Best cordless hedge trimmers 2024: Tried and tested options for every budget | Expert Reviews

Most garden power tools are better when they’re cordless, and that goes double for the humble hedge trimmer. Nothing slows you down like having an extension reel and a dangling cable to deal with, and the latter can be dangerous if you get it caught up in your trimmer’s teeth.

The best cordless hedge trimmers can tackle everything from simple privet hedges to monster lines of close-packed conifers. Whatever you need and no matter what your size of garden, there’s one out there for you.

I’ve tested more than 16 hedge trimmers in the last five years, putting them to work on a mix of hedges and shrubs in my front and back gardens. In the list below you’ll find a list of the cordless models I recommend. This includes trimmers for small and large gardens, trimmers to tackle different weights of hedges, and trimmers for a range of budgets. If you need more advice or in-depth information, check the buying guide beneath the list of products for everything you need to help you make the right purchase.

We start testing hedge trimmers by unpacking them and giving the battery a full charge. We then take each trimmer out to battle with a mix of heavy conifer, box, laurel and hornbeam hedges, cutting sections of each to see how the trimmer handles different sizes and densities of hedge.

We test each trimmer’s ability to cut cleanly through thicker branches – between 10mm and 30mm in diameter, depending on the specified maximum cutting width – and look at how they cope with the thinner, springier stems of box or lonicera hedging, which can sometimes jam up larger and more powerful trimmers. Finally, we check how long the battery lasts during trimming, and how long it takes to recharge once it’s flat.

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Price when reviewed: £164 | Check price at Amazon

The UniversalHedgeCut 18-55 feels significantly heavier than some of the smaller budget trimmers, but it gives you much more cutting power and a blade big enough to tackle larger, taller hedges. This model chewed through everything I could throw at it, including lonicera, laurel and some woody (and sticky) conifer hedging. It takes massive and untidy hedges in its stride, meaning you’ll get through a summer or late-autumn trim much faster.

My test model shipped with a 2.5Ah version of Bosch’s 18V “Power for All” battery, which will work with other products from Bosch and its Power for All alliance partners. It took just over an hour to charge and kept trimming for up to 80 minutes. Whether you’re dealing with a low private hedge or a wall of beech or conifer, this trimmer can get the work done. In fact, it makes it all look easy.

Key specs – Power source: 18V 2.5Ah Li-ion battery, 60 min charge time; Blade length: 55cm; Maximum branch width: 20mm; Weight: 2.6kg

Price when reviewed: £96 (tool only) | Check price at Amazon

The Gardena Comfort Cut 50/18V is another great choice for small to mid-sized gardens. As the name suggests, it’s been designed for comfort. It’s well-balanced and solidly built, with grippy, non-slip handles and good hand and blade protection. While it’s a little noisy for a cordless model – with a high-pitched motor noise that hits around 94dB at peak – there’s surprisingly little vibration transmitted through the handle. It’s one of the most ergonomic hedge trimmers that I’ve used.

Crucially, during tests, I found more cutting power here than with many other lightweight cordless trimmers. The Gardena pushed smoothly through lonicera, privet, conifer and hornbeam hedging, leaving a nice clean edge. For once, the 20mm maximum cutting width seems fairly accurate; I cut through some chunky hornbeam and laurel branches without any serious trouble.

As a bonus, the ComfortCut 50/18V uses the same Power For All batteries as other tools in the Power For All Alliance – including tools from Flymo, Husqvarna and Bosch. I got over an hour of use from a 2.5Ah battery, which is easily enough to tackle a substantial set of hedges. The Gardena is a great all-rounder. Unless you need a larger, heavy-duty trimmer, it’s perfect for the job.

Key specs – Power source: 18V Li-ion battery; Power: Not supplied; Blade length: 50cm; Maximum branch width: 20mm; Weight: 2.8kg

Price when reviewed: £93 | Check price at Amazon

Terratek’s budget cordless trimmer kit nets you a 51cm hedge trimmer, battery and charger for the same money other manufacturers charge for a barebones tool on its own. The included batteries and chargers are still usable and interchangeable with other Terratek tools. The trimmer’s a good length for a small to medium-sized garden with a 5ft to 6ft hedge, and I found it had enough power on tap to handle most types of hedging, bar heavyweight conifers or laurel which seemed to jam it up. It easily handled my lonicera and worked through sections of a hornbeam hedge in no time.

I was worried by the limited 1.3Ah capacity of the bundled battery, but it charged in under an hour and lasted for around 40 minutes of use. More expensive models will give you more cutting power or a longer reach, but this is a solid, affordable option for casual gardeners with just a small hedge or two to trim.

