sorry its not edible, but was thinking of buying a black and decker cordless strimmer, cost £60 ish. It is in the argos catalogue.
I wondered if anyone has one or has used one and knew if the 3 hour charge means 3 hours to charge it or 3 hours to discharge it ? And it doesnt say if there is a spare battery with it or not !
??? ;D
Hi,
In my experience battery powered garden tools are a waste of money. The strimmer might be ok for very light work when it's new. As the battery gets older you'll get less strimming time per charge.
I was lucky enough to buy a really good petrol strimmer on ebay a couple of weeks ago. I got it for 80 quid - brand new - still in the box. It might be worth a look there.
I inherited a battery powered chainsaw at my cottage in France. Charge for 12 hours - cut three logs - dead as a dodo!
All the best.
Stork
I agree we tried one from argos then from B+Q both tore at the grass
and then ran down before it had gone around our plot get a petrol one
a bit more expence and trouble but worth it
Mine is a petrol one, bought it from B*Q online for about 80 quid and it's great :) The brand name begins with "M" and it's big and yellow, if that helps!! ::)
This has been said B4 but I love repeats ;D If you have a domestic electric strimmer then consider a generator, someone on here bought a brand new light weight genny for as little as £50, you can then make good use of all your domestic power tools up the lottie like mowers, drills, power saws, strimmers, even rotovator if electric. ;)
I tried looking in the search facility for similar posts but it is under stress, whatever that means? ???
I have a rechargeable hedge trimmer, it's superb but on the other hand my hedge is only 12 feet long and 3 feet high.
Battery powered garden tools are OK for a 10 minute job but at the moment are not seriously challenging mains electric or petrol powered equipment, give it another 10 years and the technology will be much better
I bought an electric cordless strimmer first.
It couldn't strim thick grass or nettles from the off, and ran down very fast (less than 30 mins total, but at a usable speed less than that). It prgressively got worse in holding charge and eventually only kept going for 5 mins (after about 7-8 months) and sounded like a mournful goose.
I bought a petrol one the following season for £85 new and it's light years better. I suspect cheaper too. And I can strim my whole flipping lottie and often a couple of others too while I'm at it.
Don't waste your money on cordless - go for petrol! Even the cheap ones are miles better!
moonbells
That was my experience of cordless ones as well, plus the transformers for the recharger kept burning out. If it had stayed at a 30 minute charge I coud have lived with that, but it didn't.
We bought a battery operated strimmer and thought it a waste of money. It didn't last very long and my OH burnt it out by leaving the battery charger on too long. It wasn't up to very heavy jobs which defeated the purpose of getting it. We just got rid of all the grass on our plot, so we didn't need one. We have an electric home one, but like others have said it just tears the grass and looks a mess, so I would rather trim the lawn by hand. busy_lizzie
Popular post this one! I bought a battery strimmer from Aldi for 40 euros (about 27 pounds) and while is great for light work (strimming grass around raised beds), the battery lasts about 10 minutes. Fine for what I want it for, but it sounds like petrol ones would be the way to go in general.
Niamh
I concur with previous comments about uselessness of rechargeable strimmers. I've got a lot of grass on my plot and need to strim on every visit as I can't cut enough from just one trip. It's like painting the Forth Bridge!
Quote from: Sprout on May 25, 2006, 15:17:08
I've got a lot of grass on my plot and need to strim on every visit as I can't cut enough from just one trip. It's like painting the Forth Bridge!
Grow veg not grass ;D ;D ;D
the purpose was just to use it for edging (we have miles literally), to save hours with edging shears, but it sounds as though it wouldnt be up to the job.
Could the battery be uprated or hav 2 for longer usage periods ? and arent they the no memory lithium batteries now ?
i grow veg and grass !and lots of them. beat that one !
by the way the model id seen was the black and decker glc 2500, but still nowhere mentions the discharge length.
i know that the 3 hours is the charging time
I can't be sure but the official B&D spares website lists the battery at £34.99 so I very much doubt it's even a NiMh battery let alone a lithium job, much more likely to be a NiCad 1.8ah ot there abouts at that price I'd think
i had two batteries for mine, it didn't save the situation. If the batteries had been up to the job, there wouldn't have been a problem.
Hi all,
One lone voice in favour of cordless strimmers! I just bought a posh Bosch Art 23 Accutrim from Argos (£50) which uses a plastic blade instead of line (MUCH easier to cope with), and also has the kind of "intelligent" battery you can leave in the charger for storage so it's always fully charged. Seems brilliant so far. I have bought a more flimsy one in the past that had all the disadvantages mentioned but this Bosch one seems OK. Less messy and (possibly) "greener" than a petrol model..??? But let's not get into that!!!
Chrissie
Let us know how it gets on. If they do make one with a reliable battery, I'd be interested. If.
Are there no petrol strimmers that turn round for edging purposes ?
We have two larger strimmers that we can use on edges, but we wanted one specifically for edges, lightweight and handy.
I guess we are hoping for something that doesnt really exist ! If only the batteries could last for a couple of hours !
Ryibi make an edging attachment for theirs
i'm unlikely to want to use a power tool for more than half an hour, or maybe an hour at the absolute maximum. All I want is a reliable one!
