As the subject says, has anyone here had any experience of the following
grass trimmer?

Argos catalogue, item number 721/7872

http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/st...roductId=92907

Made by Challenge, it's rechargeable, 18v power and £25 - Looks OK from the
catalogue but then everything else does too!

The garden isn't that big (100m²) so I would have thought that battery life
shouldn't be an issue but I'd be interested to hear if inyone has seen or
used one.

If it's rubbish, any decent alternatives that don't cost too much? The only
other cordless model in Argos is a Black & Decker one for £60 (bit too much
for my liking!)


Cheers for any advice you can give


R

Update to my original post - B&Q seem to be selling exactly the same model
under a different name

"Performance Power PWR18VSGTA 18v Cordless Grass Trimmer " and for £30 as
opposed to £25

The url is :-
http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/produc...40&paintCatId=
Anyone used that one and have any thoughts about it?

Cheers

R

On Sat, 24 Apr 2004 18:26:42 +0100, "Random"
wrote:

Update to my original post - B&Q seem to be selling exactly the same model
under a different name

"Performance Power PWR18VSGTA 18v Cordless Grass Trimmer " and for £30 as
opposed to £25

The url is :-
http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/produc...40&paintCatId=
Anyone used that one and have any thoughts about it?

Cheers

R

There was one in Aldi last week for 19.99, looked the same, but i'm
not sure of the spec though ?

regards
Tim

Update to my original post - B&Q seem to be selling exactly the same model
under a different name

"Performance Power PWR18VSGTA 18v Cordless Grass Trimmer " and for £30 as
opposed to £25

The url is :-
http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/produc...40&paintCatId=
Anyone used that one and have any thoughts about it?

Cheers

R

There was one in Aldi last week for 19.99, looked the same, but i'm
not sure of the spec though ?

regards
Tim

I bought one of these a couple of years ago from B&Q and thought that
it was a waste of money, it`s still sitting in the corner of the
greenhouse rarely used.The battery is supposed to give 30mins running
time but I found that was not so, maybe I expect too much from a cheap
item.
kate

Random wrote:
As the subject says, has anyone here had any experience of the
following grass trimmer?

My old chum Ron used to say, in a wonderful aberdeen accent "That which is
cheap is generally very nasty".

I've used a lot of tools with these rechargable batteries, and been
dissapointed in every single one of them. Mains powered drills are hundreds
of times better than battery drills, electric screwdrivers run out far too
quickly and are heavy and clumsy. The number of recharge cycles is not very
good: ususally they put a thermistor in the battery and stop charging when
it reaches a certain temperature. That might make the charger cheap and
simple, but it seems to boil the batteries very quickly.

Based on all that, I'd be surprised if something normally based on a small
internal combustion engine could be usefully made round battery drill
technology.

On Sun, 25 Apr 2004 13:43:12 +0100, "Robert E A Harvey"
wrote:

Random wrote:
As the subject says, has anyone here had any experience of the
following grass trimmer?

My old chum Ron used to say, in a wonderful aberdeen accent "That which is
cheap is generally very nasty".

I've used a lot of tools with these rechargable batteries, and been
dissapointed in every single one of them. Mains powered drills are hundreds
of times better than battery drills,

Rubbish. Battery powered drills can now do almost everything a mains
drill can, the technology leap is amazing, and boy how convenient.

see below

electric screwdrivers run out far too
quickly and are heavy and clumsy. The number of recharge cycles is not very
good: ususally they put a thermistor in the battery and stop charging when
it reaches a certain temperature. That might make the charger cheap and
simple, but it seems to boil the batteries very quickly.

Based on all that, I'd be surprised if something normally based on a small
internal combustion engine could be usefully made round battery drill
technology.

Of course you are quite right in the rest of your post. In the old
days you could trust a tool to do it's job. These days they are
starting to realize just how gullible people are and are making tools
that we THINK we might need, but we'll never use and therefore they
can be made of crap because they are crap. and that includes the
latest batch of power drills at £20 etc

Not many people even use these "bargains" let alone return them
because they are crap.

But we simply must have them, too good to miss etc, etc.




To avoid grizzlies, the Alaska Department of Fish & Game advises hikers
to wear noisy little bells on clothes and carry pepper spray. Also watch
for signs of activity: Black bear scat is smaller and contains berries;
grizzly scat has little bells in it and smells like pepper.

On Sat, 24 Apr 2004 18:11:20 +0100, "Random"
wrote:

~As the subject says, has anyone here had any experience of the following
~grass trimmer?
~
~Argos catalogue, item number 721/7872
~
~http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/st...roductId=92907
~
~Made by Challenge, it's rechargeable, 18v power and £25 - Looks OK from the
~catalogue but then everything else does too!

Please don't! It was a Challenge Argos special I bought three years
ago for £40 with two batteries and which had a pathetic battery life
It was 10 mins at full power per pack to begin with, and five mins of
failing speed. After a year I could only strim for five minutes a
battery before it became too weak to cut even normal grass edging. My
garden is only 30'x20' which is even smaller than yours...

~The garden isn't that big (100m²) so I would have thought that battery life
~shouldn't be an issue but I'd be interested to hear if inyone has seen or
~used one.

100m² can be deceptive - is that 10 x 10m (ie 30'x30') or is the
garden a lot thinner (and therefore longer)?
An electric strimmer plus a good extension lead plus a circuit breaker
would be much better if the garden is relatively short.
If you are out of mains line range, and you can't afford a cheap
petrol strimmer, I would recommend saving till you can...

~If it's rubbish, any decent alternatives that don't cost too much? The only
~other cordless model in Argos is a Black & Decker one for £60 (bit too much
~for my liking!)

I've said it in lots of other 'cordless strimmer' threads over the
past year or two, and will doubtless say it again - you get what you
pay for.
But in my experience of all three types, cordless electric strimmers
cut worse than mains electric which in turn cut much worse than a
cheap petrol etc etc. Conversations with other folk at my allotments
who had cordless battery strimmers for the paths showed we were
unanimous in agreeing that they were rubbish.

A cheap petrol one knocks spots off any electric strimmer, but will
set you back about £100, once you've added in a petrol can, 2 stroke
oil, fuel mixing bottle and the first lot of petrol. Not forgetting
eye protection and hearing defenders but you'll need those anyway.


--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

Please remove onmaps from replies, thanks!

In message , Robert E A
Harvey writes
Random wrote:
As the subject says, has anyone here had any experience of the
following grass trimmer?

My old chum Ron used to say, in a wonderful aberdeen accent "That which is
cheap is generally very nasty".

Indeed - and for the frequency that you need a strimmer it may be worth
hiring one a couple of times a year rather than buying a piece of cheap
junk.

I've used a lot of tools with these rechargable batteries, and been
dissapointed in every single one of them. Mains powered drills are hundreds
of times better than battery drills, electric screwdrivers run out far too
quickly and are heavy and clumsy.

That is being a bit too unkind - modern battery powered electric drills
carry enough juice to be useful and can be used where there is no mains
power. And power screwdrivers are very popular with the folk who need
them.

The number of recharge cycles is not very
good: ususally they put a thermistor in the battery and stop charging when
it reaches a certain temperature. That might make the charger cheap and
simple, but it seems to boil the batteries very quickly.

Based on all that, I'd be surprised if something normally based on a small
internal combustion engine could be usefully made round battery drill
technology.

Batteries tend to be rather bad at powering bigger tools like hedge
trimmers so I would expect the same problems of weight and power
capacity/recharge failure would afflict a strimmer too.

Regards,
--
Martin Brown