Ryobi Expand-It Ahf-03 Hedge Trimmer Attachment

Great replacement and taclkes tough hawthorn hedge without difficulty

This is my second Ryobi hedge trimmer - the first lasted a number of years and gave satisfactory service until the gears began slipping with a horrible whine! I'd already had to pay for a 'mod' to stop the head rotating on the base unit - very irritating!These hedge trimmers also only want to cut new annual growth of cupressus, but despite the flaws they work well enough for that and I bought another one to go with my chainsaw attachment and strimmer head. The main advantage is that they give exceptional reach!My electric hedge trimmer cuts thicker growth but does not have the reach; but after these two cut away the worst, I make the final trim with hand shears and heavy duty loppers.Amazon's delivery was sadly not up to expectation. I paid their extra price for next day delivery which took 4 days! Not good enough! I would have bought locally (7 miles) if I had been told the honest delivery.

The Expand-It range is a quite useful way of having multiple tool heads powered off one power unit.We have 10ft high hedges so the hedge trimmer is extremely useful for us when used with an extention pole.It gives a good cut though does get warm around the gears in use.Regular oiling of the blades also keeps it running sweet.The blade length is sufficient to get a wide cut.The only drawback I found was that when the blades snag on a thicker stem then the gears grind - inside the head are two gears which turn the rotational movement of the driveshaft into forward/backward movement of the cutting blades. When you snag a stem the gears grind as there's no slip mechanism, and this eventually wears away part of the teeth on the gears causing power to be lost to the cutting head. Initially this feels like a little slippage, but, when worse, the cutting blades fail to chomp. For us we replace the head every 3 years due to this.Otherwise quite a good product.

I bought this ryobi product with hedge trimmer and strimmer attachments. Within a year with only light use the ignition module and rotor failed which was repaired under warranty. Then the next season a head bolt sheared and because it was no longer under warranty was replaced for £50. All up and running again and next day the hedge trimmer drive broke, another £50 to replace. This product is a hunk of junk. Spend a bit more on a Stihl and get something that won't let you down.

I bought the Ryobi strimmer recently and liked it so much I bought this attachment. My house is surrounded by huge hedges on all sides and it costs a lot to have them done, so they only get done once a year. This means they are either brown in Autumn or out of control the rest of the year. This attachment means that I can contain the growth year round rather than pay someone to do them. I cant get to the very tops of some hedges but this tool makes light work of the hedge, much better than my old electric cutters which meant rolling out lengths of cable and always having to watch I didn't cut through the wire. I think there is an extension piece which lets you do the tops, maybe next year i'll invest in that. Much more important, it's extremely satisfying to cut through the hedges!