Black & Decker GT115 Garden Hedge Trimmer

I had a look around at the different trimmers and came to the conclusion I needed the longest one which was not too expensive. However, checking the prices, this trimmer worked out as exceptionally good value in terms of "cost per length" of blade. And its a Black and Decker! So I decided to take a chance and get it even though the blade is shorter on paper than I was ideally looking for.

Need not have worried, the blade length is great. This trimmer is really excellent, definitely up to the Black and Decker mark. I have quite a few different types of larger shrubs trees and hedges with a mixture of leafy and woody/ branchy plants. Its feature are 1) lots of guts, no problem at all cutting thick branches e.g. >1cm (even branches you think it was never designed to get through can be chewed through) 2) light and balanced - I can stand on top of a ladder in a gentle breeze waving the trimmer around very easily and not worry about being dragged off by the weight 3) nice tidy clean accurate cutting - its just like cutting butter with a hot knife for the soft leafy folliage with thin branches, just wipe the blade over and its cut -- or a cold knife for heavier branches and hedges which is gluides smoothly through.

Its an acquired skill to use it like hair dressing and it took about half an hour of using it to start to really get the hang of doing more complicated manicuring of the hedges - my one criticism is the instructions could have some more tips on cutting technique but could have googled it.

A particular feature I like is hooking the most distant branches in the end teeth then powering on -- allows accurate cutting of thick branches beyond the length of the blade.

It has two switches which have to be pressed simultaneously by different hands to power on so no chance of chopping fingers -- and it stops very quickly on power off. Even so, I tell my kids to go away when using it and unplug when not use as it a pretty brutal piece of kit, lots of fun but definitely no toy. It would probably slice the cable easily if you got it in the teeth so I hook the cable over my sholder. After using it for an hour or so my hands were a bit numb but it does not last - should probably take a break using it now and again. Also, standing under it when cutting high level foliage you get coverred.

I had a look at the B&D website and saw this was a light duty machine - but I think a lot can be thrown at it comfortably. To have so much to do this was not up to the job then you would probably be looking to get a petrol machine. I could hand a bigger blade but if it was too much longer it would start to get unweildy to handle.

Dont forget to buy a couple of cheap power leads to go with it to get the reach from a power socket. Its ampage is low so I connect a couple of reels in series. I also use a earth leakage RCD plug adaptor in case the cable or machine get wet.

Wish I'd bought this 5 years ago!

Received very quickly. It is light and easy to handle only used once as yet but very pleased up to now.

I wanted a replacement for a B&D I have had for a number of years.
This one fits the bill to a T.
It was well packed,and delivered in very good time.