Buying a corded string trimmer

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Wuzzat?

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or almost anything else.

Other things being equal, Economy of Scale says a larger trimmer (7A) should cost less per amp than a smaller trimmer (4A).

But with the six trimmers I looked at from either Sears or HD, with the smaller I'm paying $7.50 per amp, with the larger it's $9.30/A.

For $30 I could get either 4A or 4.2A so it would have been the 4.2A but I didn't want to go that cheap.
The average is $8/A and I paid $50 for 6.5A.

Possibly both stores within walking distance of each other have their customers believing that more money = better.
And who's going to draw a graph to make more sense of the prices and features? :D
 
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As the size of things double by a factor of square the volume goes up by a factor of cube. All parts can't be doubled to scale or the machine will weaken. I would say weight might be a better factor to use than amps. Even then in most cases a serious tool is built better than a toy tool. Life expectancy should be a factor.


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Other things being equal, Economy of Scale says a larger trimmer (7A) should cost less per amp than a smaller trimmer (4A).

Following that logic, you should forget the trimmer and buy a power generation plant. But seriously, you aren't accounting for design, manufacture and (importantly) shipping.
 
Following that logic, you should forget the trimmer and buy a power generation plant. But seriously, you aren't accounting for design, manufacture and (importantly) shipping.
The design cost [non-recurring engineering] gets divided by the number of units made so it approaches zero dollars per unit.

Other factors may weaken the effect of economy of scale. Worst case, I'd think I'd pay the same per amp of motor draw.

In any case, if you graph the price vs. amps it kind of steers you away from the more expensive models. Usually you are steered toward the more expensive models ("for just a few dollars more, you can have. . .").

I think this shows more about the customers of these stores in my local area than the product but I'd like to hear from any MBAs out there.
 
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Your spreadsheet should include many more variables.
The others - cutting width, weight, etc. - were pretty close. That was the "other things being equal."
BTW, it works pretty well, and I already had a 100', #14 cord.

Now I'll have to figure out why my gas weedwhacker is not running well. And my lawnmower, which starts then dies.

It's a price vs. performance graph and I guess the performance can be whatever is important to the buyer. For cordless drill motors it can be power or endurance or weight or battery replacement cost. For oscilloscopes it's bandwidth vs. price, once I decided on a two channel model.
 
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