Oregon ST275-GSL Cordless Grass Edger Trimmer with 2.6Ah Battery, Standard Charger, and Gator SpeedLoad Strimmer Head & Line (590498)

This is my first ever battery powered electric trimmer. I wouldn't know if there is a better one out there that deserves a 5 star more than this machine.But I can't imagine if there is... it would be much better than this machine. I doubt it.I don't think you will be disappointed if you buy one yourself.When I received the unit the battery was only half charged so I plugged it into the charge and less than an hour later it was fully charged.I think I am going to opt for the "quick charger" for a hundred more bucks...NOT!!! I can wait.Now for a comparison:I also have a Stihl model FS-55 gas powered trimmer that will take down large Oak trees.Ok, I'm kidding of course, but the Stihl is a animal machine, it seems nothing stops it. It is a workhorse. It will not bog down while eating almost everything in it's path.This OREGON is not the same class of machine but it is not supposed to be.It is however, a nice light weight, fairly powerful machine. It is very comfortable to use and feels good in your hand.If you live in the north east area of the country as I do it will work ok for the types of grasses and weeds we have here.And it's a dream not to have to pull a start rope 15 times to get the darn thing to start. Just pull the trigger and go.No gasoline to transport, to mix with oil, no gasoline to store in the garage that goes stale and makes for hard starting, no gas smells, no explosion or fire hazard threat as with gasoline. It's just a nice machine that is comfortable while using and won't tire you out.Now the Stihl is heavy, very hot when running and awkward. It is not balanced nearly as well as this Oregon is and could tire you out quickly if you are not used to using one all day. With the Stihl the choke gets closed by accident while bumping my forearm when swinging it left and right and I am forced to constantly re-start it. That is a lot of fun in 90 degree weather, righto!!!But if I lived in the swamp, woods or forest, Or if I had tough St. Augustine grass like in Texas I would choose the STIHL I think.On my 1/4 acre home property in upstate NY, give me the OREGON any day.PROs-------------------+ light and well balanced+ the 4.0 amp battery seems powerful enough+ no pull cords, save your back+ no gasolineCONs-------------------- somewhat underpowered compared to a Stihl gas trimmer of course, but I knew that before I bought this. But it does have more than enough power for any job I need to do around my home.UPDATE:I have had this machine for a month now and I used it every week for 4 weeks now. What a pleasure it is to use this baby.I can't tell you enough how great it is to not struggle trying to start a gas trimmer.And this thing works so good. It really does have more than enough power. It really does last a good, solid 45 minutes working hard, on a charge.The line bump feed has worked smooth as silk. The line that comes with this machine just cuts and cuts and cuts. I have only bumped it out maybe 20 times so far.I like the line so much I ordered 440 feet more and that should last me a lifetime.This was a fantastic buy for me, probably the best gardening item I have ever purchased besides my 2009 John Deere LA-135 lawn tractor.Yes, it's expensive vs. the other brands out there. But take a close look at the other stuff. They all look bulky, heavy, uncomfortable to use.This is light weight, comfortable and well designed. It is perfectly balanced. The battery sort of disappears into the design and you don't even know it's there.Because it is balanced so well the battery doesn't make the top end heavy. It's a true pleasure to use. Sort of reminds me of driving a Ferrari 458 GT instead of a Mustang or Camaro.

I purchased the ST275-A6 Trimmer with the 4.0 Ah Battery Pack & C600 Charger. When the box arrived, I was worried that it was going to be far too heavy for me to use. Although amazon's web page states that the trimmer weighs "9.4 pounds" & the shipping container's total weight is "16.55 pounds", the shipping label stated that the box weighed almost 22 pounds. But not to worry, the excess weight was due to the well-packed, heavy duty cardboard used for shipping. The trimmer itself is lighter than expected, well-balanced, & easy to maneuver (I'm 67 & not particularly strong).It was easy to attach the cutter guard & 2nd (loop) handle. After 2-3 minutes of practice, with no prior trimmer experience, I was able to use it well enough to get things done. I trimmed grass, weeds, & some thin (maybe 3/8”?) soft-walled flower stems, & it works great. I bumped the bottom to release more trimmer string, & that worked easily, too. Some of the trimmer string was lost when I hit rocks with it, but not as much as I thought. I lost about 3-4" of string doing a 180' forest path strewn with imbedded rocks far too heavy to move, not bad, & some of that was due to my poor technique (which will improve with practice).The build on this is excellent, & there's great attention to detail in every aspect. There are no rough edges on this machine where the user will hold it, not even on the plastic handle seams. A well-built, well-designed tool all around.It takes Oregon .080” Platinum Gator Line, which comes in 1/2 lb, 1 lb, & 3 lb spools. Highly recommended.

This just arrived yesterday and I took it out for a trial run right away. (I already had batteries from previous Oregon purchases of a chainsaw and hedge clipper). This trimmer worked well compared to my old single-string, smaller battery units. I have a ditch in front of my house I like to keep mowed, and so a string trimmer is the safest way to cut the steep sides.I think I am 2-cycle engine challenged - on previous internal combustion trimmers (and same for chainsaws) I have owned, they often work well for a season or two. Then in later years, they are impossible to start. So I love rechargeable battery power!This came with two string cartridges, one attached and another included. They look different from each other, so I will see about figuring out how to change the string later. Since I have a bunch of bulk string from past trimmers, I will have to check how to re-load that into this trimmer.

Trimmer works great with enough power to get thru the grass/weeds I have in NM. Certainly quieter than my old gas-powered one! And no fooling around with mixing gas and (failing) to start. ;) Only thing I'm not crazy about is the pre-packaged dual string cartridges; easy to change, but more expensive than re-loading with bulk string.

The battery time is good, I can trim and edge my half acre property on a single charge. The .080 string has trouble edging some of the tough centipede runners. A thicker stiffer string would be better, but the trade off would be less power and battery life. The system to load 12' of string is fairly easy to do, but a couple times the wraps got tangled near the end of the spool. Although, it is pretty easy to fix if one of the lines does break off when that happens. It is quite, especially if you don't go full throttle, and for regular trimming you don't need to.