Black & Decker Cordless Trimmer/Edger CST1000
Written: Oct 14 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Cordless. Good trim time. Decent weight. Handle operating trigger. Automatic string feed.
Cons: Lower handle adjustment. Light duty trimming.
The Bottom Line: Works great for light duty yard trimming. Love the cordless convenience.
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| joetrent's Full Review: Black & Decker Cordless Trimmer / Edger Cst1000 |
I really, really do stuff besides pool/yard work chores. As a matter of fact, I would rather french kiss a mad rattlesnake than do yard work or clean the pool. I'd also rather hug a hungry polar bear than take care of yard work/pool equipment. So, it's strange to me that the three reviews I've written so far all have to do with making the weeds level, scraggly bushes beautiful, and keeping a hole full of water in the ground, cleaner. But, that's retired life. (I'd go back to work, except I ran out of dangerous animals to be affectionate with to describe how I feel about that idea!)
So that I minimize my tool maintenance efforts (read gas and oil), I use a Neuton cordless electric mower, a Black & Decker 22" cordless hedge trimmer, and the Black & Decker CST1000 cordless trimmer/edger to maintain the estate. No trips to the gas station, no storing and pouring of fluids, and the cordless convenience of the grab it, use it, and hang it back up lifestyle. Plus did I mention again the final score was the 100 foot extension cord-20, me-3 in my decision to go cordless?
My Neuton mower has an trimmer/edger attachment for the front of the mower that works fantastically. It unfortunately doesn't whack the grass and weeds that grow up right against the house and slump-stone fences around the ranch. So, I searched Epinions for a cordless solution to my problem. There were a lot of good reviews on various models. The CST1000 wasn't one of them however.
I read everything I could find, then drug my keister to the local Walmart to touch and feel the real things. All of them, besides the CST1000, were too heavy, too big, or too expensive for what I wanted to do, which was to trim the stuff against the house and fence. So, against other folks better judgment and experience, I purchased the CST1000 for $49. And, I'm darn glad I did. This has been a great little machine for my use in the 5 months I've been using it.
When I got it home, I emptied the box in front of my recliner and got to work assembling the weed whacking weapon. In the box was the main part of the machine, a little bag of parts, the string guard, the lower handle, the wall charger, and the instructions and warranty card.
Assembly was a snap in spite of the confusing instruction sheet. I did install the lower handle upside down the first time. (Yeah Mom, the college money was basically wasted). The string guard is a chunk of plastic that fits into a slot and is held on by one philips screw. The charging stationed was assembled out of the box, in spite of what the directions said.
The toughest part was finding a place in the garage to mount the charging station which doubles as the trimmer hanger. It comes with a six foot cord attached to the plug-in wall outlet transformer. Once I found a place to hang it, the two included screws and wall anchors did the job. This trimmer is designed to charge constantly while on the hanger. The red light on the transformer shows that the trimmer is charging, and the green light means you can go forth and do battle with the evil Knight named Weeds. For the color-blind, remember RED-Left GREEN-Right.
You can also remove a screw on the back of the charging station, remove the charging wire, lay the trimmer on the garage floor, plug it in, and then run over it with your car. Mom paid too much money for my higher education for me to do that.
After charging the trimmer all night in accordance with the poorly written instructions, I was eager to go whack weeds. Yeah, right.
I grabbed the trimmer off the wall, adjusted the properly installed lower handle, and sallied forth to slay the weed dragons.
The lower handle adjusts in an arc, not up and down the length of the trimmer shaft. This adjustment had the effect that when adjusted properly, I didn't have to bend over 1/4 of an inch more than when it was adjusted improperly. Come on Black & Decker. Fix it so we don't have to bend over at all. Did I mention that I'm also extremely lazy?
To start this whacker device, you push forward a a safety switch at the top of the handle, and then squeeze the handle operating trigger. You can then let go of the top safety switch. This is very easy to do. Black & Decker has really got the operating switch design done right. Just like their hedge trimmer, the switch fits the entire length of the hand which eliminates any effort while operating this machine.
Operation is like any other string trimmer. The motor spins real fast, the string hits the weed, and a part of the weed falls off. For regular lawn grass, the CST1000 works great. The .065 string doesn't have the strength to cleanly cut the stiffer weeds above about 1/4 of an inch thick. However, I'm a tenacious fellow. I let the string slap away at the weed until it started to pulp. Eventually we (the trimmer and I) wore out the weed, and it's top would fall off.
This trimmer has an automatic string feed rather than a bump-on-the-ground feed. The first two times I used this trimmer, the string didn't seem to automatically feed out when I really needed it. It got to a point where only a nub of string was visible outside the string housing, and trimming became a whirring sound that by itself didn't intimidate the weed to drop off the stem at the height I was trying to achieve. Being a quick learner, after two consecutive and frustratingly unsuccessful attempts to beautify the edge of our palace grounds, I pulled the string assembly off the machine. Darned if the string wasn't wedged into a slot inside the assembly. I pulled it loose, fed it out the appropriate hole, and reattached it to the machine. AH, weed whacking heaven! The automatic string feed now works great. It seems to feed just when I need it to. And a giant shock to me is the fact that in the 5 months I've used this trimmer the string has never broken off inside the trimmer head.
The trimmer head does rotate to become an edger. I tried it, and it works just fine, but I already mentioned that I have one on wheels that I don't have to carry. Remember, I'm lazy.
When I'm done whacking around, I just tote the trimmer into the garage and hang it up. This accomplishes two things. The first thing is that the machine automatically charges. The second thing is that it is automatically out of way of both me and the cars.
I guess I've used this thing about a fifty times. The battery life is about 40 minutes, which is more than enough for what I do. It does the light work that I ask it to do. It's easy to use. It hasn't broken. I like it, and recommend it for light duty trimming.
Now, I'm gonna go buy a woodworking tool so I can have fun working on the by-product of someone else cutting down really big weeds. You know, trees.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
joetrent
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Location: Riverside, CA
Reviews written: 14
Trusted by: 6 members
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