Naff plastic hovver bovver (Power Devil PDG4029 Rotary)

Member Name: pipefish

Product:	Power Devil PDG4029 Rotary
Date:	19/07/03 (2186 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, Still working after 9 months

Disadvantages: Strimmer constantly needs attention, Cheap plastic build, Quality of finish

This being the cheapest rotary lawn mower on sale at Argos, I decided to buy it. The speical offer price was the main incentive - not only do you get a rotary mower with a grass collecter, they throw in Power Devil rotary strimmer too! Bargain or what????

Unfortunately after 9 months I think What???? is probably the best answer. Both products are both just about still working but I have seen better build quality in the plastic toys that come out of crackers. The strimmer has had to be taken apart to resolder some wires and the cutting line tends to fall off the bottom and go flying off down the garden! The lawn mower still works well but after mowing it looks more like someone has attacked the garden with a machete and there are several bald patches in the garden. I initially bought the items because I was not very interested in the garden at the time and wanted to build up just a basic set of tools for the lowest price. Now that I have improved the garden I can't help thinking that getting something better would have been a more wise choice.....

Both the strimmer and lawn mower are electric and have a two button operation to start - there is one button to press and a handle to hold down to keep them running. On both of them the handle is plastic and does not look particulary strong - I keep expecting it to break. Both have a long yellow power cord and I would say that you must get a proper extension lead with an RCD circuit breaker - there are too many things that could go wrong to short circuit both, especially in wet conditions or if the flex gets stripped or you accidently push the mower or strimmer blade over the power cable.

The lawn mower has a 30cm blade, 1000W motor and 20L grass collecting basket for those who are interested. The basket is a cheap plastic job, which is supplied in two halves that clip together (fortunately the clips haven't broke yet). The basket sits on two flimsy looking plastic tabs over the back of th
e mower so it can easily be taken on and off. This is just as well because the 20L basket may seem big but it fills up after about mowing about 10m of grass. If there is even the slightest blockage the blade becomes stuck and you have to reach into the back to free all the grass stuck in there and pull it away from the cutting blade. Not particularly safe and it happens quite a lot! The basket is just about small enough to remove without getting in the way of the handles but only just.
The handles and the cutting blade seem to be the only metallic parts on the mower.
The handles push into holes in the plastic body of the mower and are secured by two standard Phillips head screws threaded directly into the plastic body of the mower. Again these have not broken yet but I think it is only a matter of time............. Overall the whole thing is very cheap looking and I would not want to use it on anything other than a small garden.
The other disadvantage is that the cutting blade is right in the middle of the lawn mower and does not reach to the sides. This means that it cannot cut up to edge of the lawn unless you want to trample all your plants and run them over.

The mower has four wheels and apparently 3 heights for changing the cut depth. However if your garden is slightly uneven this means that it will cut down to whatever depth the wheels are at so any bumps will get given a grade zero!
Overall the whole thing has a cheap plastic feel to it and I keep expecting for something to break on it or fall off. The basket is particularly flimsy.
When I trade up I will get a mower with a larger collection bucket or grass compactor and ideally one with the cutting blade further forward.

Next to the strimmer. This still just about works but could only be described as a piece of rubbish. You really seem to get what you pay for with strimmers.
There is no damping on the strimmer and the whole thing shakes and buzzes when using it so th
at it is hard just holding down the trigger on it and you have had enough after about 5 minutes. Again the build quality of this is of the same budget standard. After about 10 uses it suddenly stopped working and I took it apart to investigate. Inside there was the same cheap plastic again, this time used for the wire contacts and switches and low quality wire. Doing a continuity test narrowed the fault down to the motor, where one of the wires had fallen off and had to be re-soldered back on.

However the worst bit is the strimmer's drum and cutter line. Strimmers work by spinning a plastic wire to cut grass or thin plant stems, which is fed out from reel inside the drum. It may seem you get a reel full of a huge length of wire but this gets used very fast as the line snaps very regularly and has to be pulled out further. No problem - shouldn't this be simple? Nooooooo!
You are meant to press a button which releases the drum so that you can pull out more line but often it snaps inside the drum instead so you have to open the whole attachment up to deal out more.
This is a problem with the strimmer as the reel is only held in place by a very basic plastic upturned cup that clips into place over the reel and a massive spring. Opening it usually results in the reel and cup then leaping out and landing on the garden somewhere. This then has to be reassembled and the line threaded out of the holder and snapped back into place.
The drum assembly is meant to bolt onto the end of a toothed shaft on the bottom of the strimmer but the screw securing them snapped off very quickly which results in the unit spinning up and then the drum falling off, landing on the grass still spinning and flying off down the garden. It seems to resist all attempts to replace the small bolt with a substitite, mainly since the shaft is only threaded about 1mm. I have had to glue the whole lot back onto the drive shaft which is holding it in place - for the moment anywa
y. It will probably shake itself loose after another 2 or 3 uses.

So both just about manage to do the job but I doubt that this will be for much longer. With the cheap plastic build it may be better sold in a branch of Toys'R Us, especially as the strimmer does an excellent impression of a spinning top. OK so it has worked for a year and done the job but next time I will certainly be spending an extra £10 or £20 to get a better quality product.

Summary: