DOCA 6-24 Ft Pole Saw for Tree Trimming – Extendable Tree Trimmer, Extension Pole & Tree Branch Cutter for Branches Under 2 Inches

After a recent storm, the tree in our backyard had a few of the branches broken or bending towards the house scraping against the roof and siding. The branches that needed to go were high at around 30 feet (three-story townhouse). I called around for a tree trimming service and got two crews show up and quote me a whopping $400-450, so I decided no way I’m paying that and bought this off of Amazon. This took about 4 days to arrive instead of the usual 2 days of Prime shipping.Anyway, this thing is LONG and sturdy even fully extended. here are a few tips:1. Some reviewers noted that the extended legs contract and expand with the saw movement. You may need to tighten both screws on each of the locks. I had absolutely no issue with the legs sliding.2. Once fully extended, this becomes very unstable and hard to control (lever force) although it is relatively light by itself. I’d suggest you use the weight of the poles and saw by standing not directly under the branch, but away so that the saw “lays” on the branch. The more perpendicular to the branch the better.3. I cut a few branches ranging from an inch to about 5 inches wide, but i guess the saw could handle a wider branch too. It’s very hard to saw with the thing fully extended, so you must have a lot of upper body strength (or have someone help you).4. Cutting in shorter swings helps and patience and stamina is needed. Note that once the saw is through the branch it may go flying towards where the force or gravity was applied and you could accidentally damage your neighbors or your own property if all 20 feet of this falls on it :). So be sure to be extra careful once you are about to be through a branch.Now for the negative – I wish the saw had a hook at the very tip of it like other saws do. once a branch is cut, especially a smaller one, it may just snap at the cut and stay hanging on the tree and there is no way to pull it. What I did is once I was approaching the end of a cut and the branch started breaking I would slightly rotate the saw so that it stays in the cut. This worked but this is not reliable. Not a reason enough to take off a star though.Anyway, this thing saved me a few hundred dollars and I’m sure it will save me more money in the future as the trees will continue to grow and spread their branches. It is well constructed and the saw is sharp and cuts pretty effectively.Oh, and a WARNING. The pole is aluminum so make sure there are no electric wires where you are working. Considering how unwieldy this becomes when extended, working near wires can be very dangerous.