Bosch EasyGrassCut 18V-26 Review: A 26cm Trimmer, and a £6.99 Spool
Bosch’s entry-level cordless trimmer is light, cheap to keep in line and shares its battery with the mower and hedge trimmer we have already covered. What nobody will tell you is how long it runs — Bosch measures it in tennis courts, and its owners cannot agree.
Where the reviews line up
We could find no editorial test of this exact model, so the evidence comes from three places: Bosch’s own GB product pages, 14 customer reviews at Tooled-Up, and 22 reviews on B&Q’s Irish site, DIY.ie. Both sets of buyers land at around four stars out of five, and they agree on more than they disagree.
Three things come up everywhere. It is light — about 2.1 kg with a battery on the retailers’ figures — and easy to handle for a small garden. The semi-automatic line feed works: it pays out a little line every time you let go of the trigger, so you are not tapping the head on the ground. And the edging mode is a genuine feature, not a gimmick: twist the handle and the head turns for lawn edges.
The disagreement is about the battery. One Tooled-Up buyer says it lasted well over an hour; another says it died halfway through the job; a DIY.ie buyer wishes it lasted longer. Bosch publishes no run time in minutes at all, only “the edges of up to six tennis courts” per charge. Read that as: one 2.5 Ah pack is enough for a town garden, and a second pack is the fix for anything bigger.
The buying decision is about which box. If you already own an 18V Power for All battery — the one in the CityMower 18V-32-300 kit fits, and so does any pack you run the EasyHedgeCut 18V-52-13 on — the bare tool at about £71–£80 is the cheap way in. If you do not, the kit with a 2.5 Ah battery and charger was £98 at Wickes on the day we checked, well under Bosch’s own £153.82.
The three reviews this summary is built from
- BoschThe manufacturer’s GB pages for the bare tool and the kit. The only source for most of the specification, and the only source of the tennis-court claim.
- Tooled-Up4/5 from 14 customer reviews, dated 2022 onwards. Small, but includes both the best and the worst battery reports.
- B&Q (DIY.ie)4.09/5 from 22 customer reviews on the bare tool. The larger sample, and the one that weighs it without a battery.
Before the review: three Bosch trimmers with nearly the same name
The EasyGrassCut 18V-26 (bare tool 06008C1C04, kit 06008C1C71) is the current model. The EasyGrassCut 18-26 is its predecessor — Tooled-Up has delisted it, and its 42 reviews are not about this tool. The UniversalGrassCut 18V-26 is the step-up model with a different spool. And the EasyGrassCut 26 is a 280 W corded trimmer. Several YouTube reviews and spare-parts listings mix them up, so check the code on the box.
Specification at a glance
| Spec | Figure | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| Cutting diameter | 26 cm | Bosch, Screwfix, Wickes, DIY.ie agree |
| Cutting system | Nylon line only, no blade option. Semi-automatic spool, 1.6 mm line, feeds a little line at every trigger release | Bosch; the feed wording is Screwfix’s |
| Replacement spool | Bosch F016800569, 4 m × 1.6 mm — £6.99 at Screwfix and Power Tool World | Both list the 18V-26 as compatible, checked 4 Oct 2026 |
| Weight | 2.2 kg (Bosch; battery not stated) · 2.1 kg with battery (Screwfix, Wickes) · 1.7 kg bare (Wickes) · 1.9 kg without battery (DIY.ie) | Four figures, four publishers — see below |
| Run time | No figure in minutes. Bosch claims the edges of “up to six tennis courts” per full charge | Bosch’s claim; battery size not tied to it |
| Battery | 18V Power for All Alliance. Bosch recommends 2.0 Ah or larger | Bosch GB page |
| In the kit (06008C1C71) | 1 × PBA 18V 2.5 Ah battery and charger; about 1 hour to charge | Bosch names the AL 18V-20 charger; Lawson HIS lists an AL 1830 CV |
| Bare tool (06008C1C04) | No battery, no charger | Bosch GB |
| Length | 1,160 mm, fixed shaft | Bosch and Screwfix; one buyer finds it short |
| Edging | Yes — “EdgeSimple”: twist the handle and the head turns | Bosch; buyers confirm |
| Guarantee | 2 years; 3 years if registered on MyBosch — within 4 weeks (Bosch) or 30 days (Screwfix) | Register in the first four weeks and both readings are met |
| Typical UK price | Bare £70.95–£80 · kit £98–£153.82 | Five listings, checked 4 October 2026 |
Bosch
Bosch’s claims are short and checkable: a 26 cm cut, 1.6 mm line on a semi-automatic spool, 2.2 kg, 1,160 mm long, a one-hour charge on the kit battery, and an edging function it calls EdgeSimple. It recommends a 2.0 Ah battery or larger on the 18V Power for All Alliance platform — the same battery family as the CityMower 18V-32-300 and the EasyHedgeCut 18V-52-13. The bare tool was £80 on the day we checked, with a 12% discount showing; the kit with one PBA 18V 2.5 Ah battery and charger was £153.82.
What Bosch does not publish matters more. There is no run time in minutes — instead, “the edges of up to six tennis courts in one go”, without saying which battery or how long the grass was. The 2.2 kg weight does not say whether it includes a battery, and the retailers’ figures (below) suggest it might. There are no noise or vibration figures on the page we could read. The guarantee line on the product page says only “2 year guarantee on privately used tools”; the separate guarantee page adds that registering on MyBosch within four weeks of purchase extends that to three years.
