ORIGINAL: Cashpoboy
Let's think about this. We have been buying cheap line trimmers, blowers, hedge trimmers etc. etc. for years from Home Depot, Walmart, and other home centers. These units all come with cheap Chinese gas engines and they seem to run fine for years and years with hardly a glitch. Seems to me that the Chinese have it down somewhat. This ain't rocket science. Seriously folks, we are talking about the simplest of motors. You don't need to spend big bucks to get good motors.
DA are probably really good engines, but my Homelite line trimmer has worked fine for years. I do zero maintenance on it, leave gas in the carb when I store it, never a drop of after run oil in it , run it with old gas etc, and it keeps on chuggin' away year after year after year.
This is kind of like saying a 50cc engine is a 50cc engine. All of these engines have different true power output. I have seen 26cc engines turn an 18x6 at 8700 rpm and other 26cc are barely able to turn that same prop at 7200 using the same standard side dump exhaust. There are great performance differences across the various brands out there.
I don't really think you are comparing apples to apples here. You use your Homelite for what maybe 20 mins every other week for the time your grass actually grows? I don't know about you but I tend to fly more than a 20 min flight in a 2 week period. Infact I personally fly upwards of 15-20, 20 min flights any given week.
I have a couple friends in the Landscaping business and none of them are using Homelite products or any other low end consumer grade product for that matter. Why? Because they don't last and downtime cost money.
You need to decide what's important to you and leave it at that. Do I spend an extra $100 for an Echo trimmer? No I buy a Homelite.. I trim for like 10 mins and I am done. If it stops working and I can't cut my grass that day, oh well I will go flying
However I don't want to be at the field, a meet, or an IMAC contest and have an engine let me down.