#Battery hedge trimmer full
#Battery hedge trimmer trial
#Battery hedge trimmer professional

ItвЂ™s therefore important to keep the blades clean and well maintained. As dirt builds up on the blades it can clog them making them louder. It isnвЂ™t totally silent, there is still the sound of machinery but when clean and lubricated it is a pleasant whir.

#Battery hedge trimmer professional

As a professional gardener, itвЂ™s much more enjoyable cutting lots of hedges without wearing ear guards on warm days. So quiet that you donвЂ™t have to wear ear protection when wearing them and you feel less self-conscious with noise for the neighbours. Like all Stihl battery powered devices, the HLA 86 is remarkably quiet. Volume A big benefit of electric tools is that they are much quieter (Photo by Christopher Lyon Anderson) It has a long rubber grip which is extremely comfortable to hold. That said, I simply took regular breaks and found that it was perfectly possible to keep cutting as long as I didnвЂ™t overdo things in one go.ДЄll in all, I feel the weight is fair given how much is going on here, it is after all a significant power tool with strong metal blades at one end and a high end battery and engine at the other, sandwiching a long metal pole. Using the trimmer horizontally to do the side of hedges I found no problem, but my arms did struggle over time with the weight when cutting the tops of hedges. However, held horizontally the trimmer is very well balanced, spreading the weight across the long bar making it easy to cut with over a period of time вЂ“ though it is not a tool for people who donвЂ™t have a fair amount of physical strength. An AP 200 battery, which is the recommended standard battery, weighs 1.3kg bringing the overall weight to 6.1kg, incidentally the same weight as our cat, Rumbles. Weight and balance I found horizontal balance perfect (Photo by Christopher Lyon Anderson)ДЄt 4.8kg without a battery, the Stihl HLA 86 hedge trimmer is quite hefty. ItвЂ™s easy to twist and yet also locks very securely, so there is no chance, from my experience of the pole collapsing. The telescopic lock works well and is easy to use (Photo by Christopher Lyon Anderson) This is a new feature for recent Stihl models and works really well.

#Battery hedge trimmer trial

Trimming a 6m tall leylandii hedge using Henchman ladders given to me for trial (Photo by Christopher Lyon Anderson)Д®xtending the hedge trimmer is easy thanks to a twist lock. I found that this was long enough to reach the top of tall hedges from the ground, and with the use of ladders, could tackle even oversized leylandii. The blade itself is 50cm long and has an end guard to protect blades from touching the ground or a wall by accident. The hedge trimmer can be extended from 260cm all the way up to 330cm, which as you can see in the photo above, is impressive. LetвЂ™s talk about the main reason you may be interested in the Stihl HLA 86.

Reach Fully extended at 330cm, IвЂ™m 188cm tall (Photo by Christopher Lyon Anderson) This is a tool for anyone who has particularly tall or wide hedges where extra tool length is a benefit, such as when a regular size hedge trimmer wonвЂ™t reach.

#Battery hedge trimmer full

Earlier this year I was given a battery powered Stihl HLA 86 telescopic hedge trimmer to put to the test, and here are my full thoughts after a number of months trial on our farm.