Battery Powered Pruner

Anybody tried a battery powered pruner?

After about 60 pruning hours so far, my hands are tired so the pruning is not fun anymore.

I really need a battery powered pruner on a 3 foot pole to mimic the hand powered function of my 36 inch lopper.

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Blueberry,

I’ve thought a lot about one also. They are so darned expensive though. Last I checked a decent one was over 2K, which is ridiculous considering you can get a whole case of decent battery powered tools for a few hundred bucks. It’s just because electric pruners are specialty item that they are so expensive.

I like the idea of a short pole on the pruner, not only for reach, but also to help prevent lopping my fingers off (although some electric pruners have a glove which will prevent the pruner from cutting fingers off).

I asked some questions about different electric pruners a few years ago on the apple-crop listserv and a couple pruners mentioned were the Pellenc and the Infaco. Looking at the websites I don’t see either one with a short pole option, but one of the guys on the listserv was using an Infaco with a short pole.

The guy (an apple grower in CT) had some good information about using and modifying electric pruners, so I’ll post the link here.

https://www.mail-archive.com/apple-crop@virtualorchard.net/msg02476.html

I hope you end up buying one, so you can review it for me. :wink::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Thank you for the listserv link. I’m trying to convince myself it would be a smart purchase.

I would be afraid to use the pruner without the handle extension - probably cut my finger off!

Zenport cost about 1/2 but no short pole is available.

3 foot pole is available with the Felco 811 model which will cut up to 1.4 inches but 2K is a lot of money!

The size of the throat on the pruner can be set to 1/2 on the fly which really improves the cycle time when pruning pencil size fruiting wood.

The power pruner would not be as fast as my 36 inch Hickok lopper, but it would be a lot easier and more fun.

It takes me about 60 hours to prune and clean up an acre of Blackberries or peaches which is close to my energy limit.

Blueberry,

Do you happen to have a link for the one with the 3’ extension?

https://www.felco.com/us_en/our-products/powertools/felco-811-hp.html

Don’t see the handle here just the unit

I have been having hand problems with my pruners so I think I am going to try some electronic ones.

I am also going to try some titanium-tipped gloves which are supposed to be cut resistant. I have nearly trimmed my fingers enough times that I am worried about what electric pruners could do. Here is the only place I could find titanium-tipped gloves: Safety Pruning Gloves Its in Australia. They are expensive but cheaper than the extensions :slight_smile:

I prune endlessly and never have repetitive motion problems anymore- not sure why but I think using an ARS hand pruner, Silky holster saw and a Bahco ultra-light orchard lopper helps. It is also important to avoid unnecessary muscle tension- willfully relax until it is automatic.

I know you weren’t asking for tips, so I apologize in advance for the intrusion, but it is hard for me to understand how someone would be wearing out their hands or arms with less than 10 acres of fruit trees to manage. But then, I don’t understand why I’m going deaf either.

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I watched a video online yesterday, from Australia - about some people that were growing their fruit on wire trellis supports. (Custard apples?) Big time production . . . but they were using battery powered pruners. Clippers, actually. I’d never seen those before. They made it look so easy. :thinking: And as far as I could tell . . . . she still had all her fingers. :crazy_face:

Scott,

If you do go with some electric pruners, you might want to double check how strong the titanium tips are. Some of these electric pruners have to put out a lot of force to cut some of the diameters they claim. Even if it didn’t cut your finger off, I wonder if it would mangle it.

You may be aware, but the metal gloves which come with some of the electric pruners are wired into the pruners so that once the glove makes contact, the pruner blades won’t close. I imagine it’s a simple mechanism where the glove is wired into some internal normally closed relay, and when the blade touches the glove, the circuit opens.

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Its a combination of age,the need to push forward with the next project and the need for more fun. Although I make money growing fruit, I really do it for the enjoyment and the battery powered pruner would be a lot more fun. I enjoy selecting and making the cuts but after pruning 150 peach trees with the high quality hand tools, I need a more effective method for the next few acres. The move from a Felco to ARS hand pruner helped a lot.

