Troy Bilt String Trimmer 590EC Review
This is a 4 cycle machine that doesn't require a mixed gas/oil blend and this is a welcome feature.
Power
Lots of it in the 29-cc engine. The string left interesting marks along some timbers as I was getting used to the machine.
Noise:
Very noisy. Use this machine without ear protection at your peril. Even with ear protection, it quickly became a problem.
Vibration:
Excessive. After 15 minutes of use, my hands were vibrating because of the heavy vibration. This pins and needles feeling is common in those who have worked with small equipment like this for many years and we tend to buy good equipment that doesn't vibrate for this reason. The troy bilt string trimmer 590EC may not be your best bet if you have similar concerns or condition.
Starting:
Right out of the box, setup as per manual it started immediately and ran with no problems.
Weight:
It's a heavy machine that has to be balanced carefully. Factory settings leave too much weight on the engine end and this setting has to be adjusted for the individual user or you'll be working trying to swing it and balance it.
Cutter Blade Attachment
The 4-sided blade cuts well enough when you hit the brush but there's a safety plate that sits over top of the front of the unit; this means you have to hit the brush stalk at a precise angle if you want to make the cut. There's little room for error making this machine a bit more work than necessary.
Other Attachments
This unit has a "quick attach" feature making changing attachments quick and easy. Unfasten a safety tightening knob, push a button, twist the shaft and disengage.
The problem from an initial visual inspection is the shaft diameter running the attachments is quite small. I've only used the machine for an hour or so at the time of this review and haven't run the attachments very much so I haven't had problems but I'm leery of running them on full load because of the lack of heft in the shaft.
For example, I purchased the tiller attachment and two things became instantly apparent. The first is that you won't be doing any serious tilling wtih this machine (it bounces on anything other than fully tilled and loose soil) and secondly, if you tried to make this heavy attachment really till, you'd strip out this internal drive shaft quickly.
"Light" cultivation might be acceptable but having spent a few minutes with the attachment, I wouldn't let it near plants (it bounces very quickly and those tines will shred a perennial with no difficulty) so general cultivation isn't on the books for me.
The edger attachment might be of interest as long as you're working in open, loose soils. This isn't going to be a tool for cutting trenches for wires (as in dog containment fencing) so as long as you have your edges pre-cut, it should be fine.
Bottom line on the attachments - doesn't look heavy enough to handle heavy loads of tilling or big time cultivation but it may very well handle lighter loads. This is one of those time will tell types of reports that I will update.
Bottom Line on the Troy bilt 590EC string trimmer review
Powerful little engine but noisy wtih high vibrations. Likely too much noise and uncomfortable vibration for a really large garden and consistent useage and quite possibly too much power for a small garden that is better served by hand tools or small electric trimmers.
Priced in the $200 range (plus or minus depending on the deals of the day) so it's a cheap enough model with easily available repair parts.
Update
August - I decided to give the troy bilt string trimmer a bit of a workout. The task was to cut down some sumac shrubs that had been originally cut down with a chainsaw but had regrown. The growth was green-stems, ranging in size from 1/4 inch through to 1/2 inch in thickness.
I checked the machine for gas/oil and fitting tightness and installed the brush blade.
After one hour of non-continuous running, (the machine had a run-time of an hour over 2 hours of clearing out the cuttings etc) I was pretty surprised when the entire end of the working attachment torqued off the end of the drive shaft and went spinning across the field.
Coupling showing tension knob and hole where former pop-in button lived
This working shaft (the part containing the string trimmer or in this case the brush cutter) is held to the main drive shaft by inserting it into a female-female coupler (pictured). The shafts are aligned and held in place with a pop-in button and secured with a twist-knob (also pictured on the coupling). This knob must have worked itslef a bit loose over the 25 minutes of continuous cutting with the brush blade and ripped out the push button assembly that aligned and stopped the shaft from rotating.
The bottom working cutter and whipper snipper assembly is now a brick. I tried to repair it to make it useable but this repair isn't safe and it will require a brand new attachement to make it a safe tool
IMHO - this tool isn't heavy duty enough to cut light brush and shouldn't be used for this purpose. It is a string trimmer. Period.
Review the Troy bilt 590EC String Trimmer
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Piece of crap
Not rated yet
I had the same thing happen to my machine. The end flew off while using the brush cutter and the button-ending thingie was busted. The cost of a new ...
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