Over the Hedge

I used a Gtech HT20 hedge trimmer yesterday - the one that's on a pole - to tackle our hedge. It started off well, but within 4 minutes it stopped cutting, yet was still making a noise. I suspected one of the drive belts in the gearbox had some off, but on opening it up I found the spindle that drives the prime gear had sheared clean off. It wasn't as if I was cutting anything particularly unsuited to hedge trimmers either.

It would seem it's impossible to find spares for these things, despite the cheapest unit available being in the region of £130 - with many costing almost double this. That's the last time I use a Gtech product.

I'm still waiting for Gtech customer support to get back to me...