Quote from: Roy Bham UK on May 24, 2006, 21:40:39
This has been said B4 but I love repeats ;D If you have a domestic electric strimmer then consider a generator, someone on here bought a brand new light weight genny for as little as £50, you can then make good use of all your domestic power tools up the lottie like mowers, drills, power saws, strimmers, even rotovator if electric. ;)
I don't know about the rest of you, but I go to my plot for a bit of peace and quiet! Quick bursts on a strimmer might be bearable; a generator and loads of power tools are surely going a bit far...
An Argos booklet fell out of my paper yesterday morning while I was at work, phoned my missus & asked her to drop in and pick me up a petrol strimmer £49.99 for a 36cc job, reduced from about 80 quid. Used it today and so far it seems to be a good', very impressed. Mine won't get a massive amount of use, like my chainsaw, but when I need one it's there. If I get half a dozen years use out of it I'm laughing, knowing me I'll get about 20 years out of it
Quote from: Chrissie on May 27, 2006, 23:42:14
I don't know about the rest of you, but I go to my plot for a bit of peace and quiet! Quick bursts on a strimmer might be bearable; a generator and loads of power tools are surely going a bit far...
I think you may have missed the point Chrissie, you only use one power tool per generator operation, your very lucky to have an allotment that stays peaceful and quiet, we have a public pathway that runs the length and breadth of our lottie so weekends and school holidays our petrol tools are hushed by the sound of boy motorbikers that appear not to have silencers fitted to their machines. ::)
I'm with Mike B, Grow veg not grass, we have a real heavy duty petrol strimmer........ works wonders!
;D
Quoteweekends and school holidays our petrol tools are hushed by the sound of boy motorbikers that appear not to have silencers fitted to their machines.
Ever tried a broom handle through the front spokes? :o ;D 8)
Hi Roy - no I didn't imagine using all your power tools at once, but the generator itself would be pretty noisy wouldn't it? The chap over the road from us used to deal in them and tried them out every Saturday morning in his front garden >:(. He's moved away now.
I take your point though, peace and quiet is a luxury and I do appreciate it. The broom handle idea sounds great but probably not legal...!
About as legal as riding off road motorcycles in a public place I'd imagine
On our site, people use all types of grass trimmers and brush cutters.
The cordless ones are complained about as not being strong enough to do a decent job, although they seem quiet.
The petrol ones do a decent job, but are noisy.
Two chaps bring a generator and run electric strimmers, hedgecutter, drills etc from them. Although not as powerful as a petrol strimmer, they seem do a reasonably good job of keeping down rough grass, and the generator to my mind is quieter than the petrol strimmers.
I was intending to buy a Ryobi petrol strimmer after reading threads here, but am now torn between that and a generator. It would also have the advantage of being a back up electricity supply when we get power cuts (which is at least twice a year here)
I bought a Black and Decker (R) GL690 Electric Grass Trimmer last September for £40 it’s a toughy with 630watts of power.
Jennym, 4 stroke gennys are a lot quieter nowadays I believe and yes it was very useful last year when we had a 12 hr power cut, it ran my neighbours pond full of expensive Koi carp, our freezer and most importantly our telly. ;D
http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=10001&catalogId=4501&langId=-1&searchTerms=0420927
Quote from: Chrissie on May 27, 2006, 23:42:14
Quote from: Roy Bham UK on May 24, 2006, 21:40:39
This has been said B4 but I love repeats ;D If you have a domestic electric strimmer then consider a generator, someone on here bought a brand new light weight genny for as little as £50, you can then make good use of all your domestic power tools up the lottie like mowers, drills, power saws, strimmers, even rotovator if electric. ;)
I don't know about the rest of you, but I go to my plot for a bit of peace and quiet! Quick bursts on a strimmer might be bearable; a generator and loads of power tools are surely going a bit far...
I understand the desire for peace, but I view an allotment as a working space, geared fr teh production of food, and as such view all the noices that come with it as part and parcel of its istigkeit.
Quote from: amphibian on May 29, 2006, 20:20:21
I understand the desire for peace, but I view an allotment as a working space, geared fr teh production of food, and as such view all the noices that come with it as part and parcel of its istigkeit.
That's a very interesting point of view Amphibian, but not one I would necessarily share. I see my plot as far more than just a food factory; it's a space for exercise, relaxation, contemplation and just pure enjoyment of the wonders of nature and the outdoors. Producing delicious healthy fruit, vegetables and flowers is the icing on the cake.
What do others think?
I agree with you Chrissie, you have hit the nail square on the head but for the small amount of time peace is shattered by the rumble of a small petrol driven engine (other than bikers) (incidentally 2 stroke strimmer and Rotavator decibels are a lot higher than 4 stroke genny's) it doesn't really raise an eyebrow.
Do you not have any plotty peeps with Rotavator or strimmer on your plot? I would say you are unlucky if not as we occasionally loan our power tools out to each other when needs be. :)
Yes of course you're quite right Roy, one of our kind neighbours lent us his petrol mower for our grass paths only the other day and I use the cordless strimmer as I said earlier. It's all a matter of degree, balance and general good manners I suppose. Sometimes it's lovely just to listen to the birdsong 8).
Most decent tillers/rotavators have 4 stroke engines