HFew people now have the time or are willing to use manual equipment for heavy work. Therefore, power tools are also common in gardens, but once the grass is on everything for a long time, the designated lawn mower will fail. Then it’s time to use the brush cutter, which makes it easier to reach hard-to-reach places and cut thicker stems. This is usually done with fast spinning nylon thread. Disadvantages: It will wear out, especially when it hits hard materials such as stones or fence posts while working. This is why the supply is rolled up in the threaded head, which is released by tapping on a solid surface as the threaded head rotates. The cutting edge in the protective cover shortens the wire to the correct length.
The supply runs out faster than expected, and then there is one tedious job that people don’t like doing in public: finishing off new threads. Therefore, the smart gardener has a spare head. The developers of the Chinese manufacturer Ego said that this should be easier to solve, so they came up with an automatic winder. It pulls in to replace the thread by itself, without opening the head. We wanted to try it, so we bought a new battery-powered ST 1400 E-ST, which is sold as a lawn mower in the Ego series, which is the name of the lighter sibling in lawn mowers.
A wire with a diameter of 2.4 mm and a length of 4 meters is simply pulled out from the two exit holes to be wound and aligned so that both ends have the same length. The button on the top of the head starts the movement of the winding mechanism. Accompanied by the click sound, the motor is used to violently pull in the wire without tightening the ends. The chain will be wound in a few seconds, be careful not to pull it in completely, or you will have to start.
Axis separable
The system works well and you can tolerate two threads that are two meters long. The ST 1400 with a round handle and 35 cm cutting width is unexpectedly powerful. From our point of view, it is more like a light lawn mower than a lawn mower. The series also includes the 1500 model with 38 cm and automatic wrapping, Ego calls Powerload. Other cutter heads and knives cannot be installed. On the contrary, the power load head is naturally not suitable for equipment that is not used for this purpose. The shaft can be separated for easy transportation.
Our samples work without any obvious vibration and are so quiet that the sound of splashing pebbles frightens users. The sound pressure at the operator’s ears is specified as 69 dB (A)-low noise and no exhaust gases, which are the main advantages of cordless tools. The round handle is easy to grasp, the tool weighing 3.4 kg without battery is balanced in the hand, and the length of the shaft can be adjusted by using the adjusting clamp. It is also possible to use a thicker Ego block instead of the expected 140 Wh battery inserted in the rear end, and then the capacity doubles and the additional weight of 1.2 kg becomes 2.2 kg. This will affect the ease of use, and it is not necessary, because the small battery can be used for about an hour in the first of the two levels, which is usually sufficient. The cost of the ST 1400 E-ST itself is less than 200 euros, about 320 euros in a package with a small energy storage and charger, and the price of a replacement head is 45 euros.
Ego purchases various types of batteries from Samsung. Their nominal voltage is unified at 56 volts, and the manufacturer calculates it as 4 V per battery instead of the usual 3.6 V. According to its self-report, the company is the world’s largest supplier of cordless outdoor tools. The Chinese group named Chervon has been manufacturing products for well-known brands for nearly three decades. For example, the group includes Flex and Skil. The private label Ego is still little known in the country and only sells cordless tools through professional dealers.
