CORE PowerLok 18v Cordless String Trimmer Unboxing and Review

[Scott B]

I just received the CORE "PowerLok" 14" string trimmer I bought off Woot.com on Saturday evening. The trimmer arrived early this morning. Very surprised at the shipping speed!

 

The battery was pretty much fully drained so its on the 3 hr charger now. I just got to spin it a few times before it quit. Its super quiet.

 

I didn't get a chance to access power or performance but I did remove the bump head to take a look at the mechanism. I'm interested to see if its possible to attach an aftermarket brushcutter head or blade. It does appear that it would support screw on type bump head replacements, but it does not have a raised ring guide in order to hold a bare brushcutter blade.

 

 

[Scott B]

Some pics of the Trimmer body and charger....

 

[Scott B]

The last few pics where you can see closeups of the male/female electrical coupling that CORE power has developed.

 

I believe there are currently only a handful of companies currently offering attachment capability for cordless trimmers and CORE appears to be the ONLY one that is doing it without a drive cable through the shaft.

 

it will be interesting to see what follows in this regard.

 

Here is a unit from a EcoPro that features a removable shaft similar to the Ryobi 40v cordless system:

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01D1663IC/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3B43ZE3AGB7LE&coliid=I2OKRR1EDWS0Z6

 

 

 

[Scott B]

Initial impressions on actual usage

 

I had a few minutes today to test the CORE trimmer out today. I only spent about 15 minutes with it in parts of my front and back yard. First I tested it on the high speed setting with some bushy privet in the back yard. Surprisingly, it did just as well as my 31cc gas powered trimmer on the privet. It was able to cut it down almost to the ground. I'm using the factory line, appears to be .080

 

Due to the fact that there is no noise and no vibration, the trimmer gives a false impression of its power. I'm used to my 31cc's feel and on that machine, when you rev the engine, you definitely feel like you can dig into some serious overgrowth. On this machine, you do not get the same feeling, but its just as effective. Pretty cool, but definitely something you have to experience to believe.

 

This thing has some serious torque. Interestingly, initially is seems just as effective on the slower 5000rpm setting as on the 7000 rpm setting. The latter definitely feels and sounds faster, but the lower setting appeared to cut through things effortlessly as well. The weeds don't seem to slow it down at all. I need to experiment with some thicker line to see if there's a different feel at all.

 

Bottom line, everything I threw at it in this small test, it handled pretty much effortlessly and the motor didn't feel hot to the touch afterwards, only slightly warm.

 

I'm anxious to get some more time behind this to really get an overall impression of gasless power vs gas, but at first pass, I'm definitely impressed thus far.

 

 

 

[Cheng Liu]

On 6/28/2016 at 10:32 AM, Scott B said:

The last few pics where you can see closeups of the male/female electrical coupling that CORE power has developed.

 

I believe there are currently only a handful of companies currently offering attachment capability for cordless trimmers and CORE appears to be the ONLY one that is doing it without a drive cable through the shaft.

 

it will be interesting to see what follows in this regard.

 

Here is a unit from a EcoPro that features a removable shaft similar to the Ryobi 40v cordless system:

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01D1663IC/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3B43ZE3AGB7LE&coliid=I2OKRR1EDWS0Z6

 

 

 

That is the main reason I went with Ryobi over Ego.