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- Very well specced for the money
- Supplied line and brush cutter blade
- Dual battery charger
- Extremely bulky
- Batteries are hard to remove
- Hard to install brushcutter blade correctly
Strimmers are great for clearing thickest of grass and weeds, but you’ll need something more heavy duty if you want to rid your patch of brambles or other hardy unwanteds. That duality can mean doubling up on tools, or spending a lot on something that can do both – but the VonHaus 36V Cordless 2-in-1 Grass Trimmer & Brush Cutter could well be an exception.
The £140 strimmer – available for £115 at time of writing – is mightily cost effective, and with a bicycle handle arrangement, it certainly looks like it means business. But is the VonHaus 36V Cordless 2-in-1 Grass Trimmer & Brush Cutter a jack of all trades and a master of none? I’ve put it to the test to find out if it’s among the best strimmers to buy today.
What do you get for the money?
In short, rather a lot. The large box contains the strimmer (in a number of parts), a 1.6mm cutting line, a three-tooth 255mm steel blade, two 18V 2.0Ah batteries and a dual charger, a chunky shoulder strap, plus a tool bag. Everything you need in one box, in other words.
The VonHaus measures 189cm from top to toe, and while it’s not extendable, the way the handles mount to the boom affords a certain level of adjustability as the hub can be moved up and down by loosening the bolts.
The boom separates for ease of storage, which is just as well, because the whole unit is extremely large and, with those handlebars, very bulky. The boom and handles are made from aluminium, which usefully cuts down on the (still significant) weight, but the satin effect finish is prone to scratching.
There’s no cutting head adjustability, so while it offers options for trimming long grass or hacking brambles, it’s not going to be the top choice if you’re keen on edging up your lawn against paths.
But in terms of sheer cutting potential, the VonHaus’ 34cm cutting width is virtually hard to beat at this price, and a bump feed mechanism means you only need to tap the cutting head on the ground to feed more line, which means you don’t need to stop work.
The line itself is of a fairly standard 1.6mm diameter, but the chunky, 1.4mm thick, three toothed brush cutting blade is on hand for heavier work. It doesn’t quite have the cutting width of the line, though, at 25.5cm.
How easy is it to use?
Assembly
Perhaps unsurprisingly for such a large, multi-limbed grass trimmer, you’ll spend a lot of assembling the VonHaus 36V, and you’ll need a fairly big space to do it in. Firstly, you need to align the two separate handlebars within the handlebar clamp, and secure using four bolts. I found this a fiddly process and because you won’t know the optimum position for your height, it requires a bit of trial and error to get right.
I found it easier to attach the two halves of the boom and the line/blade cover. Swapping the cutting line and brush cutter blade is fairly straightforward – theoretically at least – and requires you to insert the supplied Allen key in the spindle lock and the line unscrews. A reverse-thread nut holds the cutting blade in place.
It takes a little more thought to get the VonHaus into its operating position than a single-handle strimmer but is equally at home for left or right handers. To start, you press the lock button on the right-hand handle with your index finger and press the trigger with the rest of your fingers. It feels rather like controlling a fighter jet stick at your local amusement arcade.
Ergonomics
Even though most of the structure is made from aluminium, with the two batteries installed, the VonHaus weighs in at just under 6kg, and most of that weight is in the head. Fortunately the pair of batteries are light. All that weight and top-heavy balance makes using the supplied shoulder strap a must, although again, there’s a little bit of trial and error to where you mount the bracket.
In use, I found it unwieldy at first, especially in smaller areas, because I was conscious of more headstock behind me than I’m used to. After a while, and in larger areas, it became easier – but I still found it tricky to carry from the shed due to its limbs pointing every which way.
Test results: Noise, vibrations and battery
I recorded the VonHaus at 90dBA at ear level, which is on the loud side. The frequency is higher than the usual strimmer drone, and vibrations are significant – more so than any other grass trimmer I’ve tested.
The pair of 18V, 2.0Ah batteries take an hour to charge. Helpfully – and unusually – this can be done in tandem thanks to a twin-port charger which comes as part of the kit. It’s a shame that the information that illustrates the meaning of the lights is microscopic. The strimmer ran for 25 minutes non-stop in my no-load runtime test, which is half that of some other grass trimmers – and will be far less in actual use.
It takes a bit of effort, and a firm shove, to install the batteries, and removing them is tricky: you’ll need one hand to press the release catch, another to slide them off – and potentially a third to stop the strimmer from taking a tumble, unless it’s laid on the floor. The batteries themselves have four green charge indicators on the side but are obscured by the side of the headstock, meaning you’ll need to remove them to see how much more cutting you’ll be doing.
How well does it trim?
Pulling the VonHaus on it rather like donning a jetpack, and I did feel rather self conscious in my front garden. But when it comes to cutting, there are no such concerns. It sliced through thickets of long, damp grass like they weren’t there, and that chunky cutting width means I covered a lot of ground very quickly.
There were no issues with the line in regular use, no matter how thick the grass was. I think that brambles would pose little challenge as far as its mechanical capabilities are concerned; rather it was let down by its 1.6mm line, which feels far too thin for a trimmer with this power. Still, it didn’t tangle or need rethreading. And, of course, there’s a metal brush cutter blade for those heavy-duty jobs.
It’s reasonably easy to remove the cutting spool and fit the brushcutter blade with the provided tools. But I did find it fiendishly difficult to ensure it was located centrally on the hub. If it was slightly off-centre there were huge vibrations, and it was hard to trust that the blade wouldn’t come off. Even when it was installed centrally, I found that the handles would twist on the boom, meaning I had to stop to readjust and tighten the bolts on the headset several times.
There’s no edging function, and the handlebar arrangement means you can’t try and fudge it by operating it sideways. I also found that the arrangement made it tricky to manhandle into a more upright position when I was trying to hack out grass from a crack in the pavement.
Should you buy the VonHaus 36V Cordless 2-in-1 Grass Trimmer & Brush Cutter?
If you’re looking for a capable grass trimmer on a tight budget, then the VonHaus is very hard to ignore, especially that it comes bundled with a capable brush cutting blade – something that you’ll usually have to pay extra for.
However, switching between line and blade isn’t a job of a moment, and it requires a lot of trial and error to seat the blade accurately. More than that, though, I found the handlebar configuration rather clumsy and unnecessary; if it was a professional heavyweight it would make sense, but for something better suited to light gardening duties it was all a bit too much.
But, as a very affordable kit that includes everything you need to get started, the VonHaus appeals as long as you’re happy with the compromises.
