I use a brand of pruners called Kamakaze. Battery operated pruners are becoming much more common. I know Scott Smith also uses battery operated pruners. I don’t know if anyone else on the forum is using them.
I just read an article in American Fruit Grower from Jon Clements (UMASS apple specialist). At the end of the article he wrote, “Oh, and one more thing. Buy yourself a battery-operated, hand-held electric pruner and ditch the loppers. It’s nearly life changing.”
Here is the article on the internet:
I think that’s true. More and more orchardists (large and small) are discovering battery operated pruners. For commercial growers, it’s one of the cheapest ways to significantly reduce labor and fatigue, currently available. For backyard growers, prices are starting to come down to make them more affordable.
The ones I use are rather expensive. Volpi sold them to me at dealer’s cost. The pruner I held in the video above cost about $1200 including shipping when I bought it a couple years ago. I bought an identical one this spring, and I think that one was about $1500.
It’s about mid range for these types of pruners. An Infaco pruner cost about $2500 a couple years ago.
I chose Kamikaze because they were the only ones I could find which had the length of pruner I wanted. It’s pretty sturdily built and will cut anything which will fit in the jaws.
They make a heavier duty hand held model (with no pole extension) which I think is about the same price. The jaws open much larger on it. It will cut some pretty big shoots. It will get through 2" diameter peach wood. When we prune I generally use that one, and my orchard hand will use a stubby pole pruner, like the one in the video. That way we rarely have to pull a saw out to saw through big wood.
The only drawbacks to them is of course the initial price (which is easily made back in one season in labor savings) and the risk of cutting one’s fingers off. That’s another reason I like the pole pruner. Much harder to chop one’s fingers off. That’s also why I have my orchard hand use the pole pruner only.
For a considerable lesser investment, manufacturers are now coming out with battery operated pruners which look like a cordless drill. Of course they are going to be a little heavier in your hand than the models where the battery fits on your back in a harness (like in the vid). But for anyone not pruning a lot of trees, I bet they might work pretty good to relieve a lot of hand stress. Especially if you typically try to cut 1/2" or bigger wood with hand pruners, as we all sometimes do because that’s what we have in our hands.
If you are interested in the Kamikaze products, PM me and I’ll try to get you in contact with the company.
Here is a link about the pruners I use. This one is 100 cm long. The one’s I have are 80 cm, called a KV80.
https://kamikazevolpi.com/en/producto/kv-100-electric-pole-pruners
Here’s a random link to the cordless drill type pruners I mentioned above for less than $300. I don’t know anything about them, except that the reviews seem mostly good.
https://www.amazon.com/KOMOK-Professional-Cordless-Electric-Rechargeable/dp/B07MC46WJ5/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=battery+pruner&qid=1610288438&sr=8-3
I’d be careful getting really cheap electric pruners. I think a person might find electric pruners too cheaply made will be worse than regular manual pruners, and probably end with a lot of frustration.
All kinds of manufacturers are coming out with battery operated pruners. I was at an orchard trade show a couple years ago and there were all kinds of battery operated pruners on display. Sthil makes one which I bet is very good. Felco also makes a battery pruner. I think they are pretty expensive, in the $2K range.
I know Scott uses a Zenport battery operated pruner. Those are about $1K and considered commercial class. The reviews on Amazon seem pretty good. Maybe @scottfsmith will chime in to tell how well he likes his.
Like I say, I think it’s likely prices will come down. It shouldn’t cost that much to make them, imo. I think they are so expensive because they are still considered a very specialized tool. Once more orchardists start using them, and they become more mainstream, I expect mass production to cheapen the manufacturing cost considerably.