EGO HT5110E review: A big capacity hedge trimmer with an equally big price

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EGO is carving out a niche as a purveyor of heavyweight power tools based around its punchy 56V battery technology. For the most part, these tools are aimed at customers ranging from the serious enthusiast, right through to the pro market – and while the EGO HT5110E is aimed at the former, it’s approaching the latter.

It might lack the carbon fibre construction and steel drive shafts of its professional models, but the HT5110E counters this with a rotating rear handle for better ergonomics when trimming vertically or horizontally and a magnesium gearbox.

It’s certainly a chunky trimmer, in all senses, but does it warrant a place on your shopping list if you’re looking for the best hedge trimmers? We’ve put it to the test to find out.

What do you get for the money?

At £259 – plus another £176 for the 2.5Ah battery and standard charger tested here – the EGO certainly isn’t cheap, but by jove, it feels well built. The quality even extends to the box it comes in.

I used the word heavyweight earlier in this review deliberately, because at 5kg with its huge battery installed, it’s a bit of a beast.

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The specs are heavyweight, too, because the large, 105cm trimmer has a 51cm blade and a 33mm cutting capacity. Its 3,600spm (strokes per minute) no-load speed pushes it close to pro trimmer territory, and high- and low-speed settings allow you to switch from clearing or to more precise shaping at the push of a button. A blade guard on the tip prevents damage to or from walls.

The handle rotates 45 and 90 degrees in each direction to make it more comfortable to cut vertically or horizontally – which attempts to mitigate some of the unit’s considerable weight.

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Away from the obvious, the HT5110E has a magnesium gearbox, and there’s a grease point to keep the tool lubricated.

The huge 18x13x6cm battery slots smoothly into the handle, and has a five-segment LED display making it easy to see how much trimming lies ahead. At £117, it’s not cheap, although EGO claims 80 minutes of work time against a speedy 50 minute charge. It’s just a shame the £59 charger doesn’t feel quite as solid as you’d expect for the price.

What’s it like to use?

Like most hedge trimmers, it’s ready to go out of the box – assuming you’ve ordered the batteries, because at the time of writing, it’s only available as a bare tool. The quality of the EGO HT5110E instantly shines through. It has a pleasing heft, and the exposed metal chassis exudes a genuine sense of quality.

The included documentation looks expansive, but the multi-language booklet is easy to digest, and the illustrations are clear and easy to follow.

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Slightly unusually, there are three triggers to press: the uppermost one is the release mechanism for the trigger underneath the handle – which must be squeezed in conjunction with the trigger on the front handle to operate. But unlike some hedge trimmers, all three are so well placed that it’s perfectly intuitive. 

There’s a thumb-operated speed selector button, which ups the ante from its regular no-load speed of 3,000spm to a rather more heady 3,600spm. The faster speed makes for a better cut, reducing the number of passes. And I found that the lower speed setting made shaping a little easier.

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The handle twists by pressing another lever near the rear trigger, allowing it to lock in at 45- and 90- degree angles both clockwise and anticlockwise. It’s a smart solution that I found really reduced fatigue during extended use.

What didn’t reduce fatigue was its heavyweight 5kg frame. While it’s very capable of trimming a lot in a little amount of time, I found it was my arms which were the limiting factor.

The battery is easy to remove using the thumb-operated catch, and I like that the LED charge-level indicators are easy to see, even in bright sunlight.

How powerful is it?

In terms of outright oomph, little comes close to the EGO. It cut box hedges like they weren’t there, and it swept through established laurel, persistent holly and cleared privet easily. It didn’t become bogged down once, and I was left with the distinct impression it could’ve cut through denser plants with ease.

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Before

After

Before

After

I recorded a no-load volume of 85dBA, making it quite noisy, but my measured vibration level of 3.6m/s² is significantly lower than any other hedge trimmer I’ve tested. Under government guidance, that could allow more than 15 hours of daily exposure before exceeding limits.

Is the battery life good? 

With its huge 56v, 2.5Ah battery, EGO claims a working time of 80 minutes, which is impressive. In our own no-load tests, it took a phenomenal 94 minutes to expire. If you need more, EGO has a range of batteries up to a massive 12Ah – although the price for that is equally massive, at £559.

With the standard charger, the 2.5Ah takes 50 minutes to fully charge, which is less than it takes to charge smaller batteries which power its rivals such as the Bosch AdvancedHedgeCut 36V-65-28.

Should you buy the EGO HT5110E hedge trimmer?

If you need a big-capacity hedge trimmer that will cut through the worst that your garden can offer, the EGO HT5110E is really in a class of one. It has a ferocious appetite, and that big battery means you won’t be charging regularly, either.

However, with a battery and charger, its hefty price tag is hard to ignore, and you’ll need a fine set of muscles, because using it will replace a visit to the gym. But if you have the physical and financial means, the EGO is staggeringly good.

How I test hedge trimmers

Every hedge trimmer I test battles the same varied set of shrubs in mine and my neighbours’ gardens over the course of around a month: laurel, box, privet, holly and hawthorne. I also run the same battery tests on every trimmer: my battery tests are no-load (that is, the trimmers are not actively cutting hedges), which guarantees the fairest possible proving ground and the best possible basis for comparison. 

While I use the trimmers, I’ll be assessing ergonomics, ease of use and performance, and to paint a fuller picture I also measure vibration and noise levels when operational.

Written By

Stuart Milne

Stuart is digital editor at whatcar.com and has more than 25 years of automotive journalism under his belt. Over the years, Stuart has written for some of the biggest motoring magazines and websites, including Auto Trader and Autocar, and has reviewed pretty much every significant car sold in the UK, and just as many products – from multimeters to air fresheners. He thrives on a hands-on approach to car and home maintenance, so is found at the business end of the latest power tools as much as he is at his laptop.

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