New Battery Tech from KRESS
Could KRESS beat the Orange brand goliaths with new patented battery tech allowing you to charge batteries in as little as eight minutes! Arbjobs were invited along to a U.K demo to introduce us to the commercial range. OK so most of the large orange brands hit the market a few years ago with a growing range of battery powered landscaping tools including chainsaws, blowers, hedge trimmers and brush cutters. To me KRESS seem a little late to the party and when I spoke to many of the contractors they had either already committed to other orange brand battery systems or had dipped in and out of battery tech returning to two stroke machines having found battery tools didn’t meet their requirements.
When we asked KRESS representatives about the delay it was explained KRESS had spent the time investing and exploring and patenting the battery technology to develop faster charging times creating less heat and a hugely increased cycles to failure over existing competitor brands. I did not realise some battery brands have life cycles as low as 2-300 charge cycles before they fail by comparison KRESS are quoting 3,000 and with no current recycling system available for battery technology these are all going in to land fill! So if the KRESS tech can extend the battery life surely this is a good thing? The CC Vs KRESS battery equivalent power rates quoted also appeared to be significantly higher than existing brands have achieved so add to this the faster charge times and a "commercial user" 12 month warranty the range certainly seem to demand serious consideration.
So, what is the catch? Well, the standard slow chargers take a painfully slow 20 mins to charge, hang on 20 mins! That’s not slow, no your right even their plug-in slow chargers are already a huge improvement over other brands however the super-fast charging mobile cybersystem comes at a cost with a purchase price of around £10,000. Bearing in mind this will fast charge enough batteries in a day to keep a three-man team running. But you need to offset this cost as KRESS are estimating just under a £3,000 saving per annum based on a three-man team but this included the cost of writing off your existing equipment. Kress have developed software to help you review your needs and forecast your annual savings based on the machines you currently use so you can even see the potential saving to your company before you commit. With fuel prices increasing year on year savings will surely be seen. In addition, the UK KRESS management team seemed open to discuss short term rental or trial agreements allowing companies to test out the equipment in real life scenarios before purchase. I see this as a huge belief in the strength of their product range.
We tried out their back pack blower which packed a huge punch and seemed to equal the Orange brand two stroke blowers the brush cutter was nicely balanced and the chainsaw had ample power with none of the lag you find in two stroke machines in our opinion aesthetics could be improved Ok lets be honest its ugly but if it does the job who cares. KRESS have also veered away from Arb industry orange and gone black a mistake other brands have made only to find sales increased when they finally went orange, lets face it orange is arb isn’t it?
Yes you may have also spotted the elephant in the room, I did say “the” chainsaw for now KRESS only offer one 16” back handle chainsaw model although two top handle tree climber models are due for release in the next 12 months so as an arborist it maybe a little soon to consider KRESS as a viable alternative but if you run landscape teams alongside your arborist teams KESS are definitely worth speaking too they also have a large range of pedestrian and “NO WIRE” robot mowers to choose from all using this new innovative battery technology.
If you want a demo or to discuss cost savings contact them via their website https://www.kress.com/en-gb/
Watch this space we hope to review the arborist saws as soon as they are launched and if you get a change to check out the KRESS commercial range, in our opinion its certainly worth consideration.
