1st Kentc , Redmax is a high quality trimmer . You could order a new carb online for under $10.00 , hower it most likely only needs a simple carb cleaning . As for Ryobi , their a throw away Home Depot style trimmer . If you only use it infrequently then fine , if more often than than it's a crap shoot , the replacement batteries are not cheap either .

Thanks for the reply. I guess I could repair it but like I said I'm interested in dropping gas powered tools. I don't have a lawn, thus no lawn mower. Right now I have the hedge trimmer and a backpack blower, also Redmax, that are gas. I have a large lot and I love that blower but getting a cordless hedge trimmer seems like the way to go for me right now.

I understand that Ryobi is not a pro line tool, and it is available at Home Depot, but I don't see that as a negative. I have no experience with their tools and I hope to hear from people who have used them to help me make a decision.

I found this pretty comprehensive review of cordless hedge trimmers that puts the Ryobi right in the middle of the pack which seems to be about where I want to be:

cordless hedge trimmers

hi, what model hedge trimmer (#)? like sewalk said redmax is 1 of the best. that ryobi you're thinking about will feel like a toy compared to the redmax. the guy you took it to didn't want to fix it because he wanted to sell you a stihl. some of the original carbs are quite expensive and after market carbs might be limited, until we know exactly what you have. that trimmer is worth fixing.

I would check the spec,s on Dewalt , Milwaukee , Makita etc . $137 + for a replacement battery is high and Ryobi has had issues with their battery life and charging systems . Online trimmer evaluations are speculative at best !

I'll have to check the model # when I get home. Thanks for all of the help, I appreciate it.

The Redmax is a CHT220L. I can find only two replacement carburetors online, one on Amazon and one on eBay, both are less than $20. Maybe I should explain what it’s doing and you might be able to help me. It starts up but when you squeeze the throttle it bogs down and dies. First I thought maybe something was jamming the gears but I’ve checked that and the blades move freely manually. The guy at the lawnmower shop squeezed the bulb and thought maybe there wasn’t enough gas getting in, but he wasn’t very sure about that and wasn’t too interested in finding out more. So maybe the carburetor is bad but it might not be. I’m not much of a mechanic and I don’t want to spend a whole lot of time fiddling around with it and still not have it work.

If I go cordless I’m really only looking at the Ryobi or the Milwaukee right now. The Ryobi kit with charger and battery is about $160. It has a 5 year warranty. The Milwaukee kit with charger and battery is about $280. It has a 3 year warranty. The Milwaukee has a gear case that can be serviced but not the Ryobi. The Milwaukee is the better tool but I’ll only use it maybe twice a month, so with the 5 year warranty as insurance is the Ryobi good enough for what I need? I’m not sure.

sorry, i may be the wrong person to ask if one should buy a ryobi product, although i found a cool motorized drill and a sawzall at a garage sale a while back. after a little tinkering got both to run and was impressed with them, but they were from a time when things were less cheap. if you're at all interested. the milwaukee m18 system is quite expandable, if you go with the milwaukee, you will have a large line of tools available. not the cheapest, but from my experience, problem free.

the gear boxes on those trimmers are pretty durable, it sounds like you have a carb issue. i found a oem carb in partstree that is surprisingly cheap, wish the carb on string trimmer was that reasonable.

www.partstree.com/parts/redmax/parts/523012401/

Milwaukee is a quality product . Same with Redmax . I see a Walbro carb with carb rebuild kit for $18.00 , I would just add some carb cleaner in fresh fuel overnight and try running a tank through it . This units are easy to service !

Hey thanks for all of the help. You've convinced me that I should spend $30 and try to fix my Redmax. Just a few questions to follow up on that. I assume there is a gasket? Would that be included with the new carburetor or do I have to buy it separately? I'm having no luck finding anything related to the carburetor on the partstree website, in fact I can't even find the carburetor without the link you gave me. And, anything else I should replace at the same time like fuel lines or fuel filter?

hi, sorry. i included the page that shows carb. those after market kits offered, some will include gaskets, fuel lines. if you go through parts tree you would have order those separately. it never hurts to freshen everything up while you've got your hands in there.

www.partstree.com/parts/redmax/hedge-trimmers/cht220-966712801-redmax-hedge-trimmer-2012-03/carburetor-air-filter/

Thanks I’ll order this tonight. We’ll see how it goes.

I replaced the carburetor, it wasn't too hard. But what was hard was getting the new gas line tubing into the rubber gas tank plug. I finally had to remove the plug from the tank to get it in. And then when I put the plug back in, which was also very difficult, I damaged it. It runs now so success, but it now leaks gas when sitting on the ground horizontally. By storing it horizontally but on its side I can avoid the gas leaking. So, one step forward, one step back...just like home plumbing projects. Thanks again for the help.

what i do is nip the end of the line so it forms a point, lube it up with what ever you have handy, even coating the line with gas you have in the tank will help it slide through. glad the new carb did the trick.

Well, yesterday was the first time I had to do some trimming. It ran fine for about 10 minutes and then the same thing happened as before. It starts easily, I can see plenty of gas being moved into the plastic bulb, and it idles just fine after starting, there is no skipping or surging, but when I apply the throttle to start working the blades don't move and it immediately bogs down and dies. I can restart it easily but every time I rev it up it dies. So, I'm back to my original intention of leaving gas powered yard tools behind and finding a cordless solution. I'm hoping to find some fathers day specials in a few weeks and buying myself a FD present.

300ft you've been more than helpful but I'm going to go cordless. Thanks for offering extra help. Right now I think I'm going to buy the Ego hedge trimmer.

Ego hedge trimmer at HD

Brushless motor, servicable blades and gears, 5 year warranty, good reviews, widely available at HD and online. It seems a step above the Ryobi I was looking at but in the same price range. Ego also has a backpack blower that uses the same batteries and looks very tempting, my backpack blower is my most used yard tool since I don't have a lawn.

Ego backpack blower at HD

With that I could eliminate all of the gas powered tools in my garage. If I get these I'll leave an review here once I use them for other people interested in cordless yard tools. Thanks again everyone for taking the time to respond and help.

yeah, sometimes these little machines can get a little temperamental. electric tools have come a long way in the past few years, good luck with the new equipment.

Sounds like an old gas problem.You need to swap your gas out every 6 months at least.That said, I like 100' extension cords and a generator for the remote stuff.

When I had the original problem the first thing I did was get fresh gas but it didn't help. I have a corded blower/leaf vac that I use just for the vacuum function and it's strange that no cordless blowers incorporate a vacuum function, but I'm ready to give cordless a try. I think the tech has gone beyond novelty to being really useful. Just like cordless drills/drivers, charging batteries for me is an easy tradeoff for the utility.