While I must admit that any powered hedge trimmer is better than the old scissor-like manual trimmers, I have still never found it all that fun to shape up the shrubs in my yard.  I have a couple of square-top evergreens… I can’t remember the species.  I also have a LOT of holly bushes, which are tough to cut and quite prickly when you have to move around them, so needless to say, I often let the job wait a bit longer than I should. 

I have had a corded electric trimmer for years, and it’s fairly lightweight and does a decent job, but I hate dragging the cords out, and I am not especially fond of the fact that at any moment, if I’m not extremely careful, I can cut through the cord.  I haven’t done it yet, but the possibility does exist.  In light of these facts, I was looking forward to giving the Worx^® 18V Lithium-Ion Hedge Trimmer a try. 

I was thrilled when the package arrived that there was very little to put together.  I plugged in the charger, put the little supports on the back to make it stand up, and let the battery charge, which only takes an hour.  The one assembly needed is putting the handle onto the tool, but it took me all of about 1 minute to do that.  There is a wall mount included in the package so you can store it easily, and a blade guard, which I might actually use. 

Once the battery was charged, I was ready to get to work.  Now, as usual, I had procrastinated a bit on this day, and only had about an hour of daylight left, so I thought I might get a few shrubs done, but to my surprise, this tool performed so well, I got almost the entire front of my house done in less than an hour.  I have to tell you, I usually start off strong, making the squared off tops of my evergreens perfectly straight, then moving to the sides, but those don’t have thick branches and they are pretty easy to cut.  Usually, by the time I get through a holly or two (which are thick and get pretty tall pretty fast), I am tired.  No matter how light the tool, my wimpy arms are quickly worn out by holding the trimmer over my head or at unusual angles to shape up the shrubs from all sides.  I don’t know if it was because the lithium-ion battery only weighs half a pound, but puts out a lot of juice, or if the touted “dual-action, hardened-steel blade for reduced vibration” claim was actually accurate, but I didn’t feel like my arms were being vibrated out of their sockets or that they were about to fall off at any moment.  Not bad! 

Okay, so what else do you want to know… You can buy the Hedge Trimmer with a battery for about $100 or you can buy it without the battery for half that if you already have the 18V LI battery for other Worx^® tools.   The handle moves into 3 different positions to make the tool easy to hold in any cutting position and again, the battery is lightweight and very nicely placed on the tool giving the tool some balance. 

My one complaint about Worx^® tools in the past was the battery life, and we have yet to see if the Lithium-Ion batteries are long lasting, and by that I mean they last for a few years.  I’ll keep you updated on that, but for now, I have to say the new Lithium-Ion batteries have a lot of power, weigh very little, charge quickly, and seem to last throughout the entire job in the yard, so my initial thought is this tool is a good buy.   Heck, I’m even a little anxious for spring to get back out in the yard and see if I can sculpt a shrub to be shaped like an animal or something!  As a result, I'm giving this tool 4 fingernails.    Who knows, if I end up with a shrubbery rabbit in my yard - I might take it to 5.