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What can I expect from a commercial hedge trimmer

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#22 ·
Hurryupelectric said:
I appreciate your input up to here, it's so much easier to swallow an investment like that if I don't have to go through the whole sharpening ritual, like seriously. While I want to press the subject of gas being a necessity by my nature, I'll just soak up everything I can here.
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You've seen my trimmer in the other trimmer thread recently.
I've never sharpened it.
Now I'm embarrassed to say just how long I've owned it.
It NEEDS sharpened, but it still cuts just fine - it's just not cutting as cleanly as it should be.

Note to self: Drop off trimmer attachment to be sharpened before season starts.
 
#23 ·
I’ve also got an articulating hedge trimmer attachment for the KM131, that’s what I’m upgrading to for the thick stuff this season, and the old 45 is getting backup duty. I’ve tested the attachment with the 131, nothing slows it down. The one problem is that it’s pretty heavy, but the power more than makes up for the weight
 
#25 ·
Perhaps these OPE and HH supply issues have resolved some?

14 months ago I was faced w/ buying a new hedge trimmer...as usual, did my exhaustive research and arrived at a SOLID conclusion of brand and model...called my dealer of choice only to find that what I wanted I couldn't get.
IOW, you might find out what brand/models you can buy - then choose from those to best fit your needs.
 
#26 ·
Trees Too said:

And....
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@Trees Too

You should not post non professional reviews of these hedge trimmer manufacturers tools here in the professional section of Lawnsite. I get it that a lot of brands are covered, but those reviews are by people who do not use these day in and day out. There is no longevity of quality in those reviews.

With that as stated, the first link you posted is an abysmal attempt at reviewing anything.
At least the second site you posted the fellow actually has his "nuts and bolts" in order and has a ton of specs and goes through each model fairly well. But again, still no long term outcome.

I guess the what is best said, "reader beware".
 
#27 ·
kemco said:
Wow. I'll be ridiculed for saying it but first will admit I've never used any combo. But I'd rather have the tool ready for the job and imo a combo attachment area... Where it attaches and detaches... is an area that will probably fail earlier than the rest of the unit .. my opinion again I've never used one. But I know people on here swear by the either echo or Stihl combo unit. So I'll digress to them. I know what our redmax units do. That's all I can vouch for. They are heavy effin duty.
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I will never get a combo unit. I think of it as a problem waiting to happen.
Closest Redmax dealer for me is 61 miles.
I can only vouch for stihl.
I'm impressed with the hs46
It made the battery units like a kids toy. IMO. I will wait to see how long I get out of it before going up to a commerical unit. If necessary.
I got around 20 hours on it so far.
No signs of it needing a sharpening.
 
#28 ·
@Hurryupelectric

After multiple threads and posts now in the last 3 weeks you should have a decent grasp for what is out there.

In my opinion you are definitely not in the department for going the battery hedge trimmer route yet. Stick with 2 cycle gas for now.

First things first. Do you have a Husqvarna, Stihl, RedMax, or Echo gas hedge trimmer dealer near you that you trust and like? That is kind of a biggie. Second would be are you going to get enough jobs this year to pay for that trimmer/combi unit within a month? Third is my opinion and use of Husqvarna and Stihl tools. I've always liked the Husqvarna hedge trimmers hands down over the Stihl units. I always feel the ergonomics are better. The smoothness of the tool is better. The vibration is a ton less with the Husqy.(always get a hedge trimmer with anti-vibe technology of some sort)
The Husqvarna is our choice.

Both Husqvarna and Stihl are very good and both have ample power. I would not purchase the lower end models from either brand though.

Don't beat yourself up over fidgiting about which one to get. If you have those 4 main brands I listed earlier near you, make the time to go play around with the models you have perused online at a dealership with.

Git R' done!
 
#29 ·
Also as @kemco stated, the real commercial brand hedge trimmers have fantastic steel for their cutting blades. From my post in one of the other threads with pictures, you can see how well they last and how tough they are.

@gardiner from your post above, the combi units are a great tool. Apparently some brands are better than others in the "attachment" engineering part. My Husqvarna 327ldx has lasted over a decade with every single attachment they make for it. That specific trimmer is only a full hard shaft from the engine to the attachment coupler. Some of the attachments are hard shaft and some are the slinky spiral style shaft. I have replaced the main coupler one time in over a decade of use. To this day I have never had to replace a hard shaft or spiral shaft on an attachment.

