Home > Outdoor Living > Black & Decker 18-Volt Cordless Electric 12-Inch Grass Hog String Trimmer/Edger #NST2018

I bought this product in the last week and have used it twice since then.

It comes with two identical batteries. At first I was suspicious about the battery life - why include two, unless one won't last? Fortunately, that wasn't entirely the case. Each lasted at least a good 20 mins (that's about as much edging/trimming as I needed to do). Over time I could expect the battery life to decrease, and other people might have larger yards. So I could see why they included two. But I still would have expected a bit longer life out of just one. After all it's not a very small/light battery in the first place. It's the width/length of an average size brick, but a little taller.

Charging takes a good 9 hours as the instructions say. But the "3 light" charge indicator is a bit misleading: It doesn't light up at all when a new battery is initially plugged in, nor are there any other lights. So you have no clue it's even charging. In fact I thought it was dead, or the wall socket went out, since I didn't see anything for over an hour. After a full overnight charge, it finally showed all 3 lights. I unplugged it to charge the 2nd battery, and set it aside. After an hour, the first battery only showed "1 out of 3" lights" indicating it was drained. Yet, I tried it out in the trimmer and it worked fine. Inaccurate indicator? Or fast-draining-unused battery? Not sure. I can't say anything about the long-term life yet.

Performance was adequate, but not stellar. It'll whip through the average blades of grass without problem, but don't expect it to do much on low-lying weeds or thicker plants. Several passes or slow movement will be needed to get the full result. It's a little on the heavy side to be carrying around for very long. The front handle helps a bit, but I got fatigued after my 20 minute run. The vibrations made my hand shudder for several minutes after.

Usage instructions are lacking. The battery charger has a thorough instruction sheet, but the product itself does not. It's all done in a few small pictures - most likely to bridge the language barrier. But those pictures are vague at best. I had to figure it out by trial and error. The adjustment to go from "edging" to "trimming" was nice and convenient with a twist of the shaft.

As with most devices of the kind, you shouldn't be trimming with exposed skin or without eye protection. Debris has a tendency to go flying out of this thing, based on the mere nature of what it's doing. I noticed a few other reviewers got some injuries, which I don't understand. Hello?!?! You're holding a device that's whipping a cord around at a high RPM, with it impacting small stones & pieces of brush. Wear pants and keep the kids away!

If you have a small suburban yard that requires light to moderate work once a week like I do, you should have no trouble with this product. Anybody else should look elsewhere.

Three times around the yard now (about 4000 sq.ft. total continuous usage) and is still good on original 1st charge. I wouldn't trade this for five gas edgers. It's light, FAST and easy to balance. Great to have second battery as well. I'm very pleased.

My yard is quite small, and I cut the whole thing with cordless trimmers. As my old Ryobi began to age, I got a 12-volt Grass Hog. It proved particularly good at cutting the thick Zoysia grass that I planted in desperation in the front yard.

When the Ryobi died, I went looking for another Grass Hog. The 12-volt model was sold out, and would have cost more, so I picked up the 18-volt. It's nice to have two batteries, but they are NiCads. That means they have a "memory". The second battery is useless in this context, because you really need to drain the battery to retain its charging capacity. It takes 9 hours to charge a battery.

When I start out, this model has lots of zip, perhaps too much. By the end, it's barely cutting. The cut is not as even, and it won't do my whole front yard.

Fortunately, I still have the 12-volt to finish up. Its lead-acid battery is not damaged by partial drain. I highly recommend the 12-volt system over this one. It starts out cutting more evenly, and stays at roughly that level longer.

This Grass Hog Trimmer is just what I wanted. I have bought others that just couldn't do the job. I have a large yard and so I use both of the batteries and have more than enough to get the job done. There is no more mixing gas, trying to start the motor and being exhausted before you even begin the job. This starts with the flick of a switch, is light weight and does a fantastic job!!! Just get it!!! I am a woman who does all the outside work and loves it!!

I have used it for two years now. With a newly charged battery (charger and two batteries are supplied) it gives good RPM and power for about 10-15 minutes before it begins to slow down and only cut the small stuff. Each battery lasts about 15-20 minutes in continuous use. Aftere 35 minutes of wacking weeds I am ready to let it rest while it recharges. It is very light and easily adjustable.My only complaint is that the auto-feed line feature really chews up the line at a brisk pace. For this reason I buy big reels (300 feet of 0.065 line for $7 at Lowes rather than the expensive replacment reels from the manufacturer.All in all a very light and handy yard tool, well designed, and functional. Only improvement would be to tame the appetite of the line feed monster.