Ryobi 36V Hedge Trimmer RHT3600

Great product – Easy to use Lightweight, but plenty of power. 36 volt battery interchangeable with other products in their range. Great after sales service. Goes well with other products from your he range we have bought Show details

Drive mechanism breaks easily – The drive is transmitted to the blades via a wound coil spring which absorbs some momentary overload by twisting the coil tighter. By our experience (and that of others) it seems that point of overload is not what one expects. It's not very helpful to quote thicknesses of materials being cut alone: so long as the material fits in the blades,… Read more

unless it is old hard timber ( or fence wire) the machine should cut it. If it doesn't, the machine should be designed to cut power to the blades without causing damage to itself, either by mechanical means such as a slip clutch (as is common in cordless drill torque settings), or electricallly. What actually occurs is the coil spring is wound so much that it becomes distorted in the centre area and doesn't return to its original shape, if it is sufficiently overloaded the spring breaks there and all drive to the blades is lost. The spring is not too expensive, but the machine, and gear drive housing, needs to be completely dismantled to replace it. I've already done this once and after little further use, I have dismantled it again to see that the new spring is ready to break at the next overload. If you are looking to cut only the lightest and easiest of materials with this you may be satisfied, otherwise you will be wasting time and money.

Not to heavy hedge trimmer – just use this few times, is pretty good cut because i use the lawn mower is same brand so i can use the same battery, power is enough, try to compare with other brand but purchased this one finally. same as other user said , you just use one speed only, other one is not enough powerful  Show details

Had it for 7 months - minimal use – Had this trimmer for about 7 months, worked well until today...it just died. I let it cool down and after that it’ll only work for about half a second...came back to bunnings and swapped it with the AEG 18V hedge trimmer which is $20 more than the Ryobi Kit but I feel it’s a better build and has better features + it comes with the charger and… Read more

a 6.0mah battery which is excellent and would last a lot longer than the battery that comes with the Ryobi kit.

Also the AEG has 6 year product warranty and 3 year battery warranty + it’s brushless & it weighs 3.0kg which is pretty good and also comes with a blade cover the Ryobi one didn’t.

Handy tool – Just used it yesterday and did a good job on my small hedge.I think it may not be so good for heavy jobs but for a small garden it is very handy.The extended 6 year warranty is also a big plus. As I say good light hedging and small gardens  Show details

Worst tool I have ever owned – I have had this for a couple of years now. Each spring I get it out and then forget what a heap of junk it is. How anyone can give it a good review (they must be working for Ryobi !) I don't know because it simply will not trim even a blade of grass let alone a small hedge. On even the smallest branches (less than 1mm diameter) it jams… Read more

continuously. I should have returned it when I first got it but it's too late now as it's out of warranty. I have lots of Ryobi tools and they are all great but the company should be ashamed of themselves for producing something as bad as this.

Cuts through lantana – I am clearing lantana and crofton weed by hand and need to get to the lowest points in order to cut the stems. Lantana grows in all directions and I was using a chainsaw to break the canopy to get into the lower stems. This is both cumbersome and inappropriate. I thought of using a hedge trimmer and started researching all options. I ended up… Read more

purchasing this one for a) the 2-speed option; and b) the claimed 24mm cutting thickness. I have used it all week and can highly recommend it. I use the low speed ("rough cut") option with the HedgeSweep attached and it cuts the stems very satisfactorily. I would give it 5 stars but for the crappy blade guard. It is a real pain to put on. So far, so good.

