EGO ST 1300E Cordless Line Trimmer Review

A light, fast, powerful machine that’s ideal for a big garden, the EGO ST 1300E Cordless Line Trimmer has a range of battery sizes, depending on the task at hand.

What is the EGO Power ST-1300E Cordless Line Trimmer?

The EGO ST-1300E is a cordless strimmer with a powerful brushless motor. It has a quick-adjust handle, a soft-start function, and constant speed control to ensure consistent trimming. Line replacement is easy, and there’s a dual line for fast cutting and low vibration. There are a range of battery and charger options available, and even the cheapest delivers a decent run-time of 30 minutes.

EGO Power ST-1300E Cordless Line Trimmer – Design and features

The EGO ST-1300E arrived in one unit; I only had to attach the cutting-head guard with two Allen screws. With an Allen key provided, I unscrewed the locking nut on the second D-handle and clipped the unit over the shaft, set the spacer and reattached the locking nut.

Adjusting the handle is simple: you just flick up a lever, adjust the handle to position, and flick the lever back down. Adjustment anywhere along the shaft makes the EGO comfortable for every height of user. The EGO ST-1300E has two speeds, and you can switch from one to the other with a thumb. It has a straight shaft, a fixed head, and is very substantially built.

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The dual strimmer cord is bump and feed, and super-easy to replace. First, remove the spool retainer from the power head by depressing two tabs. Lift the spool out of the retainer, take approximately 7 metres of 2mm line, fold it in half, hook the fold over the cut-out slot in the partition between the two halves of the spool, then wind the cord on. Insert the spool back in the retainer, drop the lines through the slots in the string guides on the retainer, then just snap the whole lot back into the power head. You can also buy pre-wound spools, if necessary.

EGO Power ST-1300E Cordless Line Trimmer – Charging and run-time

The EGO Power ST-1300E is often sold body-only online, but you’ll need a battery and charger. I tried it with the cheapest options: a standard battery charger, CH2100 E, and the 2.0Ah 56V Li-ion battery pack. You can pay much more and get a compatible fast charger and batteries that hold a greater charge.

The 2.0Ah offers a run-time of 55 minutes; 30 minutes under load. The 5.0Ah gives a run-time of 140 minutes, and the 7.5Ah offers 210 minutes (these latter two figures are no-load values; expect less when working). The offer price above is for the body with the cheapest battery pack and charger. Just Lawnmowers offers other, more expensive power bundles for the EGO ST-1300E.

The CH2100 E charger is bulky and has indicator lights to show whether it’s charging or fully charged. It took 45 minutes to charge the battery. You can get a fast charger, the CH5500 E, which takes only 25 minutes and costs £74.99 although owners say it is equally noisy.

The 2.0Ah 56V Li-ion battery resembles a Star Wars spaceship. It has a green charge indicator button on the end that lights up when it’s fully charged. It charges very noisily, making a sound that’s similar to an angry hornet. On low speed, the 2.0Ah 56V Li-ion battery went flat after just over 30 minutes. It lost its power after 15 minutes on fast speed.

All EGO batteries are intelligent. They shut down if they overheat because you’re working them too hard, or if the weather is too hot. They’ll start up again once they’ve cooled down. Also, if unused for a long period they’ll automatically discharge two thirds of their power, going into deep sleep mode.

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EGO Power ST-1300E Cordless Line Trimmer – Handling and performance

The EGO ST-1300E is a super-quiet machine, so ideal for residential areas. It isn’t adjustable – its length is fixed – but it’s nicely balanced and has been equally comfortable for me to use at 6ft 5in as it has been for my girlfriend at 5 ft 4in. It easily cuts left and right.

It’s a big machine, and its length requires plenty of room, so it isn’t an ideal tool for trimming round flower beds and bushes in confined spaces. It seems to work better in open, rough strimming areas such as orchards. When I tried it on tough weeds, I found that it wasn’t at all keen on tackling thistles. It could manage the occasional one, but not a patch of them; they became wrapped around the cutter. It was happy to handle orchard grass, however, plus young nettles and docks on its slowest speed.

When I tried it on thin, long mature grass, the sort of stuff you’d expect in an unfertilized orchard, it overheated on occasion and the battery shut down. I simply switched it off, pulled any long grass caught in its cutter free, turned it on again and it began strimming again.

It managed to cut Chenopodius album, a common fibrous weed that often proves a challenge for strimmers, and dense long grass too, but it found both far easier on the higher setting.

The EGO Power ST-1300E is a fast cutter. On its highest speed it cut a square metre of lawn grass in 10 seconds. The same amount of grass was cut in 15 seconds on the lower speed. Putting it on the high speed makes it able to get through much thicker grass, but for normal strimming the lower speed will be perfectly adequate. The strimmer cord wear is also low, especially on low speed on grass, and the bump feed worked nicely.

The vibration felt very low on the EGO ST-1300E, and was perfect for a vibration-sensitive user like myself. It can’t be used for edging, as that would be defined by the makers as “misuse”.

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Why buy the EGO Power ST-1300 Cordless Line Trimmer?

The EGO ST-1300E is a fast, quiet machine, capable of tackling a wide range of tough weeds on its high setting. It can also cut grass efficiently on the low setting. The intelligent battery means that you can’t harm the motor – it will simply cut out and protect itself against damage if you demand too much of it.

This strimmer would be perfect for a big garden or an orchard or paddock, and its low vibration is an unexpected plus point. It also has a long battery run-time, even with its cheapest battery option.