Review: Infaco F3015 power pruners

Regular readers of our blog will already appreciate our borderline-obsession for tree cutting. As professional climbing Arborists, big trees are our bread and butter. So it may come as some surprise that we specialise in fruit tree pruning as well (primarily in Winter). For the last few seasons we've been trialling heaps of different manual secateurs, finally settling on a pair of Felco 7 roll handles in the right hand and a pair of Felco 10 roll handles in the left (Nature gave us 2 hands lazybones!) These have served us well, but a long day on the pruners had our hands and forearms totally wrecked. There had to be a better way...

So, much to the dismay of my wife I invested in this mean set of electric secateurs from French outfit Infaco (at a cool $2500+ each - the same price as a large Stihl chainsaw!) These are basically unheard of outside of the viticulture and horticulture industries, so it was hard to find much information on them. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised! Here's our review......

The GOOD:
- outstanding battery life (We only need to charge the small lithium belt clip battery about once a week during peak season).
- large cutting diameter (We got the medium head which will cut up to 45mm, there are 3 sizes available.)
- fast cut speeds (watch your fingers! I'm not kidding! They make a safety glove for the faint of heart)
- solidly built and water resistant. We've taken these through light showers for most of a day (with the battery hidden under a coat) with no dramas

The BAD: (or should we say, the slightly annoying)
- The blade lock nut has a habit of loosening off after use. This may be operator error on our behalf, so we'll be getting a new lock nut for next season to see if that helps
- The optional2.1-3.5m extension pole which we also purchased (which is AWESOME by the way, but again very expensive at $650!), has a poorly designed button to remotely control the pruner head. We popped off a solder join and had to fix it. The carbon fibre pole also gave us a nasty splinter so best to wear gloves just in case!

Here's a pic showing the pruners mounted on the aforementioned extension pole. (Again, awesome pole despite the high price tag and dodgy button)

So are we happy? Would we buy them again despite the high cost and annoyances? Absolutely!
We've been able to increase our pruning speeds by more than 30%, and we can now prune pretty much all day with minimal strain. That extra speed means we can keep a 3 man crew busy right through Winter, resulting in less staff lay-offs and a more efficient team.
Certainly not a tool for the casual gardener, but we love them :)