BLACK+DECKER POWERCONNECT Cordless 28cm Strimmer (without battery or charger), STC1820PCB-XJ

Summary: easy to adjust, well made and good quality; I get about 45 minutes mixed (high and low speed) use out of a fully charged battery; cutting power and edging very good. As context, I was actually looking for a strimmer with a power cord, as I was expecting cordless ones to be a bit disappointing in performance and battery life. Doing my research, I found that a lot of people feel the same, and I also found that rechargeable strimmers are surprisingly expensive! I also found a lot of unknown brands, which were also fairly expensive, and had very mixed reviews. All this left me unwilling to purchase. So I started again, this time focusing my search on: - brand (focussing on well-known ones like Bosch and Black & Decker) - weight (as I realised this would be a potential drawback given weights of up to 3.5kg I'd found during the first search) - battery life (where I could find it - not all manufacturers give an estimate) - power (I wanted something that would be reasonable for fairly light use; I knew I wasn't going to be clearing undergrowth on a regular basis!) I found that a lot of strimmers now use proprietary blades, which can be difficult to find, cost more than nylon line, and cause regular interruptions to use as they need to be changed fairly frequently. I decided to focus on nylon line strimmers. In the end, this Black & Decker strimmer was one of two on the shortlist, and was my choice due to the price! The other one came without a battery and charger, which added another £40 or so. I won't name the other brand and prices go up and down a lot anyway, but do be aware of accidentally buying a so-called "bare" product! I've used it several times now, including clearing a friend's much larger garden. Using the a mix of the normal (5500rpm) and turbo (7400rpm) I got about 45 minutes use from a full charge, which included a significant amount of "undergrowth" clearing that I wouldn't typically be doing. Your usage will of course be different to mine, but if you're doing normal speed trimming and edging, I'd expect to get 45 minutes to an hour out of the product on a single battery charge, which is hopefully plenty for the majority of gardens. (If yours needs more than an hours trimming each session, you've probably already got a gardener anyway!) Pros: - fairly lightweight (2.1kg) - well-balanced and significant adjustment in length - easy to assemble - uses nylon line, not proprietary blades Cons: - rechargeable battery has a finite life (so get a mains-powered or petrol driven one if you need open-ended usage) Tips: - watch out for "bare" products (i.e. without battery and charger) unless you've already got the battery on other tools from the same manufacturer - check out the weight of the strimmer: there's variation by more than 1kg in otherwise similar models in some cases! - make sure you know whether it uses continuous nylon line or individual blades; I'd recommend line as it's much easier to change and makes continuous use easier Overall, I happily recommend this, and even if it's not for you, do consider if the criteria I've included in the review help you to choose your own (different) one.

Very good quality and a trusted name Great price also Easy to use and the battery life is ok Does the job with ease Would recommend

8 live this thing makes strumming and edging extremely easy and less hassle. Was reluctant about battery but have a drill so spares not that it's needed but stuck to the 1st setting. Great quality good fit for my hand adjustable for height very durable been worked alit and dropped not a scratch.

One of if not the best cordless strimmers

Im not often driven to write a review - but had to on this ocassion - for those who are wondering if this thing can cope with ore than lawn edging - It can - WOW! Perfect! I bought a model quite cheaply - with "considerable" cosmetic damage - and there isnt a blemish on it - Im really impressed. Ive got a big natural/wild garden - and it coped with my young nettles , docks, and even young cow parsley without a problem - Our usual MO is to get the big petrol strimmer out a couple of times a year - now I can just keep on top of the stuff as it grows, when its young before it gets woody - this strimmer obv wont handle the brambles - but anything young and still green was no issue at all - its so light and easy for me to use. Battery lasts much longer than I thought it would - I have the drill in this range - so now I have 2 batteries - 2 chargers - so Ive got enough juice for any task! VERY VERY HAPPY WITH THIS STRIMMER!

I have been a black and decker fan now for about 10 years now for some reason. I think it's because they're reasonably cheap and cheerful. The only real problem was the cheap batteries. However this has changed recently. I decided to get rid of all my old b and d stuff and start afresh. I now have most of the new range of 18 Volt tools and the quality of the batteries has vastly improved. I can now complete almost any job I start now without changing batteries and this new strimmer is no exception. The quality is reasonable, it feels quite robust and is easy to use, the main plus being that the battery doesn't go flat after five minutes. It's still going strong after about 20 minutes on the eco setting. Not sure how long it will last on the boost setting as it works fine on the slower setting. Also it's available as a bare unit with no battery or charger which means you only need one or two chargers and batteries for all the tools, this made it only 50 quid to buy on its own and means I don't have lots of silly chargers lying about. Most of black and deckers stuff is only supplied with a slow charger any way and I already have one. All in all good value for money.

This is a very good strimmer. Light enough, adjustable, doesn't need feed line re-spooling very often, robust and powerful on turbo mode. The battery life is poor, though! I had a low-quality strimmer from Hilga brand that could cover my entire allotment and still have charge remaining. This barely finishes a third of it (on turbo mode). Luckily, I have bought it during a promotion where they are offering a free battery through the website; I've submitted the claim as I will certainly need it! I could possibly elongate the battery life by using it on the normal mode but on thick allotment couch grass, turbo mode is what you need - the turbo mode is almost as good as a petrol strimmer, I am very impressed with it. I have to give this 5 stars because a) I got the strimmer, charger and battery on promotional price of £64.99, plus b) I got a free battery during promotional period. For this price, it is outstanding value. Otherwise, I would have given it 4 due to the battery life if it hadn't been such a great deal!

There are other cheaper cordless strimmers but I wanted a well built one that was robust, easy to use and had a decent battery life. After reading the reviews I decided to splash out on this Black and Decker model. I have not been disappointed it has been great to use and has lived up to my expectations. If buying a bit of kit like this it is worth getting a bit better quality as it will pay in the longer term as I have found to my cost before when thinking I could save money and still be satisfied. With tools generally that is never the case and especially garden tools which do get hard use. This strimmer has different settings allowing easy change of strimmer head position, different lengths so you can get a comfortable position standing upright not bending. The handle is well positioned and comfortable to use as well all this is important if spending time trimming lawn edges etc. It is light and easy to manoeuvre as well. Battery life has not yet let me down either. I can now zoom round my lawn edging in minutes before it took me ages and left me with an aching back. Highly recommend this strimmer.