Flymo Contour 500E Electric Grass Trimmer and Edger, 500 W

 

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.