Battery Powered String Trimmers

[ken_sylvania]

Anyone have experience with battery powered string trimmers? I need to get a trimmer for an 8 acre property and would be nice to have one that can handle trimming fence lines and tall weeds.

I've used a Dewalt 60V a time or two and it just didn't have the pep and speed of a gas powered trimmer, plus the batteries went dead faster than the charger could charge them.

Are the Ego's or the Ryobi's any good? Or does a person just have to figure on dropping $1k to get an electric trimmer that can stand up to a gas job?

[Ken]

Anyone have experience with battery powered string trimmers? I need to get a trimmer for an 8 acre property and would be nice to have one that can handle trimming fence lines and tall weeds.

I've used a Dewalt 60V a time or two and it just didn't have the pep and speed of a gas powered trimmer, plus the batteries went dead faster than the charger could charge them.

Are the Ego's or the Ryobi's any good? Or does a person just have to figure on dropping $1k to get an electric trimmer that can stand up to a gas job?

The Ego one I have is fabulous. Takes the heavier .095” line. I use it for cutting blackberries and tall weeds around my property. It is as powerful as the Stihl commercial trimmer I used to have. I also have an Ego mower and leaf blower.

Pro tip. You can get aftermarket batteries for these things on Amazon that will save you a ton of money over the Ego branded batteries. They work fine. Just get one with lots of reviews. Half the price of Ego tools is in the batteries it seems.

With 8 acres you’ll probably need a couple extra batteries depending on how much work you want to do at one time.

[ken_sylvania]

Anyone have experience with battery powered string trimmers? I need to get a trimmer for an 8 acre property and would be nice to have one that can handle trimming fence lines and tall weeds.

I've used a Dewalt 60V a time or two and it just didn't have the pep and speed of a gas powered trimmer, plus the batteries went dead faster than the charger could charge them.

Are the Ego's or the Ryobi's any good? Or does a person just have to figure on dropping $1k to get an electric trimmer that can stand up to a gas job?

The Ego one I have is fabulous. Takes the heavier .095” line. I use it for cutting blackberries and tall weeds around my property. It is as powerful as the Stihl commercial trimmer I used to have. I also have an Ego mower and leaf blower.

Pro tip. You can get aftermarket batteries for these things on Amazon that will save you a ton of money over the Ego branded batteries. They work fine. Just get one with lots of reviews. Half the price of Ego tools is in the batteries it seems.

With 8 acres you’ll probably need a couple extra batteries depending on how much work you want to do at one time.

Do you know which model you have and what head is on it? Is it an auto feed or bump feed?

[Ken]

Anyone have experience with battery powered string trimmers? I need to get a trimmer for an 8 acre property and would be nice to have one that can handle trimming fence lines and tall weeds.

I've used a Dewalt 60V a time or two and it just didn't have the pep and speed of a gas powered trimmer, plus the batteries went dead faster than the charger could charge them.

Are the Ego's or the Ryobi's any good? Or does a person just have to figure on dropping $1k to get an electric trimmer that can stand up to a gas job?

The Ego one I have is fabulous. Takes the heavier .095” line. I use it for cutting blackberries and tall weeds around my property. It is as powerful as the Stihl commercial trimmer I used to have. I also have an Ego mower and leaf blower.

Pro tip. You can get aftermarket batteries for these things on Amazon that will save you a ton of money over the Ego branded batteries. They work fine. Just get one with lots of reviews. Half the price of Ego tools is in the batteries it seems.

With 8 acres you’ll probably need a couple extra batteries depending on how much work you want to do at one time.

Do you know which model you have and what head is on it? Is it an auto feed or bump feed?

I don't know the model. I've had it maybe 8 years so it is an older one. It has a straight shaft not bent. It is the bump feed which works fine. I don't use the pre-cut Ego line. I just buy a big spool of generic line from Home Depot and measure it out by hand. About 12 feet will fill it so I just pull out two arm lengths and cut it.

[ken_sylvania]

The Ego one I have is fabulous. Takes the heavier .095” line. I use it for cutting blackberries and tall weeds around my property. It is as powerful as the Stihl commercial trimmer I used to have. I also have an Ego mower and leaf blower.

Pro tip. You can get aftermarket batteries for these things on Amazon that will save you a ton of money over the Ego branded batteries. They work fine. Just get one with lots of reviews. Half the price of Ego tools is in the batteries it seems.

With 8 acres you’ll probably need a couple extra batteries depending on how much work you want to do at one time.

Do you know which model you have and what head is on it? Is it an auto feed or bump feed?

I don't know the model. I've had it maybe 8 years so it is an older one. It has a straight shaft not bent. It is the bump feed which works fine. I don't use the pre-cut Ego line. I just buy a big spool of generic line from Home Depot and measure it out by hand. About 12 feet will fill it so I just pull out two arm lengths and cut it.

Thanks. Appreciate it!

[RZehr]

I use a Milwaukee electric weed whacker. I really like it. But I just use it to trim around the edges of my lawn. I would be hesitant to depend on it for fences on 9 acres. I can’t imagine it would be significantly different than the Dewalt. But it has been a very good tool for me. Dependable, and effective, no problems at all.