This for sure goes to show how well things last if you keep the combi unit and attachments properly maintained, lubed, clean and wear parts replaced before they cause issues or break.

I have entire crews that are taught the simpliest care and maintenence for trimmers and combi units. We don't have any issues breaking things at all. This goes for gas and battery units.

Then again each person is different. Each business is different. Every crew is different. Worked for a handful of companies before I went out and started my own. All the bad things and maintenence implications I learned from these businesses I nipped in the bud from the beginning. Happy and confident plus paid a career living "wage" troops can lead to proper use and care of any equipment and tools.
 
#30 ·
Hurryupelectric said:
Well I sharpened my Ryobi hedge trimmer meticulously last week in preparation for the big job today. I used a high grit grinding drum and deburred with a sanding disc to near perfection. I confidently approached the mature and unkempt bushes with a look of a cocky teenager on my face and began to cut. The mighty 40v Ryobi growled to life and began to slice through the foliage, before It's clutch started skipping on a pinky sized branch. In 30 minutes it was as dull as a butter knife and struggled the rest of the job, bah, humbug.
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HurryupE, aggressive grinding of the blade edge can cause the steel to heat up to a point where it can weaken the steel.

Quote pulled from post #8 from the link below "even with a belt sander cranked down to a low speed, I dip every pass or two (in cold water) (constantly moving the length of the blade along the belt). If the blade is too hot to hold, begins to show any color, or the water from dipping boils off, you've potentially already gone too far in destroying the heat treat."

I sharpen my own blades. I try to do it slowly and I keep spraying them down with cold water.

 
#31 ·
Not to mention if you grind the edge at the wrong angle you've likely made the trimmer less effective.

Personally, after all the reading I've done on this site from you and other in regards to handhelds....I'd get yourself a power head and then run the attachment paired up with your battery unit.

Keep using that ryobi for the little stuff, but you'll thank us later for buying the power head and attachment.

I don't use hedge trimmers a lot, but I do have the echo articulating attachment that I run on my pas 225 which is a small trimmer. Never had an issue with power on that setup. I use the greenworks battery unit for all the rest. I might spend 10 hours in total for an entire season trimming so keep that in mind, but the echo units are solid and they'll give you 2 years warranty if you are worried about the thing breaking, but it won't.
 
Discussion starter · #32 ·
sagesove said:
After multiple threads and posts now in the last 3 weeks you should have a decent grasp for what is out there.
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Yeah, I know I've continuously hit on this topic. I'm very well closing in on my direction. Similar to anything else I buy that's a noticeable investment it's a big production for me.

sagesove said:
In my opinion you are definitely not in the department for going the battery hedge trimmer route yet. Stick with 2 cycle gas for now.
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Would you explain this a little more? I'm starting to notice the shortcomings of some of my beloved Ryobi stuff and feel those areas are a great place to begin my transition into commercial equipment. The direction I am beginning to lean towards is a gas kombi system with only an articulating hedge trimmer, maybe a string trimmer attachment as well for the occasional tough biweekly ditches but I'm not really even taking those anymore.

What would be the reasons for your dissuasion of battery? Is it my intentions to use it for the toughest jobs? Having an odd piece of battery equipment not matching? I'm not jumping to invest in a full gambit of a battery kombi system but I could take the first step into a powerhead, battery, rapid charger and hedging attachment comfortably. But, even though I love me some electric tools, I also need to have a commercial powerhead on call.

sagesove said:
First things first. Do you have a Husqvarna, Stihl, RedMax, or Echo gas hedge trimmer dealer near you that you trust and like?
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I have everything but a redmax dealer reasonably close. The dealer I go to for my snapper and proline stuff has stihl and I have a relationship with them from restoring my Turfmaster.

The John Deere dealer also has stihl and I like them, they installed my quick chute for free and seem to turn around my few service drops quickly. I also have a hearty line of credit if I ever decided to take advantage.

The Husqvarna dealer is the furthest at 16 miles. I bought my kohler CV224cc from them and they seemed like a good shop.

I've found the redmax product line up to be lacking somewhat in size. I haven't yet searched for a dealer.

