Ego String Carbon Fiber Trimmer with Powerload (ST1521S) Review

all right so here we go for science and 
annoying my neighbors and many nights  
sleeping on the couch for letting this get as 
bad as it has a little overgrown patch for the  
weed whacker see how it does got varying 
types of things in here that need to go  
from your basic grass to these taller poofy weeds 
to something i’m not sure what it is but it’s got  
to go it’s like a tubular plant with a purple stem 
and they go in really really deep but here we go  
we’re going to attack this for the maiden voyage 
of the ego power trimmer and see how it does  
hello i am Wanderer001 and it is that time 
of year time to maintain your lawn and  
obviously a lawnmower can only do so much so 
you’ll need something like this the ego power  
load carbon fiber string trimmer i do realize that 
that is a mouthful when looking at something like  
this all you need to know is that this is ego’s 
battery powered carbon fiber shaft string trimmer  
the bonus for this is down here which is the power 
loading head we’ll talk about that momentarily  
you may notice this large indentation right here 
that is because this particular string trimmer  
does not come fully assembled it does 
require some assembly because this is bent in  
shipment so you will have to put that together 
but before we talk about that let’s take a  
look at what we

actually get in the box because
this is the fully assembled string trimmer and
obviously that’s not how you get it so let’s take
a look at what you get in the box with this string
trimmer so here is everything that you get in
the box you have your battery the strimmer itself
or trimmer or weed whacker however you want to
call it there is your guard there’s the handle
and then a packet of information with one extra
line and if you notice down there by the power
head there’s already one line pre-ready to
go which is nice because i did not know if i
needed to buy extra so in fact over there i got
myself a five pack they have other versions but
these are pre-measured you can get them cheaper
if you just buy a large roll so coming down here
it is folded and has a bolt that will keep that
in place you can kind of see the wire there
there’s your carbon fiber shaft something else
that i wondered is this here this is just paper
it’s not actually glued on which i appreciate
and if we look very closely see if i can get
that into focus uh it is t uh dotted there so
you can just and it’ll come right off all right
so that’s a close-up next step will be
putting the guard on the handle on and then
bolting it now everything looks to be able to be
done with the included allen wrench and there’s
the one bolt to uh bolt it in place so we’ll
see how long that takes for somebody who’s
not super handy oh it did also come with a
battery charger but i took it out of the box
and it’s not here because it’s big and bulky
there you saw everything that you get with the
carbon fiber string trimmer here it’s everything
that you need to actually get started working
but you have to assemble it first because like i
said there is a model that comes fully assembled
where the shaft is not broken into two pieces like
this however that one is a little more expensive
than this particular model and i will admit
assembly is not terrible because it’s really just
making the shaft hole putting on your handle and
attaching your guard but don’t take my word for it
let me show you what it looks like so assembly
here not terrible at all it just tilts
in place hopefully that stayed very good here’s
our one bolt that came with it and just drop it in
we can actually hand screw it and then just use
the included allen wrench to finish it off so
not gonna film that but nice enough for
the tldr version of attaching the guard
if you’re like me just face the head up take your
guard faces like this there’s actually two holes
here and here that these screw into and again all
using the included allen wrench so handle assembly
probably is going to take the longest and i might
actually suggest putting the handle on first as
opposed to the guard even though in the steps
that’s what you’re supposed to do only because
since i have the guard on it doesn’t sit flat
so i actually have this up on a table it’s time
consuming because there’s a lower and then the
upper here and there’s four screws that you have
to take off to disassemble this so that you can
clamp it around but again it all uses the included
allen wrench so this is the more time consuming
portion of it and there you go one completely
start to finish assembly of the ego power
trimmer probably took 15 minutes and that’s
including setting up these little filming brakes
as you saw not terrible at all there were a few
things that i was not really happy with with
the assembly process mainly with this handle
and we’ll get into that when we kind of zoom in on
the individual components of this and the reason i
have this zoomed out so far is because this string
trimmer from the back of the battery pack all the
way down to the power loading head is 70 inches in
length power loading cutting head here gives you
a cutting swath of 15 inches so that’s a nice
large swath and you’ll see some tests of that a
little later the string trimmer is seven pounds in
weight and the majority of that weight is actually
on this back end because of the battery the string