[steve-in-kville]

I use a Milwaukee electric weed whacker. I really like it. But I just use it to trim around the edges of my lawn. I would be hesitant to depend on it for fences on 9 acres. I can’t imagine it would be significantly different than the Dewalt. But it has been a very good tool for me. Dependable, and effective, no problems at all.

A year ago, I had to upgrade my cordless drill. Was an 18V Dewalt fan since the late 90's. Worked in construction and did lots of home improvement stuff with those tools. But couldn't get good batteries anymore. So I switched to Milwaukie last year.

I really wanted a gas-powered hedge trimmer, as we have lots of bushes, bamboo and the like. But I could not justify the cost of having another engine to maintain. I discovered that Milwaukie makes a cordless trimmer that used the same battery as my drill, so it was an obvious decision for me. I had just sold some radio gear on eBay (never doing that again!) so the funds were there.

Haven't looked back since.

[Neto]

We have had a Kobalt weed wacker and leaf blower that use the same 40 volt battery for some years, the weed wacker the longest. My son rebuilt the original battery, converting it from 2 amp hour to 4 amp hour, but we need a more robust spot welder to build the batteries inside. Buying the internal batteries to replace the old ones is a lot cheaper that purchasing the entire battery module.

My only complaint on the Kobalt weed wacker is that the plastic grass shield (on the cutter head) cracked, and I was not able to find any place where I could get a replacement. I plastic welded it back together, but I didn't get it hot enough, because it came back apart. (I had added a sort of reinforcement plate over one area where there was room to do that, but I didn't get it sufficiently bonded to the original plastic. I just use a large electric solder iron to weld with.)

Living in town the noise level is terrible, what with all of the neighbors running their 2-cycle leaf blowers & weed eaters. Then there are the lawn service people who have really big ones that make some really serious noise.

I also have a corded electric chain saw. Had a Craftsman gasoline one for many years - still have it, but it is really hard to start. The electric saw is also a Craftsman, and while getting to the back of our lot requires more than 125 feet of cord, it is really handy for trimming. No need to keep it running while moving from one spot to another. I had been eyeing a 40 volt Kobalt one that was on sale, but out of stock, and they were supposed to notify me when it was back in stock. (As they say in Brazil, "Sempre tem, Sempre falta.") By the time they had them again, the price had shot way up. Got the Craftsman corded one on sale for a really decent price, so if I end up needing to run our small generator to power it farther from an electric source, fine with me. My experience is that it is much safer to use than a gasoline one. Sure, a battery powered one would be even better in many ways, but I don't have to worry about running a battery down, either. As others have said, the battery packs are the most expensive part of those tools, and they continually change battery design.

(I have three different types of battery drill\driver tools. The first one is a 12 v Milwaukee that I bought back in 1991. That was the highest voltage battery drill/driver back then. Being 12 v was handy, because I made an adapter to run it directly off of the solar array system we had in the village, and also used the battery in a 12v flashlight we had - it wasn't a Milwaukee, made an adapter for that as well. It still runs, but I need to rebuild the battery packs. Next is a 14.4 v DeWalt. I actually have two of those - picked one up in the free stuff box at a garage sale. It just needed to be cleaned up inside, and the contacts cleaned with emery cloth. I got my wife a 12 v Makita drill/driver for Christmas several years ago, and it's really a nice size and weight for her. It also gets into much more confined spaces. Later bought a Makita 12v vibrator trim saw for remodeling work, then more recently saw a drill and impact driver set on an auction. That little impact is a lot more powerful than one would think. Sorry, off topic....)

[mike]

Anyone have experience with battery powered string trimmers? I need to get a trimmer for an 8 acre property and would be nice to have one that can handle trimming fence lines and tall weeds.

I've used a Dewalt 60V a time or two and it just didn't have the pep and speed of a gas powered trimmer, plus the batteries went dead faster than the charger could charge them.

Are the Ego's or the Ryobi's any good? Or does a person just have to figure on dropping $1k to get an electric trimmer that can stand up to a gas job?

The Ego one I have is fabulous. Takes the heavier .095” line. I use it for cutting blackberries and tall weeds around my property. It is as powerful as the Stihl commercial trimmer I used to have. I also have an Ego mower and leaf blower.

Pro tip. You can get aftermarket batteries for these things on Amazon that will save you a ton of money over the Ego branded batteries. They work fine. Just get one with lots of reviews. Half the price of Ego tools is in the batteries it seems.

With 8 acres you’ll probably need a couple extra batteries depending on how much work you want to do at one time.

I have both a DeWalt 60v and 20v and even the 60v doesn't do what the gas trimmers do. I have an Ego snowblower and I really like it, I would guess it throws snow like your average gas model. So I would guess that an Ego trimmer would be a good way to go, and if you ever get any other Ego tools, the batteries are all compatible. Ego specializes in outdoor tools unlike brands like Dewalt and Milwaukee so it stands to reason they would be a good option.

[Heirbyadoption]

Anybody tried Stihl's battery trimmers? I need something fairly tough as well, have been looking at electrics.