20V Pole Hedge Trimmer

I read a range of reviews of different trimmers before buying this one on the basis of a balance of price and product specs as supported by reviews. Over a couple of weeks it has proved very effective in my mother’s garden, dealing with her holly and privet hedging which is up to ten feet tall and for the shaping to individual bushes. Some reviews criticised its weight. If it was lighter it would not be sturdy enough to do the job or to last. I can happily use it for 15-20 minutes. If it is used with the pole fully extended then, with the weight of the cutting mechanism and motor at the end, it will feel a bit unwieldy at fist but I got used to in in a very few minutes. An occasional criticism in some reviews was that it wouldn’t cut thick branches - it is a trimmer, not a lopping device! It has a 14mm blade opening which I have found very satisfactory for normal trimming but it also dealt effectively with slightly larger stems as I also wanted to do some cutting back. I cannot comment on battery life because I haven’t drained the battery yet - the helpful charge indicator was still saying 73% after fifteen minutes of use and I haven’t bothered checking it again! I think this trimmer is great value. Cutting angle of blades to pole is easily changed and the blade cover is easily put over the blades for storage.

Nice bit of kit but really designed for high hedges only. I'm a 72 year old man of average strength. My hedges are between 5 and 7 foot high but up to 5 foot wide. This means that I have to use this trimmer fully expended at shoulder height most of the time. My arm, wrist and shoulder muscles were complaining loudly yesterday after about 30 minutes of work because the leverage effect makes it very heavy and today my back has kicked in as well. It is also quite cumbersome and unwieldy if you have to work in confined spaces. Wish I'd bought a smaller and lighter model. Having said that, and to be fair, the machine itself is well constructed and cuts very well, but it will be at its most effective when used on very large hedges with plenty of space to work in. I forgot to add that the battery life, on first use and compared to my previous model, is spectacularly good. 75% remaining after 30+ minutes use!

Excellent reach. Quite heavy so a shoulder strap would make it 6*! Does what it promises and is excellent value.

Good battery life. Light but robust. Great reach and excellent sharpness. Good to accompany a longhead version used for over a year. Perfect for small medium hedges that are not too woody. My petrol ones still needed for the first cut and bigger stems. Overall a super gizmo!

1st off all let’s set this right, it’s anything but lightweight, after 20 minutes you’re wanting to out this down and rest your arms. 2nd, it would have been far better if the black hand gripper was further down the pole rather than close to the main handle. 3rd, they could have designed this with a strap especially when you have this fully extended as it becomes even more cumbersome to hold. Now that’s all out the way, I charged the battery at 1700 and was out doing the hedges by 1830, battery itself has a small button located on backside and digital display which is handy, shows 100% when full, when I went back in I checked again the power level and was sitting comfortably at 52% and tbh I was out for nearly 90 minutes with a few break times. It does a good cut, not sure if gives you the same horsepower as using an electric hedge trimmer but for me it’s convenient, no fathom about with getting a breaker, then extension leads, dropping out of window, just charge, plug in and go. Job done. Just remember at the end of each use BRING IN THE BATTERY, and charge for the next trimming.

Easy to assemble and use.Found it heavy when extended being a pensioner.It did a good job.

Its the second one I have bought in4 years and the second one has just broken again on the swivel joint.l can’t remember how long the guaranty was for but perhaps you could help me.

UPDATE It has now been about 18 months, give or take a couple of weeks, since I gave my first impressions on this hedge trimmer. Since then, I have used it several times in my garden and I have grown to evolve with it, especially as it keeps me at a safe distance from the prickly bramble bush and its octopus-like tentacles that persistently and annoyingly continue to grow in our garden. With regard to the registering of the hedge trimmer with Yard Force, they answered my email the same day and I was able to register for the extended warranty that way. What I didn't appreciate was the fact that they blamed me for the inadequacy and failure of their website warranty registration system! The battery is still holding its charge well and continues to provide me with about one hour of power for the hedge trimmer. However, I am now considering ordering another battery to keep as a spare or for when I need to do more than one hour's trimming in the garden. My original review can still be read below. ORIGINAL REVIEW: This review is based on my first use of this hedge trimmer today, and finishes with my attempt to register the warranty on the Yardforce website this afternoon. Delivery was quick a couple of days ago, considering I am not a Prime member. Last night I charged the battery from the delivered state of 43%, to 100%, as per the detailed instructions before first using this hedge trimmer. It was quick to reach the ultimate level and I didn't have to wait the notified one hour for the battery to reach full charge. It is very useful to have both the read out on the battery and the charge indicator lights on the charger. This morning I attached the big round handle to the shaft of the trimmer. This was not too easy as there was no 'give' in the handle or the bracket to which is was to be screwed to. I found that some brute force and swearing was necessary to achieve the end result. I then removed the dust cover from the blade and subsequently attached the fully-charged battery into the appropriate housing at the trigger end. Upon trying the hedge trimmer with a series of thin branches I became aware of two things. Firstly, the unit was much heavier than I had expected it to be and how other reviewers had said it was light and secondly, somebody has already mentioned in a previous review that the hedge trimmer needs a strap. I totally agreen with that person; this machine definitely requires some sort of shoulder strap to help counterbalance the heaviness of this tool. In addition, I think the safety switch and trigger are set in an awkward place on the plastic handle and it is quite annoyingly easy to accidentally let go of the trigger, bringing the trimmer to a sudden and abrupt halt. I know, because I managed to achieve that problem several times this morning. As for the performance of the trimmer with cutting things down, the blade had an easy time slicing through thin twigs but I couldn't get it to cut through what I would call 'average' size branches. The teeth only bit at the branches and I ended up finishing the job, that the trimmer had unsuccessfully started, with my manual loppers. After use, the dust cover refused to slide back over the blade. I have not yet had the opportunity to use this hedge trimmer in extended mode, but I do have a couple of overgrown conifers in my back garden with quite thin branches that will need trimming down very soon. My only worries are that I might not be able to lift or control the trimmer in extended mode to complete the work due to both its heaviness and balance problems, or if I do manage to 'get there' that the teeth on this thing may not succeed in cutting those branches. I have to agree with one or two other reviewers on here that it does seem suspicious that some buyers have given this tool a five star rating. It's three stars at very best (and that's me being generous!) and even my old electric cable hedge trimmer can do a better job on 'average' size branches than this one badly attempts to. The one thing I was really impressed with though was the battery run-time. I used 60% of the usage from a starting point of 100% in around 40-45 minutes. I dare say I could have brought that percentage down further in about a quarter of an hour or so, which exceeds the 45 minutes total usage time quoted elsewhere. If nothing else, battery life on garden tools seems to have improved over the years. Finally, I tried to register the warranty on the Yardforce website this afternoon, as doing so apparently brings an extra year's warranty (making 3 years altogether). However, after completing everything required (including uploading a pdf of the sales invoice which was requested), I got taken to a blank page, no 'thank you' notice, no acknowledgement, just a blank web page. This is bad, because when I send personal information to a website in relation to registering a warranty, I expect there to be some sort of acknowledgement on screen or in my email inbox. I have now had to send an email to their support and now I hold my breath waiting for their reply in the hope that they did in fact receive my registration.

Macht was es verspricht. Allerdings bei längerem Arbeiten von hohen Hecken doch etwas schwer.