Battery-powered braid: TOP-5 cordless trimmers

The Black&Decker ST 1823 mower is designed for processing cultivated lawns. With its help, it is convenient to mow young grass or dry vegetation left near flower beds and beds after winter. It is equipped with a spool on which 9 metres of fishing line with a diameter of 1.6 mm are wound. The reel has a mechanism for automatically releasing the fishing line as it is consumed. Rotating at a speed of up to 9000 rpm, the nylon thread cleanly and neatly cuts off everything superfluous, without crushing or damaging the stems of plants.

The trimmer handles are not adjustable. But this disadvantage is partially compensated by a telescopic rod that extends from the body or retracts into it. You can adjust the trimmer to your height or fold the tool into the most compact position before putting it in a corner or hiding it on a shelf.

The engine is located at the bottom, closer to the coil. The head, together with the entire rod, can rotate 90°, so you can not only mow grass on flat areas, but also make smooth edging of lawns along garden paths. To protect perennial plants that do not want to be damaged when mowing grass close to flower beds and bushes, a wire restrictive bracket is installed on the head.

The energy stored in a regular 1.5 Ah battery is enough for about 20 minutes of light work, like mowing a young lawn (that is, about 1-2 acres). But if you use an increased capacity battery (and all 18-volt batteries from the Black & Decker tool are suitable for this trimmer), then the battery life can be significantly increased. For example, a 4 Ah battery will last for almost an hour.

The weight of the GARDENA SmallCut Li-23R mower is only 1.7 kg. This is very small even by the standards of light battery trimmers (they usually weigh around 2 kg or a little more). The difference of 300 g may seem insignificant, but if you are a frail woman or an elderly person, you can't help but notice that even such a small reduction in the weight of the tool has a positive effect on comfort during work. On the other hand, the small weight of this trimmer is especially important because the handles are not adjustable. They cannot be tilted or adjusted to their height, so people with a height above or below average will have to contrive to hold the lawn mower correctly.

An interesting feature of this trimmer, which distinguishes it from many others, is the absence of a reel with a fishing line. Instead, a spindle with a knife is installed. The advantage of this system (which the manufacturer calls RotorCut) is that with an equal rotation speed (it reaches 9500 rpm), the knife lasts much longer than the fishing line, and the quality of the cut is higher. The knives are made of durable plastic, which slowly wears out under normal operating conditions (that is, when mowing young grass and dead wood with thin stems). Of course, if the plastic blade hits the stone, it will break. In this case, the tool is supplied with several spare knives at once. It is important to note that the blades for this trimmer are inexpensive and are freely sold as accessories. A set of knives costs around $ 10 — exactly the same as replacement heads with a fishing line for Gardena trimmers.

The trimmer is powered by a battery with a capacity of 2 Ah, which lasts for 15-20 minutes of work. Its only drawback is the fact that the battery is non—removable. That is, you will not be able to simply pull out the battery and put another one in its place, you will have to put the lawn mower on charge and wait a couple of hours before continuing to work.

GARDENA SmallCut Li-23R trimmer can be recommended to owners of small lawns with an area of up to 1-2 acres. If you have a bigger lawn, then a lightweight cordless lawn mower will be a great addition to the usual one. It can also be used as a tool for finishing beauty in narrow places, between flower beds and on the edges of lawns.

A distinctive feature of the Ryobi RLT-1831H20F manual lawn mower is its hybrid engine with a power of 250 watts. "Hybridity" in this case means the ability to work in two modes: from a battery, as a rechargeable tool, or from a 230 V mains, as a conventional mains trimmer. However, because of such an engine, the mower gained extra weight. It weighs 2.8 kg (without battery) — about 500 – 800 g more than other good battery trimmers.

In addition to the dual-mode motor, this tool has other interesting features. These include, for example, adjustable mowing width. It can be changed from 25 cm to 30 cm by moving the blade, which cuts off excess fishing line. That is, you can customize the tool for different types of work: mowing the lawn with wide sweeping movements on a flat area or neat and precise cutting of grass in narrow places, between bushes and flower beds.

