Every Makita Couple Shaft Attachment, Ranked By Price

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Why buy a tool for every job when you could buy a powerful motor and a bunch of attachments? That seems to be the idea behind the Makita Couple Shaft system of power heads and attachments. After all, you will rarely be using two tools at once, and according to Makita, switching one attachment for the other is not too time-consuming. Most other toolmakers, like Milwaukee with the Quik-Lok line, have taken this opportunity to slash the prices of their most expensive gear. Makita, on the other hand, produced a series of unique and powerful but expensive tools.

You can find a full list of what Makita considers a shaft attachment on its website, but as you'll see if you click on that link, that page includes shoulder straps and replacement blades. The website doesn't let you arrange tools by price, either. So that's what we did: we looked at every attachment tool in the line, from the cheapest to the most expensive. We didn't cover the power heads, which are necessary to use those tools. Those are the 18V LXT, the 36V LXT, and the 40V XGT.

The cheapest attachment of Makita's couple shaft power head is a simple and small string trimmer with a cutting swath of just 13 inches. Still, an all-in-one Makita string trimmer of this size will cost you about $166, a lot more than the $99 the 13 Inch String Trimmer Shaft Attachment asks for, making it the cheapest way to get a string trimmer in the Makita ecosystem. The attachment string trimmer is located at the end of a shaft 37.75 inches long and comes with a guard that doubles as a cord cutter.

This Makita attachment doesn't have a lot of reviews, but it does have an average score of 4.8 stars on Amazon. After all, it is just a string trimmer. Even users who report positively call it "exactly what was ordered." Even though the item's Amazon page claims it "fits common-sized trimmer heads," one user reports that it does not fit Craftsman power heads. It seems like Makita is not one of the brands compatible with universal power tool attachments.

Slightly more expensive than the previous trimmer in this line is the curved 17-inch Curved String Trimmer Shaft Attachment. Curiously, this model is ever so slightly cheaper than the regular 17-inch trimmer attachment, even though (or possibly because) it has such a weird shape. Appearances aside, this is just a normal string trimmer. It comes with a guard, and it fits a common M8x1.25 RH (also sold by Makita).

Even though it's at the bottom of a list that's ranked by price, the curved string trimmer is designed to be used with the 36-Volt Makita battery system, which is made of two 18 Volt LXT batteries – Makita's X2 battery system is weird. This tool doesn't have a lot of user reviews either; just four on Home Depot's online store, but every single one of them is positive. Unsurprisingly, the characteristic curved angle of this tool is popular with the users who picked it up in favor of the straight 17-inch one.

The most expensive string trimmer shaft attachment is also the third cheapest tool in the whole line, making it quite affordable by Makita standards. What's the difference between the 17 Inch String Trimmer Shaft Attachment and the curved 17-inch trimmer? Shape aside, this one has a slightly bigger shaft harbor, an M10x1.25 LH, meaning that the trimmer head is likely different as well. That said, Makita will still sell you a replacement if need be.

This is by far the most popular string trimmer couple shaft attachment, and it's well-liked, too. On Amazon, the attachment has 95 reviews and an average rating of 4.5 stars. Some users highlight the unit's low noise volume and relatively low weight for the large 17-inch cutting swath, while others find the instructions lacking and the way in which the attachment connects to the power head a little confusing. Overall, even those who didn't find the tool especially intuitive gave it a solid score.

Makita is a good brand of leaf blowers, at least according to its users. Maybe that's why the Blower Shaft Attachment is relatively popular. Sure, its 24 reviews might not be a lot for the average Amazon leaf blower, but Makita's power head/couple shaft attachment system is kind of a niche product, and many users don't even know it exists. Is the Blower Shaft Attachment a good blower? In short, yes, even if it isn't exceptional.

This tool moves air volume at a maximum between 342 and 579 CFMs and at a speed between 72 and 146 miles per hour (the specific speed depends on the specific power head used). At their worst, those numbers are much lower than what you can expect from other blowers, including cheaper units. A similar 459 CFM blower from Makita, a brushless tool nonetheless, will cost you $169. Is it worth getting the attachment instead of the original? Perhaps, but it's not a no-brainer like certain other attachments in this list.

A chainsaw attached to a 10-inch pole, what could possibly go wrong? According to its 155 user reviews on Amazon, nothing. Besides, pole saws are a common tool that every major brand produces. Users call Makita's 10 Inch Pole Saw Shaft Attachment "pricey but worth it," and at $189.97, it's hard to say they're wrong. At about 4 pounds for just the attachment, it's not exactly light, but that's a common concern of Makita pole saws compared to other brands.

