Black & Decker GTC1843L

worst purchase of 2020 – Heavy, hard to operate unless one has muscles like Charles Atlas. All of the weight is at the top of the trimmer. The power switch is at the bottom meaning that cutting at full extension is extremely difficult

No corners trimmed on this – The Black & Decker 18v Li Ion Pole trimmer does a great job trimming tallish hedges with out the risk of using ladders. Being cordless, it is much easier to use and walk around without the hindrance of a cord. This unit has plenty of power, in fact more than a corded Ryobi trimmer I used to own and it zips through foliage up to around 1 cm in thickness. The head rotates to different angles and can rotate 90 degrees to the pole for trimming the tops of hedges. I used it on a hedge around 3-4 metres high with no difficulties. It is easy to use and I am surprised by the quality. I always thought B&D was low grade, low quality junk. Definitely not the case, it is really robust, the parts fit together really well and it is just a well designed piece of kit. Being on a pole, this probably isn't the trimmer for low hedges, etc. but you could probably get by with it. It only comes with one battery and a slow charger. It takes around 3 hours to charge and I found I got around 25 minutes running time. A second battery would be handy but a quick charger even more so. These are available from Kogan. The battery and charge time is why I gave 4 stars and not 5. It is so easy and quick to use that I find I trim more regularly, rather than waiting till I can't bear it any longer. For what it is worth, B&D is owned by Stanley. The battery is almost identical to a Fatmax 18v battery I have. A small trim and I can charge the B&D in my Stanley quick charger (1 hour).