Today I want to send a million virtual thanks to a guy called Jason who resided in Sydney in 2013. Because he's saved me months, nay possibly years of frustration with a tool in my toolshed.
Meet the Ryobi Elt100a - an electric whipper snipper/weed whacker lovingly described by one owner as a Ferrari engine on shopping trolley wheels.
I'd go one further and suggest that it's a Ferrari powerplant with a front end built by Wish.com, off poorly photocopied crayon drawn blueprints from the early 80s.
Because the head that it came with is complete and utter rubbish and was obviously designed by someone who never tried to trim grass and weeds with it. The innovative bump feed never worked (mine was second hand for $50 on Gumtree so it may have worked back in the day but never since I've owned it) and you'd spend more time opening it up and feeding more line into it than you did actually whacking any weeds.
Even upgraded line was a chore to replace when it wore down because you'd have to take it all apart again, loop things around, compress it down, lock it into place and hope this new line lasted a bit longer than the old one.
And slowly but surely, it would fall to pieces. Exhibit A your honor..
If you just exclaimed - 'isn't that a bolt and nut from a chair holding it all together?' Pat yourself on the back because that's exactly what it is. Since the parts that held it all together broke at alarming rates, I had to resort to extreme measures just to hold the damn thing together. And I'm happy to report that once locked in, it wasn't about to spring out again anytime soon.
This was back when I first created this gardening hack that the experts don't want you to know about! Or something like that.
It worked quite well like that - until you hit a big patch of something and discovered another flaw in the design.
And then one day the rubbish head became so rubbish, the metal spun and the plastic hung around doing nothing, looking stupid. The engine was roaring like a race car but the head wanted no part of this.
Time for a new head then! And here comes the first problem, namely that the Elt1100a is so old, you won't find parts for them just lying around at Bunnings. Nothing on the shelf mentions it will fit this particular model because it's so old, it's been superseded by just about everything past the steam engine.
Apparently there are custom head builders that can build something for this machine or you can order in from parts specialists but that's going to be costly and my wallet does not need another uppercut right now (the washing machine broke down the other day you see..)
Enter hero Jason, Sydney's own who found a bolt on replacement that you can buy at Bunnings. Yes, this fits the Elt1100a like a glove even though it doesn't mention this model on the pack. Behold:
(Just don't do what I did and try to install it upside down, it only goes and works one way.) But yes, the Ryobi Pro Cut II Spool is just $36 and well worth it as once you get the old head off and out the way.
(I had to saw mine off as one final 'screw you' evil old failing head move) it's plain sailing to not only bolt this one but to feed line into it too! Just push through the entrance hole til it feeds through the exit hole slightly, do the same for the other line and you're good to go! 30 seconds later you're back in action!
Even better, you don't need to salvage any of the old rubbish head either. Not even the clapped out spring. Just the Ferrari frame so into the bin with the rest of you!
Jason, you're an absolute legend!
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