Here we’ve provided details of some of our favourite small corded battery strimmers available on the market today. Below you’ll find a handy comparison table comparing the key features to look for when buying a strimmer, and below that a more detailed reviews of each model in the table.
Pricing Guide:
£ = £0-£40
££ = £40 – £50
£££ = £40+
Manufacturer and Model | Running Time | Cutting Diameter (cm) | Weight (Kg) | Other Features/Notes | Price | Rating |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bosch ART 23-18 Li Cordless Strimmer | 25 mins | 23 | 2 | ££ | 4.0 | |
Black & Decker STC1820-GB Cordless Strimmer | 20 mins | 28 | 3.3 | £££ | 4.5 | |
Flymo Contour Cordless Battery Strimmer | 25 mins | 25 | 3.2 | £££ | 4.5 | |
Trueshopping Cordless Strimmer | 45 mins - 1 hour | 23 | 3 | NiCAD Battery power, for small lawns, 5 hour charge time | £ | 4.0 |
The Best Battery Strimmers Reviewed
Bosch ART 23-18 Li Easytrim Cordless Strimmer
The freedom of a petrol strimmer, the price tag of an electric, and the name and prestige of Bosch. Sound good? That’s probably because it is. As one of the most popular cordless strimmers on the market, the ART 23-18 Li is a tried and tested product with a big following, and no round-up of cordless strimmer reviews would be complete without giving it a mention.
So how does it compare to its wire dragging cousins? Well for starters you’d be forgiven for thinking that carrying around its own power source would make this strimmer significantly heavier, in fact nothing could be further from the truth, at 2kg it’s about 25% heavier than most corded strimmers, but crucially it’s still by no means a problem for most people to lug around the garden quite happily for the 15 to 25 minutes of charge time that you’ll get out of it.
Like most cordless strimmers the Art 23 Li is powered by a lithium ion battery, it’s more than adequate for providing the power needed to strim around the trees and flower beds in small gardens, and with a charge time of between 2 and 3 hours you won’t be waiting around all weekend to get started.
Interestingly Bosch have opted to design this strimmer for use with specially designed plastic cutting blades rather than the usual spool of plastic cutting wire found on most strimmers. We can’t comment too much on whether this is a more cost-effective method, but it certainly improves the cutting performance which is important when you have a time limit imposed by the charge of the battery. Again though, don’t expect to be able subject this strimmer to anything too vigourous, the blades will snap if they come into contact with anything too hard or tough. If you’re used to having a spool of trimming line instead, this might take some getting used to.
Most of the gripes around this strimmer are subjective, and seem to be as a result of people expecting too much from it. Remember just because it’s cordless doesn’t mean it can literally be used anywhere, it’s for small gardens and light work only.
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Black & Decker STC1820-GB Cordless Strimmer
As a step up from the similarly named equivalent corded model, this strimmer is an obvious progression, the heavy duty sizing and power lend themselves perfectly to being allowed ‘off their leash to roam free’ about the garden.
Like other Black and Decker products this strimmer proudly boasts their so called ‘E-Drive’ motor technology, and in this instance it means that you can afford to be a little more adventurous with what you attack with the strimmer without having to worry about stalling the motor or breaking the cutting line.
Considering the power of the 18 Volt motor and the onboard battery, this strimmer is still remarkably light weight at just 3.3kg, perfect for munching your way through the 2.5 thousand meters of grass and weeds that you can get out of a single charge if you wish, and should you not use a full charge in one go, the lithium ion battery will actually retain it’s charge for up to a year and a half, meaning you can rock n’ roll again the following week without having to worry about recharging beforehand.
As with the aforementioned corded strimmer, this model has all the same versatility, a telescopic shaft with adjustable front handle, and ‘edging wheel’ to help cut edges at a uniform height, and an automatic spooling system for the cutting line, all in all a great intermediate strimmer if petrol power is an unecessary step too far and one of the best grass trimmers on the market.
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Flymo Contour Cordless Battery Strimmer
Though Flymo manufacture a smaller cordless strimmer, it’s really just a cordless version of their smallest corded strimmer, and as such it’s a bit of a gimmicky and uncessary embellishment. This model on the other hand is clear step up that warrents it’s cordless status.
Like the Black & Decker models this strimmer features a wheel to help you maintain a consistent cutting height when in edging mode, and like other models the transition from strimming to edging mode is carried out by depressing a foot pedal, an easy manouvre that won’t interrupt your flow. Another useful feaure is the ‘U’ shaped wire flower guard on the front of the cutting head to protect your beloved perennials as you strim perilously near to flower beds.
The only real drawback compared to the Black & Decker model is the battery, rather than a modern lithium ion cell this strimmer uses a traditional Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) type, which although holds it’s own in terms of energy storage, still suffers from losing charge over time. Having said that the technology is still cheaper than lithium ion, hense the favourable difference in cost between this and more expensive models.
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Trueshopping Cordless Strimmer
A lesser known name, offering a budget cordless strimmer? This surely deserves further investigation.
Though aesthetically it looks cheap, don’t let that fool you, this strimmer will compete with the best of them performance wise, and crucially there are no manufacturer specific parts such as cutting line to worry about, so it’s cheap to maintain.
Just like other strimmers the main stem is telescopic, meaning it can be adjusted to suit your own preference, and all the usual considerations in terms of balance and weight (around 3kg) have been adequately met.
The NiCAD battery power source may have its downsides, but it will certainly allow you to take your time as you go about trimming your borders – with a running time of between 45 minutes and and hour you shouldn’t have any problems, that said be aware that the motor isn’t the most powerful so this won’t be a substitute for a more powerful cordless or petrol strimmer if you’ve got a real jungle to tackle.
Cordless Strimmers Summary
Unlike lawn mowers it’s fair to say that cordless is almost certainly preferable over mains power when it comes to strimmers, largely because of the need to get into hard to reach areas, or around trees means that a cord has the potential to be a real nuisance, getting tangled up on obstructions. With a lawn mower the theory is you use it on the wide open expanse of a lawn, thus there is less chance of this happening. So our recommendation for anyone who needs a strimmer to get to places a lawn mower can’t probably also wants to get to places that mains power can’t either, so as long as the battery run time and foliage to be cut are are suitable for your needs you won’t have any regrets.
Like other strimmers, cordless versions vary in their power and cutting performance, with manufacturers offering various features to make life easier. The main thing to consider with any strimmer however is whether it is fitted with a double or single line cutting spool, as this effectively dictates how much you are able to cut, and how easily. Clearly less powerful models will only have a single line, whereas more powerful variants will have a double line. If nothing else it tends to be a good way to quickly gauge what level of work a strimmer is designed for.
If you’re not completely sold on the idea of a cordless strimmer, perhaps you like the idea of having that inherent level of freedom, but you don’t trust that the battery will provide enough power to last long enough to meet your demands, then there may be another option available to you. Ryobi have become the first manufacturer to come up with a hybrid corded/cordless strimmer. No doubt in time other manufacturers will follow suit, so this could become the strimmer of the future!