Stiga GT 100e battery lawn trimmer review

For this review, I road tested the Stiga GT 100e battery lawn trimmer around my village garden, attacking weeds growing through the patio, lawn edges, tricky to reach places — and the edges of weeds behind my garden fence, which try to encroach from the field behind.

Even in a smaller garden, there are plenty of places that need tidying up, where a lawn mower just can’t reach; grassy tufts along the edge of fence panels, lawn edges and other hard to reach places around garden furniture or buildings. That’s where the Stiga GT 100e battery lawn trimmer comes into its own and is one of the best cordless strimmers on the market in its niche.

Naomi MacKay

Naomi MacKay is a gardening journalist with a 100ft village garden backing onto the village park and fields, which is used to test everything from robotic mowers and watering cans to barbecues and leaf blowers. 

We are not given any compensation by Stiga for our reviews, but may be allowed to keep the product for long-term testing and to update this review if required.

First impressions of the Stiga GT 100e battery lawn trimmer

On unboxing the Stiga GT 100e battery lawn trimmer, it looked like a good-quality and quite sturdy piece of kit. It came in an easy-to-handle smallish plain brown box and there was little in the way of extra packaging — a couple of plastic bags and a smaller box for the battery and charger. 

I was pleased with how quickly it took to put together. The strimmer came in one main piece including the adjustable stem and cutting head and I only had to add the cutting guard with a couple of screws, the handle and the spacer bracket (which stops you cutting through your precious perennials and shrubs), which clicked into place. Easy peasy.

A lightweight, comfortable and easy to use lawn strimmer

For a start, the Stiga GT 100e battery lawn trimmer has two main benefits — it is lightweight and yet feels like a well-made piece of kit. I struggle with anything that is too heavy, but the Stiga was comfortable to hold while using, thanks to the soft grip ergonomic handle, and I felt like I had great control over it. 

With a loop handle on top, two-handed use makes sure the user is in charge, and helps to keep the tool balanced while in use.

The telescopic handle allows the strimmer to be used by pretty much anyone whatever their height. Tall folk will soon be groaning and holding their back if a tool like this is too short, but my six foot husband was able to adjust it to his height with ease — and if you’re taller you also won’t have a problem (unless perhaps you’re a professional American basketball player!). 

It’s also easy to alter the handle length; just click open the clip, pull the handle to the required height (there’s about 30cm of height difference to play with), and click the clip back in place. Nothing too complicated there.

Likewise, the cutting head can be turned up to 45 degrees at the push of a button, which allows the user to switch between horizontal cutting of lawns, and weeds, and switching to hard to reach places. Far easier than trying to hold the whole strimmer at an odd angle! 

Plus it can rotate at 90 degrees for neatening up the edges along pavers, garden buildings and lawn edges.

There are five different angles to choose from, so there should be one to suit most needs. This is a great innovation, and means you don’t need to fork out on a separate lawn edging tool, so you're saving money too.

A short battery life but adjustable height for easy storage

One of the problems with battery-operated devices is that you sometimes have to guess just how long you have left on charge — so it's pleasing that the Stiga shows on a gauge on the top handle how many ‘bars’ of power you have left. It saves you getting halfway through a job and it conking out on you!

The battery lasted around the correct length of time: I got 21 minutes out of a single charge, cutting lawn edges, weeds, tacking a few brambles and so on. Probably plenty for a regular trim around a small to mid-size garden. 

If you are tackling something altogether more challenging, such as a very large and/or overgrown garden, this is probably not the tool for you, either in battery length or cutting power.

Thanks to its telescopic handle, the Stiga GT 100e battery lawn trimmer can be shortened when you put it away in the shed, allowing for easier storage. This shorter height makes it far easier to put away if you only have a garden box or similar to store away tools in a smaller garden.

Being a battery operated piece of kit is great for urban gardens — no one wants to hear a petrol-powered tool firing up early on a Sunday morning, but this should keep your neighbour's sweet, as all you can hear is the cutting of the plant material.

A decent cut but the Stiga isn't made for heavy-duty work

The cut itself was decent enough on the grass. Though it struggled a bit on some tough weeds in the patio, and took a while to get through a stubborn bramble growing through my buddleia. 

I’d say this strimmer is ideal for a generally well-kept garden that needs tidying up, but that you would need something a bit tougher for a less well-kept plot.

One of the worst things about trimmers is reeling out the cutting line. On the Stiga the feed is automatic, which negates the need to take on probably the most onerous strimmer maintenance job — pulling out more line. 

To replace the reel line (there’s 4m so it will take a while to use) the cover over the line reel has to be taken off, by pushing in two buttons. I found this a little fiddly, but I managed it. 

Once you’ve replaced the reel, make sure the cover goes on in the correct place, and clip back into place. Stiga sells a 15m replacement for less than a fiver, so it’s certainly an affordable option.

Cleaning up is relatively simple — there’s not too much to get messy and I found it relatively easy to wipe out the underside of the cutting guard after use.

When it comes to value for money, the Stiga, is on the dearer end of the spectrum when it comes to this kind of basic strimmer — but it is well made, and the easily adjustable handle and head are worth paying the extra for.

However, if you need a heavy duty piece of kit, this is not it, and you should look for something with longer battery life and a more powerful cutting action.