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Scott

I understand some vendors have demo units for folks to try but they are in high demand during the pruning season.

One brand of battery pruners has a built in safety that connects to a mesh glove to kill the power. I’m not sure if its fast enough to save your finger!

Blueberry,

It’s a bit of an educated guess on my part, but I’d be surprised if it wasn’t fast enough to stop the blade from cutting your finger off. I’d think there’d be a pretty big liability for the company if someone was wearing their protective glove and still lost a finger.

These switches work incredibly fast. Here’s a saw stop video, which stops a table saw blade very quickly. I wouldn’t own a saw stop table saw because I understand sometimes they stop the blade unintentionally when the wood is wet, but the vid shows how fast it works.

If you want to skip the promo, the action starts at about 1 min.

It’s real scary in the video where the metal stopper clamps to the sawblade. In fact, I thought I saw metal fragments flying through the air in the video.

Since electricity flows at the speed if light, killing the power to the pruner should be almost instant but I would not test it on my finger to see if it works!

I believe the perfect solution to my pruning problem is the 3 foot pole that will keep the pruner blade away from my fingers. I would not be interested in the battery pruner without the pole.

I found another video where the Felco pruner is used in different types of orchards - unfortunately, none with the 3 foot pole extension. Still an excellent video.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=felco+811+pruner+video&view=detail&mid=B60438F3A32D3C22E8B9B60438F3A32D3C22E8B9&FORM=VIRE

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@alan it sounds like the joints I inherited might be like the ears you inherited - no good. My mom has had many surgeries and cortisone injections over the years, and I got her joints. I do OK now but every year there is a bit more pain. Electric pruners are a long-term investment in keeping me on the pruning job.

@Olpea Re: the strength of the titanium-tipped gloves, they are sold explicitly for pruners and not some other application so I am optimistic they will do the job. I saw the metal short-circuit gloves, that looks like a better system but I didn’t find the pruners to go with them – they probably cost many thousands.

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Is it arthritis? It is a tricky disease- they say its best to exercise the muscles that support the arthritic joints while at the same time suggesting to limit use of the same joints. Hard for me to figure out how you can do that. Have you asked a physical therapist how you can prune and use the exercise to improve your condition?

Once again, I apologize for my suggestion that is likely obvious and/or useless, but I’m really sorry to hear of your problem. At least going deaf is not painful and once I get a pair of hearing aids I will be almost good as new for probably another 20 years. It’s more an annoyance for my wife and son than it is for me. Blindness will be a much more difficult adaptation.

Scott

Ryobi and others make consumer grade battery pruners.

I have never tried one but the Ryobi cost about $80 and will cut 12MM.

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:nauseated_face:

It’s less scary than having your left index finger bisected by the saw blade. Been there, done that, bought a saw stop the next day. And the saw-stop was cheaper than the ambulance ride too.

BTW - Take heart in knowing that if you cut your finger off with powered pruners, there’s a good chance they can re-connect it!

Oh my !
I can count enough reasons on just one hand , that iam having second thoughts about it all …

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Aaak! I hope they were able to graft your finger back on! Not to be gruesome, but would you mind sharing how the accident occurred? Imo, the more knowledge about what can happen, the better chance one has preventing it. My brother once had a table saw accident. He shut the saw off, but the blade was still spinning when he reached over the blade to grab the piece of work and took a slice out of his finger. Because of that I’m now careful not to reach over the blade until it stops.

I have a cabinet saw I use some to make things. I use hold downs ,a feather board, and push sticks when I can, but sometimes I can’t. Any lessons you can share from your accident?

I like the idea of saw stop, but sometimes I have to cut some pretty wet wood. I read some reviews that some people were having problems with the saw engaging the emergency stop if the wood was too wet. I wonder if the safety mechanism can be “disconnected” when sawing something wet?