STIHL HEDGECUTTER REVIEW
Reaching new heights Scott MacCallum looks at Stihl’s cordless telescopic Hedge Trimmer and gives it a workout on his own hedge Over the Hedge, the 2006 Paramount film with a stellar cast providing the voices including Bruce Willis, Jim Carrey and Bill Murray, saw a huge hedge divide a new housing development from a dwindling woodland area. The animals “trapped” on the wrong side of this hedge had to find ways of surviving, including stealing food from the humans and thwarting the efforts of the exterminator brought in to remove them. It very much put hedges front and centre and I for one was delighted when our recently purchased new home boasted a fine example of a hedge. About 50 metres long, six feet high and four feet deep, it doesn’t perhaps measure up to the one Bruce, Jim and Bill talked about, but it does a super job in providing privacy from our neighbours, who in fairness, are lovely, and who enjoy the benefits of our leafy divider as much as we do. But much as we love our hedge it does fall down in one respect. A bit of advice, you want the maintenance-free option, go for a wall or a fence. A hedge does require work, on an annual basis, because it grows and, unchecked, with continue to grow, shrinking available garden space. It is quite a task as not only does the cutting take quite bit of work – even shared with my neighbour – but the clean up job afterwards is considerable also. However, we are extremely fortunate to be living in a technological age and for every problem, for every task, there is a solution or a tool to make life easier. For that I owe great thanks to the R&D department of Stihl who have come up with
the very piece of kit that makes taming our hedge, while not right up there as a pursuit to be enjoyed in the garden with drinking wine on the decking, much less painful than it might otherwise have been. And in fairness, the ease and speed that hedge can now be tackled leaves more time for the aforementioned wine on the decking. The Stihl HLA 86 Cordless Telescopic Long Reach Hedge trimmer is a super piece of equipment. One of its many attributes is that it is battery operated so the need to dig out the extension leads and always be aware of where the cable is hanging is gone, leaving you free to concentrate on keeping your pruning as even as possible. Modern day batteries are superb and getting better all the time. Indeed, given that I’m not in the first flush I definitely run out of puff well before the battery does, and it would be a very fit operator to take on the battery to see who/what lasts longer – a sort of man verses machine Duracell Bunny Challenge.
“…FOR EVERY PROBLEM, FOR EVERY TASK, THERE IS A SOLUTION OR A TOOL TO MAKE LIFE EASIER.”
With the recommended AP200 battery run time is estimated at 144 minutes, which equates to virtually two and a half hours of non-stop operating. The batteries are compatible with all Stihl cordless equipment. Straight out of the box the first thing that strikes you with the HLA 86 is the build quality. It is excellent. The battery housing, at the bottom of the handle, is high quality, but lightweight, plastic. This leads naturally on to the switches – one above, and one below the handle with the safety switch easily accessible a couple of inches away – all three in distinctive Stihl orange. Next is the harness which helps take the strain while you work. Again, well made with a strong fastening. The extendable telescopic element which extends the trimmer to a full 3.3 metres is a model of practical design. At the business end there is the cutting bar which can be adjusted to over 115 degrees to allow access to the most awkward, otherwise out of reach areas – you certainly don’t want to be attempting to cut your hedge while standing on a wobbly step ladder. The motor can be found just before the blades which, together with the battery housing at the other end ensures maximum counter-balancing. The blades themselves have tip protectors on them and the cutting unit comes with a protective sheath, again in Stihl orange. Weight of the trimmer comes in at 4.8 kilos without the battery but as I said the counter-balancing design ensures that the weight is evening distributed and minimised by the harness. And so, to the hedge. } TURF MATTERS | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2021 | 73
