I’ve been looking to buying a hedge trimmer but with so many to choose from, it’s driving me up the wall - pun intended!
It will be used to cut/trim light hedge three or four times a year.
Plus:
Budget is £350.
I have considered the Stanley Fatmax 20, Bosch, Black&Decker and a few others
Any recommendation is much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
I’ve got a Makita one, that does a good job and is telescopic with an adjustable angled cutter.
Has a shoulder strap and can be used either at ground level or on a short step ladder.
You may like to consider the STIHL HLA 56 Cordless Long Reach Hedge Trimmer with adjustable head (from -45° to +90°). I have the same trimmer but without the long reach and it is excellent:
Definitely don’t go the crappy Bosch, B&D or Stanley route.
The only ones worth looking at are Stihl, Husqvarna & Makita. Not in any order.
Yep……they are all good
I would like add that the hedges are 3X2 metres long only and hardly worth spending on semi/pro machines that won’t be used to their full potential.
Thanks once again for the replies.
I can’t speak from personal experience but the Stihl HSA 56 is a recent “Which?” Best Buy. Looks like £269 from a quick scan of Amazon, including battery and charger.
I have one of these - it’s brilliant.
For trimming a small hedge, a quality pair of hand shears may do the job.
Pro quality, but only about £80 for a pair of very sharp Okatsune shears.
Not good as it needs to have an extendable pole and the hedge, from floor, is quite high and I don’t want to do ladders. Thanks for the suggestion.
Height/top of the hedge is the problem, FC. Cheers anyway.
This is the only hedge trimmer I need. Simple, reliable, and no power required. I keep the hedges down to about 2 metres in height so it’s easy enough to reach the top.
Your budget extends to £350, which will afford Makita, Stihl or Husqvarna. The label ‘pro’ is a bit misused. These are machines that do the job without hassle, fast, efficient and for years. Those other cheap makes are basically toys. I don’t mean that in a snobby derogatory way, they’re just junk. Also, when you get one of these decent makes, especially the Makita, you get the battery and charger, and your whole diy world system opens up. And I don’t just mean diy. Loads of different uses.
I have found the best and most reliable are still corded. Lighter, much cheaper than the better cordless models and in my experience tougher. Controversial?
Using one with a cable is not so difficult!
Might be persuaded to a high quality cordless one if I needed a system with multiple components and shared battery packs. A 45 min runtime won’t be cheap though.
Bruce
Rent a proper one instead of buying a consumer item, way less expensive in the long run and way better.
Once you’ve invested in a specific vendor the batteries are interchangeable between all the tools, you can then just buy any specific tool without any battery and swap them around as needed. The positive I found with the Makita range is they also support dual battery 36v in some higher drain products, like lawn mowers (got one of them as well).
The Makita trimmer I’ve got isn’t particularly heavy even with the battery attached and has a shoulder strap anyway to take the strain. You’d imagine, “oh, I won’t use it much” but in fact you do end up using these things quite often, I do both my neighbours hedges for them as well.
Ive got a double charger so you can always have at least a few batteries handy.
You may find it cheaper in long run to just get a decent one. I have killed 3 chorded one’s (Titan, B&D, Bosch) in 6 years cutting these hedges:
Stihl here.
Well, after much search and head scratching I found a promo for a Stihl HLA 56 with 2x AK20 batteries and charger all for £399.00 which I thought was a pretty good deal.
Thank you so much for all your suggestions. Eternally grateful!
Good choice Tony. I bought two stihl hedge trimmers within the last 2 years and have not regretted the decision. Two batteries 
