Hi all,
I have recently retired properly from my self employed gardening business, although I still do a few bits! I’m now faced with upkeeping my own property of 1.5 acres, plenty of everything, grass, hedges, overgrown bits etc etc.
Previous work has really taken its toll on my knees and upper arms (long reach hedge trimming) as well as advancing years.
Initially I’m sticking with my old equipment, nearly all petrol, but the first thing I want is a lightweight, battery powered hedge trimmer. I have a Sthil hs45, which i’ve never liked, really noisy and heavy in my opinion. Plus a little Tanaka 22" which if it worked I’d keep, I’ve rebuilt the carb but no joy, fuel still leaking everywhere and it won’t stay running, shame because its not done loads of work and as i say I like(d) it. I also have a long reach Shindaiwa with polesaw which is a brilliant piece of kit, and I’ll still use when needed, for a while at least!
Anyway like a lot of older types I’m waffling so i’ll get to the point.
I want a light as possible (the Sthil is 4.7kg) battery hedgecutter, fairly heavy duty, lot of hazel, sycamore, elm and blackthorn, not silly money, say £150 without battery maybe, possibly more for the right machine. I usually cut once a year, so some stems up to 20mm+.
I’m looking at Dewalt as I already have charger and batteries 18v, 2ah and 5ah so in theory more money for the actual trimmer. Their range is a little confusing with a few models (and some brand new ones) of different weights, stem cutting widths etc. Anyone shed any light? they all seem to have 55cm blade length, which is fine. Also tempted by Husqvarna Aspire but dont know if this is just an old school brand thing with me and if this model would be up to it?
Also all weights stated on the battery models seem to be without battery, which is frankly ridiculous as you wouldnt be able to use it without one!
Any advice gratefully received
Robert
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Replies
Robert, like you. Advancing years and 50 years hard work have taken its toll. Albeit still in the trade doing 60 hrs a week. I went down this route last year and to get anything decent battery powered soon found out that weight with a decent battery was the same or more than equivalent petrol. Also went to my dealers and tried how they felt and many were very unbalanced with the motor being at the blade end. Think some now have the motor at the battery end?
I certainly would not recommend buying without trying out at a dealers, at £150 you will be buying Chinese crap that you can't get spares for and which no one will want to repair. Toolstation do a semi long reach, its Chinese rubbish but cheap if you view it as disposable but it is light. Be careful with the well known brands at cheap prices alot are rebadged Chinese machines. In the end I could not get anything that combined, quality,weight and was ergonomic so carrying on with petrol. Good luck!
Just looked at Toolstation its £89 with 2amp hour battery, they also have De Walt but £319 as I said some of the reviews say its unbalanced its 3.6 kg with battery. If you find something you like its a good idea to read the reviews on Toolstation, Amazon, Screwfix and the rest of the net for unbiased reviews
hi if you have the Dewalt (XR?) 18V batteries already then a "body only" machine of that brand would be the way forward. Not tried one personally but as 18 volt hedge trimmers go, it will be pretty good. The brushless motor type with 19mm blade gaps? It probably won't be super rapid in operation, but will do the job. I think you would find it almost comparable to the Tanaka (I had one of those years ago). £120 to £180 on ebay, amazon etc. I guess they don't include battery weight as there are different capacities which weigh different, you could use your smallest packs to keep the weight down, I doubt there would be any noticeable difference in cutting performance, just shorter run time obviously. But in general all battery hedge trimmers have a good run time on any size pack, compared to strimmers and blowers.
Got me interested again in cordless, so looked at the De Walt 566n pole hedge trimmer ,dissapointed again! It weighs 4kg without battery so can't see the benefit weight wise along with limited run time. If you find anything let me know, thanks.
Thankyou chaps,
Peter I wouldnt buy any Chinese (actually i have a cheapish blower which is and has been fine) or re-badged rubbish, they are relatively easy to spot although as you say, if you just want a throwaway! Also a lot of the top brands are assembled in China.
More research required I think although you end up crawling up your own arse if you read too many reviews.
I watched a ’7 battery trimmer test’ on you toob earlier and despite minor differences they all faired quite well. I really need to narrow it down, maybe spend a bit more and go and look at the real thing.
The batteries and chargers, especially if you want a higher capacity one, can cost more than the actual trimmer in some cases so maybe the Dewalt is the answer.