trimmer itself is relatively late if you take that
battery out of the equation it’s you can hit pick
this up with one hand the majority of that weight
being for the battery also is how you
can counterbalance the heavier head i do
realize that not everybody has used a string
trimmer like this i well before i got my ego
string trimmer here have never used one like this
while i generally use the cheaper smaller things
so this was a bit of a learning curve but once
you master it it’s pretty good but let’s uh stop
talking about the overview let’s start bringing
you into some of the areas of focus so we can
concentrate on those as mentioned the back of
the string trimmer the majority of it is taken
up by the battery pack here however if we come
and it’s a little tricky to do around the camera
but there’s a button right back there we simply
press and remove then the string trimmer then
becomes top heavy because of the removal of
the batter the battery itself is a 56 volt 2.5
milliamp battery this is the battery that comes
with this particular string trimmer however if you
have other ego products you can interchange their
batteries with this that’s the beauty of the ego
system is these batteries are interchangeable now
if you upgrade to hypothetically borrowing a leaf
blower or a snow blower battery which is the five
milliamp batteries this will become much heavier
and a little more awkward to use if you don’t
have a strap to help keep it balanced or if you’re
just not used to something like this i will say
having shoulder issues i am able to use this with
the standard battery the 5 amp i could still use
it it’s a little trickier i have to kind of tuck
it under my arm instead of laying my arm flat
against this part here and we’re just put that
battery down for a moment to show you the back end
here which is just you know it’s ego standard gray
black and i have been using this for an entire
season meaning i picked this up at the end of last
outdoor season and have been using it for the
start of this year’s season and doing a review
now to let you know how i have liked it over the
span of that so the battery placing it back in
is very simple you simply line it up based
on the grooves back here and you give it a
little tap again i’m doing this around the camera
doesn’t normally need that much force to get in
the one problem that i have with the battery and
that’s only because this is the older model of the
string trimmer yes there is a newer one out if you
are watching this in 2021 which has an adjustable
everything but that’s not carbon fiber this
one is that battery also comes with their
gauge this one as you can see is simply the color
and then you kind of guess as to how long you can
get out of this i have found that
i can get roughly 20 to 30 minutes
of use time depending on what i’m doing with it
and at what speed i’m using it and that comes
down to this the handle this is how we actuate the
string trimmer now you will notice that there is a
locking mechanism right there that’s what this is
this is a thumb lock which you have to depress and
there you can hear it has a very nice click so
you know you have depressed it and then you can
actuate your string trimmer this is a variable
speed string trimmer you will have to kind of
figure it out uh finesse wise which is what i
had to do as to how much speed i want to give it
but you’ll notice that this is on the right hand
side if we roll this over to the left side you’re
not going to be able to actuate that with your
thumb you will be able to do it with your pink up
with your pointer finger here so you can use this
lefty or righty depending on your situation just
know that it was clearly designed for righties
in mind now as i said once we and we’re going
to remove the battery so i don’t actually actuate
it we can depress the trigger lock and then we can
move that and you can hopefully hear a clicking
sound that’s it actuating and then you just
kind give it a squeeze full throttle for thicker
things and less for things that you might not need
that much power for if we come a little closer
to the handle here where the grip and trigger
are this is actually this is actually slightly
rubberized and textured so you get a nice grip
on that even if you’re not wearing gloves so
also if your hands get a little sweaty you don’t
have to worry you’ll have a nice grip on this
the trigger itself though is plastic and can
be a little tricky if your hands get a little
sweaty but at least you’ll know you’ll have a
good grip on it now we’re gonna move down the line
here to our handle and shaft component the handle
itself i have mixed feelings about it is a padded
handle and is standard shape for these types of
string trimmers the one thing i was unsure of
is it actually is padded so i worry about this
over time really being getting torn up and looking
really gross after a while because it’s not just
hard plastic i get why they did that it is nice
to have a rubberized grip there but for the most
part when i’m out doing lawn work i have gloves
on anyway so i don’t really feel this as much
you will notice that it is held in place by these
four screws which you saw during the assembly
process but that also means once you place this
it’s in place unless you unscrew it and move it
around that’s one of the things that the newer
string trimmer again not the carbon fiber version
has a dress in that this is variable and you
