I have a medium sized garden and currently own an electric strimmer. I really hate the hassle of having to unroll an extension lead into the middle of the garden before I can strum the edges of the paths/fences etc.

Before I go and buy a £100 petrol strimmer (probably a Ryobi from B&Q), are the £50 rechargeable ones fine for the light kind of jobs I want, or are they pants and I will regret buying one?

I’ve got a petrol strimmer for big stuff but my wife used a corded electic one for garden duties (which I wouldn’t use because the flex is a pain in the arse).

I recently replaced the electric one with a Black and Decker 36v battery strimmer. It’s great. Plenty of charge for doing the garden, just as good as the corded and a pleasure to use. So much so that I strim the garden now and the wife hasn’t used it. Which, come to think of it, isn’t a good thing. It was over a £100 though.

I used to spend more time fixing my petrol strimmer than strimming so I got one of the ryobi 36V strimmers half price in a B+Q sale. its great, full charge does two full strims of the garden. Quiet too.

Sure it won’t be any good for heavy duty use but for my use its perfect.

I went through 2 ‘cheap’ strimmers before I bought a Honda 4 stroke which is a joy to use and hasn’t let me down in over 3 yeas. It was more than £100 though.