it's all about what you like, they are mostly throw away units these days, if you get three years out of them you are lucky, I have had john deere, cubcadet, sthil, Echo and troybilt.....the Echo is still going strong, had it about 4 years now....above average..........I use it to keep weeds down around the fence posts, I have 2 acres fenced and it take about two hours to walk and trim, the echo needs a fill up twice during this. also all mine where the bent shaft style, the john deere was a straight shaft which is good for my height, but then no one else would use it because it was too long