Use A Little Less Oil With an Eco Trimmer
A while ago, we had a chance to interview the founder and CEO of Lehr Incorporated, Bernado Herzer. We regularly ask questions of PR folks and sometimes executives, but rarely do we feel that an interview is appropriate for our review-focused coverage. In other words, we typically let the ‘real’ news organizations handle it, and stick to the fun stuff.
This time, though, it felt a bit different. With all of the news about the oil spill, some of his comments seemed prescient, and the product never more timely. First a bit of background bio on the man behind the gear: ‘Captain Herzer developed, commercialized and patented the use of an eco friendly, 16.4 ounce propane canister to fuel small engines like the ones that power hand held lawn and garden tools. This “twist ‘n go” fueling system is at the heart of the 25cc LEHR Eco Trimmer ‘. He has a couple of patents on the technology, and is putting them to use in some other similar tools as well, like the Eco Blower and the Eco Mower.
In our interview, Captain Herzer was quite clear that the system still uses non-renewable sources of energy, and isn’t an “end-all solution”. He mentioned that the company recently won an EPA award, and pointed out one of the major benefits of propane over gasoline- no spillage. According to him and others, a single gallon of gasoline can destroy up to one million gallons of aquifer water! A few other facts: “Propane reduces our dependence on foreign oil” as most all that we use comes from North America and we have “over 180 years of reserves available”. Captain Herzer also accurately predicted the failures of BP’s various containment attempts during our conversations more than a month ago.
With all of that in mind, we were anxious to see how the Eco Trimmer handled. They offer a few models, with curved or straight handles, and either bump feed or single line options as well. And some are attachment-ready, only needed if you want to add extra options from other firms, like a blower, cultivator, hedge trimmer or the like. We stuck with the basic curved shaft, single line model and tried it out on a mid-sized surburban lawn. Smaller lawns might simply want an electric- less power and restrictions on your range but inexpensive. Larger areas definitely can benefit from the extra power and range, and we were pretty impressed at how durable this one felt. It also starts easily… but it felt frankly a bit heavy and unbalanced, and we didn’t love the shoulder strap (though it’s nice that one is included). Shorter folks seemed to like the curved shaft model, but taller guys might find the straight shaft a little easier to use. Run time is about 2 hours on a full canister, and the canisters are widely available at most hardware stores, and are recyclable to boot.
The only other major downside is the cost- this is a fairly expensive model, running around $180. But we can certainly appreciate the eco-friendliness, and understand paying a bit more. Hopefully, they’ll continue to refine the design, and offer new and interesting ways to use propane in the future. For now, I guess it’s time to whack yet a few more weeds while trying to avoid messy and dangerous oil.
