Makita DUN461WSF

Sturdy, reliable brand – Purchased this Makita Pole Hedge Trimmer kit (trimmer, charger and battery) to replace an older model Ryobi hedge trimmer with limited reach. The Makita is advertised as being light in weight (just 3.7kg with battery), which probably is considered trivial for someone young and strong, but for an elderly person like me, I did find it a tad weightier than I was expecting, but manageable nevertheless.

The blades are super sharp so be cautious, even when wiping down after use. It cuts up to 10mm shrub branches with ease. It’s rather quiet and unobtrusive too, which I thought was a plus. The thing I did find a bit annoying was the lock button. It must be pushed and held in (from either side) to firstly squeeze the trigger to start the trimmer. Once the trimmer activates, the button stays in by itself but if you happen to release the trigger even for a second, the button resets and the process needs to be repeated. I found having to do that several times while trimming more than a little irritating, to say the least.

I found it much easier to operate the trimmer with the blades in the straight position, because once the angle of the blade assembly is altered up to say 90°, the blade assembly and motor unexpectedly become top heavy making the tool somewhat unwieldy. Possibly not an issue for a younger person with a good grip, but for those of us of advancing years, it is something I thought was a definite flaw which was possibly overlooked.

Overall though, I gave the Makita Pole Hedge Trimmer four stars. It basically performed as good as I expected it would and I anticipate that once I’ve used it another couple of times, initial issues will likely be forgotten.