Quieter hedge trimmers

[kram]

I'm looking for a decent hedge trimmer. We have a Stihl petrol long one and a combi and both seem to make as much noise as power. They do the job and reliable, but wish they were quieter.

 

I have a cheap cordless which is slow and not suitable, its probably ok for home owners with too much time.

 

I would like something:

 

- with a long reach, perhaps telescopic. Our long Stihl one is often too long to cut close and I end up leaning out from the ladder, more than Id like.

 

 - that can near match the Stihls for cutting ability, yet quieter so I wont need ear defenders - find the ability to communicate is very useful for hedges and often at the expense of my ears.

 

I like the idea of cordless as I hate pull starts when Im up a wobbly ladder!

 

Has anyone tried the Makita offerings? as they are generally good cordless tools.

 

Thanks

[Shaunpaul]

We have the Stihl battery trimmers, hla 56 and 3 of the hla 86, they are superb in my opinion, AP300 battery lasts most of the day and up to now not had any technical problems with them in nearly 2 years (the Husky ones we had were an absolute nightmare for breaking) the hla 86 can cut up to 26mm thickness and are telescopic. Very rare we use petrol trimmers now. Just keep the gearing lubed as they seem to dry up pretty quickly, we use spray on lithium grease weekly for that and wd40 on the blades regularly throughout the day.

[Steven P]

Cheap cordless... what is the spec for that? My thought is if it is a 12V / 18V / 20V battery then probably underpowered from what you'd like but as you say fine if you have the time.

 

With battery power it is all about the volts (more volts, same current gives more power).

 

That is based on my experience of chainsaws - the good battery one is 36V and equates roughly to the Stihl MS181 petrol saw. My hedgetrimmers are about 28cc (semi-pro quality stihls), saw is 36cc... so perhaps Makita battery hedge trimmer might be OK at 20V... though go for as many volts as you can - Stihls are 36V?

[kram]

That is not true about volts, you can design a system to have any power you like. Sadly Stihl seem to have too many battery systems for my liking, bad enough that each manufacturer has there own, so to have four systems is a bit if a piss take.

 

The Stihl hedgers are listed as 140w for the lightest (probably similar to my cheap one) and 500w for the pro, still seems a bit light on power. Petrol ones put out 900w.

Edited October 25 by kram

[doobin]

15 hours ago, kram said:

That is not true about volts, you can design a system to have any power you like. Sadly Stihl seem to have too many battery systems for my liking, bad enough that each manufacturer has there own, so to have four systems is a bit if a piss take.

 

The Stihl hedgers are listed as 140w for the lightest (probably similar to my cheap one) and 500w for the pro, still seems a bit light on power. Petrol ones put out 900w.

Milwaukee get good reviews for their hedgecutters for power. Not used one but I have a lot of other M18 gear and it's all at the top of it's game. Plenty of knockoff batteries available too, which would probably be fine for a hedgecutter.

[Dan Maynard]

I've got the long Makita, it's great for trimming because it's super light, but I don't think it's tough enough to stand up to an average tree surgeon employee to be honest. Not good at mashing down conifer hedge tops thicker than your thumb, I would use my Stihl petrol kombi for that.

[Steven P]

20 hours ago, kram said:

That is not true about volts, you can design a system to have any power you like.

 

In the small tools game though it is a fair assumption. 1V and 500A (500W) is going to explode a battery with heavy wiring, 36V and 14A is going to be a bit kinder to the battery with more realistic wiring. With a 7AH battery, 14A will last 30 minutes, 500A about 1 minute... Volts to power is a fair assumption.

[GarethM]

It's that and whilst most higher end tools are brushless DC, effectively small three phase motors they're usually standardised 24,36,48v for example as they're off the shelf motors.

 

The lower end gear is just cheap DC brushed motors with very little smarts so you either burn out the brushes or the motor.

 

It's a bit like comparing an old 90s battery drills to today's wrist breaking ones.

[Stere]

I have the  18v makita short its better than the cheaper 36v stihl offerering I reckon but i haven't tried the top stihl models.

 

Motor is  520w probably why its better?

 

DUH601 - Hedge Trimmer LXT®

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Quote

I've got the long Makita, it's great for trimming because it's super light

 

Which long makita do you have there are 2 versions fixed blade with  a loop handle or folding without...?

 

 

Fixed appeals to me more  i think but unsure about ergonmics with having a loop handle as hate them on strimmers

[Dan Maynard]

Folding, it spends some time straight but a fair bit of time not. I reckon the straight ones are only really good for large perfectly flat hedges, so maybe the ideal is one of each.

 

The folding part is a point of weakness to be honest, which I have seen online review say as well. I'm using my own so just try to be careful and so far been ok. I don't do a huge amount of hedge cutting either.