Would I buy this again? YES! More like why didn't I buy this a long, long time ago! I recently purchased this because I have carpal tunnel, and while I can use the long-handle cutting tools they are unwieldy and kind of hard to work with. I also have a pair of normal size cutting shears, and they are just okay at cutting tiny branches - 1/4" or less. I figured I could try these and they would work about the same as my small shears, maybe my big tool, or somewhere in between. Wow. That's the word to describe these. Wow. Just ... wow. My first bad boy is a tree that has decided it wants to be a bush. Not sure what it is, but it has 3 nice normal trunks. However, every spring it starts growing shoots out of every conceivable location. And I mean ... dozens and dozens of shoots! Within a few weeks they are 3' to 6' long and just everywhere. I can either trim them every weekend, because - you know - that's what everyone wants to do on their weekends, or let it go until I can't stand it any more and spend two hours trying to trim it back. Once I do cut those now branches, I also have to cut them into 2' lengths to fit into my yard bags. That means I have to put them on the ground, hold it with my foot, and cut through them. What a hassle. I usually just ignore it until I can't deal with it any more. Worse, if you cut one branch ... it would grow 6 to 12 MORE branches at the cut off stump! THIS TREE IS LIKE A HYDRA! When these first arrived I happened to be stuck with kids and baby duty, so no playing with power tools, ya know? But who can resist a box in the mail? Not me! I opened it up and checked it out. Pretty cool, pretty quiet. Battery came with a little charge. Anyway, it was a nice day, so I took the kids out front to play, and had the baby strapped into one of those front baby carrier things. I decided I would do a quick test of the tool on that jungle bush. Went over to the hydra and gave it a quick snip, hoping to not wake the baby up. Whir. Snip. Whir. Hey, not bad. Okay, gotta try one more before the baby wakes up. Whir. Snip. Whir. [Looks down at baby. Baby still asleep.] Hm. Okay. Gonna do a few more, she'll wake up anyway. Whir. Snip. Whir. Whir. Snip. Whir. Whir. Snip. Whir. Repeat about 50 times. Now I have obliterated the first level of giant branches, and THE BABY IS STILL ASLEEP! Wow o wow o wow! Well, yesterday I got to have the yard to myself. I pulled out this little bad boy and went to work. I went through that tree like it's never had a haircut. Whir. Snip. Whir. Hey, the manual said it can go through branches up to 3/4" thick, awesome. Except with a few cuts going in a circle around the branch, you can get through branches that are 1" to 1'5" thick! Wow! After about 10 minutes - not two hours - I've wiped out every shoot, every branch, and nearly every hydra outcropping. Granted, some were too large from years of getting ahead of me, but hey - this was amazing. And now to put them in the trash can. Well. Wow. Just grab a bundle, hold it over the can with one hand, and cut through 2, 3, 4, sometimes even FIVE branches at a time! Sweet. I got everything in two bags with zero hassle. Well. After that, what else do I want ... er ... NEED to trim? lol. Hey, that other tree over there! Whir. Snip. Whir. x20 Oh, hey, those branches up there need to be trimmed ... and this thing extends! Don't need that ladder this time! Extend. Whir. Snip. Whir. x15 And now I'm being lazy. I can cut branches so thick I don't need to go in little sections. I figure I can cut them up later. So now the branches coming down at 6' to 8' long. And onto the NEXT tree! Extend. Whir. Snip. Whir. x20 Finally, it runs out of power. Yeah. Typical 50 year old guy. I was wiped out. Oh, the shears still had plenty of battery power! So now I check the town website on how to cut up these branches. Well, funny thing .... branches under 4 feet long have to be snipped under 2' long and bundled with twine. UGH. But ... If they are OVER 4' long, you don't need to do anything but put them on the apron of the street! This is because they have one of those big power branch eater things they pull behind a truck for those, where the little ones are picked up by guys in a regular sized garbage truck. So wait ... I don't need to cut them up? I can just drag the whole things to the curb? Wow! So that's exactly what I did. In the attached pics you will see the end result. DISCLAIMER - one of the 4 piles of branches was work done by my chainsaw, on really large branches, but the other three are ALL done by these little shears. But that was it. I'm done. The trees look like trees, and my yard looks amazing. My HOA won't be all over me anymore, and frankly I wish I had more trees to trim! GET ONE!
