But you’d have the other battery and another charger for less. Now you can have 2 batteries ready and change they both at once if need be. I took a gamble that the cordless electric would do the job and it certainly does. I’d argue it has more power than the gas 2 cycle. I only have an acre and change but I have a long driveway I edge with a lot of sidewalk too. Anyway I can edge the whole property and trim all I need to (around the house – front landscaping – etc) all on one battery charge.
In this case, you simply flip the lever, pull or push the aluminum telescoping shaft to the desired height, and you’re good to go. We prefer to do it while standing so we can see exactly where we want the head to fall for our height. For most of us, the adjustment came down to a difference of just 2–3 inches. The EGO Power+ PowerLoad String Trimmer with Telescoping Aluminum Shaft does something unique.
The Ego’s relatively pleasant sound is not only good for your own hearing but a courtesy to your neighbors, too. But the Ego isn’t just for clear-cutting fields and destroying the invasive Japanese knotweed (although it’s certainly wonderful for that). The trimmer has two speeds and a variable-speed trigger. In those more-delicate greenworks pro areas, we switched to the low speed setting, so we could maintain the ease of a full trigger pull but not have the trimmer at top speed. To test each trimmer’s upper range, we pitted each one against a large stand of Japanese knotweed. Ego’s ST1511T far outperformed the other brands in run time and power.
And in tight spots, like between rose bushes, the Ryobi didn’t feel as nimble as the Ego. The Ego is a dual-line unit, meaning that two strings extend from the cutting head. And Ego Powerload String it comes equipped with a 0.095-inch trimmer line, which is on the thicker side and contributes to the trimmer’s cutting ability (a wide variety of 0.095 string is available).
There’s a little internal motor just to wind the string onto the head in a few seconds. We got 30 minutes of runtime out of the included 2.5 amp hour battery. Again, we actually longed for a less powerful speed setting for efficiency on light-duty jobs.
Every EGO 56 Volt ARC Lithium battery powers the entire POWER+ platform of 50-plus tools. Loading the string on the Ego Power+ is relatively easy thanks to the Powerload feature. To load, you merely need to insert the string and press a button at the base of the shaft, and it will wind the string for you. This method is easy and efficient, though greenworks pro we found the spool difficult to open in the event of maintenance. To feed out more string, you need to lightly bump the trimmer head against the ground, allowing for uninterrupted weed-eating action. Speed settings are adjusted by changing the pressure on the trigger, though the range is essentially high speed and then higher speeds.