Will Kelly shows how to start a 2-cycle hedge trimmer without flooding the engine. Prime exactly twice, set the choke to full for a cold start, pull until it burps, then switch the choke toward warm before it fires. The key is limiting priming and moving the choke at the right moment.
So this piece of equipment uses our 2.5-gallon 2-cycle mix that's mixed with oil and gasoline. Now this thing, I will tell you, is very fidgety. I have been out there before where I've tried to get this thing started and I flooded it. Next thing you know, I have to use those manual hedge clippers, and it turned my job from a 20-minute bush trimming to an hour clipping cleanup. Not recommended. So I'm going to teach you exactly how to start this the right way so that that way you don't flood it. So the first thing is first, we're going to put the choke. So we're going to, with our palm, push this down. With our fingers, we're going to push this, and then we're going to push this button. You can let go, and as you can see, it's holding the trigger halfway down. So the choke is now on. Then there's another choke button on here. We're going to prime this 2 times. You do anything more, you're probably gonna flood it. This is the half choke, this is the full choke. So this is a cold start, so we're going to go for the full choke. Then we want to make sure that our on and off button is on, which we'll switch it that way. So there's two positions that you can start this thing. You need to put on the ground, palm down, and give it a pull. Or you can take it, put it between your legs, give it a couple pulls. So that's what I'll do now. Now once you hear it burp and almost start, which you just heard, that is where you have to come to the choke and now put it to more of a warm start because it tried to start but it didn't fully. So if you leave it there and keep pulling, you're gonna, you're gonna flood it, and then you're not gonna have be able to use the edge strippers. So because it almost turned over and started. I'm gonna switch it to here, and then we're gonna let it, let it go until it starts. Now once it starts, definitely give it some gas. You will be good to go. Now if you've already been running the hedge trimmers for a while, you're gonna want to do this as a warm start. So simply turn the switch on, leave it in the warm start position, and then go ahead and give it some pulls and see if it starts.