Worked well until it stopped – I have had this unit for 2 years ( out of warranty ) and used it regularly to cut a big hedge. Worked well and so much lighter than a petrol unit. Unfortunately it has no developed a problem in the gear box / blade unit and cannot be used anymore. Motor still spins, but blades only move intermittently and stall when cutting. Not really worth getting repaired, so back to the petrol trimmer, unfortunately.  Show details

Its good but not great – We have a decent size Murraya hedge (100 metres nearly 1.5-2metres tall). I was sick of the two stroke fumes and noise when it came to deciding on a replacement for our existing unit Japanese made petrol powdered unit. I was concerned about he cutting power and battery life being long enough to complete the job of the battery powered units. … Read more

The Ryobi RHT3600 has two speed settings. Really the slow speed is next to useless, unless you have all the time in the world and are doing a small patch of fiddly work. No doubt running on the second speed uses up more battery power. In short it didn't get the job done. Probably 2/3rds of the way around. (A second battery is nearly as much as the device itself.) Full charge time is nearly 2hours. Because these cordless tools are relatively new it seems difficult to get some idea about they are capable of.

It gets the job done in second speed; I would say as good as the petrol units that I own. I never really found it wasn't up to the mark power wise.

However. There are still some other considerations or things to be aware of.

1. There is a six year warranty EXCEPT on the "consumable" blades. Thats to be expected and hopefully they are something that are decent quality and can be sharpened. Time will tell. Cost for replacement blades and their quality are considerations. In effect, if the cost of replacing these is up there with that of a second battery (ie as much as the unit) they could have a ten year warranty on the product and it wouldn't really help.

2. There is only a three warranty on the battery AND the charger.

3. Despite not running a petrol motor its not quite with quoted noise of 85 dB (LpA) / 96 dB (LwA).

4. The way the cutter is designed it has a rib running along the top. It makes using the machine upside down (when doing hedges at or above head height) much more difficult (and no I am not talking about the plastic fin you can slide on to help clear as you cut)

Hope these comments help others in their choice.

Extremely poor performance and not fit for purpose – I purchased the Ryobe Expand-it 36v system with the line cutter. I had to buy the hedge trimmer attachment separately, problem is, it simply doesn’t work. It just chomps away bending and bruising without giving a clean cut. Anything over about 3mm diameter, forget it, it is totally useless, I would not recommend this product and will be returning it to Bunnings tomorrow morning.  Show details

Works great – Bought this last year. very easy to use, too easy in fact. Cut right through our cable because it was still running after I’d taken my fingers of the on/of switches , was running about 8 seconds afterwards. Nice lime green colour. Blades are rusting a bit because i don’t put it back into its plastic sleeve after I use it. I know.. my bad  Show details

Pretty good – I have been using for about 2 years (just the skin), have not had any issues so far. I use the battery that came with a mower. I use this to trim a hedge that is about 10m or so long -a fully charge battery never runs out during my use + plus it does trimming pretty well.

Excellent. Does what it is meant to do with ease – I have been using this hedge trimmer for 2 years and i love it. The power from the 36v battery is as powerful as the electric bosch that it replaced. The other reviewer must have been given a lemon because mine is very powerful and a delight to use. I have trimmed 15 to 20mm diameter branches of my tree lined driveway with ease. I hope that this… Read more

review helps you decide on this purchase. Bunnings are great for returns and especially on ryobi products as they are the exclusive dealers.

Hope this helps.

Totally Useless! – I purchase the hedge trimmer 3 weeks ago from Bunnings. Today I have returned it. The product should be recalled immediately by RYOBI. The cutting quality is terrible - I suggest someone from the company actually try and use the it to cut a hedge. The "gearbox protection" that is sold as a feature of the unit makes it unusable. Good luck… Read more

trying to cut anything like a 20mm branch as stated in the manual - this is false advertising. Cutting a simple Muraya hedge is impossible - the trimmer "locks up" constantly ...I then need to try and remove broken bits of branch from the blades - these are 4 or 5mm branches! Nothing like the 20mm quoted.

I have since bought the BOSCH 18v Hedge trimmer (it is cheaper than the Ryobi 36v) and its performance is spectacular! Never locks up, easily gets through 10 to 15mm branches.

Bunnings were great and refunded my money when I showed them how poorly it performs. I also have the 36v RYOBI lawn Mower and it is great! No complaints at all.