CORE GasLess Power CGT400 CGTSD Gasless Powered Trimmer, 3 Hour Charger, 1 Power Cell

Core CGT400 String Trimmer Review:A local, small engine repair business owner asked me to take home, use and review the Core CGT400 cordless, gasless 24Volt string trimmer. I told him that I own a gasless lawn mower, have owned other gasless trimmers (which I either gave away, threw away or returned) and currently own a gas-powered Bolens trimmer. I explained I am not an expert on tools (lawn or otherwise). He said I was perfect for reviewing this item because he wanted an unbiased opinion from an average person with an average yard. He said if I loved it, keep it. But if not, bring it back and I can get my money back. I didn’t want another experience like I had in the past with battery trimmers, but I had nothing to lose. I trimmed my normal-sized yard with it three times with great results.Its claim to fame is that it has key features which will make you choose it over a gas trimmer:1. They compare it directly to a gas trimmer, saying it has the same power, and the Lithium Ion battery lasts as long as a tank of gas on the gas trimmer. 2. It’s lighter, easier to use, has less vibration and quieter than the gas trimmer. These main features are what Core and this shop hopes will make people fork out about $269.00 for this high-end trimmer.To answer all the questions – 1. Yes -- it’s is as powerful as a gas trimmer. There are two settings on the Core unit, one for cutting your yard, the other for cutting brush or thick weeds/ brush. But to be honest, it is plenty powerful enough to do my yard on the lower setting. My Bolens gas trimmer was ‘too powerful’ – in my opinion. If I was not very careful, it could cut my fence in half or injure myself. It had cut down plant limbs and marked trees and other things several times. The Core trimmer was plenty strong enough on the low setting to trim the yard, without being so strong it’s scary. I can’t think of a reason I need a trimmer more powerful than the Core. Don’t let the quietness fool you – Not only will it cut through just about anything on the higher setting, it does the yard beautifully on the lower, which will make the battery last even longer. Which brings us to the next point -- It DOES last as long as long as a tank of gas on the lower setting, which is what most people will need most of the time. No second battery will be needed for an average-sized yard. I can’t comment on whether the battery will last as long as tank of gas if used on the higher setting the whole time, because I hardly ever needed it. I did not run it on the higher setting for a long time and did not test the how long the battery lasts on that setting. I have about a ¼-acre yard, with a flowerbed, a dog run and 27 plants and trees to trim around. The gas trimmer could trim the whole yard, edge the sidewalks and still have some gas left when finished. Just the same – The Core trimmer would finish and have battery left over.2. It’s MUCH easier to use than a gas trimmer. No fussing with gas. No frustrating pull strings. String line seems to last a long time. I only had to bump it a few times during the whole job. Reloading string involves a learning curve, but if you read the directions carefully and follow them well, it’s very easy to reload string. As far as I can tell, it does not have a universal head shaft to use with other heads and the main shaft is not adjustable, which will turn off some shorter users. It certainly seems like it has much less vibration than gas trimmers, but half way through the job my hands were shaking a bit while I was trying to drink a glass of water. There must be some sort of vibration causing that. This didn’t sway my opinion of the machine. The Core is definitely quieter than anything I’ve ever used. Gas powered trimmers are very noisy and I found you don’t even think about hearing protection with this machine. It’s so quiet, my neighbor had to come over and check out what he was not hearing.Getting used to it does take a bit of a learning curve. The head moves in the opposite direction of any other trimmer I’ve used, which means you hold it differently and cut/move in a different direction. And about half way through the job, it seems to get heavier. It should have come with a way to attach a shoulder strap to it. But – as a tip – Nothing on the unit ever gets hot, so iff you place the adjustable handle a bit high on the shaft and tuck the battery part under your elbow to counterbalance the weight, it gets even lighter. It’s still lighter than many other units, and it’s very well balanced, but I think they have a bit to go before I would call it ‘light.’ I did however recommend it to my mother and sister. They don’t seem to have any issues with it yet either.Bottom Line: The Core CGT400 24V trimmer is sleek, easy to use, quiet, ‘green,’ does a great job and well worth the price. The price might seem steep, but compared to a high-end gas trimmer which make you maintain parts, plugs, oil and gas, this is at a good price point. You will save the difference in gas and maintenance within a few years, and it certainly saves you time when you are not wasting it on mixing gas and oil or dealing with pull strings.Every other cordless string trimmer I’ve ever used has been returned to the store or given away due to not being a quality product or not worth the price. This is one unit I plan to keep for a very long time and happy I bought. I’m now a fan of gasless, cordless trimmers.

This trimmer is working very well. Quiet and sufficient power. The string has tangled up once, but after reloading it by following the video on Core's website, it is functioning correctly. Otherwise, the bump spool works well!A piece of the black plastic guard appeared to be broken off, but it has not affected performance as far as I can tell. Interestingly, a broken piece of plastic was not found inside of the packaging, so it must have been that way when it left the factory.Also, one of the black plastic covers had fallen off of the trimmer presumably in transit. It looks like the cover is not secured with any glue or fasteners and I just popped it back on.I did not view these two issues as deal breakers. It would be nice if Core would improve the robustness of the packaging.The serial numbers for the trimmer and battery start with 2012, so I must assume they are from that year. I hope the battery lasts even though it has probably been sitting around somewhere for 1.5+ years.Overall, I feel this trimmer is worth the money and has better quality and technology than the cheaper products from the big box stores. I also liked that this was assembled in the USA, even though I suspect many of the components are from Asia.

