Janet Baraclough wrote in message
...
The message
from Kay Easton contains these words:


I have never used a hedge trimmer since they seem nasty heavy things
with trailing cables. OK, you fit a RCD, and if anything goes wrong, or
you cut the cable, the power goes off and the thing stops working.

I now notice that you can get cordless hedgetrimmer, which seem a much
better option

My neighbour tried cordless before his present electric trimmer, and
found it useless...the charge didn't last long enough.

I'm not sure that the weight would be much less than one with a
cord.I'd recommend you borrow or hire one first, to see if you've got
enough upperbody stamina in relation to your height and the hedge's
height. I haven't. I normally use hand shears with no problem, on our 50
yards of hawthorn hedge about 4ft 6" high, but recently borrowed my
neighbour's mains electric one for a trial. I am 5ft 2 and found
supporting the weight of it at hedgetop height pretty hard on the arms.
It's faster, but to be honest I didn't make nearly such a good job of
the hedge as I do by hand because my arms were tired almost from the
start. I'd rather do it by handshears, slower but much less strenuous.

But if I drop a cordless hedgetrimmer or do anything else silly with it,
it's not going to cut out, is it? So is it going to be a dangerous thing
for me to use?

Power cutters cut out when you release the safety button or grip, as
others have said. However, if you tripped and forgot to let go, both
sorts would still be running as you landed.

Janet.


I'm using a cordless one right at this moment (well not as I'm typing this
obviously) and it certainly has it's limitations re the thickness of
branches it can cut. For a well looked after hedge I would thing they are
just the job though. Another drawback however is the charge time. It will
run for 30 minutes only (continuously) and then needs a 5 hour charge, so
basically after 3/4's of an hour (depending on how fast you work) it's run
down again.

You need both hands on the machine to keep it running and hopefully your
reaction to put your arm out if you fell would prevent to much blood loss.
It stops extremely quickly aswell when it switches off.