Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I learned two things with this hedge trimmer: First impressions aren't everything, and I'm not great at trimming hedges. The product arrived beat up and crudely taped together. Upon opening it, I quickly realized this looked a lot like it would if someone bought it, used it once, and returned it. Obviously, when buying and paying for something new, you expect it to be, well, new. I also though this thing looks really small. 16 inches really isn't that big of a blade, and in person looked much smaller than I imagined. Would it work to tackle my hedges and whatever else I could to saw through? Figuring I'd probably just return it (on the count it wasn't new), I decided to take it outside to give it a go. Why re-order something that can't cut through hedges, or is to small to work with? I plugged it in to a 50 foot indoor/outdoor all weather extension cord and had it ready to go in under 5 minutes. It's light, and all you really have to do it connect the guard and then plug it in. How'd it do? First of all, it's VERY light. I liked that it weighs nothing, but then realized maybe a little bit of weight is a good thing. It's almost too easy to get moving around quickly and start to rush, or even use one-handed. Be safe, and go much slower than what you think you can do with TWO hands. the electrical cord in the way was never an issue in my couple hours of use around the yard. It had NO issues trimming my cedar hedges which were a nice mix of leaves, thin branches, and some thick ones. They hadn't been trimmed since we move in (3 yearsish? ago) and were a great test. I plan on trimming them to a rounded shape when they have some time to fill in and grow a bit, but had fun and tried to do a squarer shape in the meantime. This product made it easy, though my skills aren't quite where they need to be yet. Overall, this things is pretty great for the $20 or whatever it cost. I decided just to keep it, for the price it's probably more of a pain to send back than just keeping the used item that was sent. If you're trimming around your house once a year and have an outlet nearby and a long quality extension cord, it's probably a smart purchase. If you're using it weekly or monthly, you may want to see if a longer blade would make more sense for you (16 inches might get old after awhile).