Hedge trimmers feature a cutting bar, with lengths ranging from about 18 to 26 inches. What Size Hedge Trimmer Should You Buy?Ĭonsider the tasks you need to do. Our testing has found that powered bases with different attachments rarely offer performance as good as what you’d get from stand-alone tools. Most hedge trimmers are sold as stand-alone tools, but you’ll also find gas- or battery-powered bases that you can outfit with different attachments, such as pole saws, string trimmers, and, yes, hedge trimmers. Story continues Should You Get a Power Base?
“When measured without a load, some of the trimmers we tested were able to run nearly 2 hours on a single charge,” says Misha Kollontai, CR’s project leader in charge of hedge-trimmer testing. Our engineers have found that battery models can be pretty impressive. Most outdoor cords max out around 100 feet.īattery hedge trimmers: You might think they aren’t as powerful as gas or corded electric hedge trimmers, but increasingly that isn’t the case. You’ll need an outdoor outlet, though, and you’ll be limited by the length of the extension cord. They tend to be far cheaper-some are only about $50-and can run indefinitely as long as they’re plugged in. Corded electric and battery options are also better for the environment.Ĭorded electric hedge trimmers: These trimmers are all you need for lighter trimming close to the house. But they’re likely overkill in most residential yards, which are typically well served by electrics. Gas hedge trimmers: They’re powerful tools used by pros and on large properties. (CR members can jump to our recommendations in our hedge trimmer ratings).Īs a whole, you’ll find three types of hedge trimmers: gas, corded electric, and battery options. It’s also a category where electrics hold their own against the most potent gas models.
#GAS HEDGE TRIMMER MANUAL#
A crumby trimmer will struggle to cut, bogging down on tough brush and leaving you with lopsided hedges and a lot to clean up with manual loppers.īecause battery hedge trimmers (also sometimes called cordless hedge trimmers) dominate in home centers and hardware stores, that’s where we focus the bulk of our testing. A good hedge trimmer will coast along effortlessly, leaving a path of perfectly trimmed shrubbery in its wake. The blade oscillates back and forth inside the cutting bar, trimming the brush as you go. Small limbs fall into these grooves as you work along whatever you’re trimming. They do that with an oscillating bar of a fixed length, with precut grooves on either side of the blade. Hedge trimmers can cut branches as thick as about an inch. They’re worth buying if you have overgrowth that’s too thick for a string trimmer but using a chainsaw would be overkill. In general, hedge trimmers more or less split the difference between a string trimmer and a chainsaw. They’re also the tools of choice for trimming back overgrown forsythia, bamboo, or any other flora that’s too tough or abundant to tackle by other means.
If you think hedge trimmers are solely for sculpting boxwoods and bonsai, think again.
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