Auto line feed not working on grass strimmer

[noobiediyer]

I have a cordless grass strimmer which has auto line feed. It used to work fine before but it's been unused for a while but since trying to use it again, the auto line feed doesn't seem to work. Everything else seems to work okay, I can click the button which will manually feed a little bit of line (for each button click). Does anyone know how the auto line feed work? The line spool is the original one, is the auto line feed something within the reel? Might it be solved by getting a new line reel?

Thanks in advance

 

[Burnerman]

Unwind the line and rewind it again, but not too tight. Make sure you are using the recommended diameter of line!
Sometimes a spray of silicone lube helps.
When you want the line to deploy, rev the machine , and let it reduce speed before you bump the spool on soft ground.....not concrete!
John

 

[noobiediyer]

Unwind the line and rewind it again, but not too tight. Make sure you are using the recommended diameter of line!
Sometimes a spray of silicone lube helps.
When you want the line to deploy, rev the machine , and let it reduce speed before you bump the spool on soft ground.....not concrete!
John

Okay, thanks for the info. I will certainly try that. But how does the auto line feed work? Say the line is cut very close to where it comes out of the reel? What triggers the auto feed? How does it know the line is not long enough? And once it is long enough, how does it know it needs to stop auto feeding?

Thanks again

 

[Burnerman]

Basically the line is thrown out from the spool by centrifugal force.....when the line gets too long there is generally a blade recessed into the guard that cuts it to length.
Pressing the button releases a ratchet mechanism one tooth at a time - if you keep pressing it the spool continues to pay the line out.
Similar to a bump feed system (sorry for the confusion there) but the principle is much the same. If you rewind the spool, try to avoid tangles and don't wind tight.
John

 

[noobiediyer]

Basically the line is thrown out from the spool by centrifugal force.....when the line gets too long there is generally a blade recessed into the guard that cuts it to length.

Thanks for that. But I'm still confused. Say the line is barely coming out of the reel. When I turn on the strimmer, the line will start to feed(due to centrifugal force), when it reaches the blade, it will get cut but won't it keep feeding more line continuously which then keeps getting cut by the blade? How does the strimmer know when to stop auto feeding more line?

 

[Burnerman]

I must confess to never having really studied this (my strimmers are bump feed) but I guess the weight of the line must balance some spring release mechanism inside the spool which allows it to release the line - hence the necessity to only use the correct diameter of line to keep it happy. If the line was a greater diameter than recommended the extra weight would cause the line to come out wholesale, I reckon.
John

 

[noobiediyer]

I must confess to never having really studied this (my strimmers are bump feed) but I guess the weight of the line must balance some spring release mechanism inside the spool which allows it to release the line - hence the necessity to only use the correct diameter of line to keep it happy. If the line was a greater diameter than recommended the extra weight would cause the line to come out wholesale, I reckon.
John

Ah okay, fair enough. I'm using the original line reel that came with the strimmer. It worked before I had it in storage, so something's changed since I've started using it. I'll try what you suggested though with unravelling it all and using some silicon lubricant. Hopefully that'll help.