So today, we’re reviewing the Ryobi Hedge Trimmer 18 Volt Lithium-ion cordless hedge trimmer. This comes with a 1.5 amp battery and a charger, or you can buy it separately.
Buy On Amazon: Ryobi Hedge Trimmer 18 Volt Cordless
Let’s get the review started. We did rack my brain on what brand I wanted to go with for the hedge trimmer, but I like this because it was the 18 Volt 22-inch cut capacity. It comes with the battery and the charger, which I didn’t need, but it came with it, and it also cuts up to three-quarter inches. Now, this does have a three-year warranty on it, and again I will put the link below for this, but the one thing I really liked about it was the head sweep.
First, there’s a general commercial about the Ryobi ONE, and they just brag about how excellent their tools are with the exchangeable batteries. Then we have the rotating handle that you can twist around for better cutting comfort, and then we have the 55-centimeter laser-cut diamond, rounded blade for enhanced cutting performance, and then there is some anti-jamming system. In addition, there is a plastic thing that comes with this Ryobi ONE 18V Hedge Trimmer that makes it easier to remove the cuttings.
Just slides in the 1.5-amp battery, and it is ready to use. Just pull back the safety lever and pull the trigger. It’s ready to go. Along with the head sweep, they also offer the 90-degree angle that I really like. It’s ergonomically correct, so you just hit that button, and you can adjust it to be more comfortable while you’re working. I will say, though, that if you’re making quick cuts and you don’t change that back to where you need to be, it could put you in an awkward position, but I like that you just got to get used to it.
Now by no means is this the lightest hedge trimmer on the market. It offers a different feature here and there, but it is 7.5 pounds, so it’s a little bit heavier, and as far as it goes with balance, it’s not the best I’ve ever felt either. However, it gives you an excellent handle grip, and you also get the brush guard to protect your knuckle. Let me show you how the head sweep works, and if you don’t want it on, you can just take it off, but I like this for when you’re doing your shrubs because it takes the debris you already cut, and it literally sweeps it off. But you don’t want it on there; maybe you’re trimming your tree or something.
You could just pull it off just like that, and then that’s it. If you want it back on, all you have to do is slide it back on the track, ready to go. Extra cut debris gets it out of your way. You don’t have to worry about it on your next cut again.
I noticed using this because it’s not as fast as I thought. You got to go over it a couple of times in the same area to get an excellent clean cut. Now they have a 40 Volt version, which I would assume is a little quicker, but even the electric I have is much faster than this. It does an excellent job once you get it done. But you can see that it pushes a little bit while you’re cutting because you go over the same area a couple of times to ensure that you get it.
Don’t get me wrong, it cuts good. Is it for a professional? No, it’s not at all. Definitely for the homeowner but not for professionals. But you can see that you have to go over the same area a couple of times, where even my other electric hedge trimmer would cut that a lot faster. I really like how you can change angles, so your wrist isn’t hurting you. It’s straightforward to do. You just hit that button, and they’re all positive stops so that you can go up to the 45-degree order 90-degree cut. So I do like that feature a lot.
We’re just going to test this Ryobi Hedge Trimmer 18 Volt to the old rhododendron plant. Not too much issue. I will say that even though it’s battery-operated, it has a lot of power. I don’t notice any bogging down. Maybe a little bit here and there when you’re coming very thick shrubbery, but it holds its own. Very smooth action to make nice straight lines, so I’m happy with that. After doing this for a little bit, my arm is starting to get a little bit tired just because this thing is a little heavier. Again, seven and a half pounds.
I got more trees growing underneath my tree. The shrubs are about 1/4 inch thick, and it really takes it down like nothing, no bogging down. But yes, I’m pleased with how it came with the tree. All in all, it’s pretty powerful. I used a 4.0 battery after the 1.5 started to die. It was about 15 minutes, and then I had to replace it, but the 4.0 gave me a lot longer time but three a quarter-inch cut. I mean, that’s a pretty nice-sized cut. Pretty powerful. I do like the different features. It is a little bit heavy, and It is awkward to use. I’ll be honest, but the various degrees that you can do, you know, I like it. I think it offers more features than many other ones out there. And as far as it goes with this right here, I think that’s very cool. You have to get used to this. You have to get used to that. Once you do, it’s going to help out your wrist.
Is this a professional tool? No, I would never recommend it as a professional tool. But for DIY, yeah. I especially liked it when I was using it on the tree, and it got a lovely extended cut on this. So with that being said, I’m going to give this a four-star, not a five-star, just because of some of the things we talked about. But the head sweep definitely makes up for that. I haven’t seen that on any other unit.
Ryobi 24in 40 Volt Cordless Hedge Trimmer RY40601A vs. 20in 18 Volt Cordless Hedge Trimmer P2608
We are comparing 2 of the Ryobi hedge trimmers. The 20-inch 18 Volt Ryobi handheld hedge trimmer and the 40 Volt 24-inch hedge trimmer. So first off with the 18 Volt trimmer, obviously it’s a 20 inch versus the 24 inches for the 40 Volt.
There are a couple of other differences, but right off the bat, one of the things about the 18 different Volt is that the handguard is a little bigger. The handguard on the 18 Volt actually seems to do more to protect. You’ll be wearing gloves and arm, hopefully, long sleeves and eye protection, but the Blade Guard appears to be just a little bit bigger on the 18. Not sure why it’s also clear, which is nice. You can see through it to your blade to see if there’s anything lodged or getting any build-up happening. The other thing that we like about the 18 Volt is probably not recommended, but you can use this one-handed. It is balanced just right to get higher stuff and use it in one hand, and you wouldn’t want to do that for safety concerns.
