Which battery pruning shears to choose for the olive grove

The question almost always comes the same way: “how many millimetres does it cut?”. It is the wrong question, or rather: it is the second one. In an olive grove the first is another, and anyone who prunes already knows it without knowing they know it.

The first question is not how many millimetres

In an olive grove you meet the thick branch a few times a day. That is what the chain pruner or the pole tool is for. What you do all day, for eight hours, for twenty days in a row, are cuts of two, three, four centimetres. Thousands of them.

So the right question is: how many trees do you have to do, and how many days in a row do you hold that tool? Everything else follows from there — the power, the runtime, the weight, and yes, the millimetres too.

Five situations, and the shears that fit each one

This is the scale we use on the phone, and it is built on trees, not on the price list.

Your situation	The model	Price	Why
The olive trees at home, a few dozen, one or two weeks a year	Swansoft 8605 40 mm	€219	Same opening and same power as the professional models (40 mm, 1050 W), but a single 2 Ah battery: 6-8 hours. For two weeks a year that is more than enough.
Up to 500 trees	Swansoft 8605 Pro 40 mm	€269	The same performance, but two 4 Ah batteries: 8-10 hours, that is a full day without going back to the van.
Up to 1,000 trees	Swansoft SW-758 40 mm	€289	Progressive cutting with millimetre control: you open the blade as much as you need, and on a thin branch you do not swing through the whole stroke. Over thousands of cuts that is real time.
You work with it every day, it is your trade	Swansoft PRU-40	€319	Professional: anti-cut sensor, progressive millimetre cutting, cable power as an option. The sensor is what lets you work fast without thinking about it.
Centuries-old olive trees	Swansoft PRU-45 PLUS	€349	45 mm and 1150 W, the only class that handles the limbs of an old tree without forcing. Runtime 10-12 hours.

Why in an olive grove you start at 40 mm

On vines and in orchards you work well even at 30-35 mm. In an olive grove you do not, and the reason is the shape of the tree: the olive shoots from the base and from the centre, and every year you find yourself removing suckers and regrowth that have had a year or two of vigour. They are not limbs, but they are not twigs either: they are between three and four centimetres.

With 30 mm shears you still get there — but you do it in two passes, or you leave it to the chain pruner. Multiply that by the number of trees and you have lost the day. 40 mm is the professional starting point in an olive grove: it is not a sales rule, it is where you stop wasting time.

Centuries-old trees are a case of their own

Here no scale holds: on old trees you always go to 45 mm. A tree eighty years old is not pruned like one of fifteen, and the limbs you have to take off when you bring an abandoned tree back into shape go past four centimetres regularly.

The two routes are the PRU-45 PLUS at €349 and the Falco Titan 45 at €399. Same mechanics and same performance: the Titan has a shortened body, so less bulk inside the canopy for the same power, and a titanium pinion three times larger than standard. If you work a lot inside dense trees, those centimetres less are noticeable; if not, the PRU-45 PLUS does exactly the same job for fifty euros less.

You notice the weight on the third day, not the first

In a shop all shears feel light. After twenty days of harvesting and pruning they do not. The real figures from the catalogue:

• 8605 Pro, SW-758, PRU-40: about 970-990 g for the body, plus 450 g of battery on your arm or in your pocket.
• PRU-45 PLUS: 1050 g. That is eighty grams more, but it is the price of 45 mm.
• Falco EVO 2: 850 g, the lightest of all the 40 mm models in the catalogue, with 380 g batteries. It costs €499, and what you are paying for is exactly this — your arm at the end of the day.

If you prune on your own ten days a year, weight is a detail. If you have a crew going for a month, it is the line that decides whether the row gets finished in the evening or not.

When you need the pole, and when you do not

As far as your arms reach, hand shears are faster than any pole. The pole is for when you start climbing the ladder for branches you could do from the ground: above two and a half metres it is worth it.

Not all shears take one. 8605 Pro, SW-758, PRU-40 and PRU-45 PLUS take the same telescopic pole as the chain pruners, so if there is already a chain pruner on the farm, you have the pole. The Falco Titan models have their own (1.6-2.4 m) and the EVO models use the EVO Pro carbon pole: they are dedicated poles, they are not interchangeable.

If one day you add the chain pruner too, look at the batteries

This is the thing nobody asks about on the first purchase and everybody discovers on the second. Batteries are not universal, and the class you choose today decides what you will be able to put alongside it tomorrow without buying a second charger.

• The 21V class is the most open: 8605 Pro, SW-758, SW-768, PRU-40 and Falco EVO 1 share their batteries with the chain pruners — CS-2 6", CS-2 8", X-PRO, CS-10 and Skycut 315. One charged battery in your pocket serves both tools.
• The 25.2V class (PRU-45 PLUS, EVO 2, EVO 3, SW-921 pole shears) is more powerful but is not shared with any chain pruner.
• The Titan 40 and 45 share batteries only with each other.

It is not a flaw in any model: it is that the voltage is decided by the motor. But if you already know that in a year you will add the chain pruner, knowing it in advance saves you an expense.

Three mistakes we see repeated

Buying the millimetres instead of the working day. Taking the 45 “to be safe” when your real cuts are three centimetres means carrying eighty grams more and spending thirty euros more for a reserve you use twice a day. Those two cuts are done by the chain pruner, better and faster.

Looking only at the price of the body. Between the 8605 at €219 and the 8605 Pro at €269 the cut does not change: what changes is that the first has one 2 Ah battery and the second two of 4 Ah. Fifty euros for not going back to the van halfway through the morning.

Choosing without trying the anti-cut sensor. PRU-28, PRU-30, PRU-36, PRU-40, the Titan models and the EVO 1 and 2 have it. It is not an extra safety accessory: it is what lets you close the blade without looking at where your other hand is, and over eight thousand cuts a day that is the difference between working and being careful.

In brief

Few trees, few days: 8605. Up to 500 trees: 8605 Pro. Up to 1,000: SW-758. Every day: PRU-40. Centuries-old trees: PRU-45 PLUS, or Titan 45 if you work inside dense canopies.

If your situation does not fall into any of these five — it happens often, olive groves are not all alike — the configurator asks three questions and suggests two models, or write to us at assistenza@gardenmac.com and we will talk it through. Nobody will sell you the most expensive shears: the right ones are the ones that finish the day with you.