Design and Features

• Needs assembly
• Chainsaw and hedge trimmer heads
• Extendible pole

Although battery powered pole trimmers are more flexible, they’re quite a bit more expensive than plug in ones, such as the Vonhaus 2 in 1 Chainsaw Hedge Trimmer. And with this hedge trimmer you can use it for as long as you like.

It ships with a 10m cable, which will cover a lot of a garden, but you’ll most likely still need an extension cable to use it. I’ve got around 25m of hedging at the front of the house, so I needed a lot more cable than was on offer.

This hedge trimmer needs quite a bit of assembly before it can be used, with the guard, pole and your choice of head needing to be fitted.

The hedge trimmer head comes ready for use, but the chainsaw attachment needs the chain attached and tensioned. If it’s something you’ve not done before, you may struggle to correctly set the tension.

Oil is required for the chainsaw but is not provided in the box, which is a shame. You’ll need to buy some and top up the reservoir.

Having two heads is useful, so it’s a shame that they’re so hard to switch. Rather than using a tool-free design, a head is attached using a screw and bolt, tightened up with the provided hex key (clipped to the handle, in case you can’t find it in the box).

Not only did I have to do up the main retaining bolt, but I had to loosen the four hex bolts around the connector to get the pole into place. Switching between the two heads is a bit of a mission, and feels like it should be simpler.

Likewise, storage is then an issue, as it’s hard to take the hedge trimmer apart and store it in bits, rather than trying to fit the fully assembled unit in a shed. The Stihl HLA 56 makes life a lot easier, coming apart quickly and shipping with a storage mount.

A full-on harness is provided in the box, which straps around you and has a cup that you place the hedge trimmer’s handle in for stability. You will need this, as the 7kg hedge trimmer is exceptionally heavy.

It can be extended between 209cm and 273.5cm with the hedge trimmer, and 173cm and 240cm with the chainsaw. That’s a lot of reach, for dealing with the tallest of hedges; however, at maximum reach, the trimmer’s weight makes it relatively hard to position accurately.

I found it easier to work with the trimmer at its minimum height for the most part and then only extend when required for maximum reach.

Using the Vonhaus 2 in 1 Chainsaw Hedge Trimmer with either head is easy. There’s a simple thumb-slide that unlocks the tool, and then a trigger that I had to grip to turn it on.

With a 45cm blade that can deal with branches up to 16mm, the Vonhaus 2 in 1 Chainsaw Hedge Trimmer is a capable hedge trimmer on paper.

To make life easier, the head can pivot, angling to make it easy to cut the tops of hedges, or for low cuts.

The chainsaw has a 20cm chain, which makes it useful for pruning, similar to the chain in the Stihl GTA 26 pruner. However, I found it a little difficult to position with accuracy, particularly at maximum stretch. The handheld Stihl GTA 26 is easier to use with precision, provided the branches you want to cut are within reach.

Performance

• Slices through hedges well
• Chainsaw can deal with thicker branches
• Loud

I started off with the hedge trimmer accessory and used it to tackle the front hedge. With mains power, it managed to deal with the combination of hedge and blackberry brambles with ease, quickly slicing through everything.

As noted above, I did find this long and heavy tool harder to use than a handheld tool, such as the Husqvarna 215iHD45. But, the mains power meant that I could keep going without worrying about battery power.

For trimming the tops of hedges, the angle and pole made this job easy, although the 45cm blade didn’t quite reach the back of the thickest section, so it still required a ladder to finish the job.

With the chainsaw attachment, I could tackle some of the thicker branches on my conifer tree. Again, the long pole (particularly at full reach) makes it quite hard to precisely line up the blade, so it took a bit of effort with this 7kg tool.

Once lined up, the chainsaw sliced through the branches well, but it’s important to work slowly and methodically, as the long-reach means you can’t easily put pressure on the head when cutting.

I measured the hedge trimmer at 89.6dB and the chainsaw at 90.5dB, making this louder than a lot of handheld tools.

Should you buy it?

FAQs