Makita DUH523Z

Advertising is so Dishonest – The Box said "18mm cutting diameter", inside the box the instructions say "Do not attempt to cut branches thicker than 10mm in diameter with the tool". You would be hard pressed to describe the way it smashes my 6mm twigs as cutting.

Perfect for light hedges – I have a two stroke Hedge trimmer already which has more power but is 3 times heavier. This little baby is lightweight, and has adequate power to do light hedges. And is better at shaping. Had two 3 amp batteries that came with my drill set. So just need to but the skin. Very happy with this so far. Show details

Light and very easy to manoeuvre but just lacking a little in power – Already had an electric corded powered Makita hedge trimmer but my wife was a frequent user and she found it somewhat heavy and cumbersome. The cord was also an issue and she was always concerned that it could end up in the trimmer and cut. Found the Makita DUH523Z hedge trimmer which had a similar size cutting blade (length 520mm) but the motor… Read more

section was smaller (and less heavy with the total tool coming in around 3.3kg all up) and, of course, no cord. Believed this would be a perfect alternative for her.

Now while these are hedge trimmers, technically, we have no hedges but have found it useful for just trimming bushes and similar in general. Along with being able to do it fairly easily and quickly. Clearly, thick branches are out of the question but for general “bushy” trees with a lot of foliage (and lots of twiggy branches) it has been ideal. It was my hope that the battery powered version would be similar.

Chose the Makita battery version as we are already in the “Makita universe” ...having a number of other Makita battery products that use the same battery/charger combination. By just buying the “skin” (device without a battery or charger included), it keeps the price down and we just share the battery/charger. The supplied instruction manual was very clear with written instructions supplemented with clear diagrams where required. Certainly a lot better than others who supply little in the way of written instruction and rely almost solely on diagrams.

Assembly was simple. Just take it from the box, remove the included blade covering (never buy a hedge trimmer without one of these), plug in the charged 18v battery and its ready to go. Just be careful of the blades as they are very sharp. Also, the cover for them is of a much lesser quality than the one supplied with the electric version and is also slightly harder to put on. You definitely don’t want to slip while doing this.

One of the first things I noticed was that despite the blade length being almost identical with the electric powered version, the individual gullets along the blade are much smaller. The blade itself was also narrower. These blades are very sharp so there is a safety mechanism on the handle where the grip must be grabbed and squeezed with one hand while there is a push button to be depressed with a finger of the other hand before you can wrap another finger around the trigger. It is extremely unlikely that you will accidentally activate this tool.

Using it, I noticed how much quieter it was to run but also, how much more easily it stalled when cutting through somewhat “thicker" branches. Branches that stopped it were no issue for its corded counterpart so I now understood why the blade width and gullets are smaller on it. Even if going through a hedge as intended, I feel you might still come across an occasional “thickish” branch which could halt it as there is not as much power available as I thought there might have been and the manual says it should not be used to cut through branches bigger than 1 cm. It would seem Makita decided that operators would be holding the saw high during normal “hedge trimming” use which meant weight would have been a larger concern in its design than with other tools. Consequently, they have made the decision to only use one 18v battery instead of the two 18v side by side batteries used across a number of their other tools which would have given it more power.

I can’t comment on run time as during its use, it simply hasn’t run out of charge (I’m using a 5.0aH battery). In any case, I would strongly recommend with any battery tool (regardless of brand) you always keep a spare battery on the charger ready to swap. The good thing with the Makita batteries are they only take between 40minutes to an hour for a full recharge. Battery power available is shown by four red LED’s on the battery itself. There is also a small led on top of the handle that flashes to warn of low power and goes "solid" to indicate no power (a bit redundant) or the tool has been stopped due to an overload.

Warranty is good with Makita supplying a standard 3 year warranty plus an additional 2 years if you register via their website. No complaints there.

Its built from typical high quality and robust materials that would be familiar to anyone who owns a Makita tool and feels like it will have a lengthy service life, however, I’d have to say I was slightly disappointed with the lack of grunt available … certainly compared to other battery Makita tools I own. Maybe the comparison with the similarly sized corded version was unfair as might be judging a hedge trimmer on its capabilities as a “bush trimmer”. Used as intended, it would probably prove sufficient. With its low weight and lack of cord it certainly is easy to manoeuvre and is great as a “grab & go” tool.

Great bit of kit – Bought this cause I was sick of using one with a power cord, a bit concerned that it would not be powerful enough just did all our hedges/shrubs and no issue whatsoever. Show details

Great Value! – This is my first trimmer and i like it! I already have the Makita batteries for this so the choice was easy. I did my research and tossing up between this model or the dewalt 18v battery version. For the cost, quality, safety and subtle looks the decision was for the makita. I don't have a big hedges so the slighter shorter length was fine. Also… Read more

i dont use the machine very much at all so there was no meed to spemd big. Can't go wrong with the Makita model for residential use.

Excellent design, performs well and good value – This product is very well designed and has excellent safety features. It is ideal for maintenance trimming between major cuts for which I use the Makita 240 volt model. I have just taken 150 mm of growth off of 25 metres of hedge and this tool handled it beautifully on one charge of a 1.5 Amp hour battery. The cost was reasonable at $129 and the… Read more

decision made easy since I already have the batteries and charger from an earlier power took kit purchase. It is early days but it performs well and is quite durable with good quality steel blades.

Easily met my expectations, simple safe and effective – I purchased this hedge trimmer yesterday for $125AUD after doing some online research. The 36v model was more than twice the price and the specs didn't seem to be that much different so I went for the 18v version. I have already pruned back several hedges and shrubs with absolute ease. This tool is light weight, simple to use, has a fool proof… Read more ·  1

safety system and is powerful enough for the majority of DIYers. This adds to my now 5 strong Makita LXT tool collection and everyone of them is a great tool and no regrets. This one is particularly good value.