Key specs – Power source: 18-20V, 1.3Ah li-ion battery, 60 min charge time; Blade length: 51cm; Maximum branch width: 15mm; Weight: 2.5kg

Price when reviewed: £149 | Check price at B&Q

Flymo has done a nice job with the ergonomics of the EasiCut 450. It feels lighter than its 2.6kg weight, and the balance and comfortable handles mean it’s easy on the arms while tackling smaller, lighter hedges. What’s more, it now uses the same 18V Power For All batteries as models from Gardena and Bosch, with a 2.0Ah battery lasting 40 minutes or more from a single charge. Useful indicators on the top give you a good idea of the current level, and there’s easily enough juice to handle the average garden border hedge.

It’s great for lightweight hedging. I found it zipped through leaves, brush and smaller branches without any fuss, while its manoeuvrability is great for shaping lonicera or privet. However, it lacks the power to handle thicker conifer hedges or larger branches, and the 16mm stated cutting width is very much the maximum. Anything more and it starts to jam.

I also like the chunky triggers on the handles, the large protective shield and the guard at the end of the blade, all of which help if you’re a bit nervous about wielding a potentially dangerous power tool. So as long as you don’t need a powerful trimmer, you’ll find this one comfortable and easy to use.

Key specs – Power source: 18V Li-ion battery, not supplied; Blade length: 45cm; Maximum branch width: 16mm; Weight: 2.6kg

Price when reviewed: £330 | Check price at Amazon

At over 1.2m in length and 4.5kg with the battery pack, this Makita trimmer is surprisingly heavy for a cordless model. However, when you’ve got masses of hedge to trim – particularly dense conifers or woody laurel – you’ll be glad to have it. The massive 75cm blade and triple-edged tooth design break up even the toughest of hedges; I found it trimmed a thick fir hedge in double-quick time without any jams and snarl-ups.

Whatever the hedge type, the three-speed brushless motor makes light work of it. Plus, when paired with Makita’s 18V 5.0Ah battery, the DUH751Z seems to go on forever; I had over 90 minutes of use from a single charge and had to take a break midway through.

That’s no shade on Makita’s ergonomics, with a rotating handle that kept things comfortable whether I was trimming vertically across the face of the hedge or horizontally along the top. This trimmer will be overkill for many hedges and gardens but it’s a serious alternative to hefty petrol models and a top-tier tool for more demanding jobs.

Key specs – Power source: 18V Li-ion battery; Power: N/S; Blade length: 75cm; Maximum branch width: 23.5mm; Weight: 4.5kg

Price when reviewed: £126 (tool only) | Check price at Sam Turner & Sons

We typically associate cutting performance with longer blades and heavy-duty trimmers, but the Husqvarna Aspire H50-P4A is a compact trimmer that can handle woody shrubs and hedges. Its secret lies in a powerful 2,800 cut/minute motor and a wider-than-usual tooth gap, enabling it to slice through branches of up to 23mm without any serious resistance. I gave it a spin on a late-autumn trim of an overgrown lonicera hedge and some dense conifer and pittosporum hedging, and in all cases it surpassed expectations, getting through clumps and branches that I’d usually expect a smaller trimmer to choke with.

The compact size and 3.1kg weight make the Aspire H50-P4A fairly easy to handle, with some smart design features like a removable leaf catcher to shift clippings out of the way as you trim. Power comes from an 18V Power 4 All battery, with the added benefit that you can share batteries and chargers with other garden tools from Husqvarna, Gardena, Flymo and Bosch. I could get around 40 minutes of work from a charge, while the battery recharges back up to 80% in another 40 minutes or 100% in an hour. With its formidable cutting skills and excellent build quality, this is the ideal cordless hedge trimmer for those small and mid-sized gardens where lighter compact trimmers don’t have enough muscle to do the job.

Key specs – Power source: 18V 2.5Ah Li-ion battery, 60 min charge time; Blade length: 50cm; Maximum branch width: 23mm; Weight: 3.1kg

Price when reviewed: £115 | Check price at Amazon

This pint-sized, handheld trimmer is noticeably smaller and lighter than the competition and comes with three blades to tackle your different topiary needs, or even cut grasses down to size. While you wouldn’t want to take on larger hedges with it, it’s surprisingly useful when you need to reach up high and clip the top.

Its real skill, however, is the shaping and sculpting of smaller shrubs or hedges, even if you don’t go in for topiary replicas of your pets or trendy cloud effects. On lightweight box or Lonicera hedging it works a treat, though my topiary efforts were held back by a lack of artistic vision and Edward Scissorhands skills. The WG801E uses the same 20V batteries as Worx’s other garden and power tools, and although the 2Ah battery takes a couple of hours to charge, I had no problem powering through an hour or so of clipping before needing a recharge. Where precision matters more than size or power, this is the machine to buy.

