While traditional lawn edgers have typically been gas powered, traditional wisdom has quickly changed in this area, and the best-rated lawn edger is actually electric. Because edgers generally require more power, there is no significant cordless competition at this time - although we may see some in the future, as batteries shrink in size and increase power density. Today, competition is between gas and corded electric models.
The overhead associated with gas engines is high. Gas engines, compared to electric motors, are complex machines, that require ongoing and seasonal maintenance, need periodic tuning, and can be hard to start. They are heavy machines and lead to heavy products. Gas edgers are noisy, smelly, and significantly contribute to global warming: in that respect that are comparable to lawn mowers, whose contributions to global warming were evaluated here as equivalent to 11 modern cars per gas mower engine. The big advantages of gas edgers are that they provide very compact power, and that they are self contained, taking their fuel along with them.
On the other hand, electric lawn edgers are lighter, comparatively less complex (outside of damage to the power cord or connector, a motor will work or be dead - there are few states in between these two extremes), significantly quieter, with no unpleasant odor, and much less contributions to global warming. Their major drawbacks are that existing models do not carry as much power as larger gas models, and that, mostly, they are constantly tethered to an outlet. .. Edgers for home use do not carry the power requirements of professional tools, which need to be used all day every day in circumstances that include trenching. For all practical purposes, existing power in electric edgers is sufficient for all home uses unless you have very specific requirements, in particular if they include trenching. However, being tethered to an outlet is somewhat limiting. A good quality 100-foot outdoor extension cord, or two of them together for 200 feet, give the average homeowner a good roaming range. If this range is not sufficient to you, then you need a gas mower. Otherwise, in our opinion you should consider an electric edger as your first choice.
There are very few cordless trimmer edgers with an accessory guiding wheel, which are the closest to a real cordless edger that you can find at this time. These trimmers lag the two back wheels of a traditional edger, and do not make it truly possible to give a vertical edge for more than a few feet at a time. Trimmer edgers without a guiding wheel cannot really be used as true edgers.
Next we research and compare electric lawn edgers... So come back soon!
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