Customer Reviews

American Gardener YS24 YardStick 10-Inch 24-Volt Cordless String Trimmer

5 star:		(84)
4 star:		(46)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(32)

 

 

I recently moved from an apartment into buying a house. With a house (usually) comes yard care. I needed everything--lawn mower, trimmer, garden hose, rake--you name it!

Gas trimmers were not considered. Friends' and co-workers' experience indicated they were loud, hard to start after a few years, and belch a continuous stream of blue smoke. Plus, I didn't want to deal with the mixing of gas and oil, and filling that wee little tank. Corded electric trimmers are fine, but my yard is big. It would take considerable time to handle the lengths of extension cord required.

So, I started to look closer at the battery powered trimmers available. I checked out the Black and Decker CST1000 and CST2000 (the "Grass Hog" models). The CST1000 was too light-duty, and the CST2000 had a gear drive I thought was doomed to fail after a few years of grass clippings and dust. Plus, neither model had a way to feed line manually in case of jams within the spool. The Toro 24 volt (model 51465) trimmer looked promising, but the safety switch was awkward and required too much constant effort. I didn't consider the 12 volt Toro because of the small 7" cut.

I had never heard of American Gardener before, but several selling points caught my eye. I liked the idea of 24 volts for power and run-time. And with a ball-bearing motor, I am hoping the trimmer lasts several seasons (Both Black and Decker and Toro DID NOT have double ball-bearing motors).

I had the "Yardstick" for a month and think it is well worth the money. The run-time is excellent. I swear I've had mine running for an hour almost continuously munching grass and weeds! The power is also excellent, and the motor is quiet and very smooth. The weight balance is good, and the safety switch is easy to operate for long periods of time. The housing is made of a thick rubbery plastic that looks like it would take the occasional "whoops!"

It is, in my opinion, superior to the other battery trimmers out there. Overall, a well engineered and made trimmer. The only "cons" I can think of is: It takes a long time to recharge (they all do). Figure about a day and a half after heavy use. And with 24 volts worth of batteries, it is no lightweight. But, I have had no trouble carrying for all the trimming I need to do (about an hour).

Kudos American Gardener!! HIGHLY recommended.

After years of putting up with a cantankerous, maintenance-intensive gas trimmer I purchased a YS24 trimmer and have not regretted the decision at all. I have used the YS24 for approximately a year and have had experienced no reliability problems. I should add that I use this unit as a trimmer only so I cannot comment on its edging capability. The pros and cons of the YS24 are as follows:

Pros:
Virtually no maintenance hassles - no gas & oil to mix, no spark plug to clean & gap, no air filter to clean, no carburetor to adjust.

No starting problems - enjoy expletive-free trimming sessions.

Clean and quiet - you won't smell like a potpourri of gasoline and exhaust fumes after trimming.

Good run times - I'd estimate run times of between 30 and 45 minutes of nearly continuous use.

Adequate power - OK, so you won't be laying waste to a thicket of saplings with this trimmer, but there is enough power for what the typical yard has to offer. If you're used to a more powerful gas trimmer you have to remember to be patient and take smaller "bites" when encountering thick grass and weeds.

Cons:
Weight and balance - this is my biggest gripe with this trimmer. The heft and balance are such that after about 20 minutes of use I have to put the unit down for several minutes to give my back a rest.

Cheesy line advance - I skirt this problem by laying the trimmer down, pressing the line release button with one hand and pulling out line with the other hand. Note that this is a common complaint for many makes and models of trimmers.

In summary, I feel that the good points outweigh the bad and I would highly recommend this trimmer for use by the average homeowner.

Pros:

-Charge lasts quite a while. Get about an hour out of it. Trims 3/4 acre yard without any degradation in power.

-Best torque and power for an electric trimmer

-Environmentally friendly

Cons:

-Heavy and can cramp your hand a bit for larger jobs (1/2 acre+)

-String cutter blade broke off after third use.

-Dropped the unit on to concrete from 2 ft. off the ground. Handle cracked and the string guard cracked. My fault, but my old gas powered Toro and Homelite took similar abuse without damage.

-String snaps off a lot during edging (every 3 or 4 feet I had to mess with the string feeder). Edging is a bit difficult if you have some overgrowth on a driveway, for example. The owners manual does state the string will break until the yard is edged a few times, so at least the manufacturer realizes this issue. Thus, edge often and the string won't snap/jam as much (20 - 30 ft on average before having to advance the string).

