I’ve had a Weed Eater gasoline leaf blower for 10 or 12 years. The spark plug won’t come out anymore and the muffler is rattling around loose under the partially melted plastic body, but last fall it still started and ran. Knowing that its days are numbered, and with the New England autumn coming on fast, I’ve been looking for a replacement. Today I bought a Poulan Pro BVM210VS, on sale at Lowes for $90.
I got it home, installed the tube, put in some 2-stroke gas, and followed the starting instructions:
- Set the choke lever to “start”
- Press gas primer bulb 6 times
- Pull the cord five times
- Click the trigger to make choke switch over to “run”
- Pull the cord until it starts… or the cord comes out in your hand
Huh? That last part wasn’t in the instructions. I stared at the cord in my hand, no longer a part of the leaf blower. So I poured the gas back into the can and drove back to Lowes to return the Poulan Pro. When I got home again I saw that the old Weed Eater — also a Poulan product, by the way — still had some gas in it, and the thing started right up.