WE DID IT!! Echo Admits Speed Feed 500 FAIL and is Working To Figure Out Solution!

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I had to remove the link for the Speed Feed 450 after finding out that even though their advertisement said it was a 450 and the picture was of a 450, they were actually sending Speed Feed 500's. If you ordered one and were sent a 500, I would return it and give a negative review to dealer for false advertisement. As of 06-18-24 they still say they are selling 450's. Don't get scammed.

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My name is Bre. I took two years of small engine repair at the local college. When I left school, I fell into a wonderful job at a local small engine shop where I worked the counter for a couple years. In 2010 my husband and I opened up our own small engine shop in central Arkansas where I am able to work alongside my family and best friends. We saw over 2,000 pieces of small engine equipment every year, and answer 1,000's of small engine questions. We specialize in brands such as Briggs and Stratton, Kohler, Echo and Shindaiwa, but work everyday on MANY other brands like Stihl, Husqvarna, Honda, Craftsman, Remington, Red Max, Troy Bilt, Scag, Bad Boy, Hustler, World Lawn, Poulan, Mantis, Etc.. Hopefully, my experience I share, will save you Time, Money and Frustration in the future!

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Although very informative, these videos are for entertainment purposes. Please use all possible safety precautions when repairing and operating your small engine equipment.

[billbray]

Your channel carries more clout than you realize. I have a friend that his daughter work for a large corporation and her job is strictly to search out negative or constructive comments for her company. Good Job on getting acknowledged for your findings.

[stevesula]

Glad to see echo is listening. It was mighty good of you to diagnose the issue. Outstanding work.

[billnordby]

I love it when we get big business to admit their faults Great job!!❤

[donnyarmstrong]

"But this is why I'm here guys and this is what I love to do".... and this is why we tune in every time you post!
Living my best La Vida Loca here in south eastern Arizona

[JLMcneal]

I like the “we’re aware of the issue and MAY make changes in the future” no truer politician comment if I ever heard one!

[ELCare]

I bought a 450 last year. It FLEW apart at the beginning of this season. I got the 400, and I've been happy with it since.

[garybarchas]

Thank you for your concern and the time you took to make everyone aware of this. You have a genuine heart of service, which seems to be a rare quality these days.

[bunnylove]

Glad to see echo is listening, well done

[Jim-yloq]

For our particular situation, this type of head is a disaster. We weed whack about six acres of dry weeks in the spring and early summer for wildfire mitigation. We have some rocks that are not visible below the 3ft tall weeds. When this type of head hits a rock and breaks off the lines, you have to disassemble the head to rewind the line. When putting things back together if you don't get it snapped together completely right it may come apart and you risked losing some of the metal parts where the line comes out. We used these heads for one day before that happened. Also the heads are not that easy to open and snap shut, especially for my wife that does 60% of our weed whacking. Now we stick with the old fashioned heads where you wind it the old fashioned way and never have had a problem.

[jamesspash]

Great job! Where I work when we repeatedly tell management about issues months and years in advance. We are continually ignored and finally we go silent. Patch it up keep it going. Let it fail, then they will react. Finally when it does fail and they go, OMG what happened? We say, we told you about this 6+ months ago. The response is always the same. This is the first time we have heard about this. LOL Every single time.

[GNX]

You’ve gotta get a quality grease injected into the gearbox above the trimmer head. Those things come with little to no greased get super hot under heavy use.

[bartfart]

i scavenged a small trimmer head off some old ryobi expand it(?) that takes precut lengths slipped into one way openings(binders) . put some .155(?) line in it and it lasts forever and spins way easier and faster. wish i could find a listing or a serial number on it . best trimmer head i've ever seen

[rickcasieri]

I have a year old Echo
35 20. That 500 head that was suppose to be so great gave me jam ups from day 1 a real POS!
I bought the echo to Stihl
Spindle adapter and never ever have had problems with the Stihl Auto cut 25-2
Which is the best head and easiest spool to re wind out there! That 500 is just to big and Awkward ! Glad you at least got Echo to admit that the design failed! I love the 35 - 20 it’s a beast ! Echo unlike Stihl these days still makes a real
2 stroke !
Keep up the great videos!

[paulmcreynolds]

Great job Bree. Too bad you're not an auto mechanic. You could get these manufacturers to stop putting internal water pumps on cars. I had to replace the water pump on my car and had to take half the engine apart. Keep up the good work.

[robinmiller]

I have an echo for 13 years never been in the shop it works works fine no problem so I don't know why people cannot take care of your equipment like I do

[matttrain]

We just had to do our annual weed trimming of our 6 acre property in Northern California (no mowers because of fire danger and rocks). It's a big undertaking so we were hoping the 500's on our two Stihl FS 131 (handlebar version) wouldn't have this problem. My partner had it jam twice on the first load of string. I had it start jamming on my second load. I went back to the trimmer heads that came with the Stihl. They may be a pain to load, but at least I didn't have to keep taking them apart to unjam. I just ordered a couple of 400s for next year. For anyone that cares, I had also purchased the Stihl 26-2 heads which are supposed to be speed feed-like. Those are even worse. We couldn't load them because of the dirt that they let get inside. They wouldn't spin freely to load the line. I was having to take them apart each time to clean them out. How is it so hard to make a decent trimmer head?!

[franksanchez]

I purchased the SpeedFeed 500 about a year and half ago when my supplier told me that the 450 had been replaced by the 500. initially it worked fine with the supplied line but once I ran outta line and replaced it with my Echo .130 line I soon noticed that the line was breaking from one hole as I used it leaving me with a single trimmer line. When I investigated the inner spool, I noticed that the line was melted in place. At that time, I contacted Echo and they told me that they had no history of complaints on this issue. Initially I thought that the issue was due to me using such large line but when I went back to .095 line I still had the issue. The way I have been dealing with the issue is by installing only about five feet of line on the spool at a time and that way the line runs okay, but I do run outta line quickly. Thank you for bringing this issue out in the open and look forward to finding a resolution to the issue.

[WECB]

This should be an easy thing for any engineering student to redesign. The simple use of an IR camera will reveal all. Keep up the great work!

[ianphillips]

Great job Bre, well done! We, the end users, need the stronger voice that you provide.
Sometimes, companies are unaware that there is a problem until someone like you shouts about it loud enough forit to go up the 'food chain' to take action. Lower down the chain staff don't always bother to escalate these issues, so they fall on deaf ears.
I'm an industrial maintenance engineer over here in the UK, we often get asked 'why didn't you fix it earlier?' 'well', I say, 'I'm not clairvoyant!', 'If no one tells me about it, and it does not show up during routine checks and maintenance, I won't know to fix it!'
After all, the end user, especially the commercial users, know the equipment better than most of the techs and engineers, as they use it day in day out.
Thanks for your great channel, I've been subscribed for a few years now, very informative and entertaining.
Oh, by the way, I have a '78 Corvette, in the same red!

[gwilli]

I bought my SRM-225 trimmer new in 2013 and tht line advance in the head has never worked properly. The only identification I can find on the head is "Speedfeed". I have to take it apart every time to pull more line out. All my yard equipment is Echo, they make good products other than the head on my trimmer. I will say though, the chain saw I bought back in the 80's was much better than the one I replaced it with a few years ago.