can tilt it sideways if you wanted to use it for
edging now i can use this for edging i just simply
turn it and kind of hold it more on the end here
so keep in mind once you place this you have to
unscrew it to move it around that’s what makes
this a little tricky to use for different people
this is situated for myself i am five seven have
no problems using it my wife is five five and if i
wanted her to use this she would have to move this
handle and that just it’s more work than i want to
do so it stays here moving down again we have our
joint that separates the top and the bottom you
saw there were just some wires in there it’s
not going to hurt anything and you’re not really
going to have to disassemble it it’s mainly for
shipping and to save a little money we’re going
to come down to the business end or the power head
which is what you’re really interested in here we
go this is the brushless motor powerhead with the
15-inch cutting swath from ego and i don’t know
about you but when i watch reviews i like to see
that the uh thing was actually used so here you
could clearly see that it is dirty and has been
used and it’s not pristine right out of the box
oh i tested it once or twice and i’m doing a quick
review now this has been used and i’ll let you
know exactly what i think about it which is why
the review is coming out now this particular ego
string trimmer uses a dual feed spiral twist .095
line so this is a little thicker than most of
these string trimmers i’ve used in the past and
it is a it’s a beast when it’s cutting down stuff
the thing that you get this for is that power load
it’s one of the reasons that the string trimmer
was one of the last things that i ended up getting
for my lawn because i really didn’t want to get
one that you had to wind and feed this is why you
get it the power loading so demonstration
and this is why you got it we do this
automatically feeds it in and that
is why you got this because that
is much easier than winding there you saw
really simple this is if you can’t wind a
string into your trimmer using this system there’s
something wrong with you it is ridiculously simple
the guard itself which might be a little tricky
to see right there has a cut for your string so
if you pop out a little more because this is
bounce fed so you just bop it on the ground
and more comes out and it will automatically
trim itself to the correct length using that
so just be careful about that because you could
cut yourself because it’s sharp you have heard
me talk about the ease of use of the string
trimmer the overall balance and weight run time
the next question that you have is well yeah this
guy just keeps talking what does it actually look
like well let me demonstr let me show you what
it looks like actually using this and i will say
ahead of time because the sample footage that
you’re going to see is from the first time i
was actually using this and this particular
type of string trimmer you can laugh at how
awkward my form is and you could let me know if
you noticed when i got too close to my siding
and had it on full power that i nipped a chunk
out of my garage see let me know if you could see
that during the demonstration all right so this
is going to be a test of the ego power trimmer
here’s a noise check right
up front by the microphone
i have a nice directional mic there
hopefully it comes out pretty good
and grass i apparently am allergic to it and makes
me itchy as hell so so the masks help but we’re
gonna see how this does it is quiet enough
that you don’t have to wear headphones but
i’m a youtuber i constantly have to be doing two
things at once so i’m listening to podcasts about
youtubing
so
so
so
so
uh
all right there you go it’s hitting those
really thick ones really well so good stuff
so
there you saw it does a very good job with
what it’s intended to do trying to tackle that
ornamental grass that was kind of like thin wood
not not a good idea not what it was intended for
the question then becomes for the ego power load
carbon fiber string trimmer how much does it cost
well the system that i got which is the string
trimmer itself and the battery as well as a
standard charger which will charge the included
battery between 45 minutes to an hour in length
charge for that 20 to 30 minute run time depending
on what speed you’re using is going to run you 240
dollars if you just get this string trimmer itself
you could save yourself some money if you have
batteries and chargers already considering that
there is a new model that has an adjustable handle
and shaft blank you might be able to actually pick
this one up in 2021 for a cheaper price because
they’ll be looking to unload this and get more
people onto the newer one so if you are looking
to save a little money or you like the fact that
its carbon fiber looks good and is lightweight
and does an awesome job and can be integrated into
your ego system i highly recommend the ego carbon
fiber power load string trimmer and again this is
from somebody who is not necessarily an outdoor
expert i do mostly tech reviews but considering
this has a battery it’s kind of like technology
and what better way to bring my love of out of
technology outdoors than something like this
i have been Wanderer001 if you have any questions
or comments please feel free to leave them in the
area below and as always thanks for watching if
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