You might want to pair the Pole Saws Shaft Attachment with Makita's compatible 42 Inches Shaft Extension if you want to use the pole saw to reach far-away branches and bushes. If you don't, the 7 feet of total length might feel limiting. But doesn't the shaft extender count as an attachment? According to Makita, it does. However, this list is long enough already, so you'll have to make do with this quick mention.

A lot of Makita couple shaft attachments are priced exactly at $199.00. The 12 Inch Snow Shovel is one of those $199 attachments. An automatic snow shoveler with adjustable directional output and the ability to throw snow at 30 feet of distance, this tool is a popular shoveler with users and possibly a good way to get the benefits of an electric snow shoveler. Cordless electric snow shovels aren't the most common of power tools, so relegating the job to an attachment might be a good idea.

As we start getting into more expensive attachments, we see a lot stuck at this price, perhaps because the line looks more affordable if exactly half of its components are below $200, if barely. While it may be a little larger than the 10-inch Ryobi cordless snow shovel, for example, and about 50% more powerful, shooting snow a little further away, but the attachment alone costs twice as much as its rival.

The Water Pump Shaft Attachment seems like a weird fit for this product line, but we're not about to accuse Makita of giving too much choice to its users. The idea of a system like this is that you can use the same tool for whatever Makita attachment you can get your hands on, and it only makes the system stronger by having unique attachments like this. This attachment tool pumps out water with a max speed of 39 gallons per minute, while its run time depends on the batteries and shaft head used.

Unsurprisingly, this isn't a very popular tool. It has just two user reviews on Amazon and none on other seller websites. There isn't even a single professional product review, which technically means it has a perfect score, but it also makes trusting a unique tool like this a little harder, especially when it's a whole $199.00. That said, 39 gallons per minute is a lot. Milwaukee's closest alternative, the M18 Transfer Pump, only does 480 per hour (or 8 per minute).

The last of the $199 attachments is the 20 Inch Double-Sided Hedge Trimmer. Its blade can reach a speed of 4,200 SPM. While that's not quite as fast as the XGT 24-Inch Hedge Trimmer, the brand's most powerful electric hedge trimmer, it's on par with most other brands' top-of-the-line products. In short, it's a good trimmer, and users have taken notice. While it's too situational to be very popular, it has an Amazon rating of 4.2 stars with a healthy 62 reviews.

This is clearly a premium product, as shown by the price and how it pretty much dominates the confrontation with other tools of the same kind. If the price wasn't enough to show it, the manufacturer promises great durability, thanks to the "commercial duty" gear case and tip guard. As far as negatives go, some users wished they had gone with the EN401 Edge Trimmer attachment, the one with an articulating edge. However, others find this fixed version more convenient and cheaper.

Another gardening tool, at $242, we have the Edger Shaft Attachment with an 8-inch steel blade. The blade is accompanied by a safety guard with a guide mark for more precise cuts and an adjustable wheel, which helps both with comfort and makes reaching the desired depth a little easier. This product has some great user reviews, but many seem to have picked up this tool as an upgrade to a weed wacker or a string trimmer.

If that's what you're thinking about, you might want to seriously consider this tool. Either way, you should stop using your string trimmer as an edger. Edgers are common attachments for power head systems, and they are featured in the Ryobi Expand-It and Milwaukee's Quik-Lok. The Makita is certainly the most expensive, being over twice as pricey as the other two, but is it the best choice? Few people know, as we don't have any statistics for those tools beyond their sizes and the length of their blade.

It's another Makita shaft attachment trimmer, but this time, it's a weird one. The 14 Inch Ground Trimmer Shaft Attachment uses a single-sided metal blade that looks like the head of a rake mounted in front of two five-inch wheels. Even though it looks a little odd, it's not hard to guess what this thing does: it cuts and removes weeds and grass. Is it good at its job? If the price is any indication, it should be about two and a half times as powerful as a string trimmer.

A high price isn't synonymous with good quality, but in the absence of user reviews, there's not a whole lot we can look at. And at $249.00, the 14 Inch Ground Trimmer attachment is certainly one of the most expensive trimmers around. The only user reviews we could find, a whole two of them, are on Amazon. This tool has an average rating with 3.5 stars out of 5, but we'd argue that with so few reviews, it should be taken with a grain a salt.

A cultivator's job is to disturb the soil enough to prepare it for planting. Personal cultivators, not to be confused with the industrial machines that have to be pulled by a tractor, are generally maneuverable and can be used in a small area without disturbing the surroundings. According to Makita, the same is true for their Cultivator Shaft Attachment. This tool comes with two 9-inch blades with six arms, which are also sold as replacements.

The main drawback of this tool, according to user reviews (even positive ones), is that "it will work you to death." That doesn't necessarily mean that the tool is harder to use than the alternatives, but only that Makita users find it hard to restrain its strength. As for alternatives, there are the Harbor Freight Cultivator and the Ryobi Front Tine Tiller. Both are dedicated tools, and they're more expensive than their Makita counterpart. But are they better? It's hard to say. They're certainly bigger and might not fit in your small home garden.

