Are high flow or standard flow brush cutters better?
Should you pick a high flow or standard flow brush cutter? Many say a high flow brush cutter is always better. But our experience says NO!
When all things are equal on two brush cutters except the motor, there isn’t as big of a difference as many would think. In the industry, standard and low flow versions of brush cutters are usually lighter built in many ways. This reinforces the idea that commercial and heavy use applications need high flow cutters. At Blue Diamond, we introduced the industry to one of the first low flow brush cutters built like a high flow in 2006. We tested our Severe Duty brush cutter at 23 GPM alongside our high flow model and the low flow model actually outperformed most high flow brush cutters in our testing!
Today, we continue this mission of keeping our low and standard flow brush cutters comparable with the higher priced high flow attachments. In all our testing, the difference between low flow and high flow is slight when an experienced operator is at the controls!
Although we are more than glad to provide high flow brush cutters where an environment needs them, there are times when the low flow version is advantageous.
How do I choose between a high flow or standard flow brush cutter?
Obviously, if the machine only has low flow options, the choice is clear. Otherwise, there are a couple of things to consider:
Does the added cost of high flow justify the gain in performance?
Again, with our cutters, we found that the performance difference is very slight. Users often ask us what the performance difference is. Just how much do you gain by jumping up to a high flow? We feel that when comparing within the same family of cutter, it’s about a 10% to a 15% gain in performance.
Will the cutter be used on hilly terrain?
We have found that hilly terrain affects the flow to the brush cutter far more on high flow machines. When cutting on hilly terrain, we found that power to the tracks or the brush cutter itself is most affected. This occurred frequently for most skid steer brands while using a high flow brush cutter. The same machine in the same terrain bogged down less when paired with a low flow cutter!
Check out our full line of Skid Steer Brush Cutters!
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in 2017 and has been completely revamped and updated for both accuracy and comprehensiveness.