Choosing a garden hedgetrimmer
Hedgetrimmers are a vital power tool for all gardens with fast growing leafy hedges in need of control. Long handled secateurs can be used for finer cutting, but an electric or petrol hedge trimmer will do the majority of the hard work in a short time.
Electric hedge trimmers can be either mains powered (with a long power lead) or cordless (relying on a battery). The advantage of a mains powered hedgetrimmer is that it doesn't need recharging, however you risk cutting the cable whilst cutting the hedge resulting in a loss of power and a time consuming repair before continuing. Battery powered hedge trimmers don't have this risk, however you must remember to fully charge the trimmer before starting the cut otherwise you may not finish the cut before the power runs out!
Bosch, Flymo, Makita, Ryobi and Black and Decker electric hedgetrimmers start at around £40 for 400 watt models:
More powerful electric hedge trimmers, 500 watt or 600 watt models cost a little more, but will make cutting established hedges much easier:
Petrol hedge trimmers are usually a little more expensive, but are the professionals choice. There is no cable, and no battery to go flat. The motor however, requires more maintenance and so greater care must be taken with storage. The parts of a petrol engined hedge trimmer must be kept oiled and lubricated between seasons.
The prices for petrol powered hedge trimmers range from near £100 to several hundred pounds and are the professionals choice.
The best brands of petrol powered trimmer are:
Einhell hedgetrimmers:
Echo hedgetrimmers:
McCulloch hedgtrimmers:
Makita Hedgetrimmers:
Castel Hedgetrimmers:
Ryobi hedgetrimmers:
Hitachi hedgtrimmers:
For the full range of electric and petrol hedgetrimmers available please visit our main hedgetrimmer section.
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