Curious what specifically you preferred about the other OPE options over DeWalt? I don't own any yet and would be interested to hear some thoughts.
Previously, I ditched the loud, smelly, and impossible to keep running 2 stroke gas+oil versions of OPE, because what little time I had to do the landscape work was instead devoted to disassembling and cleaning tiny carburetors. I got sick of that.
Then, I began running literally hundreds of feet of 10 gauge extension cords (three 100 footers) to power a string trimmer, a hedge trimmer, and a chain saw. The weight of the cord dangling from the tool while on a ladder became a serious balance/safety concern.
I attached shorter 16 gauge whips on the tools, for three reasons. One, to tie loops around the handles so that the cord wouldn't come undone. Two, to reduce the weight of copper acting in opposition of where I'm trying to lift the tool, and three, to have a cheaper sacrificial power cord in case I cut through it.
And that is the main reason why I wanted to go cordless. The amount of energy and effort devoted to monitoring the cord every second of work, to avoid cutting into it, was affecting how the hedges were trimmed. Then when the renters would drive into the court, I'd have to scramble down the ladder clear my $200 extension cords stretched across the private street so they wouldn't run over them.
So you get why I was willing to drop some serious cash into cordless.
So what did the DeWalt 40v line NOT offer, that the brand I chose did?
STRING TRIMMER:
DeWalt's Professional 40v string trimmer (DSCT99 and all variants, appended with a letter code suffic, to denote battery size it ships with) is direct drive. The motor is directly on top of the string trimmer head.
The good thing about this design is that there are no drivetrain efficiency losses through a long shaft. The bad thing about this is that the motor is in the line of fire of the green muck and tornado of dirt flung around by the string. The motor may survive that beating, but will it survive the jet spray of water cleanup afterwards? For how long?
To help answer this question, I looked to other more established outdoor power equipment brands for patterns in their string trimmer product offerings. Stihl and Makita as examples, offer a much larger selection of lithium ion powered string trimmers, where the different model numbers do not just denote different battery sizes included, but actually are differently constructed machines.
I observed a trend: the homeowner, lighter duty versions of string trimmers had direct drive motors directly above the string head. The commercially oriented, more expensive string trimmers and brush cutters had shaft drive, where the motor was up by the operator, protected from the line of fire, and also acting as a lifting ballast to reduce the effort required to keep the string head from crashing into the ground due to arm fatigue.
This observation made me recall a fleet of plug in the wall string trimmers I went through, during a period of time when it was cheaper to get an entire new string trimmer on close out at Sears or Walmart than it was to repurchase a broken spool head... and all of these cheap home owner oriented corded string trimmers had direct drive motors that had to be hoisted up in the air to keep the cutting plane elevated above the ground.
Not only is the mass of direct drive motors on the string head an issue in terms of holding up the weight... the additional bulk of the motor, in particular the height, can interfere with slipping the string trimmer underneath hedges or short deck overhangs to whack the weeds under there.
Take Stihl's FSA 130 R, their top of the line cordless string trimmer, straight shaft, shaft drive, motor up by the operator, and just a shallow svelte little bevel gear above the string head...vs Stihl's FSA 45, their entry level model, that has a motor the size of a Goodyear blimp directly above the string head, that would barely fit beneath a freeway overpass. Pardon the hyperbole, but this wall of text needs a few zingers to wake you up now and again.
Another area of concern is the spool of string. The DeWalt 40v ships with 0.80, and has a max of 0.95, if DeWalt string is used. I was not able to determine the thread engagement of the DeWalt spool head. This concerned me. The brand I ended up going with, Makita, uses the professional industry standard thread pitch for spool heads, and Makita specifically makes note of this, inviting buyers to use different heads from different manufacturers, such as Echo's terrific Speed Feed 400. I didn't want to be stuck with only DeWalt's spool heads.
Another nick in the DeWalt line (ha ha) is the 15" cutting swath, vs Makita's 17" cutting swath.
I decided I wanted a cordless string trimmer that more closely simulates how gas powered professional string trimmers have evolved over the years. Straight shaft. Motor up and behind operator. Small, narrow guard for rotating the head vertically as an edger. Light weight for all day use. Balanced and ballasted weight distribution, since the string head side of the grip point is already at a weight distribution disadvantage, due to the 65% / 35% grip center on the tool.
The DeWalt 40V Max string trimmer did not meet these requirements.
HEDGE TRIMMER:
DeWalt 40V Max DCHT860M1 versus Makita XHUO7T
Weight: 11.9 lbs DeWalt versus 8.6 lbs. Makita
Blade Length: 22" DeWalt versus 24" Makita
Blade Speed: 3,100 strokes per minute (SPM) DeWalt, versus 3 different speed options with the Makita, and within each of those 3 speeds, there is infinite variability up to that chosen speed with finger tip trigger control. The three speed options are 2,000 SPM, 3,600 SPM, and 4,400 SPM with Makita.