Say that you should probably use two hands. Still, in those rare situations where you need to reach something and use one hand, I definitely prefer the 18 Volt. Whereas if we look at the 40 Volt using this one-handed is simply out of the question; there is no way to think about using this one-handed safely, even remotely. Balance-wise, even though the batteries are on top and too heavy, it wants to fall over to the handguard. It is balanced on the secondary handle on the front, but it does leave your hand exposed again.
I’m curious about how protective this is other than just minor deflection. They’re up close, but otherwise, the added four inches on, the blade is excellent, and both come with the guard. You can slide off the plastic guard, which we’ve recommended keeping the plastic guarded. It doesn’t seem like some people might just throw it away, but they urged us to keep that and protect our guard. If we take off the 40 Volt, one thing that you’ll notice with these is the gap is very similar. What any hedge trimmer machine can handle of the thickness of the tree limbs or the hedges that it can cut is very similar. A lot similar than we had expected, although that does keep you from going after any brush that’s too big.
Another thing that’s interesting to note is the 40 Volt model isn’t as aggressive-looking as the 18 Volt. The 18 Volt has more of an arrow tip, whereas the 40 Volt is more of a rounded blunt tip on each blade. One other thing to note is it is thicker or longer in this direction, even though the blades aren’t further apart. There is a little more length between the 40 Volt and the 18 Volt, so the 40 Volt has a bit of length to give you a little added cutting area where the 18 Volt is a little bit thinner.
Safety is a pole with your thumb, and the entire handle on the 40 Volt is your trigger. So, if we pull the safety and trigger and then simply let go to release. One thing that’s nice about it, once you pull the safety, you don’t have to hold your thumb in that safety position. You can let go and grip the handle and remove your thumb. It’s able to continue an operation that way.
The 18 Volt model is safe on your index finger or thumb, so it’s on either side. You can push that in once you’ve pushed it in. I prefer to use the knuckle of my index finger and then pull, and in this case, the trigger is only on your index finger, so using that to hold the safety, you can pull.
Like the 40 Volt model, if you hold the safety and pull the trigger, you can then slide your hand down, release the safety and continue holding the trigger. Obviously, 18 Volt comes in a slightly lighter, partially because of the shorter length, 4 inches less, and the batteries smaller. So, something to take into consideration.
So again, this isn’t exactly an apples-to-apples comparison, more of just to show you some of the differences between these two. Obviously, use cases will be slightly different if you need that extra 4 inches in length and you already have the 40 Volt batteries. Definitely, the 40 Volt model is probably the way to go, but if all you have are the 18 Volt batteries and your collection consists of mostly 18 Volt systems. The 18 Volt Hedge trimmer might be the better way to go. It’s more of a preference and which batteries you have at that time. The 40 Volt comes in a little bit more expensive.
Got to consider those where if you’re already in the Ryobi 18 Volt one plus family, definitely going with the 18 Volt models makes more sense again, unless you need the extra 4 inches in length. Again, that’s our thoughts. Not really a preference one way or another, just some of the differences in these two models.
Ryobi Hedge Trimmer 18V 18" (Model #P2607) Versus Ryobi Hedge Trimmer 18V 22" (Model #P2608)
I want to talk about two different Ryobi Hedge Trimmer 18 Volt (P2608) and P2607 and why one of them might be better for you than the other one. Or, if you’re like me, you might actually need both.
OK, today’s models I want to talk about are the P2607 and P2608. P2607 is an 18-inch trimmer with; I believe it’s a 3/8-inch capacity, and the P2608 is a 22-inch-long trimmer with a 5/8-inch capacity. Each of these hedge trimmers has its pluses and minuses. I’ve had this one now for about a year. It’s got a mighty motor in it. It’s heavy and heavy-duty, and it has a few excellent features I really like. I like the loop handle, which makes it easy to operate.
Vertically or horizontally, I like the hedge sweep, which pushes the trimmings off the top of the shrub as you trim. This one is nice in the spring. I knocked 6 or 8 inches off the purple Chinese fringe flowers every spring to keep the scale down slightly, and I may even trim them once or twice throughout the summer. If you’re taking a lot of material off the plant or dealing with material with thick stems, this is definitely the way.
I wouldn’t say I like this Ryobi Hedge Trimmer 18 Volt model P2607 because it’s slightly slower. One blade is stationary, and the other one moves, and it operates at a relatively low RPM, which makes it great; it has a lot of torque. It makes it great for cutting thick stuff.
Like the purple shrubs and gardenias azaleas, things like that that I trim back pretty severely every spring or after they flower. But it makes it not great to just touch up the shrubs around the house, which I trim every week. It makes it a moment to get up to speed, and even then, it doesn’t run very fast. So, think of this as a heavy-duty trimmer, and it does a great job with that, but it may not be the best tool for the job.
Theoretically, P2607 is available as a tool only, but I could not find it that way anywhere. I could only see it with a charger and the 1.5-amp battery, and I’ve already got plenty of chargers and batteries. I would have preferred just to buy the tool, but I thought this might be helpful to me and might be a better tool to maintain my shrubs that I’ve trim about every week or so, and it turns out I was right.
P2607 is much broader, and it has a smaller capacity bar. Both of the pieces on this one move, both sets of teeth oscillate, and it works at a much higher RPM, and whereas this large one sort of chews some of these delicate stems, this one might be a much cleaner cut. So for just taking off a week or two weeks of growth, P2607 is a much better tool for the job.
I don’t know that I want to give up either one. I like having both. They are both a bit on the loud side, so hearing protection is a good idea, but I love that they share the same battery. So, if you’re doing occasional heavy-duty trimming, you’ll want the big guy, P2608. If you’re doing the frequent light trimming, you’re going to enjoy the smaller ones, P2607, or if you’re like me and you do some of both, and you have a variety of shrubs density in your yard, you may find that you need both. I hope this has been helpful to you.