I do have to admit that I'm the most interested in the Husqvarna stuff. For a few reasons including your enthusiasm and success I've had with the sw15 in which you had a substantial impact on my buying. As someone who is eventually moving to a commercial set of battery handheld equipment I lean towards husky even though I'm going into a gas powerhead most likely initially.

sagesove said:
Second would be are you going to get enough jobs this year to pay for that trimmer/combi unit within a month?
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No way jose, in a month?? I mean are we talking about paying it off based on the gross revenue it brings in or what profit is left over from said jobs after my pay and other applicable expenses? Either way the answer is no lol. But, it took me 4 hours yesterday to trim the perimeter of a medium sized backyard with my Ryobi and if I could have done it in an hour then it might have paid off a good chunk considering the rate I quote at. Of course I quote jobs based on what I think it would take with the appropriate professional equipment and not on my toys when they can't do it efficiently.

However, if I decide the gas kombi system is a smart way to go then the cost would be spread over the list of things and multiple future uses, I think.

sagesove said:
Git R' done
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I'm trying Thumbs Up
 
Discussion starter · #33 ·
Wye Oak Tree said:
HurryupE, aggressive grinding of the blade edge can cause the steel to heat up to a point where it can weaken the steel.
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I'm not using a lot of force on them. I will however keep this in mind in the future incase I have used a little too much force and didn't pay any attention.
 
Discussion starter · #34 ·
rippinryno said:
Personally, after all the reading I've done on this site from you and other in regards to handhelds....I'd get yourself a power head and then run the attachment paired up with your battery unit.
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Your vote is for a commercial battery powerhead and hedge attachment? Of course this is what I want deep down but I think in this case I need to be open to gas, if absolutely necessary. On the other hand it took me hours to do a job that I believe should have been done in an hour and a half max with proper equipment. That being said if a commercial gas unit takes an hour and a commercial battery unit takes an hour and a half in such a task, I don't really see any reason for having a separate expensive gas powerhead. But then I think I should have a commercial gas powerhead as a failsafe.
 
Discussion starter · #35 ·
rippinryno said:
Keep using that ryobi for the little stuff, but you'll thank us later for buying the power head and attachment.
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I would like to put another year on my Ryobi handhelds to get my money out of them and just begin to replace things as they wear. The handheld blowers are great in my opinion, I hope they last me a long time under heavy use.

rippinryno said:
the echo units are solid and they'll give you 2 years warranty if you are worried about the thing breaking, but it won't.
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I should check back in on the thread about the new echo battery line.
 
#36 ·
are the husq power heads swappable like the sthil? IE you can buy your gas unit now with the attachments you want and later buy the electric power head? I bought our nursery staff one of the sthil electric backpacks. They ran it for a solid three hours last week and barley made a dent in the battery. I'm guessing the trimmer heads will use more juice so I'll likely pick one of those up for them in the future.
 
#38 ·
BrandonV said:
are the husq power heads swappable like the sthil? IE you can buy your gas unit now with the attachments you want and later buy the electric power head? I bought our nursery staff one of the sthil electric backpacks. They ran it for a solid three hours last week and barley made a dent in the battery. I'm guessing the trimmer heads will use more juice so I'll likely pick one of those up for them in the future.
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For $1500 and having to strap it on your back to run the trimmers, those batteries better run for a long time!
 
Discussion starter · #39 ·
rippinryno said:
my vote would be for the gas powerhead first. IF you are insistent on electric then yes an electric kombi or pas powerhead.
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This is along the lines of my current direction Thumbs Up

So if/when I get a gas powerhead I should get a bigger displacement one because it seems like most of the commercial battery powerheads are generally equivalent to a 22cc unit, give or take?
 
#40 ·
PAS powerhead with articulating hedge trimmer head has been my most profitable piece of equipment. As a solo, so many uses at the beginning but now it is pretty much dedicated to just hedges and power pruner. I started out with a 210 powerhead, plenty of power for trimming hedges, then 225 and currently 230. Next year I will probably upgrade to 2620 which is fantastic (used a string trimmer one last year helping run another landscaper's outfit while he was out with an ankle replacement). 10 years now, never been sharpened. In the same time, I have burned through 3 handle held trimmers (2 echos and 1 stihl) and they are only used when I can not fit the PAS in tight spaces.
 
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