Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have used cordless trimmers for at least ten years. When my favorite 24V Yardstick died and I couldn’t get parts, I bought the WORX. I was surprised at its light weight, but impressed by its performance (admittedly on a small lawn which had been carefully edged before, so the trimmer wasn’t having to do any “earth-moving”): no line breaks and very quick. Probably a 4-star rating at that point, with one star deducted for (a) Being hard to steer. To get a full depth of cut it needs to be held nearly vertical, and that of course means that it’s likely to wobble; replacing the wire guide by an idler flanged disc attached to the rotor, as on the Yardstick, would keep one perfectly on track regardless of angle, and (b) No indication of battery charge. This would obviously be useful on a tool with limited battery life, and, as it turned out later, essential to avoid serious problems due to inability to distinguish between a flat battery and one that is overheating . After I had used the trimmer for about 6 or 7 weeks and edged a total of perhaps 1,500 feet (about 200 feet per session, always on one battery charge), the trimmer suddenly cut out. I knew it was freshly charged, so assumed it was not out of power (but had no battery level indicator to help me…). As it was a hot day I thought it might have overheated, so let it rest and then tried again. It ran for a few seconds and again cut out. I let it cool some more, tried again; same result. So I charged the battery overnight. The trimmer ran for a few seconds and then cut out (on no load). I tried to call customer service but they had had some sort of telephone meltdown and were not available. Two days later I tried again, and was told to leave my number and they would call me back. That does not work for people like me who are teaching up in our canyons and either have a class or are out of signal range (or both). When I finally got through to customer service I was told that I should not have attempted to restart the trimmer once it stopped: doing so had caused fatal battery damage (I couldn’t find any warning about this in the original instructions). However, since everything was still under warranty (although not returnable to Amazon, unfortunately), they agreed to send me out a new battery. I received the new battery, charged it overnight, and resumed trimming. After perhaps 10 minutes and about 175 feet the trimmer cut out again. I did not dare to try to restart it (even if it simply cut out because of overheating), since I had been told that doing so would ruin the replacement battery. I began trying to recharge it, but the charger light showed green, indicating (according to the manual) that the battery was adequately charged, or the battery was too hot, or the battery was too cold…. After a long wait it turned red, indicating that the battery was now charging, so probably the problem causing the initial green light was the battery overheating (it seems that WORX batteries are fussy: they cannot be recharged if they are hotter than 45C - no conversion given, but it’s 113F; I’m not clear how I take my battery’s temperature, and it’s not easy to guesstimate and distinguish between, say, 110 and 125F. They also should be stored in ambient temperatures between 65F and 75F - which rules out Salt Lake City throughout the mowing season!). So again it’s the weekend, and I have a trimmer which isn’t performing. My conclusion is that the mechanical side of the trimmer is pretty good, but the electrical side is a disaster. If I can ever get it working again I’ll consider revising my opinion.