AEG 58V Brushless 43cm Line Trimmer Skin Only ALT58BT

Works well, prefer to petrol equivalents, BUT doesn't last – Update Mar 2024: The line trimmer failed at about 3 years (the AEG chainsaw about 3.5 and brushcutter about 2 years). It became clear they wouldn't last the 6 year warranty period and AEG was unable to repair them. It also appeared there were no replacements available. All the batteries were on recall too. I think Bunnings and/or Milwaukee may have given up on AEG - at least this family.

Kudos to Bunnings for resolving the situation. The contact there negotiated a swap out of all my AEG tools and batteries for Ryobi equivalents. It turns out AEG is owned by Milwaukee as is Ryobi. The Ryobis have 6 year warranties and initial impressions are they work just as well as AEG, so I'm happy.

Footnote: I won't buy tools without a swap out warranty again - too much stuffing around.

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I live on a rural acreage and tools like this get heavily used. I burned through 2 Honda UMK435s and 2 Perla Barbs in 5 years. The AEG has outlasted all of those.

It does a really good job at what it's meant to do and is easy to use. It's lighter than petrol equivalents, which makes stomping around in gullies and on slopes a lot easier and it's just as effective. I carry spare batteries in a bumbag when I go out and the charge will outlast me.

Since getting this I've also bought the AEG 58V chainsaw and most recently the 58V Brushcutter. They all work well. Petrol chainsaws drive me nuts - start you b--stard!

The weak point was the batteries. I started with 3 batteries and in 2 and a half years each battery has been replaced twice. Fortunately Bunnings and AEG made exchange easier after a bumpy start when the batteries had to be sent back to AEG. Eventually AEG recognised there was a design fault in the original batteries and Bunnings now swap them on the spot. The new generation batteries are working well so far.

The thing to realise is that all batteries have a finite life, so you're not getting free power forever.

Overall I prefer all the AEG 58V tools to their petrol equivalents.

Update May 2023 (tool a bit over 3 years old and it has a 6 year warranty.): It started cutting out mid-use a few months back. I persevered for a while, but eventually it became too annoying, so I took it back to Bunnings who agreed it was not working properly and sent it off to AEG for repair.

Bunnings said it's a trade machine so it doesn't have a replacement warranty like say Ozito gear and could take 8-12 weeks to be processed by AEG.

If I was a trade user that would annoy me, as you'd need 2 machines on hand. Fortunately I also have the AEG 58V brushcutter, bullhorn version (which is a great machine for hacking at undergrowth such as lantana), so that will do in the meantime.