Design and Features

• Extendable pole
• Tiny power buttons
• Optional chainsaw attachment

I’ve got the Cobra LRH5024V Cordless Long Reach Hedgetrimmer on review with just the hedge trimmer attachment. There’s also an optional chainsaw attachment if you need to lop off thicker branches.

With the hedge trimmer set, you get the hedge trimmer, 24V battery and charger, and a carry strap, all for a rather low price. For those with tall hedges to deal with, this is an attractive package.

Charging is done using a clip-on battery charger, which takes between two and three hours to top the battery up. That’s not particularly fast, so it could slow you down if you need to recharge in the middle of a job. In that case, a secondary battery (around £43) might be required.

This pole trimmer comes in two parts. The hedge trimmer blade and pole must be attached to the main handle. That’s easy, as a screw-in collar locks the two together.

The hedge trimmer weighs 3.7kg when assembled, which is relatively light as far as hedge trimmers go. However, the weight is largely towards the front, where the motor and blade are located.

At full extension, the pivot effect of the front-loaded weight makes the unit feel quite heavy, and it’s a little tricky to control. That’s even the case with the provided strap, which only takes a bit of the strain off.

At its standard length, the Cobra LRH5024V Cordless Long Reach Hedgetrimmer is 2m long, but it has a telescopic pole that takes this to 2.5m. The telescopic mechanism is spring loaded, trying to pull the hedge trimmer back to its minimum length.

Lengthening it is a little fiddly. I had to hold the pole at maximum length while I did up the retaining plastic collar to lock it into place.

More flexible is the head itself, which can be rotated in either direction by 90°, allowing me to cut the tops of hedges while holding the Cobra LRH5024V Cordless Long Reach Hedgetrimmer vertically, or to manage a lower, sweeping cut.

There’s a 50cm blade on this trimmer, which has teeth spaced at a fairly narrow 15mm, which slightly limits the thickness of branches that you can tackle; the chainsaw may well be a useful addition.

Controls are very fiddly on this model. First, the Cobra LRH5024V Cordless Long Reach Hedgetrimmer has to be turned on using the tiny button at the back. While a power button means that the unit can be transported safely with the battery in place, I found it hard to press with thicker gloves on.

Powered on, the Cobra LRH5024V Cordless Long Reach Hedgetrimmer starts in Eco mode, which uses a slower cutting speed to extend battery life. There’s also a tiny Turbo button to increase cutting speed. Again, this button is hard to hit with a gloved hand.

It’s also slightly frustrating that the Cobra LRH5024V Cordless Long Reach Hedgetrimmer powers off after 30 seconds of inactivity. That’s not much time, and a pause to adjust the trimming angle usually overruns this cut-off period, requiring the unit to be powered on again.

Powered on, there’s a safety lock at the side of the handle, which needs to be pressed in with a thumb, and then the main switch can be used. This is relatively easy to do, even when wearing gloves.

I do like the battery meter under the power buttons, which has three LEDs to show the rough amount of juice remaining. It’s a little hard to see in full sunlight, but a hand over the top is all the shade I needed.

Storage is a little fiddly, as there are no eyelets to hang the hedge trimmer by. There’s also only a basic, cheap-feeling scabbard for the blade.

Performance

• Good reach
• A little hard to manoeuvre
• Mid-range cutting power

Even at its shortest length, the Cobra LRH5024V Cordless Long Reach Hedgetrimmer is quite long to use. For normal hedge cutting tasks, I found it easiest to tilt the blade head 90°, and then stand in front of the section of hedge that I wanted to cut; trying to use the hedge trimmer with a straight cutting blade for normal work meant that I had to stand a good way back.

For dealing with tall hedges and the tops of hedges, the telescopic shaft came into use, and I could easily reach the top of my hedge, and even cut horizontally across the top.

Only the 50cm length of the blade stopped me from being able to deal with the deeper parts of my hedge from front to back without using a ladder.

For general cutting, the Eco mode was alright on lighter bits of hedge, but I needed Turbo mode to deal with the thicker growth, which it handled well, although it’s not as easy to get as neat a finish as with a regular handheld hedge trimmer, such as the Stihl HSA 60 or Husqvarna 215iHD45.

With thicker branches, such as those on my conifer tree, the Cobra LRH5024V Cordless Long Reach Hedgetrimmer struggles a little more. Its 15mm tooth spacing means it can’t grasp thicker branches at all, and it jammed on a few thicker branches; with branches under 15mm in diameter, the hedge trimmer could take a few goes to chomp through.

I measured the Cobra LRH5024V Cordless Long Reach Hedgetrimmer at 76.5dB, mostly because the motor and noise is a long way from your head. Still, as with other battery-powered hedge trimmers, this one can be used without ear protection.

Battery life tops at at a maximum of 50 minutes on the Eco setting; working with Turbo and with a lot of hedge, I’d need a couple of charges of the battery to tackle my ~25m long run of deep hedge.

Should you buy it?

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