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budget of up to £200
For occasional use cutting my mums garden hedges, what feels like 4.5km in length the current petrol one has damaged blades which are now discontinued
My next one will be battery powered.
Looks like £100 for the battery and £100 for the tool.
Then you can buy other tools cheap and use the same battery.
And you wont make a racket doing it.
NB I have petrol chainsaw, pole pruners, hedge trimmer, trimmers x2.
+1 for battery. Petrol tools are terrible environmentally. Recently bought a battery Stihl mower and strimmer. They are great. Battery lasts well, very quiet.
having seen the hedge.
buy about 8 batteries.
Interesting 'I read it on Twitter so it must be a' fact - petrol garden tools are rapidly becoming the biggest polluters in suburban America.
For a reasonably large amount of hedge cut once or twice a year I'd still go with petrol.
More specifically a Stihl long reach trimmer.
Getting one myself has changed how I perceive hedge cutting!
Stihl, petrol, 30" blades. They just work and keep on doing so.
I got a garden pride trimmer with extension pole and strimmer head for £175. For occasional use I think it will be fine, i have only used it for one hedge massacre so far. It coped well, cut some branches that were larger than designed for (chiansaw attachment avaliable). Probably more vibrations than the Stihl equivelent and wont last as long but 1/3 the price. I'm happy now but will see in the long run.
petrol garden tools are rapidly becoming the biggest polluters in suburban America.
My "fun fact" is that in the USA more petrol is spilt filling garden tools every year than was spilt in the exxon Valdez disaster.
Worst use for battery is occasional use tools.
Cut hedge twice a year.
Leave battery dormant rest of year.
Battery won't have a long useful life.
20yo Stihl hs75 here. Wonder how it's pollution over life span compares to the amount of waste created by batteries gone bad and advancing technologies leaving old battery standards unobtainable.
Gets used 20minutes twice a year.
Of course in bruneeps case he will be using it daily all year to get round between charges.....he really isn't exaggerating on the length of the hedge.
having seen the hedge.
buy about 8 batteries.
This^
A battery trimmer isn't gonna "cut" it I'm afraid, way too much hedge to be done.
We used to all our hedges and topiary by hand, it was a marathon. Last year I bought a used pro quality Stihl single sided two stroke trimmer for about £200 with new blades as a test. It was a revelation.
Stihl or Echo.. get a long reach with an articulating head. Probably will need to get 2nd hand for that budget though
I was chatting to the guys looking after this one, they went over to battery stihl trimmers three years ago and reckon they get a better job done quicker than petrol. Still might not be the right thing for a big boundary hedge, is there a way of getting at it with a tractor? Though you're not getting one of those for £200, but a nearby farmer with the kit might be persuaded, and get it all done in a couple of hours.
Stihl HS45 can be had for a few quid over your budget. Mine’s 20 YO this year and apart from putting fuel in it and greasing the gearbox its never missed a beat. Quality tool that you’ll be able to get spare parts and service for in years to come.
now then a tractor... unfortunately thats not an option.
Will maybe throw myself at the 2nd hand market pre loved market
Having a similar (long hedge) predicament, I got a pre loved echo trimmer (std double sided blade, 18inch I think long) and whilst a brilliant machine, having used it for the last three cuts I would buy a long reach model next time.
Do not underestimate the time lost faffing with ladders/ scaffolding to reach the top, a long reach with a multi position head would be a boon!
Even then, we get a man with a tractor in once a year. £100 for an hour and a half is money well spent! (Sorry, doesn't help you!).
Oh yeah, look for a second hand machinery dealer type on Ebay or the like.
Ours is ex professional use, a chap buys them and services then sells for a decent price (£150 from memory).
Can't help I'm afraid, I don't have a petrol hedge.
If you're anywhere near Oxfordshire I'm looking to go the other way as we used to have a bigger hedge but a battery one would be fine now.
£100 for an hour and a half is money well spent!
Only because I bet you're finding it difficult to get someone to come and do the hedges.
I used to use the farmer 500m away but he would only do hedges after all his other work was done.... So December usually.
I then found a chap who worked for the Grosvenor estate but had set up on his own.
He comes along in early September and does 5.5 hours cutting for £160 including fuel and he brings a petrol trimmer to tidy around the trees, poles, etc that the tractor can't get close enough to.
That and it's a 3 acre field. I cut the garden hedge but I'll be buggered if I'm cutting all the way around the field with nothing but a ladder and petrol hedge trimmer.
That and it’s a 3 acre field
What I'm saying, badly mostly likely, is that he's charging you double what I pay.
But you may not have a choice if he's the only one you can get.
rail_rat
Worst use for battery is occasional use tools.
Cut hedge twice a year.
Leave battery dormant rest of year.
Battery won’t have a long useful life.
BUT as batteries are inter-changable nowadays, if you have a couple of different tools to use it in, it won't just be used twice a year & makes more sense.
battery tools not an option for at mums. Since my dad passed I've become the unpaid gardener takes me 3-4 hrs cutting grass another 45mins with strimmer, yesterday I spent 4hrs cutting half a hedge and now the leaves are off the trees carpeting the grass I'm looking at a leaf blower.
happy times
Is corded not an option in the hedge trimmer world?
Some of these batteries can charge pretty quickly. Buy a couple of extra, then can be using one while charging the other. Can keep going all day.
Is corded not an option in the hedge trimmer world?
It's what I do. Just invest in a 50m extension cable.
I've never run out of electricity yet.
Never spilled any either
now the leaves are off the trees carpeting the grass I’m looking at a leaf blower.
Mow it.... picks up the leaves and then you can dump them on the flower beds as mulch.
Zippy Tried plugging my grinder battery into the chainsaw
It didn't seem keen to start `
I get through about 40 litres of petrol (in a 2 stroke mix) per week. I can’t wait until the tools break and we can buy battery powered kit
Did you forget to add a 😉 to the end of that?
Nope, absolutely serious