Pruning trees and shrubs by hand gets old fast. After a full year of using the DeWalt DCPR320 Cordless Pruner, I’ve cut hundreds of branches, reduced fatigue dramatically, and found one design flaw you should know before buying one.
If you maintain trees, shrubs, fruit trees, roses, or ornamental landscaping, you already know pruning never really ends—and doing it by hand can wear out your hands and patience in a hurry.
That’s what led me to try the DeWalt DCPR320 Cordless Pruner.
I already own several DeWalt 20V Max tools for work around my shop, home, vehicles, and landscape, and they’ve served me well. At $100 to $129 for the bare tool, this wasn’t an impulse buy—but after a full year of use, it has absolutely earned its place.
The pruner weighs about 2.5 pounds without a battery and just over 3 pounds with one installed. I expected that weight to be tiring, but it’s balanced well and feels natural after a short learning curve. Once you get comfortable with the safety trigger, this tool moves fast. It cuts branches up to 1½ inches thick in about one second, making large pruning jobs much faster than manual pruners or loppers.
That speed translates into much less fatigue. Instead of constantly squeezing hand pruners or swinging loppers, you simply move from branch to branch and keep working.
Battery life has been excellent. Using a 4Ah battery, I’ve been able to prune for several hours before needing a swap.
Durability has also been impressive. After a full year of regular use, the blades are still sharp, and I’ve had no failures or major wear issues.
My only real challenge is the cutting head's size. In tight shrubs or crowded branches, the bulky nose can make flush cuts difficult. I've developed workarounds for the issue, and you will too.
Other than that, this has been an excellent tool—fast, durable, and a major time saver.
The only downside? You’ll build brush piles faster than you can haul them away. When you do, check out this episode where we tell you how to back a trailer safely and confidently!
Dirt Farmer Jay provides a one-year follow-up review of the DeWalt DCPR320 Cordless Pruner. After extensive use, he highly recommends the tool for its speed, power, and durability, noting that it significantly increases pruning productivity despite some bulkiness in the head design.
Hey, Dirt Farmer Jay here from DirtFarmerJay.com.
Well, it's been a year already since we showed you this cordless
pruner from DeWalt, and as promised, we're coming back a year later
to let you know how it's worked out for the DCPR320 Cordless Pruner.
Stay tuned. You're going to like what you see.
Well, a year ago, when we reviewed this DCPR320 Cordless Pruner from DeWalt,
I had high hopes for it.
We were actually pruning some apple trees at a friend of ours' place,
and we're quickly moving along.
I said, boy, if this tool holds up, it's really going to be handy around here.
And as you can see, it's been used a bit.
It's a little grimy.
And this is about the size of the battery pack I keep on it at a time
when I'm running at about a four amp hour.
And has it lived up to its promise?
Well, yes.
There's one thing I'll mention to you a little bit later on.
That's just a little bit bulky that you have to work around.
But the bottom line, it's not enough to disallow my recommendation
that this is a great tool.
What do I like about it?
Well, the speed of the cut.
Look how quick. One second cycle time.
And it is quick.
This little area right here where that is your safety.
When I first picked it up, I thought, oh, that's going to be quirky.
Ten minutes in, I already had it memorized
to just be able to get it out of the way.
But it really helps from a accidental misfire,
because if that thing goes off and something's around it.
Sorry if I'm making you nervous.
You don't want that happening.
This really helps.
So that works very well.
Notice also when I cycle it, there's a light right here.
And that light is a lot handier than you may think.
You say, hey, I do most of my pruning during the daytime.
But sometimes when it's hot, I like doing into the dusk time.
And as it starts to get a little darker, that light is really helpful.
And even in broad daylight, where you're reaching in the interior
of a bush where there's a lot of foliage and it's hard to see exactly.
That helps out pretty well.
It's really nice.
Powerful. This can cut up to about an inch and a half.
And of course, greenwood is what we're talking about.
I'm not talking about a dead branch.
It really works fast.
The cycle time, as already pointed out, is very quick.
The curve bill down here tends to hold on to the branch nicely and work well.
And this guard across the front stops branches
and abrasion happening or greatly reduces it to the knuckles.
And of course, usually when I'm using this, I'm using a gloved hand.
It's fairly heavy.
However, it's really offset by how much work it does for you.
I have found I can prune a lot more.
And I have some young guys,
teenagers that come around and help do yard maintenance.
And once I show them how to use this safely and put them to work,
this is their go to for pruning and cleaning up area around here.
And then recently I loaned it to one of my neighbor friends,
Doug and Marsha, down the street.
When I saw they were doing a bunch of pruning, I said, are you familiar with this?
They said, no. I said, try it.
I gave them a battery and a spare battery, charged batteries.
And they said, baby, we've got to have one of these.
Unbelievable.
So they're big fans of it.
Right now, you can get the tool
from the big box stores and some online suppliers
at the time of filming anywhere from 100 bucks to about $130.
And you may say, well, that's a lot of money.
It does a lot of work.
And of course, that's the bare tool without battery pack.
If you get a battery pack like a two amp hour and a charger,
I think it's around $180.
But if you're already in the tool environment and ecosystem
like I am of DeWalt tools, then all the battery packs
and all that already have the bare tool is the way to go.
I'm pleased with the durability, how well it's made, the balance on it.
The one thing, as I promised you, that's a little problematic
is just the fact that this whole unit
at the front is a little bit bulky, right?
So this is sizable.
You've got the mechanism on a cycle.
You're going to see that arm right there is what operates the cutter.
Well, all of that mechanical leverage and devices and all that design
sometimes will get a little bit in the way
when you're trying to get real close or in a crowded area.
And so you kind of have to take that into account.
And sometimes you end up cutting a bit longer and clearing an area
and then coming back again.
But the speed at which you move through an area
really allows you to quickly work through it.
So that works out really well.
So, you know, just looking at this area right here, I want to get rid of this.
I mean, how fast do we go?
I'm just going to reach under there and bam.
I mean, we are down off of there really quickly.
And as quickly as I want to go, I can just prune and get right near.
And we're going to end up with a really nice, clean pruning job very quickly.
Well, there's one little downside to being so efficient
and being so productive is you're going to create piles of trimming
faster than you can haul them off.
But when you do haul them off, it's helpful to know how to back a trailer.
Well, check out this episode where we show you point by point
with a split screen, how to back up a trailer and do it confidently.
And you'll be able to do that smoothly and proudly in front of even an audience
in no time. Check it out.
You're going to love what you see.
So until the next time, this is Dirt Farmer Jay
getting some much needed pruning around my yard scape done.
