I purchased this trimmer to replace my Husqvarna and I am sorry that I did. The line feed mechanism will not feed consistently. I have already had the head replaced at the dealer and even used the different nylon line recommended (Oregon 2mm). It will feed when bumped for a while, and then jam. That means taking the head apart to refeed the line through the holes. Too much of a PITA to keep.

Poorly designed carburetor, carb is not compatible with modern gasoline, you must use premium gasoline but modern gasoline has ethanol in it which is not compatible with these carbs . Carb doesn’t drain properly, so the ethanol plays havoc with the carb in storage ,you may get two yrs out of one if you use gasoline stabilizer if you are extremely lucky other wise you will need a new carb every year . It’s a throw away unit , sorry to say that their MM55 rototiller is the same crappy carburetor so if you need a small rototiller buy a Honda save yourself the grief. To bad they both work well when running but totally unreliable units!.

this is the worst stihl product i've ever used, and worse than some other brands i've used. i used their commercial trimmers and chain saws in landscape maintenance with few problems so i bought this one for around the house. nothing but aggravation. had to replace starter cord and get carburetor serviced after first year. worst of all, had to remove trim line head to advance trimmer line nearly every time. do not buy a Stihl FS 38!

Stihl FS 38 trimmer review It starts easily and runs dependably. Unfortunately that's the best I can say for it. The bump string head is the most useless of any I owned over the years. Essentially does not work. To advance the string you need to stop the machine and pull string out by hand. Complaining about this to the dealer that sold it to me, Crop Productions Services, Inc in Fallbrook CA, was useless. They said well I couldn't expect much from a light duty unit. They talked me into buying more of the special green string it originally came with but it still did not feed out. That's bad enough but the string end of this machine gets so hot it smokes if it's run at full power any length of time more than about a minute. It gets so hot it melted the scatter shield onto the shaft housing. Used in brief bursts it still gets hot but is usable. Unfortunately because it was rarely used at first, these defects were not obvious until too late to return it or get service under warranty. I bought this machine because of the Stihl name. Similar machines of other brands are available for less money. Other machines I own are unreliable but at least when they do run they are usable. Because of this I no longer respect the Stihl name and I regard Stihl as having deteriorated into cheap Chinese products. Buying from Crop Production Services has unfortunately been no safer or better in any way than dealing with a big box store. Just more expensive.

Bought about 2 years ago and has had issues with starting it up, keeping it on even with fresh gas. Took to place Where I bought and had serviced twice with same result , and same issues . Money down the drain. I will not buy on name alone

I bought this trimmer four years ago and have only used it once for about 5 hours in total. I always use fresh gas and this year I had trouble getting it started and when it did start it wouldn't keep running. I took it in and they tell me that it needs a new carb and spark plug. Total repair cost is $110.00 and a new one costs $139.99. After 5 hours of use this is clearly just junk and a rip off by Stihl. Bought it based on the good name of Stihl. What a joke!

First season was ok,but always hard to start. From then on it was downhill,Fast. Broken Pull Cord,broken recoil spool.carb constantly needs attention. Last year the cutting line broke,so i switched it off and re filled the line. To date this pile has never started since that moment,and is now getting split up and going on ebay,bit by bit till its gone. Looks like it needs a coil and i can get an entire strimmer for what that is going to cost.

I can start Stihl blowers, chainsaws, etc. But getting our trimmer to start has been a BIG issue since day one. Should have returned the thing. HATE it.

I do everything correctly according to Stihl. I store it dry. I use premium gas. I use the correct dilution of the correct oil. I check the spark plug. The spark arrester is clean. It will not start. Or it will not idle. Or it dies on full throttle. This season, I adjusted the H and L settings, trying to get it to keep running. No go. Next step is to change the fuel filter. But I've done a visual and it looks clean. This trimmer has never worked properly. I've spent more at an authorized service centre than I spent for the trimmer.

When it was new i thought it was great, less than 2 years later the shaft overheated and the bearing seized up and now it would cost more to fix than it is worth new. I got better use out of the cheap wal-mart brand. Definate thumbs down.

I had 2 of these trimmers already, on both the shaft overheated, the shield started to melt away and one started burning on the cutter head.
The baring on the lkower end seizes up and the trimmer looses power.
It is an entry lever model for very small areas to cut.
I have a hard time to explain this to my dealer.

I do not recommend the Stihl FS38 Strimmer as stated above always needs service after storing regret buying it a little over 2 yrs old and spent more
in repairs than purchase price

When the Stihl FS38 Strimmer starts its powers through long grass. I find it doesn't always start first time after winter requires service to get it to start. Wire never feeds through as promised - this is an entery level model and it shows. I would purchase a higher spec machine in future - very disappointed