After my neck surgery 6 mo ago I bought a B and D also. It was for my wife to use. I now pass on the bas operated Echo and grab the B and D. Easy to use and got an extra battery with it.
Yes, I did buy the B and D 18 volt weed eater and it works just fine.
I really like the auto line feed which has worked perfectly for me.
Only complaint is that the batter doesn't last long enough... which is
easy to fix as I'm about to buy another two battery kit with charger
which will give me 5 batteries in stock the 5th on belonging to the
blower I got which works pretty good as well.