Battery powered hedgetrimmers any good?

[arbaholic]

Evening all,

 

I need a new hedgetrimmer and have whittled my choice down to two options:

 

Firstly Stihls battery powered range. Admittedly this is what i want to get but im concerned about the power. My go to hedgetrimmer was the stihl km100 which for the odd occasion you need to cut a bigger branch will do so no problem. Just interested if anyone knows what these little battery trimmers are like for topping a hedge that has been left abit longer then a year if you know what i mean.

 

Second is the husky 325he4. Im drawn to this cos the anti vibes on paper are excellent. Are they any good and reliable?

 

Really appreciate anyone's input

 

Cheers

 

[chopper brown]

I run the stihl battery gear and i cant fault it. 

 

Long and short hedge trimmers are mint but i do have a petrol hedge cutter for thick thorn hedges and the like. I'll have had them at least three years and the batteries seem to show no signs of fading and if i worked out the amount of fuel i'll of saved they've probably paid for themselves.

 

If you can class the battery and charger as buying the fuel in advance to ease the initial cost shock then you're fine. When buying another tool to run off the batteries it usually works out about half the price of the petrol equivalent for the bare unit only.

 

No maintenance has been required other than sharpening and lubrication. I did drop the hand hedge cutter off a 12 foot conifer hedge and smashed the casing. I was gutted but i think from memory it was £25 for a whole new rear end and it's been fine 2 years on.

 

Jim

[arbaholic]

Cheers for your reply Jim, its looking good for the battery powered stuff then. Ive watched quite a few youtube vids on them and they look like a dream for hedgetrimming. The polesaw looks nice aswell. That might just seal the deal for me

[arbaholic]

Which batterys do you use? I was going to get the ap300 tomorrow but looks like jones and son only have the ap200 in stock.

[chopper brown]

I use the ap300 as i wanted the longest run time possible and there isn't much weight difference. I did buy a ap100 for the ms160T saw but to be honest it doesn't get used very much.

 

I can do a good half day trimming of annual growth on conifer with the ap300 then 20mins on the quick charger and go again. I would recommend at least two batteries but it depends on your use.

 

Hope that helps

 

Jim

[arbaholic]

cool cheers again Jim appreciate your thoughts.

[Blah]

We run the battery trimmers too, and wouldn't go back to petrol ones. So much lighter, no fumes, and can handle pretty much the same stuff. There is the odd occasion where a petrol trimmer will be a bit quicker for really dense or thick stuff.

 

Not that I would ever do this ?, but they are much more controllable one-handed than our petrol ones.

[arbaholic]

Thanks Blah, they definitly sound like the way to go. Do you run the stihls?

 

 

[Blah]

1 hour ago, arbaholic said:

Thanks Blah, they definitly sound like the way to go. Do you run the stihls?

 

 

Yes, three HSA86 with AP300 batteries. 

[arbaholic]

Cool i just put my order through for the hla 65, hla 85, 2 ap300 batterys and the 500 quick charger.

 

Price made me flinch abit but it sounds like its a good invesment. Look forward to using this after watching every youtube video that exists on it ?