Watch: REVIEW (2026): Bosch EasyGrassCut 18V-26. Features.
A features walk-through. Watch it alongside Bosch’s own page to see the handle twist for edging and the spool cover.
Watch on YouTube ↗Tooled-Up
These are reviews hosted by a shop that sells the trimmer, and 14 of them is a small number, so we quote what people said rather than lean on the score. The praise is consistent: light and easy to handle, the semi-automatic feed means no fiddling with the line, and the turning head saves time on borders. One retired gardener says the battery lasted well over an hour. Build gets a “solid Bosch” verdict with the honest addition that it feels plasticky.
The most useful review is the three-star one. That owner says the battery died halfway through the job, the fixed-length shaft was uncomfortable for a taller user, the wire guard dragged on the grass, and edging was hard on the back. Put next to the “well over an hour” report, it tells you the battery result depends heavily on the garden and the pack — and Tooled-Up’s reviews do not say which battery either owner used. One more note: the predecessor EasyGrassCut 18-26 also has a Tooled-Up page with 42 reviews and the same four stars; it is a different model and we have not counted it.
Watch: My Honest Bosch EasyGrassCut 18V-26 Review
An owner’s verdict on the exact model — the closest match on film to the mixed battery reports here.
Watch on YouTube ↗B&Q (DIY.ie)
We could not reach a B&Q UK review count, but B&Q’s Irish site lists the same bare tool under the same barcode as Bosch GB (3165140973380), which makes its 22 reviews the largest sample we could tie to this exact model. The score is slightly above four stars, and the representative comment sums up the whole picture in one line: a really good buy, light and easy to handle — “just wish that the battery lasted longer”.
DIY.ie also gives the tool’s weight without a battery as 1.9 kg. Wickes says 1.7 kg bare and 2.1 kg with the battery; Screwfix also says 2.1 kg with the battery; Bosch says 2.2 kg without stating either way. Whichever is right, everyone puts it between 1.7 and 2.2 kg, which is light for a 26 cm trimmer — and lightness is the thing every set of buyers praises first.
Watch: Review Bosch Cordless Grass Trimmer EasyGrassCut 18V-26 (Without Battery, 18 Volt System, Cutting Di…
A review of the bare tool — the version DIY.ie sells — so worth watching if you are buying it to run on a battery you already own.
Watch on YouTube ↗Strengths and weak points
What holds up
- Light: 1.7–2.2 kg depending on who weighed it and whether the battery was in.
- Semi-automatic feed lets out line at every trigger release — no bump-feeding.
- Cheap to keep running: Bosch’s own F016800569 spool is £6.99 for 4 m of 1.6 mm line.
- Edging mode is a handle twist, and buyers say it works.
- Runs on the 18V Power for All battery from the CityMower and EasyHedgeCut.
- Three-year guarantee if you register it on MyBosch in the first four weeks.
What people complain about
- Battery life: one owner says it died halfway through, another wishes it lasted longer.
- No run time in minutes from Bosch — just “six tennis courts”.
- Fixed-length shaft; one taller owner found it uncomfortable, especially edging.
- Line only, no blade: this is for lawn edges, not brambles or long rough grass.
- Plasticky feel, and a guard one owner says drags on the grass.
- The 6 m Bosch spool sold alongside it is listed for the UniversalGrassCut, not this model — buy the 4 m one.
Who it actually suits
Buy it if you have a town or suburban lawn with edges to keep tidy, you want something light enough that you will actually go and do it, and you either already own an 18V Power for All battery or can find the 2.5 Ah kit near the £98 Wickes price. Register it within four weeks and take the third year.
Look elsewhere if you have long rough grass, banks or brambles — a line-only 26 cm head is the wrong tool — or if you are tall and will spend a lot of time edging, since the shaft does not adjust. For a big garden on one battery, budget for a second pack or look at the UniversalGrassCut 18V-26 instead.
What we could not check
- Independent editorial testing. We found no Which?, Expert Reviews, T3 or gardening-title test of the 18V-26. Which?’s grass-trimmer pages cover a different model, the 23cm EasyGrassCut 18-230. Nothing on this page is expert-test backing.
- Run time in minutes, on any battery. Bosch publishes only the tennis-court claim. The two buyer reports conflict and do not say which pack they used.
- Which weight is right. Bosch 2.2 kg (battery unstated), Screwfix and Wickes 2.1 kg with battery, Wickes 1.7 kg bare, DIY.ie 1.9 kg bare. We print all four.
- Which charger is in the kit. Bosch names the AL 18V-20; Lawson HIS lists the AL 1830 CV. Check the listing.
- Noise and vibration. Not on any page we could read.
- Whether batteries get the third guarantee year. Bosch’s guarantee page does not say clearly, and the registration deadline is four weeks on Bosch’s page but 30 days on Screwfix’s.
- Amazon UK, B&Q UK and Argos ratings. Amazon blocked us and we could not reach the other two, so their review counts are missing.
- The videos. YouTube would not load for us, so all three videos were confirmed by their exact watch addresses and titles appearing in two separately worded web searches, not by opening them. The listings did not name the channels.
Sources last checked 4 October 2026. Prices and kit contents change — check the catalogue number on the listing in front of you before ordering.