BLACK+DECKER 36V Cordless Strimmer with 2.0Ah Lithium-Ion Battery

Of all the gardening tools I've bought over the years, this item is one of the two most impressive.My garden in a 4 bed detached property is medium to large with lawns and borders front, rear and side, and a kidney-shaped rear rockery.Even on the lowest power setting (Eco), the machine trims all grassed areas and edges with ease. And in this setting, a fully-charged power pack will run for at least half an hour. If tougher area have to be tackled, like weed colonies (thistles and dandelion patches or wild rose suckers), cranking up the power turns the thing into a beast and makes short work of thinner soft brown-barked "unwanteds" and thick green shoots.The machine length and handle position is adjustable and a comfortable balanced position was easy to find. It's not heavy.The swivvel-head twists easily by pressing a recessed button to orientate the head for vertical spinning suitable for lawn edge trimming.The beauty of this machine is it's ease of use. It's well-designed, effective and inoffensive in any way. Although it feels robust, it's lightweight, well-balanced and thus controllable with some accuracy.The automatic reel feed mechanism is a joy by comparison with other rotary trimmers I've had.No trailing flexes and no messy two-stroke engine to mix, fuel-up and frustrate to an (eventual) ear-shattering, white-knuckle start! This item just... works. Slide the battery pack in, straight out of the charger - in which it sits fully charged and waiting - click in position and it's good to go. Neat clean and easy!An array of four green LEDS on the battery pack indicates full, running down progressively as you use it. I've never run out of power easily enough to get round my entire garden front and rear in one session. I got down to one green light on... once... after a particularly heavy session.I've now had the pleasure of using this great trimmer for over a full year's growing season. I'm still on the same line reel I started with although I did buy a spare as a precaution against my potentially inept use. But the ease of use of this trimmer has meant my accuracy is better and thus I don't lose long lengths of nylon unproductively.Finally, it's the quietest trimmer I've used. So far, I can't fault it and consider it one of my wisest purchases.It's right up there with my twenty-five year-old petrol-driven lawn mower, as my favourite pieces of gardening kit.UPDATE: 12 October 2017.Second season using this strimmer now completed. No reason whatsoever to change anything I wrote previously. Changed original (2 year-old) spool last time I used it. Two seasons of fully satisfactory performance from one spool. I'm happy with that! My son-in-law took a shine to mine a month or so ago, when visiting. He liked it. I've bought him one for Christmas - delivered here today, only 36 hours after ordering! Great service from Howe Tools at Amazon Marketplace.UPDATE January 2019No change to report. All good at end of 3rd season! Still only on 2nd spool with lots left. Reckon I could take the petals off a dandelion, one by one... if I could be bothered ! And did I mention the two silver birch trees I felled with it? No? Oh good! That might have been stretching it a bit! 😉FURTHER UPDATE July 2020This is getting boring! But, I'm NOT lying... honestly! ( Or, dishonestly, for that matter!)I'm still only on my second reel! This thing just keeps doing the business for me. I'm not superstitious, so I don't believe I'm tempting fate in any way, and only tell it as I find it, to date. Otherwise, I'd write nowt!Hopefully for the continuing benefit of potential purchasers wondering about how reliable modern appliances are (or can be), this one has really done me proud, so far.Still all in one piece. Nothing broken. It's filthy, mind! I'm a bit tardy when it comes to cleaning tools! But, despite my shodiness, it defies me and keeps working just as well as it did when I bought it, back in... gosh, I've forgotten! But I'm now in season 4, or is it 5?I really hope B&D are still making them as well as when I bought this one. I'd have another one, without hesitation, although I'd like a blue one next time! Just for a change. (Told you it was getting boring!)SEASON END (End October 2020)Despite this year's challenges, my strimmer and I are still going strong. Well, the strimmer is! I'm getting a bit long in the tooth and the Coronavirus pandemic is taking its toll... in my case, thankfully, only psychologically, I hasten to add. But the B&D Strimmer just keeps on strimming along on only the second reel and on the same battery since new! Honestly, I can't fault it.Take care and stay safe, everyone.23 MAY 2021: FALSE ALARMWas cracking on trimming the lawn edges earlier today and my favourite strimmer started making strange noises. I couldn't see anything wrong and assumed the worst. After all, it doesn't owe me anything; it's been brilliant.I hadn't finished the task and it was still performing, albeit speaking in strange tongues, until it went strangely quiet and the noise stopped. It had run out of nylon cord! I'd been so used to the thing 'just working' that, after six years, I'd forgotten that the spool would be used up eventually! Duh!Anyway, the streamer is absolutely fine otherwise and I'm so confident of not having to replace it, that in the next few minutes (after writing this) I'm about to order some new spools. My dilemma is how many to order because I've only used two in all the time I've had it. That's