Electric Weed Burners

My neighbour has one to keep their drive pristine and it works beautifully. I'm very jealous.

We’ve got one that’s operated with a gas canister, very effective on our block paved drive.

I’ve just seen the electric weed burner in the Stotts of Stowe catalogue and am very tempted to get one.

Bought one last summer (gas canister). Very disappointing results!

I have got one. They can be excellent for some weeds, for others ....well my horsetails just have burnt tops! I got mine from eBay.

I have had a gas burner for about 3 years. I find it an efficient way of getting rid of small weeds, in between brick and slab paving, but dandelions, and grass takes several burns to eliminate. But it is useless on flower beds and the great big dandelion and grass clumps you get in open soil.

I also use it on a gravel drive, but it is slow work and I usually start the year, in fact any day now, by using Pathclear on the gravel and using the burner to cope with any regrowth through the summer. It is fairly slow.

I borrowed a petrol powered flame thrower a good few years back - it made short work of a badly overgrown allotment. I can’t imagine how an electric one might work.

The problem is they kill the top foliage, but not the roots, so weeds often return.

geekesse You were using the real McKoy, the little wands. elelectric or gas, couldn't even begin to do that kind of job.

They are fine, for keeping weeds down on hard surfaces, but anything else they cannot cope with.

Jaxjacky I find the weed roots go if, you concentrate the flame on the weed for 20-30 seconds and reburn any new top growth for a couple of weeks. I got rid of a couple of intractable dandelions that way.

Thanks everyone it sounds as if it won't be ideal for weeding the flower beds so I'll just have to continue pulling up the Soapwort up by hand on the shingle and dig up or hoe the flower beds as soon as they appear to keep control.