Flymo Mini Trim ST Electric Grass Trimmer, 230 W, Cutting Width 21 cm

Product Information

All of this great design meant that I had high expectations when I first gave the strimmer a try. It cut grass well, both short and long, and didn’t have a problem with light, mostly dried weeds either. However, it really struggled with tough weeds. This isn’t one of the best strimmers to choose if you’re planning on clearing dense and overgrown vegetation.

Derek has real-world tested 61 products for DIY Garden, and is one of our most experienced testers. Protective clothing such as ear defenders for louder motors with more power can be useful, particularly if the job is going to take a while. This is particularly relevant for a petrol strimmer, but certain electric trimmers can also be very loud. Cutting head. The cutting head is the most important feature on a strimmer. It should be adjustable, so you can change the angle of the cut to cope with inclines and fiddly jobs. In most models, the head turns 90°, so you can trim along the edges of paths and flowerbeds. In the very best models, the cutting head also has wheels to help guide along edges and support the weight of the strimmer.

The first thing you notice with the Gtech GT50 strimmer is how light it is. At 1.85kgs, this model is easy to hold and use, plus it could strim the neighbourhood and still have enough energy left to strim it again. Actually, that may be a bit far fetched since the battery only lasts about 30 minutes. Nevertheless, from experience, 30 minutes is all it takes to trim the edges of a moderately large lawn. Like all the best strimmers, the Ryobi’s trigger features variable speed control which is a boon when scything through different types of foliage. And when the going gets really tough, simply swap the 30cm auto-feed line for the 20cm Tri-Arc brushcutter blade which is capable of annihilating everything in its path. This model comes with two 20v lithium-ion batteries and each one should give you about 30 minutes of running time. In our test it performed really well and was comfortable to use. It's also lighter than most of the cordless competition. Terratek is known for producing quality tools at low prices, resulting in the brand building up a loyal following over the years. Compared to its competition, the Terratek Cordless Grass Strimmer is at the lower end of the price scale, yet it still promises to make light work of cutting grass and weeds.

The standard cut path on this trimmer is set to 30 cm, but you can reduce it to 25 cm simply by turning the line cutter around inside the blade guard. It’s a clever little extra that gives you more control over your cutting and takes some strain off the battery for higher efficiency. You can adjust the shaft, handle, and head, and it has an edging function as well as a satisfactory cutting diameter of 25 cm. The only downside is how flimsy the plastic blades feel, although I tried to remain optimistic that they’d be up to the job. The main business of strimming is performed by a 28cm dual-line auto-feed cassette. The line itself is lightly crimped every centimetre along its length and this helps the line blade cut it more accurately so you don’t end up with uneven ends. Dual-line strimmers may take a little longer to reload but they offer faster cutting and are more easily able to deal with tough undergrowth.

That said, you could easily swap out the 2.0Ah battery for something more powerful, which is especially easy to do if you already own other battery-powered Bosch power tools as of course the same battery can be used across their cordless range. With a larger battery, it would work well in large gardens too. It has to be said, this trimmer isn’t particularly easy to assemble. While the line arrives pre-loaded so you don’t need to do it yourself, But some physical strength is required to put it together, and the instructions are a little unclear in places. Petrol strimmers. Powered by petrol these typically have steer handles - explained in more detail below - and a curved, angled shaft. Because they use fuel, they’re often more powerful than corded and cordless strimmers, but petrol is polluting and messy to store and use. They’re also heavy, noisy and need regular servicing. Thanks to the rise of cordless batteries, they’re less common nowadays, particularly for home use. The BC330CU is equipped with an efficient 33cc two-stroke engine with a variable speed trigger and a heavy-duty, self-unravelling nylon cord that makes mincemeat of wild overgrown weeds and grasses. Petrol-powered brush cutters are inherently heavy (this one weighs 9kgs) and too unwieldy to use for more than five minutes at a time so having a bike-style handlebar system and a shoulder harness to help balance the weight is a massive bonus.

If you don’t wear the battery all the way down, you’re unlikely to need to recharge it before using it again; the lithium-ion batteries used in cordless tools hold their charge relatively well. Of course, charging before use will make sure that you get the most run-time possible from your cordless machine. Electric corded strimmers. Corded strimmers use a power cable connected to mains electricity. Depending on the length of the cable, these strimmers are more suitable for smaller gardens, but you can expand their reach with an extension lead. They’re also more dangerous than cordless strimmers because you run the risk of accidentally cutting the cable. Battery-powered strimmers have a limited amount of run-time before you need to stop and charge them. However, how long the battery lasts for depends on its size and power. Some cordless grass trimmers will have a battery than only lasts 20 minutes, but others (normally with a battery of 4 Ah or more) can last around 30 – 40 minutes depending on the job. We tested various cordless strimmers with varied designs, features, and prices. Some were more suitable for heavy-duty use or bigger gardens, while others suited smaller gardens and budgets much better! Throughout this review, we assessed: This is a lightweight and powerful cordless strimmer with a telescopic shaft. Even with the large 4.0 Ah battery installed, it weighs just 3 kg, which earns it a BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Best Buy for large areas.As the line wears down, new line needs to be fed into the cutting head from the spool. Sometimes this is done manually, but most cordless trimmers have a system in place to make this process automatic or semi-automatic. At 3 kg, this strimmer is neither the lightest nor the heaviest on my list. It feels solid and sturdy, but it will eventually get tiring to use. You may prefer a harness to comfortably operate this strimmer, but the handle does have a soft grip for comfort. Design: To be ranked high, models needed to demonstrate the right balance between weight and power. Cordless strimmers weighing 2.5 kg were best for long-term use as well as short bursts of activity, so they were rated higher than heavier models. For strimmers weighing more than 3 kg, we assessed whether the design accommodated this, such as with a harness. Designs with adjustable cut paths (ideally 25 – 30 cm) were rated higher as they could be used for both lawns and more difficult places, like in between bushes, improving the versatility of the strimmer.