I bought this because I hate gas powered stuff. There's nothing worse on a hot Florida afternoon to be carrying something under your arm that's hot, loud, and belching fumes (after you've worked up a lather just getting it started and restarted).I have owned and used other cordless electric string trimmers. The string trimmer was the last piece in the yard arsenal to go electric, and it's been hard. It's been hard because the cordless electric models that are out there, by Ryobi, B&D, and so on, are all a pile of sissies. The ones I've owned were the best available at Home Depot, and sadly none of them perform to the level of even a cheap gas powered trimmer. This one is different.The reason why other cordless electric trimmers are bad is simple. All the other models commonly available from mainstream brands use a single-line head (there's one string spinning), and the line size is .065, which is the thin, usually blue-colored kind. They also all do automatic feed instead of bump feed, which sounds a lot better than it works, when it works at all.This means that you've got only one line cutting; it's very thin so it breaks a lot and gets used up faster (sometimes it will even melt a little inside the head, causing it to stick together and foul up the automatic feed), and as I say the automatic feed isn't automatic in practice.A serious yard trimmer has a dual-line head (two strings spinning) and it uses a bump feed for positive line advance when you want it and need it. It also uses the heavier .095 string. Some .095 string brands even have ridges that work like little blades against the grass rather than just slapping at it with a simple string.Somebody at Core apparently knows this and made a product that the other guys haven't. The CGT400 has it where it counts. It's got a bump-feed dual-line head using .095 string, and it makes all the difference. I use this mostly for edging, against the fenceline and I have some weed-choked side areas on a slope that the mower can't even get into, and so in those areas I'm using it as the mower. Because of a spouse who likes weird landscaping, I have a lot of curvy edges to do and trees/plants to work around. So that's the level I'm using it at; if you're looking to cut down trees or do some kind of heavy brush clearing, I can't speak to those points in this review. I'm just a normal guy.As mentioned I live in Florida. We have St. Augustine grass here, which is less like grass than it is more of a vine we use for a ground cover. It's very tough compared to normal grass. My Ryobi would have to go over and over and over the same spots just to cut it, when it could even cut it at all. The reason why I had two batteries for it is that it would take so long and run out of juice in the process.By contrast the Core cuts through it like a hot knife through butter. I'm done in 15 minutes for a standard front yard-doing; if I go for the whole front to back, I'm done in half an hour. So because it's so much better and faster at the job, the battery life is just fine. Plus my edges now look great instead of raggedy awful. I'm back in the A/C long before the battery life ever wears out. On a whole front to back job I could burn through two Ryobi 24v batteries and still not be done. This thing is great.What's not great about it? Very little.One, it's pretty darn long, as the other reviewers note. Not sure why it had to be so long but it's a beast. It's fully six feet end to end. I sure wouldn't miss a foot off it if they made a shorter model. In narrow side areas it can be hard to maneuver.Two, one feature that it doesn't have is a rotating head with a wheel on the shield for edging. That's a very cool feature. You instead have to rotate the Core sideways or upside-down to edge, and that's awkward. With a rotating head & wheel, you just rotate the head then and roll it along the ground, which is far easier and makes for straighter lines. But I'm fine with not having that if it means having to give up this kind of power. At least I'm not having to roll over and over the same spot like I used to.Three, yeah, that two-position speed vs. torque switch is real easy to hit accidentally. You'll know it because the thing makes very different sounds depending on what mode it's in. Speed is a higher whine, torque is a lower growl. The trigger and palm safety mechanism are very easy to hit, which is both good and bad. You can turn it on unintentionally very easily just by holding it the wrong way. The manual states over and over again to remove the battery when doing anything other than using it, like when you change the string, in order to avoid this. But the battery removal is probably the easiest of any cordless device I've seen.Four, Core skimped slightly on the string cutter, which is the little blade in the shield that cuts the string if you bump it out too long a length. It doesn't have much of an edge on it, but I'll get around to fixing that with a metal file one of these days.Five, like others note, a battery level indicator would be nice, but it's getting the job done for me in half the battery life anyway, so it's not an issue for me personally.Six, it's painful to re-thread/rewind the line when it breaks inside the head. This is par for the course with all string trimmers I've ever had, but because the thing is so powerful, you have to take more care not to make it bite off more than it can chew and break the line off inside the head. Thus you're potentially running into this pain point more often here, so it seems like a bigger deal than it is. The side note here is that some skill is required to use this thing properly.Make no mistake, this is a toy for adults who understand power tools and is not for careless kids, see the note about skilled usage above. It has a minimal shield at the head and you don't want to even lay hands on it without wearing safety glasses. While it's quieter and smoother than a gas one, you'll still get a lot of vibration into your hands, enough to make them numb after a solid session. Gloves are good.It is a tad expensive when compared to other cordless trimmers. IT'S WORTH IT. So that's not a drawback as far as I'm concerned. I could have saved a whole lot of money on the other string trimmers and extra batteries I'd bought if I'd known about this thing first. The others that you find at Lowe's and Home Depot aren't even in this league.One thing that wasn't clear to me before I bought it was the battery situation. It comes with one battery and a regular charger, which charges it up in a couple hours just like it says. Core makes some kind of a quick charger, but the one that comes with it is the regular one. When I read the specs it wasn't clear to me whether it even came with a charger or exactly what the charger deal was. That's it--one battery, one charger, nothing too special about the charger. It just has one light that indicates when it's charging and when it's full.Time will tell on this, like with all things. It has a 5 year warranty, so they seem to be solidly behind it. I can tell you that if it holds up, which it has for the last six months, I'll be looking at Core again if I have other needs for cordless outdoor power tools.