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I really fancied a petrol clipper, but they are not cheap, nor are they especially light, and neither is my hedge particularly big (about twelve metres long, two metres high, and half a metre deep) - different if I was going to pass myself off as a gardener, but I've not been given my redundancy ... Read review
Advantages: Light, easy to use & no cable to snip Disadvantages: expensive, 45 minutes running time
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And then there's the Bosch AHS 3 ACCU (and it's larger brother the AHS 4 ACCU)
As far as I know the 4 has a larger blade than the 3, is marginally heavier and comes with with a slightly higher capacity battery - offering 50 minutes running time - presumably it's more expensive.
I bough the AHS 3 ACCU - partly because I felt it was good enough, and partly because it was the only model in stock at the B&Q branch I ... ...reasons I had bought a BOSCH clipper was that I imagined the 12v battery would be compatible with my 12v Bosch electric drill (see my previous reviews) - it isn't!
The chargers are identical, but the batteries themselves are not.
How stupid is that? I can understand why this would be teh case for batteries of different voltages, but surely 12v is just 12v? (clearly not!)
Summertime, and all of a sudden the plants outside seem to have grown about eighteen inches in the past week!
The hedge was no exception, but I couldn't face the prospect of laying out the extension cables, circuit breaker etc,
And of course, there was the power cord, which had been clipped through and repaired more times than I care to recall - it's astonishing what risks a person takes when you've got half a hedge cut, it's turning dark, and it looks like rain (telling myself if I was *really* careful I could get away with a terminal block and some gaffa tape? - like I was being careless immediately before I cut through it the last time!)
Anyhow
I just couldn't be arsed this time.
I really fancied a petrol clipper, but they are not cheap, nor are they especially light, and neither is my hedge particularly big (about twelve metres long, two metres high, and half a metre deep) - different if I was going to pass myself off as a gardener, but I've not been given my redundancy notice yet!
SO I started to look at rechargeable clippers - I discovered there were two types - cheap and nasty (well, cheap anyway) - these were typically about £25, claimed a working charge would last around half an hour, but needed almost a day to charge up - so I wasn't going to get the hedge cut this afternoon!
And then there's the Bosch AHS 3 ACCU (and it's larger brother the AHS 4 ACCU)
As far as I know the 4 has a larger blade than the 3, is marginally heavier and comes with with a slightly higher capacity battery - offering 50 minutes running time - presumably it's more expensive.
I bough the AHS 3 ACCU - partly because I felt it was good enough, and partly because it was the only model in stock at the B&Q branch I visited (It also had a tenner off, which was even better news!)
AT around seventy quid, the AHS 3 ACCU was nearly three times as expensive as other units they had by other manufacturers.
The running time is a claimed 45 minutes
But the good news is, it charges in around an hour
Which just about gives enough time to sweep the trimmings up before the next charge is finished.
Actually I was very impressed, I managed the whole hedge without running out of power, and there was enough oomph left in the battery to tidy up the back garden hedge as well.
In the subject of the battery - one of the reasons I had bought a BOSCH clipper was that I imagined the 12v battery would be compatible with my 12v Bosch electric drill (see my previous reviews) - it isn't!
The chargers are identical, but the batteries themselves are not.
How stupid is that? I can understand why this would be teh case for batteries of different voltages, but surely 12v is just 12v? (clearly not!)
This is probably the best time to go into battery technology; this uses a Nickel Cadmium unit - mobile phone technology allowed considerable improvements in battery technology in recent years, but NiCd still suffers from 'memory effect'.
Nickel cadmium batteries work best when they are fully discharged before being recharged.
If your hedge is only big enough to use, for example, 'half' a charge, resist the temptation to top the power up after you have used it.
Over time, the capacity will 'shrink' to only allow half the nominal capacity.
Far better to leave it until it runs out, and then charge it fully (it only takes an hour)
I have used the analogy of comparing this to a bucket of muddy water.
If you fill it from a tap, and pour it all out in one go, the next time you fill it, you get the same volume of dirty water in it.
If instead, you just top it up, then the mud settles, and eventually, all you get is the volume you 'topped up' - the comparison probably doesn't stand up to much more examination, but you should get the idea.
In use, the clippers, with a 370mm double sided blade were lighter than I expected (2.4Kg) - what looked like an over-designed handle was actually more comfortable to use than I had expected, it was a lot quieter than my cable-clippers (certainly no need for ear protection) and with 15mm tooth spacing, all but the thickest twigs were chopped with ease.
The manual was up to the usual Bosh standards - clear, easily read, and full of the usual cautionary advice, it suggests not using it in the rain - not, I suspect because of any inherent risk of electric shock, but probably because things get slippy, you could drop it, or fall over.
One especially useful suggestion is to keep the battery somewhere else when the unit is in storage, the double power switches would stop it being operated accidentally, but I reckon a four year old kid would be quite able to switch it on, and goodness only knows what they would be capable of chopping through!
I tried the clippers on a variety of shrub species, including Privet, Holly, Yew, Laurel, Leyland Cypress, Berberus and fleshy Sycamore twigs - none of which presented any particular challenge.
Just what you'd expect of a Bosh.
Yes, it's a bit more expensive than some clippers, but then again a Mercedes is more expensive than a Skoda!
This is a well designed power, which is every bit as good as you'd expect, and ought to give me many years of use.
As long as I look after the battery. Probably by the time it goes ( as it's bound to) I'll be wanting a new toy, and a replacement battery will probably cost more than new clippers anyway!