Also ther are new brands like Ego and Kress whom I know nothing about but appear to be quite well regarded. Also all the power tool manufacturers like Dewalt, Makita etc who traditionally haven’t made garden power tools are now in the mix.
I have always used Efco/Oleo Mac mowers I think they are brilliant machines, but they seem to have disappeared from the market and Echo
Anyway I was going to get one soon to finish my late cutting this year but may wait until the Autumn cut, if my arms hold out!
Hi Robert I reached your stage Five years ago urgently needed lightweight hedge cutters but to replace the efficiency of my Stihl and echo petrol (very capable ) machines the equivalent battery models were just as heavy so it was counterproductive .
Downgrading to less powerful battery machines you were looking at hedge trimmers and not hedge cutters .
You are in a good position when it's your own hedge you can pace yourself if you need to .
My own hedge is mixed containing thugs like beech , hawthorn , holly , some forsythia but mostly privet it's very mature and was around 17 feet in height and I used to cut it twice a year which was where I was going wrong so when the fatigue set in and found myself unable to hold the petrol machinery for long periods I reduced the hedge to a manageable height and just cut the new growth more frequently with very lightweight hedge trimmer I bought .
I turned down new hedge work but still had to focus on existing clients with substantial topiary and big hedges also pleached hornbeam .
I invested in a decent perch I e 12 foot henchman which I should have done much sooner . I should also have persevered trying to ge hold of one of those elephant harness devices I sense they may have potential .
My solution which worked for me after looking at every other option was to increase my working height using the lightest hedge cutter available , also I had to abandon being a purist and going for professional brand names and I took a gamble on Gtech machines and to be fair they exceeded my expectations enabling me to carry on maintaining what I had to do , I bought a stash of batteries and bought replacement cutting heads when they had sales on , every machine still works like new and older cutting heads delegated to slashing down nettles and bramble etc .
Eventually I upgraded to Stihl AK battery machines not the AP and find them efficient for my needs but I am no longer working at industrial capacity in fact forward Five years and now the old knees are locking and upper body strength not what it was and the wife is telling me to get down off that ladder please , still refusing to retire at 70 but stubbornness comes with old age and my phone still keeps ringing so what can you do.
In a mad moment around eighteen months ago, I bought a Milwaukee M12 BLPRS-202 pruning shears kit, my wife raised an eyebrow and questioned why, and it's still a hard to justify purchase, but they are great to use.
https://www.forestandarb.com/machinery/pruning-shears/milwaukee-pru...
If I could justify it, I would consider buying the long reach Milwaukee cordless pruner.
https://www.forestandarb.com/machinery/pruning-shears/milwaukee-pru...
Nothing would easily remove a finger and other body parts, they really can't be left with a battery in them where kids could pick them up and play with them.
How strange, a generous friend gifted me a pair of these a few years ago, Bilivry branded and appox £70. I scoffed a bit at the time and whispred to my wife and others that i’d probably never use them. Well two years on and i think they are brilliant and dont know how I would have got on without them. I very recently took a couple of feet off some beech and hornbeam hedges of my own and these were invaluable, cutting all but the thickest of stems. I prune all my fruit trees with them, great bit of kit.
They are quite scary though, I can see me cutting off a finger if i’m not careful. Did the tip of a finger with a r/o blade (whilst it was spinning) a few years ago, not nice
Robert - I'm in a similar situation. I sold the gardening business in 2022. I kept back the Stihl longreach battery (AK) hedgecutter to do the 50M of beech hedge behind the house - this having had the long reach heavy duty AP (HLA86). THe AK one, a HLA56 was just not man enough to deal with the beech - it took so much more work to do the job. Last summer I bought another HLA86 - it does the hedge in one pass - gives a good finish and while it is heavy, if you are retired there is nothing to say you have to do the whole job in a particular time frame.
Thanks for your info Adam. I’ve reduced all my hedging (and there’s a lot of it) in height and I have my niwaki tripod ladders if needs and still happy with my Shindaiwa long reach, which isn’t overly heavy at the moment. i’m just finishing a very long run of hazel and used it exclusively. So im only really after a standard size cutter at the moment, say 50 to 60cm in length. As I say I think I need to look and feel a few before committing.
I looked at battery stuff some years ago whilst I was still full time and concluded it still needed to come on a bit in power and reduce a bit in price. I think its nearly there now but petrol still has more ooomph in my opinion ... at the moment
Thanks all for your opinions and experiences
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