Milliard 6-16 foot Extendable Tree Pruner/Pole Saw with 3-Sided Blade

I bought this to avoid paying a tree service $500 to trim 2 evergreens in my pool area. That was their quote for their minimum half day. In fairness to them, they offered to do some other stuff to fill out the half day. But the trees were the main issue I wanted to solve. They are about 20 years old and sort of outgrowing their spot, encroaching on plants around them, and pushing up against the pool fence. And they were losing their shape above where I could reach with a 10 foot step ladder.So I looked around on Amazon and found this Milliard pruner at a pretty reasonable price. I really didn't want to own another tool I wouldn't use often but this would save be about $440 up front. What I liked about this.....1.) The product listing said "fiberglass pole. That's true but as I feared, only for the bottom section. The two telescoping sections are aluminum with successively smaller diameters. While that keeps the weight down, it also means those aluminum sections are subject to bending beyond repair if you mishandle the pole when fully extended. You'll want to keep this as vertical as possible when fully extended. With that said, the bottom fiberglass section is thick and beefy with about 3 feet of foam for comfort and grip at the bottom.2.) The extensions are easy and quick to operate. They lock into place securely with a screw type friction mechanism. And they have beefy plastic knurled knobs that provide plenty of grip and leverage to loosen and tighten the extension poles.3.) The 16 foot length worked well for me. The trees I was trimming are both about 25 feet tall. One is a Blue Spruce and the other is a narrow columnar evergreen, not sure of the species. Anyway, with my 6' height plus arm length and this pole, I could reach maybe the 22' level without even pulling out the ladder.4.) It becomes a little hard to control at full extension but that's going to be true of anything with a 16 foot length and solid build quality. Milliard threaded the needle between build quality and weight pretty well.5.) The cutter head made short work of anything that would fit in the 1.25" opening. I was surprised that even the dead wood at the base of the tree was easy to cut right up to the max diameter that would fit in the cutter. The softer green wood higher up was also smaller and cut with almost no effort.6.) The rope and pulley system comes ready to use and provided plenty of leverage for quick, clean cuts right up to the 1.25" limit with no signs of stress to the blade or the lever arm or pulley mechanism. For home use, I see this lasting me pretty much forever. The saw blade needs to be attached before use but that takes less than a minute.7.) For larger branches at the base that I wanted to clean up, the combination of the pole and aggressive saw blade made short work of them without having to crawl under branches to get in there.At the end of the day, this did exactly what I wanted it to do and saved me about $440 with the first use. So it already paid for itself by about 8X. It's another tool I don't want to own but I can't argue with the value, the quality, or the ease of use.Highly recommended.

I picked up the first of these long tree branch trimmers about ten years back give or take. that one worked well until it got borrowed by a family member and somehow lost? so i picked up a replacement last spring which didn't even last a week before the spring mechanism broke rendering it useless. then on june 1st of this year we got a late season snow which brought down some branches so they were hanging on top of the main power line to our home.i had to deal with it before we ended up being without power. this pole looked good, was rated well and due to its construction with the foam and fiberglass was non-conductive. (regardless do not attempt to do what i did unless you literally have zero options for a professional to come out, electricity is nothing to gamble with) i had no choice but to do the job myself since we have nobody who does that sort of work anywhere in the county let alone near our home.so the pole arrived in good shape. easy to get out of the packaging. very sharp to start with and ready to go to work with. i still got nervous being so near to the main line but thankfully between the awesome blade and pulley system even the branches that were an inch in diameter, green wood, cut through like butter! i was able to remove years of old growth in a matter of minutes. *to reiterate if you have branches anywhere near power lines and are able to get & pay a professional to do the work, then i highly recommend going that route. but if not well sometimes you have to pray, cross your fingers and be extremely careful.fyi even with this being non-conductive remember water and the human body, ladders, even green wood is, the latter due to moisture content. so again extreme caution around power lines is a must. also to note while this easily cut through green wood an inch in diameter with just a bit of force i doubt it would be able to cut dead, dried out wood of the same size. when they die and dry out they harden and the force required to cut is greatly increased. so for dead branches i'd estimate on average this would cut up to about .75" diameter width before resistance becomes an issue.all said i am extremely happy with this trimmer. the quality is there, it works very well and i couldn't be happier with the end results. while there may be some trimmers that look much the same and cost a little less you do get what you pay for. as mentioned, the one i cheaped out on earlier this spring failed at the get go while this one i expect to last a good long time.

Blade was quality, pruning attachment with rope works excellent. Pole even fully extended is super light and easy to pull. My only complaint is I bent both tubes already after only cutting maybe 10-15 2-3” limbs yesterday. Makes it very difficult to close or open the sliding tubes now without trying to bend them back to straight.This is coming from a homeowner who ran a landscaping crew for 10 years. I’ve got plenty of experience with different styles of manual and powered pole saws. Nothing will beat the multiple wood poles linked together manual style in my opinion, but for the average homeowner this is probably a great buy.Overall I’d say it’s a 4 out of 5. Strong cutting head, great blade, lightweight, small pruning attachment works excellent, but pole tubes are too thin wall and leave something to be desired in the strength department.

I'm impressed with the quality of this, it's mostly very well made, the saw blade is ultra-sharp, thin and flexible, which is a good thing if you can't perfectly line up on a branch. The cutter will handle relatively thick branches with no problem at all. I've trimmed about 15 trees with this so far, removing everything from finger-thick branches with the cutter to 3" limbs with the saw. So, why did I say 'mostly'? I could probably have used better wording, it's great. I just have some minor gripes. First, the friction-locks on the extension poles have to be cranked down pretty tightly so they don't slip. No big deal, but remember to do so. Cord management is a bit of an issue, there's a lot of cord to handle the full range of extension. Not sure what could be done to make it better, but in the short length configuration, don't trip over all that cord. On the other hand, the pull handle has clever locking grooves so you can move it to the right position on the cord and lock it off. One thing to note, although the description says 'fiberglass' for the pole, that's only partially true. The main handle is fiberglass, and very rigid. The two extension segments are aluminum tube. I think they do that because you need a smooth surface for the friction locks, but the description is a little misleading. I wonder about using it at full extension. On the plus side, again, it's well made. I can't imagine how people have managed to break various bits unless they're hanging their full body weight off the cutter cord, or trying to bend the saw blade 90 degrees. Yes, part of the head is GRP (glass-reinforced plastic), but it's hefty, and all the cutting head bits are steel. I'm very pleased with this!

This tool is light and easy to adjust. The only part you need to assemble is the blade. You screw it on, and that takes about 20 seconds. The particular branches I was trimming were about 15-16 feet above ground and a little over one inch in diameter. I did not use the blade, only the pruning mechanism. It's very sharp and cut them easily.At the full 16 foot length, this thing is a bit unwieldy, and it wobbles - but realistically, that's a lot of pole for one person to maneuver, and it's still usable. At about 13 feet, it's not bad at all - and keep in mind, your own height and arm length needs to be factored into things. When it was open at 12 or 13 feet, I was cutting branches about 16 feet above ground. I actually removed the blade because that made it easier to work with. I think using the blade at maximum height (sawing motion) would be difficult. Overall, this tool has been worth the cost.