A few months ago, WORX tools kindly sent me a cordless 20V Leaf Blower to trial and on the back of the success of that tool, I bought myself a lawn edge trimmer/strimmer - The WORX WG163E.20 to be exact. Like the leaf blower, (click here for the review) this strimmer is part of the 20V cordless range that allows battery swapping across the whole range. Also like the leaf blower, it is a really useful, lightweight, but durable bit of kit.
I have been genuinely and very pleasantly surprised by how robust and capable this range of cordless tools for the garden are and I can't recommend them highly enough. While they won't be suitable for commercial use in large scale landscape work, they are very usable in a garden setting and would even be suitable for a one-man-band (or should that be one-person-band) gardener operating in multiple gardens.
The box includes;
1 x Strimmer body and 1 x roller wheel, to attach (simple push fit).
1 x Strimmer guard (fitted with one phillips screw (included)).
1 x 20V PowerShare battery,
1 x Quick Charger,
1 x Spool of Nylon cutting line,
1 x User guide.
Assembled in a couple of minutes it looks as mine does below. The quickest way to show you the range of features was to label an image, so see below.
I could go on and on about my experiences of using this tool, but I'll keep it simple and to the point.
As I see it, here are its great strengths;
Lightweight. It is pretty compact and although perfectly sturdy in design and construction, the aluminium body of the strimmer is light (less than 2.5KG) making it easy to carry and definitely less demanding on your back to operate. The size advantage is also noticeable if you transport it in a van or car and it take up little space stored in a shed. My petrol strimmer, while a more powerful bit of equipment, weighs 4 times its weight and takes up more than double the space to store it.
Surprisingly powerful for its size. I had long held the belief that cordless tools weren't suitable for gardening, even in a domestic setting - how wrong I was. Technology has moved on leaps and bounds and this strimmer delivers high-speed revolutions to ensure a good clean cut. Also, battery life is decent and I can edge around 150m of garden on one charge happily enough.
Adjustable. Two qualities make many strimmers less practical solutions in gardens. 1. The have a fixed height. 2. They cut at one angle only. This machine has an adjustable neck allowing the length and even angle to be set to suit your personal tastes and better suit your height. The second handle is also adjustable to provide comfort when operating. The head can be adjusted from near 90˚ to the neck all the way round to in line with it. This means that you can strim grass or weeds level to the ground, or turn the head so that it is in line with the neck and use the little wheels to walk it along an edge and cut cleanly.
Batteries. As well as being fairly lightweight and retaining charge for longer than older battery technology, the range comes with both 2.0Ah and 4.0Ah batteries with the latter offering longer runtime. Each battery works with the full range of WORX PowerShare tools, which is essentially the entire cordless range of 30+ different tools and gardening equipment.
Easy feed of cutting line. Anyone who has used a range of strimmers knows that some are much easier than others to feed new line out from the spool when it has snapped. This is a simple button press (Command Feed) on the handle so you don't need to stop working.
Inexpensive. For what you get, this is a great value tool at between £100-£120 including the battery and charger. Powerful, light and easy to use.
It wouldn't be a fair review if I didn't look at weaknesses as well;
Not suitable for commercial gardening. This is a domestic or light/limited use product. You couldn't use it all day edging borders in parkland, or clearing weeds as part of a professional gardening crew. It could work for light use within these crews, or for a solo gardener to keep on top of cleared ground, but lacks the power to be competitive in large scale or heavy duty project work.
The head has only one option, which is the nylon thread. You can't replace it with a fixed blade as you can on some other strimmers. Not a huge problem, but worth noting.
Batteries are charged using a mains socket plug only. No opportunity to charge using a car/van charger. Not something that applies to home users, but if you use it to garden for others, you may need a power source to charge batteries.
Features
Below I have attached the video that WORX use to promote it as it is clear and helpful, with a pretty jaunty musical accompaniment as well. Enjoy
Verdict
On balance, for me at least, this strimmer is definitely excellent value for money. I expect it to be more popular in the smaller domestic garden, though think there is scope for it being an addition to the tools of a professional gardener working in smaller spaces. As someone with arthritis in my spine, I found the light weight and ease of use over time a great benefit. Like so many of the new WORX PowerShare range, I think they have designed them well to make using them easier and encourage confidence in the range.
Link to Buy
Below is an affiliate link to buy this product on Amazon. If you purchase it using this link, I will receive a small commission from the sale at no extra cost to you.
Though I am yet to trial these, there are some heavier duty 20V and 40V (2 batteries) cordless strimmers made by WORX, which may be more suitable for less domestic and more commercial application. One example can be purchased using the affiliate link below.
