Kress battery tools: tested on real jobs
Kress gave us a load of their kit to try, so we took it somewhere that would test it: a garden that had been left for years, sorted free of charge for someone in our community. There's a first go with the hedge trimmers and the Voyager robot mower too, and a video on choosing a battery system.
What I'd put down on a new lawn
The 2.5kg bags cover 70 to 100m². The 8kg bags cover 228 to 320m².
Not sure of your size? Measure your lawnThe Kress Voyager robot on a hay field
A lawn we'd fed wrong on purpose a few weeks before, for a video on how to feed it right, and it hadn't been cut since. It was like a hay field, and I wouldn't have put one of my own mowers on it. So it was a proper stress test for the Kress Voyager.
- Mapping a site with no wires
- Taking the tops off first
- Bringing it down in stages
- Changing height in the app
- How fast it covers a lawn
- Walking out in front of it
What happens in this one
The first time you arrive on a site, you map it, with no beacons, wires or cables, and it stores the site for every visit after. Then it's into robotic mode.
The first cut just takes the tops off. Then we drop the height 10mm at a time and change the angle of the cut. Like any mower, if you have to bring a lawn down, don't take it all down at once. We definitely broke the one-third rule on this one, but only because of the state it was in.
Jason walks out in front of it to test the obstacle detection. See what it does.
Which battery tool system is right for you
Can you run a whole business on battery tools, day in, day out, with no petrol? Jason and I break the brands down by who you are and what you need, not by which one we like best. Jobber sponsored this one, and none of the tool brands knew we were making it.
- The construction brands, and who they suit
- The middle ground you can buy anywhere
- The brands built for gardeners
- Why charging time matters
- Battery life and warranties
- Planning your batteries the night before
What happens in this one
First, the construction brands, like Milwaukee, DeWalt, Makita and Bosch. If you're in the trades and you've already got the drill and the batteries, a garden tool on the same battery makes sense. You buy the tool, not a whole new system. For eight hour days of grass and hedge cutting they'll still do it, you might just need more batteries than you thought.
In the middle are brands like EGO, Greenworks Commercial and Cramer. Serious power, sold in the big stores, for the weekend gardener or someone who can't justify more than £2,000 on a professional setup yet.
Then the brands built for professional gardeners from the ground up. Stihl and Husqvarna are the two everybody knows, and if you're already with one you'll probably stay there. Kress went after the thing that stops most people going battery all day, which is the charging time.
We worked out what the charger in the van has cost us to run since August. The number surprised us.
Part 1: the first clearance
Something different from our normal videos. This garden had been left for years, and we had the chance to help someone out. Kress had sent me a load of new battery tools and told me they're every bit as good as petrol, so this was the place to put that to the test. Jobber sponsored this one.
- Why we took this garden on
- Putting the Kress kit to the test
- How far one battery goes
- A trick to get more in the bin
- Charging up mid job
- What we found behind the branches
What happens in this one
The plan was a full clearance. I trimmed one whole section on full power and it only took the battery down to two bars. Not bad. When one does run flat, it's 12 minutes to a fully charged battery again.
Jason shows a wee trick we've used since we started, to get a lot more into the bin so you're not taking half-empty loads away.
By the end of the day we'd got a lot done, but I wasn't 100% happy. And the lawn was full of holes. If ever there was a bumpy lawn, this was it.
At the end I walk you round what's still to do, including something we found behind the branches that I wanted to check with the owner first.
Part 2: the hedges
Part two, and the hedges. They'd had years of growth with nobody touching them, and they were massively overgrown, so this visit was about getting them back down to size. Most of the kit in this one is Kress, but we didn't have their long reach saw at the time, so the Milwaukee one came out for that.
- Cutting back years of hedge growth
- Taking overgrown hedges back down
- Why it turned into a full series
- Spraying off the old lawn
What happens in this one
This was only meant to be one video at this house. Once we heard why the garden had got into such a state, I decided to go all out on it, and this is where that started.
Most of this one is us and the hedge cutters, taking back years of growth. The old lawn was sprayed off on this visit too, ready for a new one later in the series.
There's a lot of hedge to get through in one visit. See how far we got.
Part 3: a second chance
We're back about a month later. The plan was to start on the new lawn, but there were still hedges to cut and years of old debris to scrape out first. Moasure sponsored this one.
