Best Hedge Trimmers of 2022

2022-07-22 22:47:46 By : Ms. Anna An

These powerful tools can tackle heavy brush and keep your shrubs looking their best

If you think hedge trimmers are solely for sculpting boxwoods and bonsai, think again. They’re also the tools of choice for trimming back overgrown forsythia, bamboo, or any other flora that’s too tough or abundant to tackle by other means. In general, hedge trimmers more or less split the difference between a string trimmer and a chainsaw. They’re worth buying if you have overgrowth that’s too thick for a string trimmer but using a chainsaw would be overkill.

Hedge trimmers can cut branches as thick as about an inch. They do that with an oscillating bar of a fixed length, with precut grooves on either side of the blade. Small limbs fall into these grooves as you work along whatever you’re trimming. The blade oscillates back and forth inside the cutting bar, trimming the brush as you go. A good hedge trimmer will coast along effortlessly, leaving a path of perfectly trimmed shrubbery in its wake. A crumby trimmer will struggle to cut, bogging down on tough brush and leaving you with lopsided hedges and a lot to clean up with manual loppers.

Because battery hedge trimmers (also sometimes called cordless hedge trimmers) dominate in home centers and hardware stores, that’s where we focus the bulk of our testing. It’s also a category where electrics hold their own against the most potent gas models.

(CR members can jump to our recommendations in our hedge trimmer ratings).

As a whole, you’ll find three types of hedge trimmers: gas, corded electric, and battery options. Here’s what you need to know about them:

Gas hedge trimmers: They’re powerful tools used by pros and on large properties. But they’re likely overkill in most residential yards, which are typically well served by electrics. Corded electric and battery options are also better for the environment. 

Corded electric hedge trimmers: These trimmers are all you need for lighter trimming close to the house. They tend to be far cheaper—some are only about $50—and can run indefinitely as long as they’re plugged in. You’ll need an outdoor outlet, though, and you’ll be limited by the length of the extension cord. Most outdoor cords max out around 100 feet.

Battery hedge trimmers: You might think they aren’t as powerful as gas or corded electric hedge trimmers, but increasingly that isn’t the case. Our engineers have found that battery models can be pretty impressive. “When measured without a load, some of the trimmers we tested were able to run nearly 2 hours on a single charge,” says Misha Kollontai, CR’s project leader in charge of hedge-trimmer testing. 

Most hedge trimmers are sold as stand-alone tools, but you’ll also find gas- or battery-powered bases that you can outfit with different attachments, such as pole saws, string trimmers, and, yes, hedge trimmers. We recommend avoiding them. Our testing has found that powered bases with different attachments rarely offer performance as good as what you’d get from stand-alone tools.

Consider the tasks you need to do. Hedge trimmers feature a cutting bar, with lengths ranging from about 18 to 26 inches. Those with a longer cutting bar can tackle larger shrubs and clear more with each pass. But they’re also harder to use; a bar that’s too long can feel unwieldy. The size of the bar also has an impact on the run time of a battery hedge trimmer. Longer cutting bars clear more vegetation in a single pass, but that also puts additional strain on the battery. As a rule, consider buying the biggest tool you can handle comfortably.

At our Yonkers, N.Y., headquarters, we’ve got a bit of a bamboo problem. Huge swaths of the invasive chutes dominate much of our outdoor space, but that created an opportunity for our testers to put hedge trimmers through their paces, testing for cutting capacity on patches of bamboo around our campus. They started with small growth, about ¼-inch in diameter, working all the way up to inch-thick pieces, noting how quickly and cleanly each tool worked. And while we focused our testing on corded and battery hedge trimmers, we used a single premium gasoline model for reference to make sure the battery tools packed the same punch and could hold their own against a gas tool.

Next, we sized up safety, looking for features like a protective sheath for the cutting bar, blade brakes to stop cutting in an emergency, and designs that would prevent the tools from being a danger to children (for instance, interlocks, or cutting bars that keep small fingers away from the cutting path). We also assessed handling, weight, and balance, and evaluated run time and charge time, along with noise at the ear of the operator.

CR members can read on about the top-scoring hedge trimmers from our tests. You can also explore our comprehensive ratings of corded and battery hedge trimmers.

We’ve tested 10 popular brands; these three stood out, particularly for their ability to power through thick brush. Exact run times vary depending upon the cutting-bar length and the type of shrubs you’re trimming.

Corded hedge trimmers often lack the power found in the best battery hedge trimmers. But the model below edged out the others we tested and is also the least expensive of the bunch.

CR’s take: If you’ve got an outdoor outlet and only a handful of shrubs, the Sun Joe HJ22HTE is a no-brainer. It’s inexpensive but still tops our ratings of corded models, earning a Very Good for trimming. Because there’s no battery, the Sun Joe is also one of the lightest models we’ve tested, even among corded electrics. It weighs a mere 5.6 pounds and lands a score of Very Good for handling.

More from Consumer Reports: Top pick tires for 2016 Best used cars for $25,000 and less 7 best mattresses for couples

Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright © 2022, Consumer Reports, Inc.

A West Virginia man charged last week with brutally beating his sister, who awoke from a two-year coma and named him as her assailant, has died, according to officials.

While the USSS is comprised of approximately 3,200 agents total, DHS requested communication from just two dozen agents.

Crucially, the security official's testimony appears to confirm part of what Cassidy Hutchinson previously testified.

A former HR employee revealed the question he recommends asking at the end of every job interview.

Sen. Marco Rubio made the comments to CNN as he was walking onto an elevator and Sen. Tammy Baldwin overheard him and confronted him.

Halsey took a mini vacation and shared a swimsuit snap of themself wearing a floral triangle bikini, showing off strong abs and glowing skin in the summer sun.

Trump also appeared to struggle with saying the word "yesterday," calling it "hard" for him to enunciate.

A former Trump White House official says the clearest impact can be seen in how the Republican Party’s powerful donor base views the former President.

Donald Trump's former adviser was charged two counts of contempt of Congress for ignoring the House Jan. 6 select committee's subpoenas.

The Supreme Court on Friday took a step that will allow new Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman on the court, to take part in a case that could lead to the end of the use of race in college admissions. Jackson, who joined the court June 30 following the retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer, had pledged during her confirmation hearing to sit out the case involving Harvard's admissions policy because she was a member of the school's board. The Harvard dispute had been joined to a similar lawsuit involving the University of North Carolina.

Hawley tweeted a link to his campaign website, which is selling a white coffee mug with an illustration of a photograph of Hawley holding his fist up to protesters who later stormed the U.S. Capitol.

The singer celebrated in her birthday suit.

"We’re potentially looking at the most distant starlight ever seen"

Witnesses are confirming testimony that the then-president got into a heated fight with Secret Service agents who refused to drive him to the Capitol.

Jean-Pierre later clarified her response, saying "what's important now is that ... he's working from the residence on behalf of the American people."

From Melania to Tiffany, many in the Trump family attended the funeral for Ivana Trump after her death at 73.

In recent years, Kat Von D has listed her California home for sale, covered many of her tattoos, and closed her famous tattoo shop.

Former President Trump on Thursday vented his anger with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) during the House select Jan. 6 committee’s hearing, slamming him as a “disloyal sleazebag” despite the recent victories McConnell helped secure for Trump’s legacy. Trump appeared to lose his temper after the Jan. 6 committee played a clip of McConnell’s…

She and her new look star in the new National Treasure show on Disney+.

Two families brawled at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida on Wednesday, after a dispute in line at a Fantasyland attraction escalated into violence.