Reviewing Two Battery-Powered Curb Appeal Pruning Tools: STIHL GTA 26 and STIHL HSA 25

Heard of the STIHL HSA 25 or GTA 26 battery-powered landscaping tools? I’ll be reviewing both today, so you can see if these handy, manageable power tools are right for you and your curb appeal chores at home! *Important Note: because of massive popularity during the initial months these tools were launched, they will not be widely available until early 2021. Consider this a sneak peek!

Landscaping tasks are like laundry. They never, ever disappear completely, no matter how much we wish they would. If only we could get things like money…or wine to re-emerge once spent or drunk as quickly as weeds in our garden beds, right?

*This post was sponsored by STIHL. We received STIHL power tools to review in exchange for this content. All opinions are my own. Please read our full disclosure policy here.*

With a pretty hefty amount of landscaping here at the house, I’m ALWAYS on the hunt for tools to make the curb appeal tasks quicker and easier. When STIHL showed me the HSA 25 and GTA 26 battery-powered hand tools, I was REALLY looking forward to reviewing them. “Why?” you ask. Let me start with what I’ll call my “typical power tool issues”.

STIHL GTA 26 & HSA 25 Review: a discussion of “typical” power tool issues

Where are my ladies at? No offense menfolk. But I gotta have a little pow-wow with my gal pals right here.

Let’s have a real, honest, woman to woman discussion about power tools, ok? Here’s the thing. I’m going to guess that typically, the power tool companies don’t really make most power tools with us in mind. Trust me, you and I could discuss the sins of our fathers over wine, beer, mixed drinks or all of the above AT LENGTH at some point. I won’t do that here.

But what I will say, is that as a 5’2.5″ woman weighing in at about 125 lbs., when I pick up many-a-power-tool, I think, “Is this supposed to only be used by men in the NFL?”

Typically, landscaping tools can be REALLY big, bulky, heavy, long, and just cumbersome for smaller users, in general.

Sure, I could use that as an excuse to make Dave do the landscaping tasks (and if that’s your go-to move, by ALL MEANS, do NOT let this review mess up your brilliant plan because I truly applaud your efforts 🍻👏).

But if you’re anything like me, you may actually LIKE landscaping chores!

I truly love getting outside and getting my hands dirty. Given the choice between doing another load of laundry and pruning hedges? I’d prune hedges any and every day of the week.

But when the only options for pruning are huge, honking tools that weigh as much as a hefty toddler and are about as tall as me? The fun factor of the job diminishes rapidly.

And don’t get me started on gas-powered tools that make me feel as if I’m being asphyxiated as I work. And whose pull starts couldn’t be mastered even by an Olympic rower.

Electric tools? No thanks. I will undoubtedly sever the cord on those puppies within the first twenty uses. Plus, who wants to haul a heavy outdoor cord around the yard? I feel like a dog on a leash.

Enter Two Battery-Powered STIHL landscaping & curb appeal tools: GTA 26 and HSA 25

And for ALLLL of these reasons, when these two curb appeal pruning tools from STIHL arrived at the house, I immediately fawned over them and was claiming them as my own.

Let’s dive into these two little (but powerful) beauties some more to help you decide whether or not these two curb appeal pruning tools are right for you in your own home…

STIHL HSA 25 Battery-Powered Garden Shear Set

About the STIHL HSA 25

The STIHL HSA 25 is a battery-powered trimmer tool that weighs under 2 lbs.

It comes with two attachments: a shorter “grass shear” blade, and a longer “hedge shear” blade. It can run for almost 2 hours before it requires a recharge.

To me, this lightweight trimmer is a perfect everyday maintenance tool. It’s a tool you can grab on the fly, without having to futz with cords, pull-chains, and all that other bologna.

You can just grab this puppy and go. It’s BAD-a#$ like that.

Let’s talk pros and cons of the STIHL HSA 25, as I see them.

STIHL HSA 25 PROS:

lightweight
unbelievable easy set-up (slip in the attachment & pull the trigger)
lightweight
short so it is easy to use in tight spaces
lightweight
nearly 2-hour battery run time
powerful for trimming heavier brush/bushes/hedges
did I mention lightweight??
perfect for a homeowner to keep up with regular maintenance/pruning tasks

STIHL HSA 25 CONS:

not ideal for deep hedges or super tall hedges (unless you have superhuman arm length, or want to pull out a ladder)
not ideal for very heavy pruning on a huge landscaping project (like the house down the street the kids have labeled as “haunted” that hasn’t had yard work in the past decade)
probably not the best choice for a professional landscaper as his/her first line trimmer of choice…it just isn’t meant for that type of workload

Video Overview of STIHL HSA 25

STIHL GTA 26 Battery Garden Pruner

About the STIHL GTA 26

The STIHL GTA 26 is a battery-powered garden pruner that weighs just over 3 lbs.

Like the HSA 25, this STIHL battery tool is super simple to use. Put the battery in, make sure that you’ve oiled the chain, and then pull the trigger. It’s ridiculously easy to start.

We have a fair number of trees on our property, as well as some woody, well-established hedges and bushes that require something heavier to prune than a standard hedge pruner. So I was really pumped to give this hand-held tool a try.

If I’m being honest, I wasn’t really expecting it to be too powerful, given its small size. Boy was I VERY surprised in the best of ways the first time I took it for a spin.

We’ve had a fallen Bradford pear tree on our property for (cough) a year that we have never gotten around to cutting up and hauling over to the woodpile. And if you’ve ever had to deal with a downed pear tree, you know the INSANE amount of branches those trees have.

And their branches are smallish (I forgot to get a true “before” pic, so the one above is after I’d already been working at removing the smaller branches for a long while). Too small to warrant lugging out the beast chainsaw.

So I plodded down to the fallen pear tree and started whacking away with my new lil GTA 26.

And within two cuts, I was in love.

Since this tool was launched by STIHL, it has been flying off the shelves. It’s hard to get a hold of now, so take a peek now, and look to order/purchase in early fall 2020 as they replenish stock at your local STIHL dealer.

STIHL GTA 26 PROS:

lightweight
powerful! I was honestly so surprised how easily this tool cut through fairly large branches (3-6″ in diameter) without faltering
short – easy to shimmy in between hedges, trees, etc without a larger tool getting caught/stuck, etc.
no electric cords
no gasoline smell or annoying, difficult pull chains
simple to start! Insert battery and pull the trigger
great option for cutting smaller branches where a regular-sized chainsaw would be total overkill

STIHL GTA 26 CONS:

this tool alone will not be enough to remove an entire tree, so if that’s what you’re looking for, you’ll need a chainsaw
the battery life is only 25 minutes fully charged…so do yourself a favor and purchase a second (maybe even a third) battery if you tend to work on landscape projects for longer than 25 minutes at a time, like I do