MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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I was toying with a petrol strimmer but it occurred to me that I bought a 18V DeWalt drill last year with two batteries, one of which barely ever even gets touched. DeWalt seem to have a limited range of strimmers, anyone got any experience thereof as an alternative to the petrol option??
Thanks in advance as always!
usual stw recommend what you have etc...
ive got a 36v makia strimmer and its superb so i'd imagine the dewalt is also good. Power lasts for ages, in fact ive never run it out. Its silent and nice to use. Brother has an 18v and also rates it but has a smaller garden
I've got a battery powered strimmer, it's amazingly good. I'd never go back to corded again. Depends on the size of the area you're strumming though as a petrol one will still be best for really big areas.
Might depend on the capacity of the batteries you’ve got. I bought a long reach hedge trimmer for my dewalt batteries and just used it to mow the meadow resulting from no mow May - three lawns worth of hay making only used one bars worth of charge on a 5amp hr battery
Look at the flexvolt 54v model. Not cheap mind. Also fairly weighty, comes woth big wide shoulder strap. P
We moved into a bigger house and needed a bigger strimmer+ hedge cutter.
We have had DeWalt strimmer and hedge cutter for a year and they have done exactly what I hoped for. Cut the hedge and edges with 0 faffing.
Our garden is not massive, so battery life might limit you.
We bought one big fat battery to share between the hedge cutter and strimmer.
The smaller batteries from our drill are there as a back up
I’ve got a DCM561, which came with the 5ah battery and like you, a selection of 2/4ah batteries in kits. I rate the strimmer, it’s very powerful and robust, I’m used to using the bigboy Stihl clearing saws with blades, which it’s obviously no match for but for using round the garden with the string line, the Dewalt is perfect. It is heavy on batteries so 4/5ah or bigger is needed, but you do get 20 mins or so (guessing here) which is perfect for most trim the edge of the lawn after mowing type duties.
Only annoyance is you can’t use a harness and I’d like to try with a grass blade but the head is no interchangeable.
I’d say go for it!
my makita has got a reverse function which is handy if you get caught in the vegetable netting or such like! I;m running it with 2x5a or 2x4a. (lots of work batteries)
I have a harness, i am sure you could rig one up if required
I've an 18v (not 36v) Makita one and it's great, the only niggle is the bump feed doesn't seem to work great, if I bump it hard enough to feed, it tends to cut out. So I just stop it and push the spool in whilst pulling the wire. So the DeWalt should be good too.
Previously had a Flymo battery strimmer (Flymo) and it was crap and wimpy when new, it didn't get much use before the battery failed and physically fell apart.
Got a few things from the Ryobi 18v One+ family and pretty impressed tbh. Ditched the 2 stroke strimmmer for battery power and have been pretty impressed. Pretty powerful and opposed to the petrol oil premix faff its grab and go with a brush down afterwards. 2 2.5ah batteries have a surprising runtime, charge quickly and I use it more than the petrol its replaced.
Overall, pleasantly surprised.
Went from a big Stihl brush cutter to the Makita 18v brush cutter
I use Bosch 5ah batteries as everything else I own is bosch blue.
As a strimmer never mind battery powered it's impressive. The battery power is just icing on the cake.
Yes I have the 18v DeWalt string strimmer, got it a couple of years ago.
It's decent, works well for home use. Would lack the grunt for any serious clearing kind of work.
A 4Ah battery seems good for 45mins + of work in my experience of using it to strim a couple of f km of local trails.
Great stuff thanks all - I have ordered the DeWalt one, reckon it'll be just fine for what I need, judging by these comments!
I have a DeWalt strimmer and it lasts ages on a 5ah.
I also have the hedge trimmer and lawnmower and can't fault any of the kit.
When I got the strimmer DeWalt had an offer on too claim a free drill (body only) so keep an eye out as I'm sure they are running the deal again this year
DeWalt batterys are surprisingly good. Ive just been using well for a few weeks a 35cm battery chainsaw Makita as I run Makita at home (DeWalt at work) .
Honestly it's been amazing more civilized than petrol and way more practical than a plug job.
Update: bought the DeWalt in the end - gave it its maiden voyage today - what a beast!! Think I may have over-specced, but knocks the spots off my old corded Black and Decker thing. And the string actually lasts more than one tree trunk.... Thanks for all the help.
I’d like to try with a grass blade but the head is no interchangeable.
Yep I’ve been caught out on that one.