Quick comparison of three common bumpfeed trimmer heads, plus diagnosing what caused my current head to break


Echo SpeedFeed 400 This is my head of choice. Its the easiest unit to load line onto and is very high quality.


Stihl AutoCut EasySpool. Similar to the Echo in that you can load line without disassembling the head. Unlike the echo the design of the winding mechanism makes it hard to grab and turn.


Troubleshooting a broken head. My SpeedFeed stopped advancing line. This could be caused by dirt and debris getting stuck between the spool and the "tophat (technically its called the knob)", but a quick disassembly and cleaning did not help matters. It turns out the hub had mushroomed out significantly, to the point that it had to be hammered out of the housing.


Root cause of the issue was 100% my fault; i neglected to periodically grease the trimmer head, worn out greases cuased the unit to run hot which transfered through the attaching nut and into the hub which then at speed mushroomed out a few thousands of an inch.


Hopefully caught it in time to be able to regrease the gearbox and be good to go. Lesson learned though; I had the gear box off a few weeks back and thought the grease looked good (plenty of it and not dried up).