a spool every three years of growing seasons. Hmm. Right, I'll order six! That'll be enough to see ME out, I reckon, although the strimmer might well still be going!No change of opinion. It's been terrific.17 AUG 2021: REPLACEMENT SPOOL - BACK IN BUSINESS (AS USUAL)I left here last time, in May 2021, pondering the decision of the century.I was finally guided by my experience to date of my B&D Strimmer, rather than trying to predict when either of us (the Strimmer or me!) might die first.On that basis, I figured I'm probably good for a couple of years yet and therefore I'd probably get away with only requiring ONE replacement spool as my nylon usage rate has been pretty low (see earlier updates). And being a bit tight in the wallet department, I saw no compelling reason to spend money unnecessarily, when I could be saving for my funeral or leaving a few more Premium Bonds to the grand-kids!Well... what do you know? I'm still here... and so's my trusty Strimmer! It's still banging away at them there unwanted straggly bits of undergrowth. Is this 'The wisdom of the Ancients'? Well, perhaps in fortuitous part... but also predicated on substantive evidence, I'm happy to be able to report continuing reliable performance from this product.A further observation is that now, with each passing year, I'm increasingly impressed by the battery technology. After 6 years, the original battery, which is left on charge between each and every working session (twice a month during growing season), has shown no sign of deterioration and has been as reliable as I could have wished for at the date of purchase, back in 2015.UPDATE 25 APRIL 2022:Hi! Bad Penny here... again! Just here to let you know all's well.Today, I took both my favourite gardening toys out for their first run around the garden this season. They both had a great time; the (now 30+ year old) lawn mower, serviced a month ago and my Black and Decker Strimmer, now a 7 year old veteran of many successful campaigns, the scourge of weeds and unwanteds and unsightly, straggly lawn edges, is yet to require any servicing other than three spool changes in the seven years I've had the pleasure of its reliable company!All remains entirely good. Battery was still obviously in fine fettle as I used it for about a half hour and it still had a green light showing and had more 'puff' than me left when I'd finished.Sadly, for customers looking for this specific model, I notice this model in currently listed on Amazon as 'currently unavailable'.Should anyone be interested in buying mine second-hand... no chance!It's mine and I'm keeping it... sorry!And there's no point in heading off to eBay to see if I'm lying! I'm not! 👍

This item is easy to assemble is relatively light and comes complete with a 36v battery. I have a hedge cutter from the same range and both items are good for light use in the garden - purchasing this item allows us two batteries when we need them. I paid £124.99 for this item on 12th August 2019 yet by the 20th October 2019 I note that it had increased in price to £133.99.On arrival, the item was easy to assemble and the battery came partly charged. It took less than 60 minutes to bring it up to full charge. Fitting the spool was simple and the automatic line dispenser works well. We have a relatively large garden with a long drive of 100 metres through a wood. We tend to use a petrol trimmer on the driveway, primarily as it is more powerful, but also, whilst this item is well made, I am not sure that it is designed or durable enough to use on coarse grass, weeds and scrub. Where it excels is in the garden where we use it to edge the lawns and more importantly it can be used by my wife: it is very light and easy to manoeuvre. We have tried it on parts of our driveway, particularly at the bottom where it joins the road and we need to trim the area when the grass interferes with our line of sight to see oncoming traffic. In this capacity and at higher power, it is great for a quick cut back of weeds. Generally though we use it for edging our 500 sq metre lawn, set at a lower setting and for this it is ideal -- a full charge being good for 4 - 5 trims.I note that some reviewers have commented adversely that the gears can wear out quickly. I think that this will be the case in anything other than light work. The gears are made from composite material and the additional pressure applied when cutting coarse grass could make them wear out quickly and so, whilst we have not experienced that problem yet, I tend to agree with them that this item could wear quickly. Allowing for that comment, I think that this is a really good piece of garden equipment, easy to use and lightweight. It is well balanced and a full session using the whole charge does not leave you fatigued. Combine that with an adjustable height, a decent battery and a reasonable price makes this a good buy. So why 4 stars? Well although I have not noticed that our gears are wearing our quicker than they should do, I doubt if this item will last like our petrol trimmer has, a generic item which I have had for about 20 years - that item continues to give me good service, is very rugged, cuts through coarse grass, weeds and scrub and shows no sign of giving up - it's downside is that it is quite noisy but also very heavy and needs maintenance.I do think that we have got the best option for a large garden and a challenging drive, a petrol model for the heavy stuff and this item for light or small jobs. A nice addition to our range of garden tools.