Another gardening tool, the Cultivator Hoe Weeding Shaft Attachment, promises to make weeding and soil aeration much simpler, thanks to its 8.5-inch blade oscillating at 970 SPM. This tool is fairly adaptable, too, as it can be used with blades measuring 3 and 6.5 inches for increased precision. These two blades are sold separately, while the 8.5-inch is included in the $299 of the attachment. But how does Makita's cultivator hoe weeding attachment compare to other tools of its kind? One standalone alternative is the much cheaper (just $149.00) ONE+ 18V Cordless Garden Hoe.

Does the Makita outperform its rival? Probably, but the two brands' store pages calculate efficiency using different metrics, making it pretty much impossible to compare them. However, while the green standalone tool is much more affordable and doesn't require a separate purchase of the tool's power head, it's hard to suggest the Ryobi to someone who has already bought the Makita shaft attachments system.

Unlike the much cheaper hedge trimmer attachment of this line, the 10-Inch Articulating Hedge Trimmer Shaft Attachment has a pivoting head that can rotate up to 90 degrees (and even more for transport), making clean, straight cuts possible even when you're working with a very tall bush. However, the price tag of $329.00 might be a little much for this tool. A standalone Makita tool of the same kind, the 18-Inch Telescoping Articulating Pole Hedge Trimmer, costs just $199.00, and you don't even need to own a power head to use that one.

So, is the shaft attachment articulating hedge trimmer that much better than the standalone tool? It's hard to say. They both have good reviews, and the shaft attachment seems to have a little more attention to detail, especially with its tip guard and blade case. Meanwhile, the all-in-one tool has a longer blade — 18 inches against 10 inches — and, in general, contains more information about how much power you can squeeze out of the machine.

As we were saying a moment ago, if there is one area where the 10 Inch Articulating Hedge Trimmer shaft attachment is clearly unimpressive, it is in its size. There are situations where a 10-inch blade on a trimmer could be useful, but $329 is a lot to ask for a tool with a limited use case. It's not articulating, but Black and Decker will sell you one of those for $80, battery included. That's why so many users went with the 20-Inch Articulating Hedge Trimmer Shaft Attachment instead.

Are you worried about a price hike on an already expensive tool? Don't be. The 20-inch articulating hedge trimmer is twice the size for just $21 more. $350.00 is still not cheap, but it's not hard to imagine a world where this attachment sits at the top of this list. Size aside, the two are quite similar. Both have 13 articulating positions, can be rotated 180° for transport, and neither gives out information about speed or power.

What exactly is the bristle brush shaft attachment by Makita? Easy: it's a tool for swiping on the ground really, really hard. It's kind of like the bristle brush accessories you can attach to a rotary tool, just way, way bigger. You might have heard this tool being called a power sweeper or power broom. If you're already familiar with this tool, then you might have noticed that $476 for the Makita Bristle Brush Shaft Attachment is really expensive.

Other major tool brands sell equivalent (but not compatible) attachments for $200 less than Makita's asking price. That's the case with the EGO Power+ Bristle Brush Attachment. What's the difference between the two? The Makita is ever-so-slightly larger, 23-5/8 inches against the 22 inches of the EGO, but otherwise, the difference is in the power head used and possibly the quality of the brush. There's also a difference in reviews, with the EGO being far more popular and beating Makita's rating of 4.2 out of 5 against 3.8 out of 5.

The Paddle Sweep Shaft Attachment is similar to Makita's own Bristle Brush, so much so that we can apply the same criticism to the cost of the two. Namely, that some trusted tool manufacturers offer very similar attachments for much less money. Is there any reason why this attachment costs $200 more than the equivalent and more popular EGO+ Rubber Broom? Maybe, but once again, it's hard to compare the two if we don't know how powerful they are.

The Paddle Sweep is designed to move away pebbles, sand, grass, and other waste, and most users seem satisfied with its results. However, like with the Bristle Brush, few are fans of its weight (almost 20 pounds) and price of $487. Unlike that tool, though, some find the Paddle Sweep attachment downright miraculous, claiming it lets them do in 5 or 10 minutes what used to take hours with a rake. Whether that's going to be true for you depends on a lot of factors. We suggest you make sure to buy from a store with a solid return policy.

We ranked the attachments by price, from cheap to expensive. Each entry's position is based on the lowest regular price we could find from a major retailer's website, with discounts and special offers excluded. We also factored in overall value, brand reputation, and availability across multiple retailers. When possible, we considered user reviews and comparisons to similar tools from competing brands to highlight potential pros, drawbacks, and alternatives worth considering.