain stretch of bone dry,level,non dense lawn. Groundhog Day!!!! The constant stop starts caused half a reel to be used in one fifteen minute session whereby no more than a kids bucketful of grass was cut!! To add insult to injury, when A kind neighbour tried again for me later, the two lines got tangled together under the hood and had to be trimmed free and once back in motion totally snapped off . Another five minutes faffing around, another load of line wasted just to get the darn thing going again. Not even a minute later the engine cut out. After ten minutes of the same on off on off it once again refused to come on again…. at which point the neighbour declared it had been off more times than on and wasn’t worth the hassle! I threw in the towel! I admit defeat. Neither my mental health or wrists can take another session with this heavyweight hunk of junk. It’s going back, assembled, in any box I can find in the garage because there’s no way on earth am I breaking an arm trying to take it to pieces. It took an hour and more strength than a workout at the gym to put the beast together and I’m wasting no more tears and sweat on it. Goodbye, good riddance…..I should have taken onboard the comments before purchase but as we were on lockdown and this was the only one available under 100 quid at the time, I didn’t. And boy have I learned a lesson!!! DONT BUY THIS!
J. Bateman –
Works wellGreat strimmer.Being left handed i tend to find some things a bit difficult to use.But like most left handers we are very adaptable so i can cope with this strimmer.The only problem i found was the trigger that operates via finger pressure requires a excessive amount of pressure and feels a bit vague.I think a more positive on /off switch would be a good upgrade.Also is it possible to make a it easier for Left Handers to use maybe by building in different options when assembling it after purchase.In all all respects it is quiet powerful and ideal for the job
Chris Collins –
Great StrimmerThis is a great strimmer for my un-even garden. Would advise anyone purchasing it that it is heavy, so bare that in mind
Amazon Customer –
As Described easy assembly,and adjustable.The was a replacement for My Fathers 300W Flymo, strimmer, which i have had for 30 years and was great machine, sadly the motor eventually gave up, so this machine was bought as a replacement. found it heavier than my old one, also the switch on the handle requires more pressure to make contact, and makes it difficult to use it for any length of time, and this assibilated by the strimmer line breaking and needing to be manually adjusted, something like 10 times, on a lawn area of grass 12 square Meters, no more than 3″ tall. Which Makes this machine expensive, if i need to replace the strimmer line so often.
coquelin jean-pierre –
la livraison sérieuse rapidePour mon jardin