Choosing an electric trimmer

Neat and well maintained lawn - decoration of any yard and garden plot. Hand-cutting the grass carefully and evenly is too time-consuming, so progress comes to the rescue by giving us a variety of lawn care tools. It remains only to decide which of them - to choose a lawnmower, motokosa or a trimmer.

Purpose of the tool at the dacha

Electric garden trimmers are designed to care for small areas with difficult terrain and many obstacles (such as trees or flower beds). The trimmer is a metal rod on which the engine and the cutting head are mounted. Compact dimensions significantly increase the maneuverability of the tool and allow you to mow the grass in inaccessible for more dimensional equipment places.

Kinds

As the name implies, grass trimmers are equipped with an engine that can be operated from an electrical network or a battery.

They may differ in some design features:

• type of cutting tool (fishing line, wire or knives);
• engine location (top or bottom);
• handle shape (D-shaped or T-shaped).

Household

Home appliances have a small power (up to 1000 W, usually not more than 750 W). With a small engine power, the choice of the cutting element is limited to a fishing line of a small section (up to 2 mm). Such a tool is designed to treat the lawn with soft grass and can not cope with plants with thick stems and shrubs. The engine of such models is usually located at the bottom, which greatly simplifies the design.

The handles are D-shaped, it is a more comfortable option when processing small areas, and also reduces the size of the structure.

Professional

Professional tools have a layout in which the engine is located at the top and has a capacity of up to 2 kW. Such a powerful engine allows you to equip the cutting head not only with a fishing line or wire, but also with plastic or metal knives, which significantly increases productivity.

Such trimmers will easily cope with hard weeds and young shrubs. The T-shaped handle is more convenient when processing large areas where special maneuverability is not required.

Tips for choosing

There is a wide range of devices on the market, and knowing how to choose an electric grass trimmer, you can choose the best option, taking into account your needs and the price of the unit.

What to look for

There are several selection criteria to pay attention to first:

• Performance. This parameter depends on the engine power and design of the cutting head. It should be borne in mind that more powerful models have significantly more weight and significantly higher price. For a well-kept plot of 6 acres, power up to 750 watts is enough.
• Engine location Trimmers with lower engine arrangement have a significantly lower weight and price due to the absence of a transmission mechanism. However, such trimmers equip engines of lower power, respectively, they have lower performance.

• Pen shape. D-shaped handles are easier to maneuver, bypass obstacles and mow along curbs. With a T-shaped handle similar to a bicycle handlebar, it is easier to handle large areas due to a uniform load on both hands.
• The presence of belts. If the choice fell on a powerful model with the upper engine, you need to pay attention to the shoulder straps, they greatly simplify the work with the trimmer, removing the load from the hands.
• Manufacturer. A large number of this equipment is presented on the market in a fairly wide price range. However, it’s not worth buying a completely unknown brand in order to save money; in the event of a breakdown, you will not receive warranty repairs and there may be problems with spare parts.

What you can not pay attention

When choosing an electric trimmer, the presence of an anti-vibration system will be irrelevant — an electric motor does not create such a strong vibration as an internal combustion engine.

It is also rarely used the possibility of adjusting the height of the grass mow, so it is not advisable to overpay for this function. Electric trimmers with batteries are still quite expensive and at the same time do not provide long battery life. The weight of the structure at the same time due to the battery increases.

Advantages and disadvantages of an electro-trimmer

Usually, the final choice for small areas comes down to a trimmer for gasoline or electric, and the question of which one is better to use and has more positive reviews.

The electric trimmer has several advantages compared to its gasoline counterpart:

• less weight;
• low price;
• no harmful emissions;
• low vibration and noise;
• simplicity and low cost of service.

However, there are a number of drawbacks that also need to be noted:

• small range, limited by the length of the extension cord and the availability of the outlet;

• less power;
• inability to work in wet weather (after rain, watering or abundant dew) due to the risk of a short circuit.

With the right tool, summer will not be a series of boring gardening duties, and lawn care, if it does not become a pleasure, will be a problem.