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  Jim Gibbon February 28, 2019 at 5:35pm

  Hi Damian, I have the HLA85 and it is pretty good for hedges that are already in fairly good shape. I use a two stroke one for when the going gets tough. If I was to have just one hedge trimmer I don't think I would go for the HSA86 because I think it would lack the power needed sometimes. Cordless trimmers need regular lubrication otherwise they chew battery really fast. The BIG plus is low noise, no fumes and they're nice and light. 
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  Chris & Heather McAlpine February 28, 2019 at 5:48pm

  We have one as well as the long reach (can't remember the model number).  As Jim says, they do lack a little top end grunt compared to a 2 stroke but will be fine for most jobs.  We've had a cople of jobs where stuff has been too thick and I've resorted to loppers to deal with the thick stuff.  Very cheap to run and quiet too so as long as hedge work isn't your main occupation I think you should be fine.  We've found them both reliable and easy to use.
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  Damian Jones February 28, 2019 at 6:04pm

  Thanks Guys. Not convinced it’s worth forking out £500 on this. Need more convincing I think.
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  Jim Gibbon February 28, 2019 at 6:21pm

  It is a lot of money Damian, but if in the longer term you plan to get other Stihl cordless kit you will already have the battery and charger. I find the FSA85 strimmer brilliant for lawn work and would never go back to petrol for that kind of thing. It's great for vertical edging because it's so light and the variable speed throttle works really well. 
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  Tony @SM February 28, 2019 at 7:33pm

  Was going to get one of these myself but I'm a little put off by mentions of low power output. Anyone got experience of the next model up? HSA94. It's a huge price difference so I'd be expecting top performance.
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  Graham Taylor March 1, 2019 at 10:01am

  Defintely worth forking out the money......... you can pick up the cutter, one battery and charger for under £400 which is a bit better than £500.

  Brilliant bit of kit..... picked up one when I needed something quieter to use round a nursing home and never looked back...... one charged battery will last ages..... 3 hours apparently though never tested it non-stop..... so for general garden maintenance rather than non-stop hedgecutting all day,  the one battery will easily see you out for the day. I always keep a charged spare though in the van just in case. Cuts through thick stuff too and great for fiddly trimming jobs round shrubs etc. One slightly irritating thing...... they tell you to regrease the gearbox every 25 hours......... this is a very simple job to do but there seems a slight design fault that the gearbox fills with small bits of cuttings etc!!... well mine does anywhere. This doesn't seem to affect things but I can't help feeling it's not helping the gearbox in the longterm.
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    Damian Jones > Graham Taylor March 1, 2019 at 5:23pm

    Thanks Graham. Have you used it on leylandii and thuja hedges?
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  Phil Bishop March 2, 2019 at 11:44am

  I'd definitely rate the 86 it's a brilliant bit of kit and has plenty of power. Being a tree surgeon ours gets used on some tough jobs never really struggled we originally bought it for small jobs and the odd topiary hedges but tried it out on all jobs to see what it would do and it's done everything we tried it on from formal hedges to tidying up the conifer hedges weve reduced so definitely worth getting especially with user comfort being battery the only thing I'd say is get the best battery you can budget for ap300 and al500 chargers make all the difference we ve never run out of charge from two batteries and it's a while lot easier to convert to mostly battery kit when you've got the battery and chargers we've got most battery kit now and can't fault it  
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  Neil Holder March 2, 2019 at 1:14pm

  Mostly doing hard landscaping i dont have to use hedge cutters and chainsaws much but some thievin bastard has just nicked mine so i need to replace them. As i dont use the two stroke cutters that much they always need maintenance every time i pick them up. My question is

  1.do these electric ones need the same kind of maintenance

  2. Will the batteries suffer if not in constant use

  3. I assume you always have to have access to a power supply for charging or do people charge up from their van 12v lighter?

  Thanks for any help.
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    Graham Taylor > Neil Holder March 2, 2019 at 7:28pm

    The only maintenance is greasing the gearbox...... every 25 hours according to the manual.......... a 5 minute job so nothing to worry about. It's always great to know it will always start.   Don't know about the batteries suffering from not constant use........ I've a drone with lithium batteries....... didn't use it for 9 months and the batteries were fine.  People do you their 12v lighter supply to charge using an inverter...... a fully charged ap300 battery lasts me all day so never found this a problem though I do carry a spare charged battery with me.  The cordless chainswaw, msa200, is a different matter though............... another brilliant bit of kit but the battery will only last about 30 minutes. Maintenance is even less here as there's no gearbox to grease though I do use compressed air to blow all the debris etc out from under the side cover after use..... for some reason,there always seems an awful lot of it.