works first time every time when you mix the fuel right. My neighbour curses his until I told him how to mix the fuel 25:1 does not mean 25ml oil to 1L petrol its percentage based 25:1 is 40ml oil to 1L petrol .
he now loves his Stihl line trimmer

I had other models that gave me nothing but misery until a friend suggested stihl. After speaking to others, doing a little research I purchased the fs38 what an excellent buy. This machine will go until it runs out fuel and line over and over and will not stop. I have since purchased a stihl blower. GO STIHL!

Great whipper snipper has heaps of power, easy to start, easy to use I would recommend it. Mine also came with a 4 years warranty

Piece of rubbish... this thing is not angled enough so i have to lift up my shoulder to get it right, totaly agree with the last review on doing the edges, i'm back to using my old sniper..oh yeah this is also burning my forearm..
i want a full refund but not sure if im in titled to one as I've had it for 2 months evennthough I've only used it twise..

An absolute piece of rubbish . After owning a Stihl blower and very happy with that i got the FS38 Linetrimmer .It nearly wants to stall when tilted when doing edges then a slight touch with trigger and it goes to flat stick revving it's guts out .Nothing from iddle to off the scale and i was told thats the way it is from the stihl shop today . My last cheap line trimmer was so much better . Very disappointed to say the least .

I hated this machine. NEarly chucked it out. Read comment on fs45. Anyway i put up with constant cord snapping, overheating of bump head and for 30min went through at lead 1.5m of cord.... Took 100% more time to wipper nip than it should have. NOW after trying 8 cords i have found BYNORM 2.4mm works great (gatorline from the USA is good to). I use about 50cm of cord but no snapping or tangling of line in the spooling (which is really easy to do). SO afterr having this machine for 10 years im now happy with it again. And dont even go there with victa cords or anything from bunnings.
Easy to start light
poor recommended line-

Easy to start mostly but goes through 1.5m of line for a small back yard. Also wire can get tangled up thanks to the 'easy' line feed. Every job i end up taking it appart at least twice. Getting rid of it>>>> I now have and this one is hanging around
easy to handle
too much line chew

Bought this unit 5 years ago and still going strong. Always starts on the third pull and gets the job done. The bump feed can be a pain sometimes when the line doesn't come out but that only occurs now and then. All in all a great unit for domestic use.
Reliable
The bump feed can be annoying

Easy to start. I have been using for last two years and never had any problem with starting. Always start at second or third pull. Very light. I always use octane 95 or above fuel and never use more than three weeks old mixed fuel. It is little noisy but I think all petrol machines would be same. I would say do not even bother to look at victa or ryobi from bunnings. Stihl trimmers are much more superior in quality and reliability.
Quality,light weight and always start at second or third pull.

It is what it is... An affordable 2stroke home whipper snipper. It's cheap I paid $200, I can't justify my self spending more on something I hate doing! Give it few pulls if it doesn't fire hold the throttle flat and try then, it is a 2 stroke remember so you gotta give it a few pulls, has loads of power, it's light & is not a bad length. It will probably go forever - it's a good unit.
Price, power, light weight

Since new I had problems with starting it. It is really finicky to start, if you don't get it right the first time it will flood and then you have to take the air filter off to get more air into the mixture and hope that it gets up and running. Should have gone with the Honda.
When I get it going it runs really well. The cord is easy to replace.
Difficult to start

Bought this line trimmer around 6 months ago and it hasn't missed a beat.
A great value for money machine.
Very happy
Nice, light, good quality line trimmer

Paid $249AUS for it over 3 years ago, and they are priced the same now. Worth every cent. Would by another Stihl in a heartbeat.
Starts easy, heaps of power, low maintenance, does the job well. Running on 50:1 mix practically no smoke (Valvoline oil)
The fuel tank and its filler neck could be larger. Something included to hang it up in garage easily when not in use would be nice.

Ergo dynamics and design is crap - best to get a longer shaft
Mine takes 8-10 pulls to start even from new. Asked my Stihl dealer if I could buy the dog (that was in the commercial), maybe he could start the f*@king thing.
They serviced it under warranty and but it wasn’t long before it was back to its old way.- once going its fine.
Still thinking about it. Bought it for its supposably reliability, serviceability and parts
Have to use unit at an acute angle to effectively cut and thus have to bend forward thus hurting lower back if used for a period of time. also due to the angle you have to rest your elbow above the exhaust resulting in a somewhat heated elbow though the plastic veined cover.

[censored word removed] product i expected it to start with ease but how dissapointing is this product, I should have gone with Honda
Nice and light for a woman to use
But trying to start the dam thing is impossible, it is very hard to start in fact i couldn't even get it going at all i will be returning it to the store very unhappy should have brought a Honda

We brought one as was going into commercial mowing as just needed something to start with and i have to say this thing hasn't let us down yet it has been punished beyond punished in the 12 mths of using it has never let us down, but was told the clutch is on its way out so have to upgrade to a commercial stihl
For the price we got a gem of a machine