Eckman Long-Reach Electric Telescopic Hedge Trimmer Review

Overall Rating

The fact that I was able to send it back within 14 days for a refund.

The delivery was quick and the communications from the seller was also good. However, I suspect that the delivery was quick because they can't wait to get rid of the damned things. They are even doing a special price if you are unfortunate enough to buy two of them.

Due to its weight distribution the hedge trimmer would make a good hammer for use in hammer-throwing competitions, but once you have thrown it I recommend thoroughly that you don't go and retrieve it.

Just about everything imaginable, apart from delivery time and seller communications.

If you have found this review as a result of looking around to see if these eckman long reach hedge trimmers are any good, then you're in luck. I'm just about to save you £90.

I bought mine from www.technologyinthehome.com and read through the reviews on their site to make sure I wasn't going to end up with a white elephant. It was mentioned a number of times that this hedge trimmer is quite heavy, and I did note the specified weight, but decided that it shouldn't be a problem. That was only half the story though. I suspect a lot of the reviews (if genuine) have been written before the buyer has tried using the hedge trimmer.

This hedge trimmer has surely got one of the most flawed and outrageously ill-conceived designs ever produced. I just can't imagine how it got beyond the design concept, let alone the prototype, manufacturing and marketing stage. I'll tell you why:

As I have established, these things are quite heavy. It says 4.5kg on the website, 5.7kg (net weight) on the product box and your mind tells you about half a ton when you try to use it.

The major flaw is that about 95% of the weight of this thing is in the pivoting head and blade, because the joker that designed it put the (heavy) motor at the blade end and the handles at the other end. To get an idea of the balance and handling, imagine attaching a car battery to the end of a broom stick and then having to wave it about at arm's length. It is quite tiring holding this hedge trimmer statically, but once you have to start wielding it then a pendulum effect takes over and you've had it.

On a short trial I could wield this thing for about ten seconds at a time before having to put it down for a rest. I'm not exactly a member of the SAS, but I'm a few decades away from my coffin at the moment (I hope), so consider myself a worthy reviewer .

So, now that I have established that this thing is virtually unusable, I will make a few more observations, just in case you've had a knock on the head and still think it's a good idea to buy one:

The plastic construction is as you might expect from a plastic thing made in China. It's not too bad, but there is a fair amount of flexing and creaking as gravity tries to drag that massively imbalanced end earthwards. I'm not sure that it would survive too long before something breaks.

It arrives with the blade detached, so you have to unscrew a couple of covers (metal inner cover; plastic outer cover) to fit the blade assembly. All screws are self-tappers and they screw into plastic. The drive gear housing is pre-greased, ready for assembly.

The blade angle adjuster knob is difficult to operate as you have to push it in quite hard before turning it - each action being resisted fervently by the implement. I would liken this onerous task to a cross between trying to get the safety lid off your aspirin bottle and trying to get a wheel nut off Lewis Hamilton's McLaren F1 car without using a wheel gun.

I ran this hedge trimmer for about two minutes in total before losing the will to live, and when I removed the head to re-parcel the damned thing and send back in disgust, I noticed that the motor's output gear had worn noticeably with a step in each of the gear's thrust surfaces. This (tiny) gear appears not to have been hardened, and based on the wear from two minutes' use I think that it will probably fail before too long - most probably when you are half-way through doing your hedge and already ruing your misguided purchase.

So, to sum up, if it was a choice between buying one of these and eating my entire underpants collection in one sitting, I would gladly pre-book an ambulance, then get stuck into the Y-fronts.

I really wish I could give this item a lower score, but unfortunately the scale only goes down to zero.

Members' Comments onJHFC's Review

• trimsky on 17th Jul 2009

  I was wondering why every advert for a used one of these on eBay proudly prounces "only used once". And now I know. Thanks JHFC, saved me a whole load of wasted time and money!

• trevor170 on 7th Aug 2009

  I found this review very helpful because... I wont be buying one, I am now looking at the ryobi 400 instead

• jl461 on 5th Oct 2009

  I found this review very helpful because...
  I shan't now be buying the Eckman product.