I need to buy a long reach hedge trimmer as my new house is entirely surrounded by mature beach and laurel hedges. I don’t want the hassle of a mains lead, so it’s petrol or rechargeable. I worry about the reliability of mass market petrol trimmers in the long term, and I can’t really justify spending Stihl money. I am therefore considering a Bosch 36v rechargeable with an additional battery. Anyone had any experience of rechargeable please, or had good or bad experience with this or other brands?

We’ve got a bosch one. Not heavy and well balanced.The battery doesn’t last long so we need two to do what must be 10m of hedge at the front of our house. I think it would be frustrating with more to do. We have tow batteries and need to make sure both are charged ready – means you need to plan rather than just run and do it if the weather is good in the evening.

Has worked well for over 3 years. Tackling the occasional tidy and a couple of fairly hefty cut backs when we dropped the height 6″.

Tried battery ones, gave up and got the Stihl petrol one, expensive but I’m pretty sure it’ll be the last hedge trimmer I’ll buy!

I’ve one of those Bosch li ion ones and its teh awsums

I have a mains powered one for general donkey work and have just bought one of these:

http://www.gtechonline.co.uk/garden-tools/ht04-hedge-trimmer-branch-cutter.html

They’re pretty clear is only for domestic use and having received it yesterday, its clear its only a light duty device. That said, I mostly bought it for bracken and bramble clearance on our trails, and for that its going to be perfect.

Thanks for the comments, guys. Sounds like they work well, but if the battery needs charging after 10 metres then it will have to be petrol, as l have at least five times that much hedge, unfortunately. The laurel section is very tall for which I need a long reach trimmer. I agree with the Stihl comments, but their cheapest long reach model is well over £500! I’ll have another think about it.

Thanks again for the constructive comments.

Long reach trimmers are great commercially but its nothing a scaffold and batton wont deal with if you cant justify 500 quid

Id worry less about petrol engine reliability at your price than i would about li ion battery set ups

I’ve been thinking about that when a basic Stihl costs less than £250.