No I am not a professional horticulturists - not even a special hobby gardeners and thus certainly not the source and the absolute measure of the optimal functioning of the device. We've inherited a lot and sometimes long uncut plants the previous owner of our house and the hedge trimmer from McCulloch has been successfully used in all assigned tasks. The long sword has been the savior for the sometimes very tall plants and also for a very nice area to cut a beech hedge, it has extremely helped me - you also takes no yes 20 cm Spirit level for large areas :-). The performance is even better to be dosed safely perfectly adequate for my needs and at a little more exercise. The weight very pleasant, which is also due to a very favorable weight distribution safe. Cold start behavior very well so far, but the first winter and thus the first longer service life would still come. For me, this device was a door opener for McCulloch, which I never had on my list before.