Hi and welcome back to garden ninja now I don't know about you but when it comes
to pruning large trees scaling up ladders is my idea of hell. I'm not
brilliant at Heights don't really like ladders and I always feel like I'm about
to wobble off and do myself a mischief so I've been quite intrigued
with Henchman, the ladder company, got intouch to ask me what a review a pair of
their tripod ladders and they guaranteed me that they are completely safe for
people that hate Heights and that usually fall off ladders so
today I'm going to do a review this beautiful set of Henchman ladders from
beginning to end as they arrive and give you my review on these henchman tripod
ladders and before we start I'm must give the discliamer so that lawyers don't
turn up to try to sue me if you're going to use ladders make sure you wear the necessary
health and safety equipment and tell someone that you're gonna be working at
height if you're carrying sharp tools take them up one by one
don't try and strap a load of secateurs or what saws to you to get
them up quicker because you might do yourself a mischief and obviously henceman havent fully
guaranteed that I work fall off these but I'm gonna do my best to be as safe
as I possibly can so I'm just gonna cut through the plastic bag now and reveal
the ladders
really well wraped lots of foam to protect the edges, with rubber
feet you can see those there I'll explain what those are for later now I
have these claw like feets look really interesting for a set of ladders
because usually on a set are fold-out ladders the feet are either straight or
flat on the back of rubber edge these have got kind of like what I can only
describe as like a metal cup at the bottom still have to have a look at how
those fat so another common complaint with ladders especially when they get
tall is it they become a bit unwieldy you're quite heavy now I'm not the
biggest muscle Mary but I do like to keep fit I'll just show you how easy it
is to lift these up you can literally lift them with one hand obviously two
houses easier but they are to the side so these are the 10 foot ladders they
come in different sizes but I'm gonna let see how easy I'm not going to walk
through the ladders because that's super lucky we don't need any bad luck
so they forgot the ladders just gonna quickly show you a few of the features
that spotted it's the first of these extendable legs and they moved by the
retracting this pin and then you can move them in and out you'll hear it
click then the locks safe so make sure you hear it click these ladders a pretty
tall and already reach the guttering on the garage so I'm gonna leave them on a
lower setting because I really don't need them any higher at this stage
likewise I got back because another pen so that you can adjust that back angle
which I'm assuming we'll know change the pitch of the ladders
so for all those ladder phobics out there usually bladders are the same
distance from the bottom to the top so you've got basically in set of rungs
that they've got to scramble but when this henchman model they're really wide
the foot plates are huge for all these for the support sheet just kind of
visually gives you a bit more assurance I suppose it okay so I already told you
that I'm not amazing working at how do you try to avoid it wherever possible
but now come to the big moment the ladders are set up they've got all the
pins in there on a stable level surface now going to climb the henchmen ladders
and give you my honest review of whether I feel like I'm gonna wobble off or that
I'm stable so at this stage it's unknown what the outcome is gonna be
so here we go!
So here I go there's a warning label saying never stand higher this step
don't worry henchmen the lower the better for me I'm afraid we're gonna go
all the way to the top Face my fears! There comes a platform
here huh I don't know that henchman call it the crow's nest which didn't inspire
much confidence in me because a crow nest are really high up in pirate ships but it has what
looks like two platforms for your feet and then a brace so I'm gonna
intuitively put my feet on them and then leave forward as directed and then brace
myself using my thighs yeah actually that I would not be this high on the
standard set of ladderss and no chance usually I'd have probably started to
hyperventilate and gone 'ahghg I need to get down!' Strangely these actually feel really
safe and I feel quite reassured that I'm not going anywhere
so the one thing always really bothers me when pruning trees that matters is
the wobble factor and usually you're putting ladders on ground it isn't
perfectly even and as you start to walk up the whole thing goes that's what
these so gets my anxiety going trees however the henchmen were really stable
on the flats so it's gonna be a good test to see if they're as stable on
uneven ground and I'm gonna start off with some loppers take up some of the
smaller branches first see
so here I'm at the very top of the ladders through my legs braced with a pair of
secateurs just to show you that you can use these others to point out some
overhanging passing branches there's one used to go as well and if you want to
know more about pruning you can watch one of the other guides it shows you all
about it but really today I'm just trying to demonstrate what you can do
potentially these ladders
so the model of henchmen ladder that I received also comes with three rubber
feet and you would use these if you're going to put the ladders on a
more delicate surface so things like flagging stone work porcelain tiles
granite anything that's quite delicate would be advise what these feet on just
stop those claw feet from potentially scratching so I've just spent probably
about twenty five minutes of henchman ladder usually I up and down like the
flash and I will do anything to avoid going up Heights but they were really
stable and especially on this ground which is a bit wet and boggy here
garden into HQ so they're really useful actually have used secateurs, loppers
& a wood saw still stable even when I'm moving quite vigorously so all in all I
think they're really good pair of ladders great innovation to use that
crow's nest up there at the top and really does make you feel safe what are
the downsides of the henchmen ladders because I've just talked really about
the benefits I'd probably say that they are quite expensive compared to other
ladders and really you're going to be trading that off against how safe you
feel and how safe they are they're really well constructed there might be a
bit bulky as well for most carriages if you can see that bottom rung gives you
that stability but they do take up more space than an average set of others and
all in all really good products and I would certainly recommend them and I'm
going to carry on pruning through my trees now that I've found my newfound
confidence and crack on if you've liked this video why not subscribe to my
youtube channel where there are plenty more garden design hints and tips and
reviews of products should make your gardening easier I've been Garden Ninja
happy gardening!