I know that Challenge Xtreme is a pretty cheap brand so i didn’t expect the Challenge Xtreme Petrol Grass Trimmer 25cc to be like a £200 / £300 strimmer when it only costs £80 from Argos.

I needed a new Strimmer as the old electric one had died. I’ve already got a petrol lawn mower so i didn’t want to have to get all the leads out just for the strimmer when its only a quick job to go round the edge of the garden.

I’ve never owned a 2 stroke engine before but mixed was really easy, just fill the supplied mixing bottle up to the line and then top up with 2 stroke mixture (supplied) to the next line, give it a good shake and your done. The bottle will easily fill the petrol tank up and you do have a little left in the bottle. I cant say how long it will take for the tank to empty as i haven’t really used it much.

Its not a quick starting 2 stroke engine and you need to push the primer around 10 times but 3/4 pulls and it will start close the choke and your going.

The rotating head won’t rotate until you let out the lock for the centrifugal clutch which is good and a nice feature. Weight wise its a well balanced piece of equipment neither is it to light or to heavy.

The supplied strimming cord is pretty thick and only did me for around 2 cuttings of our medium sized back garden, but i’m going to put slightly thinner stuff in this time.

It did take me some time to get familiar with the higher angle i needed to use to strim with put the supplied shoulder strap took the weight for me.

Below are the tech specs on the Challenge Xtreme Petrol Grass Trimmer 25cc

The self assembly was pretty easy all i needed to do was fit the handle and the safety Guard for above the cutting head. oh and clamp the 2 shafts together

• Petrol grass trimmer.
• 25cc engine.
• 2 stroke engine.
• Requires 2 stroke oil (supplied).
• Cutting width 38cm.
• Bump feed.
• Dual line feed system.
• Low vibration.
• Weight 5.2kg.

Recently our electric shower started playing up it would struggle to keep pressure for water coming out and then in its last few days it would shut down. This happened over the space of a month and it was a Mira Advance 8.9KW electric shower. there was a manufacture date on the inside of the shower and it was made in 2003 september some time i think so even if it wasn’t used until 2004 then its had 7 years of useage which i don’t thinks bad really

First thing i did was turn the power off to the electric shower from the consumer unit downstairs. Next was the water isolation valve in the cupboard behind the shower.

I now felt slightly safer even looking at the shower with the lid off.

Our shower lid / front bit seemed loose and had no screws holding it in place. Be careful when you remove the front as it often has a cable leading to the main unit.

I unscrewed the screws which where keeping the 3 cables in place. i then straighten the cable out to make it easier to remove the old unit.

Now for the water pipe, depending how old your shower is it maybe a push fit connection which is pretty new and requires no tools. Or a older style compression fitting which will require spanners to loosen.

The only thing left now are 3/4 screws which are holding the actual shower to the wall. You may need to do some jiggling to loosen the water pipe off but apart from that there’s nothing holding the shower on.

Our new shower is a Bristan Joy 9.5 KW we bought it from PTS a nationwide trade place.

Now our water pipe comes in through the bottom and yours maybe different but, all i needed to do was remove the old compression fitting from the pipe Inc the olive this bit looks like a copper ring. This is the bit where i got stuck as i put my pipe into the push fit connection, as i needed to mark new holes. But i then couldn’t get the pipe out of the push fit connection so ended up turning the shower unit round on the pipe which i wouldn’t recommend. I drilled the holes and put it the supplied plugs but in hind sight i would use your own brown or red plugs as the provided ones where shit.

I then screwed in the electrical cable from the bottom of the unit, attached the front panel cable then placed the front panel onto the unit and screwed in.

All you need to do now is turn the water back on and then the electrics.

Job Done