When cutting the lawn through the warmer months, there are always those grassy areas around the trees, or flower pots and shrubs that you can't quite get your lawnmower right up to to cut the grass, ending up with those long unsightly tufts of grass in these areas. The only way around it is to either cut the tufts down with a pair of scissors or shears (very time consuming and laborious) or use an electric trimmer, and this is where this Flymo Power Trim 500 comes into play with me. For years I have used a variety of trimmers around the garden to give that finishing touch to the edges of the lawns. Some have lasted well, others have fallen by the wayside. But this Flymo version seems to be able to stand the pace and is lasting very well.

I purchased this over 2 years ago from Amazon for £49. Now Flymo have a good reputation in terms of electric cutting implements for gardens, and there will be many people in any neighborhood who will have some form of the classic orange cased Flymo implement of some description for use in their garden. Hence, when I bought this, I knew that I would be getting a quality product.

But let's first understand what is so special about a trimmer? In simple terms, it is an electric motor on the end of a long handle type arrangement. You have a a plastic/nylon tough string/line that is attached to the end of the motor which is then spun around horizontally at high speed. With the line spinning very low to the ground, you then bring it close to any tufts of grass etc, where a combination of the speed of rotation of the line, and the toughness of the line will cut the grass. Where the beauty of this device lies is in the fact that the line isn't quite tough enough to do damage to a wall or a tree, merely flexing around them, meaning that you can cut the grass right up to the edge of the tree without fear of damaging it, cutting the grass right down to a lawnmower type finish.

So how does this Flymo Power Trim 500 fair up to this ideology? For starters, the plastic shaft/handle bit is adjustable with this Flymo, so that you can adjust it for height to ensure that you can comfortably hold the spinning line just above the ground. You also have 2 handles - the back one which houses the trigger on/off switch, and there is also a forward one on the shaft. You need to grip both handles to balance the trimmer in use. Looking at the 'business' end, the trimmer has a 500W electric motor, which is fairly powerful in trimmer standards compared to what is available on the market. Attached to the end of the motor is a spindle, out of which you have a twin nylon/plastic line that spins around. To protect you during use from this spinning line, you have a semi-circular plastic shield which is fitted around the end of the motor, which also has a small vertical lip on it. Hidden away in this lip is a knife edge which is used to automatically trim the line to the optimal cutting width of 25cm.

In use, the trimmer weighs only 3.5kg, making it is quite comfortable and balanced to use, where you use it in a sort of sweeping motion around the area that you are trying to trim. It is supplied with a 12m long cable which is bright orange in colour so than it can easily be seen across your lawn to save you cutting it with the trimmer (been there - done that!!. Noise wise it is fairly loud, but no louder than an ordinary electric mower would be.

Now I have put this trimmer into some pretty tough areas, and it seems to fair quite well. The motor is powerful enough to keep the line spinning against any obstacle and the line itself can take a fair amount of abuse. One of the key things to remember with a trimmer is that the sweeping speed is everything. If you ram the spinning end straight into a pile of thickets, then it is going to struggle and the line will probably break straight away, as would happen with any high end trimmer. The idea is to slowly sweep the trimmer from side to side, allowing time for the spinning line to do its work and cut the grass. Use that process with this Flymo Trimmer and you won't go wrong.

However, there will come a time that the line will eventually wear out and break, and you can normally tell when it has broken because the speed of the motor will suddenly pick up. But this will only be temporary because the end has an auto feed spool which houses your extra plastic/nylon line. A quick knock of the end on the ground and the auto feed mechanism of the spool lets out a little more line, which then gets trimmed off to the correct length by the knife in the edge of the shield, and away you go trimming again. When the spare line is eventually used up, you can easily purchase some new line from a number of gardening outlets, rewind it onto the spool, and start again.

Anything else? Well there is what appears to be a vertical roller on the front of the device at the base of the handle, and this demonstrates that the trimmer has a dual purpose, because you can rotate the head of this device so that the line is then spinning vertically. You can then place this roller on the ground allowing the trimmer to trim the edges of your flower beds as you push it along on this roller.

Negative issues? The only minor problem I've ever had is when the cut grass sometimes builds up over the edge of the knife edge, meaning that it won't automatically trim the line. But this is an issue that I have previously come across with other brands of trimmer, so it isn't unique to this Flymo Trimmer. But a quick clean of the blade readily solves this issue.

In summary, after 2 years of 'abuse' around the garden, this Flymo Trimmer is durable, still looks good and still does the job. It cuts well and leaves a great finish to the lawn edge, once again proving the quality of Flymo's products. Hence, a 5* recommendation.

Review also on Ciao under Randal1.