36 pages of instructions, (English) warning on page 12 to read them all?

ericmark · 11 Jun 2023

I bought a multi-tool for the garden, total 80 pages of instructions but multi lingual, oddly not Welsh even when bought in Wales, so 36 pages in English.

Some of the instructions seem to go OTT,

When operating a power tool outdoors, use an extension cord suitable for outdoor use. Use of a cord suitable for outdoor use reduces the risk of electric shock.

but it is battery powered, that was the whole idea, no need for extension leads.

Avoid body contact with earthed or grounded surfaces, such as pipes, radiators, ranges and refrigerators. There is an increased risk of electric shock if your body is earthed or grounded.

It is a garden appliance, how many radiators, ranges and refrigerators do you find in gardens?

The result of having instructions which refer to things which have little to do with the appliance bought, including "Power tool plugs must match the outlet. Never modify the plug in any way. Do not use any adapter plugs with earthed (grounded) power tools. Unmodified plugs and matching outlets will reduce risk of electric shock." there is no plug on the appliance, the battery charger is bought separate, means that the instructions are far longer than required, meaning many will give up before reaching any of the important stuff.

This is not only with garden appliances, I had a car which warned do not use mobile phones within the car without fitting an external aerial, seems they can effect the ABS brakes on some models, but that car did not have ABS brakes. However over long instructions means we scan through them, and can miss important things.

What does the team think about long instructions with reference to items not relevant to the item bought, like plugs when the item does not have any?

blup · 11 Jun 2023

You need the extension lead to charge the batteries so arguably relevant.

Blup

foxhole · 11 Jun 2023

Generic safety instructions. Cheaper than custom instructions .

conny · 11 Jun 2023

foxhole said:
Generic safety instructions. Cheaper than custom instructions .

Which causes most people, myself included, to skim through them then toss the book in the filing drawer.

OvertonPlumber · 11 Jun 2023

Real Men don't read instructions for power tools

ericmark · 13 Jun 2023

blup said:
You need the extension lead to charge the batteries so arguably relevant.

Blup

The battery charger has it's own set of instructions, so no not relevant, batteries also own instructions, to use the strimmer it needs 4 items, the strimmer, the charger, and two batteries. I got 4 batteries so two charge while two in use.

The unit comes as a collection of bits, and it claims 4 in 1, so hedge cutter, pruner (chain saw) wire strimmer, and blade strimmer, and the instructions do have some important points, like left hand tread on nut.

OvertonPlumber said:
Real Men don't read instructions for power tools

Well I did not read fully, I built it up, and tried using it, realised it had two speeds, the instructions do say two speeds, but can't see how to switch between the two? As far as I can tell one the load increases it auto switches to high speed, but not clear on instructions.

old duffer · 13 Jun 2023

looks like there is going to be a high court challenge soon to your "not in welsh so I'm discriminated against" jibe so until that happens, you will have to use the official lanugaue of the nation in which you live, not the country from which you identify

ericmark · 13 Jun 2023

Personally I don't care, as find Welsh hard, but I have been in a job where the operator had to explain the fault in Welsh to be translated to me, but he could understand my reply, he just could not get use to saying things the wrong way around, if referring to a lorry, first you identify your talking about a lorry, then you qualify by saying it's a red one, lorry red makes a lot more sense than red lorry.

If the instructions had been in English only then fair enough, but English and German is rubbing it in a bit.

I have still not worked out why the Trimmer is 7000 - 13300 RPM and the hedge cutter 1200 - 2400 RPM and bush cutter 7300 - 10000 RPM and what makes it jump between the two speeds.

The hedge trimmer and pruner attachment is automatically speed-controlled according to the load condition. When idling without load, the motor speed is lower.

The saw chain should have reached it maximum speed before you begin sawing.

It took some careful reading to find the reference as so much stuff which has nothing to do with multi-tool.