I literally had a jungle in the back garden at my house with grass, weeds, bramble and all sorts. The garden hadn't been touched for 2 years or more?? So I bought this rather than use a standard electrical strimmer Yes, it did the job. But it is heavy after a while and the shoulder strap does NOT properly balance the unit so some effort is required to keep the working head in the right place - though it is certainly better than nothing! Another minor irritation is the grad of wire. I thought that this would be a proper metal wired strimmer but it is only a heavier plastic - so the strimming wire was still breaking every now and then BUT certainly not to the same extent a standard strimmer would be. For what I paid though, I got the garden cut down in an afternoon where it may have otherwise taken a week#s worth of evenings. I would buy one again if faced with the same job. It was easy to put together and once I had put petrol in it, it really did start first time.