My New Stihl FS94R, A Long Story......

cruzenmike

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Last fall I went to my local Stihl dealer with intentions on purchasing an FS94R string trimmer. What I liked about this specific model was the presence of a dial used to control the throttle. I had found that in all of my years of using different string trimmers that learning to "feather" the throttle to get the most ideal cut in various situations was not exactly easy. Making things worse is the fact that I have about 800 linear feet for wire fence to trim along and at high revs the string just gets eaten up. Anyway, the day I went to make my purchase they did not have any FS94Rs in stock. After discussing my needs with the dealer they pointed me towards the FS91R instead, which they did have in stock. One thing that I wanted was the ability to use the machine for brush cutting with a steel blade. Since the FS91R is better suited for this task, I ended up just buying one of these instead of waiting for an FS94R to come in.

Fast forward to this spring and with 5 or 6 uses of the FS91R I was not happy with it. Don't get me wrong, it is an excellent piece of equipment. There are a couple of good things to say about this trimmer: the handle is comfortable, the engine is powerful and it has a long run time with it's larger fuel tank. Now for the negatives: it is unbalanced making it back-end heavy and the throttle has almost no variability. The weight is not a huge issue when trading off for more fuel and power but with over an hour of use at a time it just got to be too heavy. Having a lot of wire fence to trim along made it almost impossible to use this trimmer as well. The second you get the head spinning slowly it then rockets into full rev and the string is just eaten up by the wire fence or the head gets ripped away from where you were trimming.

I had not yet used the FS91R for brush cutting but that task in one that I do only once or twice a year so I figured that I would just go out and buy something else that might suit my needs better. I started off with getting a Honda HHT35SUKA handle bar type brush cutter. While a little less powerful than the FS91R it does have a safer (handle bar design) and I like the idea of having a true 4-cycle engine for something that I won't be using very often.

Then I went out and purchased the FS94R to use for my string trimming. All I can say is that I wish I would have just ordered one in the fall. The throttle control is very intuitive and easy to adjust. It is incredibly easy to set it slow and get right up to the fence without the string being eaten or the trimmer head being pulled away. I can trim right up against trees without causing unnecessary damage to the trunks and when I get into larger open areas I just dial it up and have enough power for clearing overgrowth. The trimmer is a couple of pounds lighter and it is very well balanced. Carrying with one hand and holding for an hour at a time is very manageable. The fuel tank being smaller isn't an issue at all because a lot of the time that I am using it the throttle is barely on and therefore just sipping the gas. I guess at the end of the day my issue with the FS91R all came down to the engine. The 4-Mix engine on that machine is both heavier and does not have the ability to modulate throttle as easily as a traditional 2-stroke like on the FS70R and FS94R. Overall I am still impressed with the FS91R but it just wasn't for me. The FS94R on the other hand has been perfect for my string trimming needs and will remain dedicated to just that. I hope that my experiences with these two machines might help someone else out there!

Mike
 
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