The rotary head has three fixed positions: for ordinary mowing, for processing lawn edges and for storing tools in a cabinet in an upright position. A reel with automatic fishing line feeding is installed on the head. The angle of inclination of the front handle is adjustable, and the telescopic rod can change the length so that you have the opportunity to adjust the trimmer to your height.

The Ryobi RLT-1831H20F trimmer is sold with a 2 Ah battery (but there is also a version with a 2.5 Ah battery), from which the tool can mow lawn grass of medium density for about 24 minutes. If your lawn has an area of more than 1-2 acres, then it makes sense to buy a replaceable battery of increased capacity (for example, for 5 Ah – the mower can work up to an hour from it) or stock up with an extension cord to use all the possibilities of a hybrid motor.

The Bosch EasyGrassCut 18-230 trimmer, like other types of Bosch "green" garden equipment (lawn mowers, shredders, blowers, aerators or brush cutters), is designed not for professional work, but for the care of a household or suburban area. In terms of power and performance, it roughly corresponds to a 280-watt Bosch EasyGrassCut 23 network trimmer. With such characteristics, you should not take a swing at aspen, milkweed or other plants with stems as thick as a finger. The element of this lawn mower is the mowing of lawns, for which constant and regular care is carried out. It takes young grass well, as well as stems of plants that have survived the winter.

The trimmer with the installed battery weighs 2.1 kg. It has a good weight distribution, and the front handle can be adjusted according to the angle of inclination. Therefore, users of any height will be able to work without taking uncomfortable poses. Mowing of grass is carried out using a 1.6 mm diameter fishing line tucked into a trimmer head with a semi-automatic feeding mechanism. The head rotates at a speed of 8500 rpm, ensuring clean mowing and accurate cutting of stems.

The mechanism of turning the head is made very interesting and as convenient as possible for the user. It is enough to press the button to unlock it, which is located on the handle, and slightly tilt the lawn mower with a brush movement — and the head under its own weight will move from a horizontal position (designed for mowing lawns) to a vertical one (for trimming edges) or vice versa. All this can be done in one motion without bending down to the ground.

A big plus of garden equipment with such a big name as the Bosch company is the availability of service centers and shops throughout the country where you can buy spare parts and accessories necessary for the operation and repair of the tool. Buyers of the Bosch EasyGrassCut 18-230 trimmer may also find it interesting that the battery (with a capacity of 2 Ah and a voltage of 18 V) from this lawn mower is compatible not only with Bosch garden equipment, but also with some Gardena, Gloria, Wagner andRapid.

The Makita UR 100DWAE mower, like other battery-powered trimmers, is designed for mowing lawns in small areas. It can be used as the main tool for lawn care (if its size does not exceed a couple of acres) or as a clever "partner" to your main lawn mower, able to get into the most inaccessible places of the garden.

The design of the tool provides maximum comfort for the user. The trimmer weighs only 1.9 kg and is well balanced: neither the front part (with the motor and the spool), nor the back (with the handle and the battery) outweigh and do not pull you forward or backward. The device turns on smoothly and without jerks thanks to the "soft start" function. A telescopic straight rod and a convenient front handle with an adjustable tilt angle allow you to adjust the mower to suit yourself. Even the small details are well thought out: there is a hook for attaching the shoulder strap, and LEDs are duplicated on the handle, informing about the battery charge.

The trimmer head rotates to process the edges. A wire fence can be installed on it, which serves as a restrictive bracket for plant protection. As a standard equipment, there is a mowing head with a fishing line. But instead you can buy a nozzle with plastic knives (article 198848-3 in the catalog of accessories for Makita lawn mowers). Thanks to the simple design, the operation to replace the heads can be done independently without contacting a service centre.

The Makita UR 100DWAE trimmer is equipped with two batteries at once (with a capacity of 2 Ah). Each of them provides up to 19 minutes of battery life. Similar 10.8-volt CXT series batteries are used in many Makita tools. If you already have such a battery (for example, from an electric jigsaw, saw or screwdriver), then you can save a lot and buy the trimmer itself without batteries.