VonHaus Cordless Pole Hedge Trimmer 40V Max. Battery 3500231 Review

Design and features

• Integrated battery
• No real assembly
• Extends up to 258cm

I’ve reviewed a VonHaus long-reach hedge trimmer before, with the convertible 2-in-1 Chainsaw Hedge Trimmer. That needed a lot of assembly, with a hex key in the box and some fiddly screwing. I was expecting the same for the VonHaus Cordless Pole Hedge Trimmer 40V Max. Battery 3500231, but it’s a much easier product to deal with.

In fact, it comes in just two parts: the extendible section with the cutting blade on top, and the section with the handle and controls. These just need to be pushed together, and then the locking collar is tightened by hand to secure them. When you’re done, the opposite is the case, so this hedge trimmer can be stored in two parts.

Vonhaus also provides a harness in the box, which clips onto the handle and then slips over your shoulders. 

This hedge trimmer starts at 195cm in length, but can be extended to 258cm via its telescopic pole: just lift the orange catch and slide the pole out to your desired height.

The extension section is sprung, and naturally wants to return to its short position. That’s good for making the trimmer shorter, but the tension does make it hard to extend to full reach, as it’s tricky to hold the pole at the desired point and put the clip back in place.

There’s no centre handle on this model; instead, you use the trimmer by holding the pole with one hand, with the other around the main handle and controls. For safety, a switch needs to be pressed in before the trigger can be gripped. It’s nice to see ambidextrous controls, so the VonHaus Cordless Pole Hedge Trimmer 40V Max. Battery 3500231 can be used by left- and right-handed people alike.

A 45cm blade sits on the end, with a cutting capacity of 20mm thick branches. When not in use, a tough scabbard covers the blades.

For more flexibility, the head can be angled forward to cut the tops of hedges without needing a ladder, or angled back to sweep along the bottoms of hedges to remove growth there.

Powered by a 40V battery, the VonHaus Cordless Pole Hedge Trimmer 40V Max. Battery 3500231 is one of the more powerful cordless hedge trimmers that I’ve reviewed. Vonhaus provides a 2000mAh battery and charger in the box. You can use the battery in other 40V Vonhaus tools, too.

An hour of charging provides up to an hour of cutting, and it’s likely that you’d need a break after using the trimmer for that long.

Once charged, the battery slots in underneath the handle. There’s a simple battery meter built in (the three LEDs extinguish one at a time), although the angle of the handle makes it a little tricky to see while in use.

Performance

• Very powerful cutting
• A little fatiguing to use for long periods

Long-reach hedge trimmers are never the most comfortable to use. A combination of the long pole and weight makes them harder to balance properly. While the harness helps with this, I found the ergonomics of the Stihl HLA 56 to be better and its centre-mounted loop handle makes it a little easier to hold.

That’s not to say that the VonHaus Cordless Pole Hedge Trimmer 40V Max. Battery 3500231 is terrible. Its harness certainly helps, and the adjustable head and extendible pole make life easier.

Clearing the outgrowth underneath my large rosemary bush, for example, I could do this without having to bend down.

And for trimming back the top of my slightly overgrown buddleia, I could reach it without needing a stepladder. 

Cutting performance is excellent. General growth on lighter bushes, such as a privet hedge, is easy for this hedge trimmer, and it makes light work of them.

Even thicker, woodier growth is easy. I trimmed my rosemary back after it finished flowering, and even the thicker 20mm branches were sliced off without the trimmer even slowing down.

Should you buy it?