Know a good Strimmer?

[HiHo]

I seem to be plagued by crap strimmers. I find them useful for going round the edge of the garden and near brick walls etc but their construction and function is poor.
The first one I had, a fairly fancy one from Black and Decker had an automatic feed which kept feeding too much cable. This meant it would come out and get caught up in the drive shaft jamming the mechanism. It did this constantly until I got so annoyed that I 'Basil Fawlty'd' it on the drive way.
The second is a cheap flymo with manual feed but its cable snaps every minute and then you have to stop get some more cable out and continue. Nearly ended it today as well.
My father also has had similar issues with the strimmer he bought.
As you can see I'm not a patient man all I would like is a friggin' working strimmer.
Is it something in my genes that stops strimmers cooperating with me, or are they all as useless? Perhaps someone knows of a decent make (to hell with the cost - to a point) that just works without this constant annoyance!