In message . com, Jules
writes
On Mon, 31 Aug 2009 09:01:55 +0000, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
TBH, I suspect sharp verses blunt blades is going to be far more
important than the power of the motor.

And how well lubricated they are. Our electric one stalled on me a couple
of weeks ago and I took the blade assembly apart - all the grease had gone
from the surfaces, and in some spots moisture was getting in and starting
to rust the surfaces. I don't believe that "dismantle the whole lot" is in
any maintenance schedule in the manual, but I don't think the trimmer's
more than a few years old (it was given to us by a neighbour who decided
we had more deserving hedges than he :-)

Cleaned the whole lot, sanded, cleaned agin, re-greased and it's all
running happily again. Blade endges still seemed good, so I left those
well alone.

Agreed - particularly when used for trimming conifer hedging. Following
the advice of a local landscape contractor I always squirt WD40 (yes it
does actually work in this particular case), on the cutter bars before
and after and, when doing the annual conifer hedge cut, once during the
work.
--
Robert