Hey guys, I’m Connor. I’m the DP here at Belts and Boxes, so I’m usually behind the camera shooting and editing. 90% of my job is just digitally enhancing Rob so he looks presentable. But today, I have the privilege of testing out HART’s all new line of 40V Outdoor Power Equipment, and my yard has never been more grateful.
HART surprised us all at their launch event last November by revealing not one, but two new battery platforms. First is the 20V series you see Rob and Sarah using each week on Maker Break. The second, is this. This is the HART 40V battery. It’s, well, huge. They made this higher voltage and larger capacity battery to power an all new line of outdoor power equipment, including a blower, chainsaw and THREE different mowers.
For my test, I spent the last month using the mid-range 40V brushless, self-propelled mower, the 15” string trimmer, the 24” hedge trimmer and the brushless turbo fan blower.
Now I have the perfectly sized yard for these tools, at about ¼ acre. I have a rather large group of bushes that were begging to be trimmed, so I started with the trimmer.
The first thing I noticed right out of the box was the 180 degree rotating handle. In the past it’s always been difficult to rotate my trimmer to make vertical cuts. This one made it easy.
The trimmer made very smooth cuts, no matter how thick the branches got. The 24” reach made it really easy to not only get through all the bushes, but I was really surprised by how fast the job got done. I have a bunch more bushes out back, and I can’t wait to get to them later.
Next I got out the 40V Blower. It features a variable trigger, and like many of its competitors it has a TURBO button, for, you know… when you need to go turbo I guess. I’m still not sure why they don’t just incorporate that power into the variable trigger. Anyways, it was easy to control the flow, so I was able to clear my trimmings out of the mulch, without bothering the mulch itself.
The blower did it’s job. The best part was how incredibly light and well balanced it was with the battery in place. I liked it a lot.
I then decided to move on to the string trimmer. Now I’ve used my gas trimmer for as long as I can remember, and it’s just as big a pain as you’d expect. It’s hard to start, lots of maintenance, keeping gas in the garage, just not a pleasant experience. So I had high hopes for an electric trimmer. Of course there’s no way it could be as powerful as the gas, right? Well, I was wrong about that. This thing was POWERFUL. Easily more powerful than my gas. And of course starting this one was as simple as holding the safety and pulling the trigger. No gas, no fumes, no oil and WAY less noise.
Coolest part about this string trimmer, is that it’s part of a multi attachment system. I could swap the string trimmer head out for an edger, tiller or even their powerfit pruner. If HART wants to send those to me for testing, I’d be fine with that.
Last up, it was time to get the mower out, and see once in for all if I could actually replace my gas mower with something powered by batteries. This is the HART 40V Brushless 20” Self Propelled mower. It’s the mid-range of the 3. The entry model isn’t self propelled, while the more expensive one has an automatic variable self propelled feature and a steel deck.
First thing I noticed was how small this thing is when it’s folded up. And because there’s no gas or oil to worry about, you can mount it vertically, and literally hang it on the wall of your garage, which is great when you have limited storage space.
It actually has two battery slots. One is active, while the other is just a storage spot for a secondary battery. The idea is if your battery dies just before you finish your lawn, you just swap the batteries instead of running back to the garage.
It has a single arm height adjustment that was very easy to use. It comes with a bag that easily attaches when you want it.
This thing is dirt easy to start up. Literally, you just pull back the safety lever and push start. And as we’ve grown to expect from other electric mowers we’ve tested in the past, the mower is really quiet. It’s almost like turning on a box fan.
The self propelled feature worked fine with the exception of one thing. It ramps up too quickly. The lowest setting is so slow I think I went backward, but the very next step up is a lot faster. The high setting should be reserved for joggers. It was REEEALY fast. Eventually I found my pace, but a more fluid adjustment would be appreciated.
As for the cut, I was noticing that at the faster and more comfortable pace, there were a few uncut blades left in my wake. To make sure I got them all, I had to slow down, which I didn’t want to do. First world problems, I know.
Besides that, these tools were a really pleasant surprise. They were all very powerful, which was my biggest fear moving into electric OPE. They never once struggled to accomplish anything I asked them to do. I was able to tackle my entire yard with just over 2 4ah batteries.
This whole line seems to be powerful, ergonomic, and affordable. And the best part, you can pick them up at any of Walmarts nearly 4800 locations.
I want to thank HART for sending us these tools to test out, and remind the rest of you to be sure and watch Rob and Sarah this Friday and Saturday right here on Belts and Boxes. And if they look good, you can thank me in the comments.