- Regrowth since the spray off
- More pruning on both sides
- Scraping out years of debris
- Measuring up with the Moasure
- How big the garden looks now
- Why the lawn can't wait much longer
What happens in this one
Even though the lawn was sprayed off on the last visit, there's been quite a bit of regrowth in a month. That's nature for you.
I meant to make a start on the lawn, but it made more sense to get the hedges under control first. Once they were done, the garden looked massive. But it's that time of year where the lawn has to go in soon, or it might not grow.
The Moasure 2 Pro connects to your phone by Bluetooth, the measurements are quick, and it's a one-off payment with no subscription.
Keep an eye out for the resident who comes to see what we're up to.
Part 4: the new lawn
The final part. The new lawn goes into a garden full of holes, in a storm, and we come back three weeks later and again in March to see how it's getting on.
- Hollow core aeration
- Why we scarified a sprayed-off lawn
- Two tons of topsoil and a lawn lute
- Seeding in the rain
- Horticultural fleece in October
- Dee has the last word
What happens in this one
There were holes all through this lawn, and a couple of videos back we killed the old one off. It had grown back since, which is natural. Nature always finds a way. In a perfect world I'd have sprayed it off again, but the season meant there wasn't time, so we scarified it to weaken those weeds as much as we could.
Then two tons of topsoil, with the lawn lute pulling the soil off the high ground and into the low ground. The weather turned on us halfway through, and we were racing the rain to get the seed down with a spreader. After the storm, the pre-seeder went down to get the seed off to a good start.
The lawn was sown in October, and here in the UK the temperatures usually start to drop then. So it went under horticultural fleece, which makes a blanket over the seed and helps speed up the germination.
We come back in March to see how the lawn's done, and Dee, the owner, has the last word.
First go with the Kress hedge trimmers
We don't do much hedge trimming on this channel, but when a load of new Kress kit arrives, it has to be put to the test. Jason takes the commercial hedge trimmers out on hedges and some box balls.
- The rotating handle
- A harness for the battery
- Box balls for the first time
- Lighter without the battery on the tool
- The multi-stage handle
- Blade safety
What happens in this one
The handle twists, which makes it a lot easier to walk down a hedge with. Jason wears the battery on a harness, so the weight comes off the trimmer and off his arms, and the tool itself is a lot lighter to move round a bush.
Then the tricky bits. The box balls aren't perfectly round to start with, and every time you go round one it shows up wee bits that still need a trim. The adjustable handle has a few stages, so you can set it for what you're cutting, and the last trimmers we had didn't have that.
Watch for the bit where Jason gets caught looking something up on his phone halfway through.
About this guide
Kress gave us a load of their battery kit to try, and we wanted to see it do real work, not just an unboxing. So most of this guide is a series a lot different from our normal videos: a neglected garden we sorted out free of charge for someone in our local community, with the Kress kit doing the heavy lifting.
When the new lawn went in, the pre-seeder went down after it. The Seeding Success Duo puts Seed and Establish Pro with Seaweed Lawn Booster, feeding the soil, not just the lawn.
What we found
From the jobs in these videos, and the video that shows it.
Common questions
Do Kress pay you for these videos?
Kress gave us the kit to try, and we work with them now. I'll always tell you when a video is sponsored. The battery systems video was sponsored by Jobber, and none of the tool brands knew we were making it.
If I don't use something myself, I won't recommend it to you.
Can battery tools handle a big garden clearance?
These did. I trimmed a whole section on full power and it only took the battery down to two bars, and a flat one was fully charged again in 12 minutes. That's in video 3.
Which battery system suits you depends on what you already have and how much you'll use it. Video 2 goes through it brand by brand.
Why scarify a lawn you've already sprayed off?
Because it grows back. Ours had regrown within a month, and that's nature. Scarifying weakens the weeds that have come through.
In a perfect world you'd spray it off again, but if the season's against you and the seed needs to go down, scarifying is the next best thing. That's in video 6.
Why put fleece over new grass seed?
When you sow in October, the temperatures here usually start to drop. Horticultural fleece makes a blanket over the seed and helps speed up the germination.
We came back three weeks later to take it off. That's in video 6.
