 Today, we're going to chime in on the debate between four stroke engines and two stroke engines for landscape use. Hey there, NJRu22.com here with another general interest vlog and this time it's for, I guess, homeowners. It's about the whole four stroke versus two stroke engines. Most large engines like lawn mowers and tractors, they're all four stroke engines. That means it has a separate oil container and you put straight gasoline in. Two stroke engine for those who don't know, it requires a fuel mixture. You put like a 40 or 50 to one oil gas to oil and you don't have to change the oil ever. You just put this mixture in, it does not have a separate oil container. Now when we moved out to the homestead here, I had to buy an entire collection of landscaping equipment to take care of our property and I did a lot of research. I tried to figure out what brand to buy, you know, I had to go through the whole mess. I somehow figured out that I wanted four stroke for almost everything because I guess changing oil is annoying and also the four stroke engines supposedly had less noise. They also had less exhaust and smell and fumes and after many, many years, eight years or more of using them and I can tell you they definitely do have less noise and less fumes. But everything we have except one echo multi-trimmer, multi-head, it's where you can put different attachments on it, are all four stroke, everything. So I have one small little like one gallon container of four stroke mixture and everything else is run on gasoline, straight gas. When we first moved out, I actually tried an electric and I remember it took me three days to mow my lawn. The batteries didn't last long. The cut was nice, but it was ridiculous. You'd have to have like 20 charge batteries on hand to make it work and they're ridiculously expensive. The return on investment would be like never on those things, never. So I have to say like I'm sort of getting close to changing my mind back to two stroke or at the very least not disregarded entirely. I mean, 90% of the market is two stroke and there's a lot of great brands out there steel and echo and there's a whole lot of other good brands that are two stroke. And the one two stroke machine we have the echo has never failed, started up like pretty much first pull every time. It's never failed. It's loud, it's smoky, it's noisy, but it's work flawlessly. Change of oil once or twice a year. I usually do it the end of the season or the beginning of the season depending. I don't think leaving oil over the winter doesn't really, as long as you don't use it. It's going to be fine. I have to say though that not changing the oil ever sounds pretty fun too because it's not the easiest process in the world. You got to extract the oil or drain it. It's definitely not necessarily fun. So I'm still weighing that whole thing. Just knowing that you always have oil running properly when you when you put the mixture in is kind of a compelling reason to try that. I mean, I can put, I can make a five gallon container of mixture really easily. I just, I'll have it pre-mixed. I'll make 10 pre-mixed and every time I buy a five gallon, just throw whatever it is, eight ounces, 10 ounces of oil into it. And another thing that's compelling for two stroke is when you have your mixture, your oil gas mixture, the fuel doesn't go bad the way gas can, especially if you buy shitty ethanol gas in New Jersey. You can buy ethanol free gas in PA over at the airport gas station. It's more money, but it doesn't go bad. So that's something to consider. You know, some of the, we bought some high end four stroke equipment like my Honda string trimmer is excellent. I don't think I'm ever going to fix that one. It works great. And we have another Dolmar, which is a German brand, but it's a Makita, basically an MM of four Makita. That power has also been pretty much flawless. I've taken care of these things pretty good, but I am considering the next thing I might have to buy will be a two stroke. And that's my backpack blower. I have a Dolmar also, which is Makita. And apparently the design was, was flawed. It does not run well when it's time to buy a new backpack blower, which maybe now it's going to be too choked and I'll probably get one of the, you know, big brands, probably a steel or an echo. It's going to cost me an arm and a leg for at least $400. And I'll have to sell my Dolmar to somebody. The good thing is I've, I'm learning I can live with both machines. I'm not anti two stroke anymore. It's good to know that you can get out of your, your mindset like that, especially seeing the pros and cons of everything. So what do you prefer? Like a two stroke engine or four stroke, or do you have both? And why do you use one or the other? That's it. If you like these videos, please hit the bell and subscribe and all that stuff. And I will see you next video.