Black & Decker Edges Towards Small-Area Trimming Excellence
One of the things that we’ve appreciated most about living in an apartment, besides not being locked into a mortgage, is not needing to be responsible for maintenance and the upkeep of a yard. As summer always reminds us, the grass never stops growing and the weeds are insurmountable. Therefore, a friend of ours was more than happy to oblige and let us trim his decent-sized front yard containing a couple flower beds with the Black & Decker NST1024 24-Volt Cordless String Trimmer/Edger.
We’ve checked out a previous trimmer, and we definitely recommend exploring various options for eco-friendliness. But for those looking for something a bit less expensive, this one is a good bet. First things first: assembly. Out of the box, the battery needs around 8-9 hours to completely charge. Putting the unit together wasn’t too difficult, as it consisted of the cover and the front bale handle being attached to the basic edger.
In our hands, the string trimmer/edger was lighter than we expected, at a bit less than 12 pounds. Our target yard was not very large and the 24 volt battery pack zoomed to power almost instantaneously. At top speed, it supposedly will cut 60 square feet a minute with an impressive 9000 RPM. One interesting feature is the Boost mode- you can easily switch from normal mode to Boost, which allows you to sacrifice some battery life for extra power, stepping up the speed for tough spots like tall weeds.
It easily could have handled the entire front and side yard if it didn’t run out of juice. The yard was approximately 15×18 and though it was a powerful trimmer and we were more than pleased with the 2 speed choices, the battery was a goner less than 20 minutes into it. We would recommend using the lower speed for regular use as it will help conserve your battery which happens to be the biggest drawback to these portable trimmers. We did appreciate the ability to also use other 18V batteries that Black & Decker makes interchangeably with the NST1024.
When we tested it on the lower speed, it cut a majority of the yard and adequately edged along the sidewalk (with the push of a button it easily switched positions). The 13” swath is a fair size for a bit of grass trimming and it is not as noisy as a gas trimmer. We appreciated that the safety switch can be held from either side and as someone with smaller hands, it fit them perfectly. We were glad B & D designed the bale handle to be adjustable but in doing so, you need to do so using the Allen wrench- a bit of a hassle. A simple twist lets you expand or contract the handle.
Besides the lack of battery run time, we were disgruntled with the amount of finger pressure we had to use in order to keep the power on. After about 10 minutes of grass-whacking, our fingers were going into a coma. It took way too much energy out of my finger to exert enough pressure and made it a more tiresome job.
The edging guide, however, was fantastically helpful and the auto-feed worked its magic nicely around the flower beds.The cutting head of the NST1024 can be rotated 180 degrees which puts the cutting string at 90 degrees to the edging surface. No more bumping and grinding like the old days of edging. The wirestand helps keep the trimmer off the ground and made edging a breeze.
This trimmer/edger does a remarkable job if you have a small enough lawn to appreciate it. For those with larger yards, we suggest looking beyond portable battery-powered electrics. We were able to purchase from Amazon for around $108. It also comes with a two year warranty.