Since getting the Makita hedge trimmer, I was particularly was surprised to learn how useful the slow speed setting (2,000 SPM) has been, not only for reducing battery consumption when the power isn't needed, but for easier, quieter trimming of the spindly young growth shoots that freshly emerge from manicured hedges that need regular trimming to look tight and right. The slower speed is perfect for quietly clipping these tender tendrils.
On the other hand, I also used the hedge trimmer to attack a woody hedge that I let get out of hand. It needed to be shaved back by a foot. That's when the super high 4,400 SPM showed it's strength. There was no argument from the bush branches. They didn't have time to resist. Which brings me to the next point:
Blade Reversal: DeWalt doesn't have this feature. Makita does. If the blades get stuck, press a button, and the blades reverse their stroke pattern to back out of what got stuck. I forgot to mention that the Makita string trimmer has the same feature... rotation reversal to unwind whatever got wound up around the spindle... like old low voltage lighting wiring or whatever.
Speaking of rotation...
Handle Rotation: DeWalt doesn't have this feature. Makita does. The rear handle can be rotated and locked into 5 different positions, so that the angle of the trigger wrist can remain ergonomically in the same position relative to the forearm, whilst the blade angle can be at 0 degrees, 45 degrees, 90 degrees, 135 degrees, or 180 degrees. This is useful when clipping privet privacy hedges, where you are sweeping the blade up and down the vertical face, and want to hold your trigger wrist normally instead of having to twist it around as would be necessary with a hedge trimmer than lacks a rotating handle, like the DeWalt.
It is somewhat ironic that the first hedge trimmer I ever owned with the rotating wrist handle was a plug in corded orange Black and Decker, which is the unit I just retired after buying the cordless Makita. One would think that if Black and Decker introduced this ergonomic invention to market, that they would port it over to their halo line of tools in yellow. But they didn't. Go figure?
Blade Length (Revisited): In my earlier comparison, I cited the 24" blade length of the Makita XHU07T. That is the 24" model, chosen for comparison simply because the DeWalt blade is only 22".
However, the Makita hedge trimmer that I actually have is the XHU08T, that has a 30" blade. It didn't seem fair to pitch my 30" Makita against the 22" DeWalt right off the bat, but note that despite having an 8" longer double sided steel blades, the 30" Makita still weighs only 9.05 lbs with battery, which is still almost 3 lbs LESS than the 22" DeWalt 40V Max, at 11.9 lbs.
No hedge trimmer cuts a flatter swath faster than 30". There is no other 30" hedge trimmer on the market that is powered by a battery on board. The closest comparable to Makita's 30" hedge trimmer is Stihl's HSA 94, which requires a battery back pack or belt pack and a cord tether between it and the tool, as the battery is not on board with the Stihl. Every other "cordless" 30" hedgetrimmer on the market is gas/oil mix, over $400, and over 11 pounds with fuel. Um... no.
The DeWalt 40v Max hedge trimmer didn't come close to matching superior choices now available in a battery powered unit. I wouldn't miss it if it, and the entire line, were discontinued. But I wouldn't want to see a false rumor gain any traction either, because buying into a battery platform IS expensive, and people need to have an idea about end of life issues with the investment.
CHAINSAW:
This comparison boils down to one phrase: Top Handle.
Unless or until you use a top handle chainsaw for tree limbing (not Paul Bunyan lumber jacking mind you... we're not clear cutting a forest here... just doing surgical maintenance and disposal of dead tree limbs no more than a foot in diameter)... you cannot possibly appreciate from the feeble words in this post the difference that a top handle... a TRUE top handle, makes in the ergonomics and nimbleness of tree surgery.
All it took was a simple glance at the DeWalt 40V MAX 16" chainsaw (their smallest) to know beyond any doubt that wasn't the chainsaw for me. Both DeWalt chainsaws have rear biased trigger handles. End of story. Nothing further to compare.
I wanted a small, light, nimble, maneuverable, controllable chain saw that I could fit between live limbs in order to cut dead ones. A top handle enables me to hold the saw away from me with single arm control.
A rear handle chainsaw forces a weight cantilever against one's forearm strength. This is purposely done to force the operator to keep both hands on the chainsaw, by making it impossible to manage the weight distribution with one hand. The idea is that two hands on the saw is safer. But sometimes, the other hand needs to hang on to the tree, or the bucket of a lift, or the ladder, or for dear life. And when the average branch being cut in tree trimming duty is 6" diameter or less, what need is there for a huge rear handle chainsaw that demands do much of the body's energy just to hold?
The DeWalt 40v Max product line simply doesn't have anything remotely close to the top handle Makita XCU06T / XCU06Z chainsaw. That ended the discussion for me.
BATTERIES:
What other tools can DeWalt 40V Max batteries work in? A lawnmower, a couple of blowers, and a telescoping pole hedge trimmer round out the line.
What other tools can Makita's LXT batteries work in? About 225 Makita tools, as well as several professional electrician crimping, cutting, and cabling tools from Greenlee, as well as Klauke. Literally
hundreds of different tools.
That part of the decision wasn't very difficult to make.