Recommendation:

-Light duty trimming.

-1/4 acre lots best used, 1/2 acre at most.
-Heavy trimming or edging, not recommended.

Next purchase will be a gas-powered model.

I was skeptical when I purchased this cordless unit but I had it with gas and have too much yard for an extension cord. This is the best string trimmer I have ever used period (gas or electric)! I have a 3/4 acre lot and it worked well in edge and trim mode. The string is .080" and seems to be high grade. There is a lot I love about this product: dual switch, flip over design for edging, edge wheel, balance & weight, and charger/charge rack, customer service, etc. - all are excellent. The only question I have is how come this product is so hard to find and not sold everywhere (at least not yet).

As others have noted, you only get about 15 minutes of use with heavy weeds and about 45 minutes with light cutting for every 24 hour charge. That works fine for me as I get tired. The YardStick is not as strong as our gas powered weed eater but that big boy wears out the men in an hour and I can't even hold it for a minute. So I use the YardStick for the little stuff and let the men do the rest.

An addendum written a year and a half after I bought this trimmer. It still works just as well as when I bought it. I still only use if for about 20 minutes at a time but that works well for me.

This thing is poorly constructed. Within 20 minutes of using it, it basically self-destructed. I've used many weed wackers. It first impressed me as being underpowered and with a small cutting radius, but I got the hang of using it. Then the cord broke off (as they often do). I took off the spool, re-extended the cord, and replaced the spool. When I turned it on and the cord hit the cutter (which trims the cord to length), instead of cutting the cord, it merely grabbed it, which then bent the cutter out of the way, and then the cord proceeded to smash up the protective plastic shield. Perhaps this is a fluke, but it seems poorly constructed to me.

Strengths
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* Cordless
* Well balanced
* No gas, no oil, no exhaust fumes!

Weaknesses
------------
* Charge doesn't hold up for larger yards
* Blade that cuts off excess trimmer line broke after 2nd use

Bottom line: Nice idea, run time would be OK for smaller lots, but quality, especially on the the trimmer line blade, is lacking.

If the blade wouldn't have broken, I might have rated it 3.5 stars, instead I will be giving it to UPS to return to Amazon.

I purchashed this item because of the rave reviews, I did see a few complaints about the line feed mechanism but I thought I'd give it a try anyway. This was a big mistake! The first time i tried to use this trimmer the line jammed and broke off at the feed hole withing 5 minutes. Had to take it apart, rewind string, of course I dropped the spool and had to rewind the entire thing. Five minutes later, same problem, and I noticed that the knife that attaches to the gaurd (that cuts line to size) was bent. Two minutes later, I see knife come flying out from bottem and string breaks at feed hole again.

This trimmer is a true P.O.S.! Never even finnished one job for me before I have to return it. Do yourself a favor and get something else.

Given the prominently featured rave reviews, I wonder what changed at American Gardener in the last year. I've just taken it out for a spin, and was deeply disappointed in the runtime off a fully charged battery. After 15 minutes of trimming weeds along the perimeter of our jungle-surrounded lot, it was still willing but wimpy. Perhaps runtime varies with the nature of the trimmee: whispy grass along the flower bed edging might not use much battery power. Vigorous, rampant growth might eat the battery alive.

String advance is, if anything, a little too easy. Bumping the ground accidentally advanced the string more than I intended. But that's a good thing, compared to the wrestling matches I've had with string and pliers on other trimmers.

I'm still glad we purchased this unit because frankly, my attention span doesn't last much longer than fifteen minutes anyway, and the mere touch of my hand is death to a 2-cycle engine. We have a gas-powered string trimmer, but I can't start it to save my soul, it's loud, it's stinky, and it's too heavy for me. So this trimmer will actually get a lot of use around our weedy lot, in spite of the lackluster runtime.

I bought my 24-volt trimmer 2 1/2 years ago. It recently stopped working and I'm now ordering a new one. I still believe this is the best trimmer for me! I have no trouble with the weight and the balance is fine. It is so convenient to just lift it off the charging unit and go! North Florida has a long growing season so my trimmer gets hard use trimming a large lot bordered by woods. I once ordered a new blade-cutting unit after breaking mine. It was inexpensive and shipping super fast. The string used in this trimmer far outlasts any of the smaller guage lines I've used in other trimmers. Considering the comparatively low purchase price and ease of use, I feel I got my money's worth. No expensive gas to buy, no rope to pull, no electric line strung across the yard are some of the conveniences.