A lawn edger does one noisy job: it drives a steel blade into the soil along a path or driveway, often hitting concrete, gravel and roots on the way. It is also a tool people use on a Saturday morning, a few feet from a neighbor's window. So the declared noise figures matter, and in this category they are hard to find.
Twelve edgers and edger combinations gave us a maker figure we could read. Among battery edgers, ear figures run from 73.8 to 80.5 dB(A). Husqvarna's gas edgers declare 93.3 and 94. STIHL's KombiSystem attachments are declared a different way and get their own group.
Two numbers, never one ranking
Most edger figures come in two kinds. LpA is sound pressure at the operator's ear, the number for the person holding the tool. LWA is sound power, the machine's total noise output, and EU directive 2000/14/EC requires outdoor machines sold there to carry a guaranteed LWA, a ceiling set above the measured value. We rank ear figures against ear figures and sound power against sound power, and never mix the two. The sound power vs sound pressure explainer covers why.
Within sound power, we also keep measured and guaranteed values apart. Makita prints only measured sound power for its edger combinations, with a dash where a guaranteed figure would go. Husqvarna prints only guaranteed values. EGO prints both.
The ranking, by group
Battery edgers, sound pressure at the ear: Makita XUX02 with the EE400MP at 73.8, Makita XUX01 with the EE400MP at 74.8, Makita GUX01 with the EE400MP at 76.1, Husqvarna 525iES at 79, EGO EA0800 on the PH1400E power head at 79.8, Husqvarna 525iECS at 80, and Husqvarna 330iKE at 80.5.
Gas edgers, sound pressure at the ear: Husqvarna 122LKE at 93.3, and Husqvarna 525ES and 525ECS at 94.
Guaranteed sound power: Husqvarna 525iES at 91, EGO EA0800 at 95 and Husqvarna 525iECS at 96.4.
Measured sound power: Makita XUX02 combo at 86.8, Makita XUX01 and GUX01 combos at 88.2, and EGO EA0800 on the PH1400E at 92.4.
The makers name different standards, or none. Makita names ISO11789, EGO names only 2000/14/EC for its guaranteed value, and Husqvarna's US pages name nothing. We rank within each group, as our earlier garden guides do, and say where each number comes from. With K values between 1.4 and 3, edgers a decibel or two apart may sound the same in use.
Makita: the quietest combos, found in European manuals
Makita does not sell a standalone edger in the US. It sells the EE400MP edger attachment for its couple shaft power heads, and the noise figures sit in the European manuals for those power heads, in a table with one row per attachment. The EE400MP's own manual has no noise table.
The US power heads have different model numbers, so we matched them on the specifications. The US XUX02 and the European DUX18 are both 18 V with two speeds, 6,800 and 9,700 rpm. The XUX01 and the DUX60 both run on two 18 V batteries with three speeds of 5,700, 8,200 and 9,700 rpm. The 40V max GUX01 and the UX01G share the same three speeds. Makita's US pages, the US power head manuals and the US EE400MP manual print no noise figure.
The single-battery XUX02 combination is the lowest at the ear, 73.8 dB(A), with the lowest measured sound power, 86.8. The heavier 36 V XUX01 and the XGT GUX01 follow at 74.8 and 76.1. None of the three has a guaranteed sound power in the table.
Husqvarna: numbers on the US page
Husqvarna is the only maker here that prints figures on its US product pages, and it does so for all six edgers in its US lineup. The battery 525iES declares 79 dB(A) at the ear and a guaranteed 91, the lowest guaranteed value in this survey. Its curved-shaft sibling, the 525iECS, is a decibel louder at the ear and guarantees 96.4, the highest guaranteed figure here. Straight shaft or curved, the two share the same motor speed and blade, so the gap is worth a look before you choose on grip alone.
The 330iKE Combi Switch kit shows 80.5 dB(A) at the ear and no sound power. The gas 525ES and 525ECS show 94, and the gas 122LKE 93.3. The 122LKE page also prints a guaranteed sound power of 0 dB(A). That cannot be a real value, so we treat it as missing. None of Husqvarna's edger pages names a standard or an uncertainty.
EGO: one attachment, three power heads
EGO's EU manual for the EA0800 edger attachment declares 79.8 dB(A) at the ear on the PH1400E power head, 81.2 on the PH1420E and 84 on the PHX1600, each with a K of 3. Measured sound power is 92.4, 90.7 and 90 on the same three heads, and the guaranteed sound power is 95 dB(A). The EA0800 has the same model number in the US, where EGO's own manual bundles it with the PH1400 power head, so we list the PH1400E figures. EGO's US manual, its US pages and its Australian manual for the attachment print no figures.
EGO's US site also shows a carbon fiber ME0820 kit, with the PH1420 and an EA0820 attachment, marked Coming Soon. The EU manual does not name the EA0820, so we did not apply its figures to that kit.
STIHL declares its KombiSystem edger attachments in its international manuals, one row per KombiEngine. The FCS-KM straight edger shows an Lpeq of 75 dB(A) on the KMA 200.0 R battery engine, 76 on the KMA 80.0 R and KMA 120.0 R, and 93 on the gas KM 56 R, all with a K of 2. The FCB-KM curved edger shows 80, 82, 82 and 94 on the same engines. Sound power, as Lweq under ISO 3744, runs from 91 dB(A) on the battery engines with the FCS-KM to 106 on the gas KM 131 R with the FCB-KM.
STIHL says these measurements include idling and rated maximum speed for equal times. That is a different condition from a full-load ear figure, so we rank STIHL's figures only against each other. The FCS-KM table also has two rows labeled "KM 130 R with loop handle", at 95 and 78 dB(A), and we use neither.
STIHL's standalone edgers are another story. The FCA 135 page calls it built for extended use in noise-sensitive environments, yet neither that page nor its US manual gives a figure. The US manuals we opened for the FCA 80, FCA 140, FC 56, FC 70, FC 91 and FC 96 contain no noise data either, and we found no international editions of those edgers to read.
The silent aisle
ECHO's PE-2620 manual and product page print no noise figure. Neither does the Worx WG896 owner's manual, the BLACK+DECKER LE750 instruction manual, or the Greenworks 40V edger and Toro 60V stick edger pages we opened. We found no European edition of the WG896, and no European twin for the LE750 that we could match with confidence. These edgers may be quiet or loud. Their makers' US documents do not say.
What the numbers mean in the yard
A declared figure comes from a standard test, not from your driveway. A blade that clips concrete, a dry clay border or gravel will be louder than the steady cutting or running condition in the test. The figures are still useful for comparing tools. Husqvarna's own pages show a 15 decibel gap between its battery 525iES and gas 525ES at the ear, the difference between a tool you can run early without much worry and one that calls for ear protection every time.
For attachment edgers, the power head matters as much as the attachment. EGO's EA0800 varies by up to 4.2 decibels across three power heads, and Makita's EE400MP by 2.3 across three. If you already own a power head, check the row for your model, not the attachment's best case.
Buying notes
Husqvarna sells direct on its US site, and its prices here are its own MSRPs. STIHL sells through dealers, and the FCS-KM and FCB-KM prices are for the attachments alone. Makita's and EGO's US sites show no prices for these edgers, so their entries carry none. EGO's EA0800 and Makita's EE400MP are both listed on Amazon under their model numbers.
We did not measure any of these edgers. Every figure is the maker's own, quoted as published, with the standard, K value and document identified wherever the maker identified them.
