Review: Gtech ST20 Cordless Grass Trimmer

Do you have areas of grass in the garden that you find hard to keep under control?  Even the most edge-friendly lawnmowers can struggle to reach every blade of grass, and there’s nothing like straggly lawn edges to make your garden look untidy – not to mention the associated creep of grass into your borders.  A grass trimmer is the perfect tool for tackling those hard-to-reach areas, and this spring I’ve been putting the Gtech ST20 Cordless Grass Trimmer through it’s paces, to see how it performed on a family garden.

If you’ve never used a cordless grass trimmer before, chances are you have a less than favourable opinion of this type of power tool.  I’ll admit, until I came across cordless models I dismissed grass trimmers as noisy, fiddly and too much effort to actually use very often.  Also, with kids in the mix I really didn’t like the idea of power cables or petrol tanks from a safety point of view.

The advent of powerful lithium ion batteries has really revolutionised the garden power tools market, making previously laborious products much easier, cleaner and safer to use.  The Gtech ST20 is a great example of this.

The Gtech ST20 Cordless Grass Trimmer – first impressions

Now product aesthetic isn’t really top of my wish list when it comes to outdoor tools, but the ST20 does look rather nice.  It has all the signature Gtech styling; matte aluminium handle, grey and green colour scheme, and simple, ergonomic design.  The colour scheme is put to practical use here too; anything green is a movable part, so you’re automatically signposted to the adjustable features.

The ST20 is supplied in three pieces: the main body, the cutting head and the battery unit.  Everything just clicks together; assembly took less than a minute and was very straightforward.  The cutting blades are nothing like the usual plastic line that you have to fiddle with on grass trimmers; instead you simply clip on a teardrop-shaped plastic blade and you’re done.  The ST20 comes with 20 of these blades; Gtech also offer free spare blades for the life of the product, so there’s no additional maintenance costs.

I gave the battery a full charge before use, this takes four hours and delivers up to 30 minutes of run-time.

Performance

Our lawn is a great challenge for the ST20; it has curved edges and an area that runs up to log edging, both of which are impossible to cut with just a lawnmower.  We haven’t cut them at all this spring, so they really gave us a chance to see what the ST20 could do!

The first thing I noticed when using the ST20 was just how light it is.  It only weighs 1.75kg – yes, you read that right, 1.75kg.  This makes it super-easy to hold and manoeuvre, and takes away any chance of strain on your back and arms.  It manages to feel lightweight without being flimsy too.

The ST20 has a one-handed power trigger, which must be combined with a safety switch to start it.  You can change the angle of the handle on the body; this is very effective at giving you the adjustment you need for your height, and the optimum point of balance for effective use and a good clean finish.  I’m 5′ 4″ and the ST20 felt very comfortable to use; Chris is a lot taller and with a bit of handle adjustment he also found the perfect setup.  I think this feature is really important; it’s highly likely that a tool like this will be used by more than one person in the family, so you need to be able to make adjustments.

 The ST20 has a high performance 18V motor which, combined with the powerful lithium-ion battery, gives you really good performance, even on long patches of grass.  It breezed through our lawn’s overgrown edges and got right into the corners with ease.

The ST20’s cutting head can be used in two positions.  The first is the standard position you see on all grass trimmers, which cuts with the spinning blade in a horizontal position.  A quick twist converts it into a lawn edger, which operates the blade in a vertical position for precision cutting around lawn edges.  I think this is a really clever innovation from  Gtech, and one that sets the product apart from competitors.  It makes the product dual-function, which saves on shed space and improves value for money, and it also takes the hard work out of manually edging the lawn which is one of my least favourite garden jobs!

Here’s a little video of the ST20 in action.

I tackled all the edges of our small-ish lawn with the ST20 in about 10 minutes, so the battery coped easily without a charge.  As with all Gtech products, there’s a 4-stage LED display which allows you to monitor the charge easily, and you can remove the battery pack for charging, so you don’t have to drag the trimmer into the house with you.  The battery pack is also interchangeable with the Gtech HT20 hedge trimmer.

There is some vibration during  use, which you can expect from this type of tool, but it really wasn’t excessive, particularly given the power that the ST20 delivers.  The vibration was also much less than I’ve experienced on other grass trimmers.

We’ve used the ST20 a few times now on the lawn, and we’re still on our first cutting blade.  Obviously, the wear and tear will be greatly affected by how much you come into contact with walls, paving etc. but to me it seems very durable.  And of course you’ve got free blades for life too.

My verdict

I’m impressed with the Gtech ST20 Cordless Grass Trimmer.  It’s high quality, simple to use, and really effective at tackling those tricky spots in the garden.  I particularly love the cordless element to this product; it takes all the setup out of the equation and allows me to get to work in seconds, so I’m far more likely to use it regularly.  Combine that with the dual-action cutting head and powerful performance, and I think it’s a great product to have in the shed for easy garden maintenance.

The Gtech ST20 Cordless Grass Trimmer costs £99 is available exclusively on the Gtech website.  It’s part of a brand new cordless garden tools range, which includes a hedge trimmer and mower.  All Gtech products come with a two-year guarantee and free delivery, and you can find out more about the full range here.

Could the Gtech ST20 Cordless Grass Trimmer take the hassle out of keeping your lawn tidy?

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I was supplied with a Gtech ST20 Cordless Grass Trimmer for review purposes.  All opinions and comments are honest and genuine.