BLACK+DECKER 3-in-1 String Trimmer/Edger & Lawn Mower, 6.5-Amp, 12-Inch, Corded (MTE912)

This looks like a toy, but it is a great tool if you have a slope or terrace to mow. I have a small in width but steep grass slope in front of my house by the street. It was difficult for me to mow even with my light Greenworks 40 volt mower. I dreaded mowing that 150 ft long slope every week, but not now. This little tool works great and is as easy as pushing a light weight vacuum cleaner around the house. It takes me no time at all and very little effort to complete the job with this. I now also use it to do the two 250 ft long strips along the sidewalk between a wall and sidewalk and the strip between the street and sidewalk around my corner that is very time consuming to do with my regular mower as there are tree roots, a bus stop sign and several other obstacles in the way. There isn't a lot of space to turn around a full sized mower without crashing into the wall or stepping out into a busy street. The job goes very quickly with this little guy as it is so light weight and maneuverable. It converts from mower to edger with no effort at all by stepping on a lever on the back that releases the string trimmer from the mower base, and it goes back in the mower base just as easily. I am surprised how long the spool of string lasts when it is on the mower. However, today as I was using it to edge the sidewalk for the first time in a while I went through string very fast using it as an edger, I guess as the string was hitting the sidewalk. But, using the trimmer as a mower I I have done the front slope and the strip around the corner without edging at least 10 times and still had not used up the spool of string, and it feeds without snags. I have been wondering for years why no one has made a mower base for a string trimmer as the trimmers get heavy and are hard to keep the grass height level without the base. It would be really nice if B&D made a 40 volt trimmer to fit in the mower base too, but I am so happy to at least have this 20 volt lithium ion version for now. A slight problem is that the wheel height which is held by a spring pops back to the lower height easily so I have to be careful that doesn't happen when I bump it up and down over the tree roots and higher sidewalks or curbs. It can be put back in place pretty easily, but it is a slight nuisance. It also would be nice if the height were a little higher as I like to keep my grass higher than this allows. My slope looks like a perfect golf green, but I may need to water it more often. I highly recommend this mower base which fits many B&D newer 12" String trimmers (not all), or buy the two items together and have a great little mower for all those steep or tight places. You will not be disappounted. If I only had a small yard this is probably all I would use. It is so little it takes up no storage space. It is so light an arthritic senior like me or child could use it. The 20 V lithium battery actually last quite long. I purchased a quick charger and have 3 batteries that I rotate as I work, but I have a very large yard and have many areas between garden borders, under trees and bushes and more cramped spots where I use this and leave the larger lawn areas for my regular mower. It saves me a lot of time in those areas. It is a great invention. I hope B&D continues to make it as an option and for some of its other more powerful trimmers.UPDATE: THIS IS GREAT FOR MULCHING AND SHREDDING LEAVES IN THE FALL. IT IS EVEN EASIER THAN USING A MULCHING LAWNMOWER AS IT IS SO LIGHT!! Shreds the leaves in no time and I have loads of leaves to get rid of. The string lasts a very very long time when shredding the leaves too. I hope B&D keeps making this combo. IT WOULD BE GOOD IF THEY MADE a larger one also. IT IS GREAT CUTTING GRASS ON SLOPE AND IS A PHENOMENAL SHREDDER/MULCHER.

Recently, a landscaping company charged me $135 for supposedly spending 3 hours mowing my lawn, weeding and trimming bushes. The attached first 2 pictures show weeds nearly 3 feet high growing in patches of the lawn 3-1/2 weeks later. Also I had to trim the bushes and weed myself because it looked like they hadn’t worked on the bushes at all, and the weed killer they sprayed was not effective. I was determined not to get ripped off again, and I knew I could do a better job myself. Because rock gardens cover my front yard and mulch covers the area against the house, the grassy area is small. I hoped there was a small mower out there that could do the job and was light enough for me to lift.After 2 days of searching, the Black & Decker MTE 912 was a natural choice for a few reasons. The main reason I chose it was for its 14-lb. weight, because power was less important than maneuverability in my small yard. Second, the weeder/trimmer is detachable so if there was some problem with the mower, I could still use the trimmer separately. Finally the price at the time I bought it was only $72 with an extra $22 for a power cord. This meant I would SAVE $30 after one session of using this device compared to the recent poorly-done landscaping job.This little device performed far beyond expectations and substantially improved the appearance of my yard in under 2 hours. It plowed through the dense patches of weeds without ever stalling, and I was easily able to push it with one hand in the normal parts of the yard while holding the cord away from the mower with my other hand. It was able to reach tight places that a regular mower would miss. It took me over an hour because of rough borders in the woods behind my house and a stream bank on the side; otherwise I could have finished in under 30 minutes.Warning about the cord gauge: p. 25 of the instructions specifies that a 14G 51-to-100-foot power cord should be used; a smaller gauge may lead to overheating for a cord that long. You can use 16G for a 26-50-foot cord, 18G for 0-25-foot cord or 12G for 101-150-foot cord. If you are in doubt, get at least the 100-foot cord because it will enable you to mow around almost half of a small house. Whatever gauge or length you choose, get a 3-prong cord.Minor warning: watch the plug-in area at the back of the handle carefully so the cord doesn’t dislodge. There is a small hook where you can loop the cord to try to keep things in place, but the power cord prongs can come loose as you twist and turn around the yard. A few minutes after I started, the device abruptly shut off and I was worried that I overtaxed it in the weeds or that the plug dislodged at the outlet on the house. Fortunately, the power cord had just come loose, and the device roared into action again after I pushed the prongs back in.The 2 after pictures show a respectable yard without the scary looking weeds. Thank you Black & Decker and Amazon for a great product that allowed me to do a better job than expensive landscapers.