Key specs – Power source: 20V 2.0Ah Li-ion battery, 180 min charge time; Blade length: 10-20cm; Maximum branch width: 8mm; Weight: 550g

Price when reviewed: From £317 | Check price at Amazon

The Kärcher HGE 18-50 is a great all-rounder. I had an easy time tackling larger, tougher and more unruly shrubs and hedges, but it could handle tricky clumps of box or lonicera without any worries. It’s not as heavy as the Makita DUH751Z, but, with its 50cm blade length and 22cm maximum cutting width, it can take on anything from beech to hornbeam to an overgrown conifer hedge. The odd thick branch can still slow it down or stop it, but anything sensible won’t be a problem.

The ergonomic design has an ingenious feature where pulling a lever allows you to rotate the blade by twisting around the top handle. You can keep adjusting the position as you trim each side of the hedge, or work along the top, to match what feels most comfortable to you. Even with a heavy battery attached – we tested using Kärcher’s 18V, 5Ah unit – I found it a very easy trimmer to work with, especially when cleaning up the side of a tall hedge and flattening it along the top. The 5Ah battery went for nearly an hour and still had enough puff left to swap into a Kärcher garden vacuum and sweep up clippings. The 2.5Ah battery supplied with the standard kit should still be good for 40 minutes or more of work. With plenty of brawn and just as much stamina, this is a great hedge trimmer for all but the biggest jobs.

Key specs – Power source: 18V 2.5Ah Li-ion battery, 44min charge time; Blade length: 50cm; Maximum branch width: 22mm; Weight: 2.9kg

Price when reviewed: £138 | Check price at Amazon

Clipping the top of your hedges can be a nightmare once they reach 7ft and above. Not so with an extendable trimmer like this Einhell, as the 40cm blade sits on the end of a telescopic pole that can stretch to 1.7m, meaning I could reach the top of a 2m hedge or even a 3m hedge without having to climb up a ladder. What’s more, the head pivots, so you can have it straight for trimming the side of the hedge, then switch to a right angle once it’s time to cut the top down to size. It uses the same Power X-Change batteries and chargers as other cordless Einhell tools, with the basic 2.5Ah battery lasting for around 30 to 35 minutes. Using a 4.0Ah battery borrowed from a cordless mower, I was able to get that up to an hour.

There’s plenty of power here to deal with most garden hedging, along with a 22mm max cutting width. And if you do come across something thicker or tougher, the GE-HC 18 has a party trick: the trimmer head can be switched for a mini-chainsaw attachment, with a 20mm blade that’s perfect for slicing through thicker branches or pruning your trees. I found this worked superbly on an overgrown hornbeam hedge, and it also helped me coppice some willow and prune some fruit trees without any hassle at all. Einhell also makes a cheaper, hedge-trimmer-only tool – the GE-HH 18/45 – but the mini-chainsaw-equipped model is worth the extra. It’s a brilliant and extremely versatile garden tool.

Key specs – Power source: 18V li-ion battery; Blade length: 40cm; Maximum branch width: 22mm; Weight: 3.9kg

Your biggest choice comes down to the size of the blade. Barring the smallest topiary clippers, hedge trimmers start at around 35cm in length and go up to around 65cm. The longer the blade, the easier you’ll find it and the less time it will take you to trim a lengthy hedge, and the more reach you’ll have to deal with taller shrubs and hedges. However, a longer blade also means a heavier and more unwieldy hedge trimmer, so there’s always a balance to be found between size and weight.

However, size isn’t just about length, but also the size of the teeth on the blade and the gap between them, as this goes a long way to defining how thick a twig or branch can be before the trimmer can’t chop through it. Generally speaking, longer blades tend to come with bigger teeth and a wider gap, but you’ll find some distinctions between different models with the same blade length. The other thing that matters here is the power of the electric motor, as a more powerful motor will usually make it easier to slice through chunkier material.

The manufacturer will usually state the maximum size of twigs and branches a trimmer can work through, but bear in mind that the type of hedge you’re trying to trim will also make a difference. Thick and sticky conifer branches, for example, can be a lot harder to deal with than a bushy lonicera or green hornbeam hedge.

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Battery life depends on the power of the motor and the capacity of the batteries included with the trimmer, though you’ll find some trimmers sold without a battery or with a choice of different capacities. Most cordless models trim for somewhere between 25 minutes and an hour, which should be enough to tackle, say, an average-sized front garden, but might leave you short if you’ve got a lot of longer hedges in need of work. It might be worth investing in a spare battery, but short recharge times mean you can often get going again within an hour or two.

Many trimmers are also part of a battery ecosystem these days, meaning you can buy several tools from within the same system and just swap batteries between them. If you’re buying a cordless grass strimmer, lawnmower or any other power tool, it’s often worth sticking to the same brand and system for this reason – you can even buy some tools without a battery for less, and you won’t have several different chargers cluttering your shed or garage.

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