REVIEW – I have 12 acres of property of which most are wooded, but quite a bit requires mowing, trimming, and good old weed eating. I hate hate hate regular gas-powered weed eaters/string trimmers because I find the pull cord start to be really difficult for me. I’ve slowly been converting over to electric outdoor tools and the latest tool that I’ve been testing is the Cat 60V 15in electric string trimmer (DG610). Let’s take it for a spin!
What is it?
The Cat 60V 15in electric string trimmer (DG610) is a battery-powered string trimmer or if you live in Southern Indiana like I do, it’s a weed eater.
Tech specs
Item Weight: 9.93 Pounds
Cutting Width: 15 Inches
Dimensions: 37.2″L x 9.4″W
What’s the box?
- Cat 60V 15in electric string trimmer (DG610)
- Assembly hardware and tools
- 60V rechargeable battery
- Battery charger
- Manual
Some assembly required
The Cat 60V 15-in electric string trimmer (DG610) does require a little bit of assembly before you can use it for the first time. Don’t worry though, it’s not difficult and all the required hardware and tools are included in the box.
The trimmer arrives in a folded format as you see above. So the first step in assembly is to unfold it and secure the hinge with one of the 3 included bolts.
The image above shows the folded hinge along with all the hardware and Allen wrench that are included with the Cat 60V 15in electric string trimmer (DG610).
When you unfold the trimmer, a socket for one of the bolts will reveal itself.
The Allen wrench makes it easy to tighten the bolt.
The next step is to attach the handle.
The handle slides over the shaft and then you can snap in the plastic plug.
The included T-bolt tightens to secure the handle in place. We’re almost done!
The final step in the assembly is to attach the safety guard to the bottom of the trimmer. The guard attaches with the final two bolts. Tightening these bolts is a little awkward due to their location under the guard, but it only takes a minute or two and you’re done.
Here’s the Cat 60V 15in electric string trimmer (DG610) fully assembled and ready to be used.
Design and features
The Cat 60V 15in electric string trimmer (DG610) is controlled with a trigger switch that is located in the upper area of the shaft. No more pull cord start mechanisms. Yay! To start the trimmer, you just press and hold the side button with your thumb and squeeze the trigger with the rest of your fingers.
The only other button on the trimmer is on the top of the grip. This is the ECO button which allows you to run the Cat 60V 15in electric string trimmer (DG610) longer by lowering the speed. The ECO mode is great for trimming grass around sidewalks, flowerbeds, etc when you don’t need a lot of power or have really thick grass.
The trimmer features a bump-line feed system. While the trimmer is running, you can bump the head on the ground to feed out a new section of the trimming line. You can see me do this in the short video below.
This trimmer uses .095 inch diameter string (you can also use .080 inch string) and can be easily reloaded without taking off the cover. Just feed 6 ft of line into one eyelet in the feed head and through the other eyelet, make sure the line is evenly spaced between the head, and then twist the head to wind the string. Simple!
Before you can start wacking weeds, you’ll need to charge the included 60V battery pack.
The battery slides easily into the charger which has a large charging status display on the side. The charger also has a built-in fan that runs while the battery is charging and turns off once it detects that the battery is fully charged.
Once the battery is charged, you can just remove it from the charger and it’s ready to insert into the Cat 60V 15in electric string trimmer (DG610).
I found it very easy to insert and remove the battery from the trimmer.
The battery itself also has a built-in battery display. There’s a yellow button that when pressed, shows the battery level.
See it in action
I know I look very awkward using this trimmer and it’s because I don’t have a lot of experience using a REAL weed eater like this one. The only other weed eater that I’ve used is the WORX 20V GT Revolution Trimmer/Edger/Mini-Mower which is like a toy compared to the Cat 60V 15in electric string trimmer (DG610).
The Cat trimmer is heavier than the WORX at about 10 pounds and I was sore the next day after using it to trim around my yard for an hour or so. I think I need to work out my arms more! 😉
I was able to trim a variety of areas around my home (light grass to thick stuff with small tree saplings and thick weed stalks) for about a full hour on one charge. Note that I used a combo of full power and Eco power to achieve that run time! This thing chewed through everything thrown at it without a problem.
What I like
- No smelly gas or oil mixtures needed
- Easy to start
- Powerful
- ECO mode for longer run times
What I’d change
- Nothing
Final thoughts
I retired last year from working 34+ years at Cummins Inc., so my co-worker friends would probably be a little annoyed that I reviewed and LOVE this Caterpillar branded string trimmer/weed eater, but I can’t help it. It’s great. Not having to deal with gas and oil mixtures and pull string starters is a huge improvement over the Stihl weed eater that we normally use around our property. Honestly, I never used it because I couldn’t get the darn thing started, but the Cat 60V 15in electric string trimmer (DG610) starts with a squeeze of the trigger and seems to run forever on a charge. Well done Cat!
Price: $229.99
Where to buy: CAT and Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by CAT.
Gadgeteer Comment Policy - Please read before commenting
“waking weeds”
I know southern Indiana is viewed as a sleepy place, but sleepy weeds!
Ha! Whoops! “Walking” not “waking”. I’ll go fix it 😉