I have / have had both gas 2 & 4 stroke trimmers along with a cordless electric. They all have their place. I use the electric at the lake where I only have 10 minutes or so of trimming to do. I have a 56V Ego that I bought from home depot a few years ago when they were closing them out. Not a lick of trouble with it, works well for regular grass/weed trimming around fences, and misc stuff and it's nice and light. The battery will last 3 or 4 uses or more before I have to give it a charge and I believe I'm on my 3rd season with it. pretty nice little unit if you don't have heavy work or a ton of trimming to do.
Now at home, I maintain 6 acres and have a fair amount of trimming. A couple times a year I have to go out and hit the knee deep stuff around the mail box, the culvert in the ditch, and I do a 28'x8' dog kennel since I don't have a walk behind mower at the house. There not easy jobs and it's a whole lot WOT knocking down knee deep grass for 1/2 hour at a time. For this, there's no replacement for a good gas trimmer and both 4 stroke and 2 stroke can get the job done. My 1st 4-stroke trimmer was a weedboss which was the new thing out about 10 years ago. It's a straight shaft, 4 stroke, 18" string trimmer that uses Briggs engine. Worked flawlessly for the last 10 years, had lots of power, was relatively quite, and oil changes consisted of about 4 oz of oil 1 a season. other than that, just fill and go. Usually starts within a pull or two. The only down side, it requires a little idle time to warm up and it's a little on the heavy side. Of course I blew the spline gear on the head about three weeks ago and in my impatience in finding parts, I headed to town to buy a new trimmer. For me, it has to be rated for commercial use to stand-up to the abuse. I did some research and few very good names of commercial units are Husqvarna, Stihl, Shindaiwa, Echo, and Honda. Only looked at the Honda, Stihl, and Echos as I didn't have a nearby dealer for the others. Ended up with the Honda HHT35SLTAT. Decided that the last 4-stroke was great and not having to worry about mixing fuel was just a bonus since the only other 2-stroke I own that requires mixed fuel needs a different ratio than the trimmers. So far I've only used the Honda twice. comparing it to my other 4-stroke trimmer, the Honda is smoother, quieter, and has even more power. The power part is quite impressive, extremely responsive and the power/torque comes on very low in the RPM band. The ergonomics are great! The only complaints i have so far is it's the heaviest trimmer I've picked up and I'm not sure I'm sold on the bump head however I can change that to one of the Echo quick feed heads if I have any issues with it.
I did look very hard at the Stihl however they didn't have the 200 series trimmers that I would have liked to have compared but instead the 111 series. I think this would have been more than fine. Holding both and spending about an hour at the store I decided the Honda does have a better feel even though it's quite abit heavier. The handle, trigger, cruise control set-up was simply much more comfortable than the Stihl for me. For the Stihl, the downside for me was ergonomics, the need to mix fuel, they're definitely louder and smokier than any of the 4strokes, however it was quite a bit lighter, there's no oil changes, I like there line feed system better, and they have multiple head options. Had they had a stihl with the 4-mix, I might have been swayed that direction but I've heard they are heavier and the balance is off, food for thought. I think either machine will last many years even with the abuse and both are rated for commercial use. Price wise, the Stihl FS111 and the Honda HHT35 were within about $10 of each other.
With all of that said, I grew up with an old weed-eater brand 2-stroke trimmer from the 80s. That thing was used for residential lawn care by both myself and my father and did no less than 3-6 different accounts/yards each year through my childhood and highschool years. It smoked like a banshee, was heavy, didn't have a shoulder strap, curved shaft, and although we thought it was powerful it wasn't anywhere near what I currently have, but it lasted most of 20 years before it was finally retired and still got the job done.
Pick the right tool for the job and get a quality name and you'll e more than happy. I over think this kind of stuff all the time when in reality there were plenty of trimmers that would have fit the bill. As a kicker, my father-in-law had a donor craftsman string trimmer that used the same engine as my weedboos that he retired due to some carb issues. Long story short, I switch the shafts between the two machines to make a good one so I guess I now have two 4-stroke trimmers and a 56V Electric. Probably overkill but what the heck, guess I'll always have a back-up, lol!
