The Best Weed Wackers and String Trimmers of 2023

At 56 volts, the Ego is one of the most powerful battery trimmers that we tested. And it shows. This is another machine that cuts through just about anything without hesitation. When it comes to pure cutting power, it’s comparable to the Kobalt. That said, when the string starts to fray and shorten, there’s a much greater reduction in cutting power than the other weed wackers. This isn’t a huge problem—tapping the machine on the ground to extend the string is easy enough—but it does make for a few moments of frustration as you’re working.

The other, and more important, issue with the trimmer is the balance. I never found a comfortable position on the shaft for the handle. No matter how I held it, the cutter head kept dipping forward, making for uneven trimming and a pretty ugly end result in a lot of places. A previous reviewer with a smaller body frame had tried this model and found it well-balanced, so this may be more connected to my body size and shape than the design of the weed wacker.

If you have an open, small yard, or are specifically looking for a lightweight machine, then this Greenworks is an excellent option. It cuts far better than its size and power-rating would suggest, and is easy to use and maneuver. It weighs about half of what the larger battery-powered tools do. And yet the cutting area is right on par with those other, larger trimmers.

The only issue with this trimmer, other than the need to manage the extension cord, is the height. It’s by far the shortest trimmer that I tested, and as an average-sized man, it is much too short for me, even fully extended. In order to reach a good trim height, I had to hunch over, and I couldn’t easily reach under bushes to trim the grass there.

This is another in a long line of quality tools from Milwaukee. The M18 cordless string trimmer is powerful, well-balanced, and easy to use. It cut through just about everything we put in front of it in one or two passes, and still had plenty of battery life left after 20 minutes of use. The battery is really the biggest benefit of this tool. As part of the M18 family of tools, the weed wacker can share batteries with all of your other Milwaukee M18 tools, like drills, blowers, or reciprocating saws.

However, there are two drawbacks to the Milwaukee. The first is the volume of the motor. It is noticeably louder and higher pitched than the other large battery-operated trimmers I tested—not as loud as the gas trimmers, but still unpleasant. The other drawback is that the shield isn’t very big and has some openings. On the one hand, this makes edging a bit easier, but it also means more debris is thrown back at you, which can be annoying/painful.

If you’re already invested in the Milwaukee M18 line, then the weed wacker is a fantastic option.

This is an absolute monster of a trimmer. If you put it in front of something, it’ll cut it. I brought this into my back woods to cut back some ivy and underbrush, and I didn’t even really have to pay attention to what I was cutting. Everything I touched just disappeared. For heavy-duty trimming, it’s hard to beat the reliability of a solid gas weed wacker, particularly since you don’t have to worry about battery life.

This said, there are two significant drawbacks to all of that power—volume and fumes. Like all 2-cycle engines, the Husqvarna is loud, and it puts out a significant amount of exhaust. If you can live with this and need more power than most electric trimmers will give you, then the Husqvarna is an excellent option.

If the only thing that matters is raw power, then a gas trimmer is what you’re looking for, and the Echo is a solid choice. Just about anything it touches gets cut. It’s actually a case of sometimes seeming too powerful—when I went to cut a piece of bamboo with it, it didn’t just cut the bamboo. It sent the pieces flying about 10 feet. Getting in and around my shed, it’s strong enough that it can damage the wood as well. For most homeowners, a gas trimmer is simply more power than you need.

Beyond the question of power, this had a few small quirks. First is the balance. In order to use it comfortably, the motor compartment rests against my elbow. And that gets hot. Not painfully hot, but enough to notice. The second drawback is the volume. Gas trimmers are very loud, and the motor only sits about two feet from your ear. Finally, like all 2-stroke engines, this one is very smelly, especially on startup.

The Ryobi string trimmer is a solid tool for all types of grass. It cleans up the edges of lawns nicely, and is maneuverable enough to get around all types of objects. But, it lacks quite a bit of power. It cuts sporadically in underbrush, and even thicker long grass may require multiple passes to fully trim. Unlike most of the other larger weed wackers we tested, this one can’t be relied on to just cut—you have to actually look and see if the grass you were trying to cut actually cut.

That said, the Ryobi is part of the Expand-It line of products, which means that it takes all kinds of different attachments. The trimmer head can be swapped out for everything from a hedge trimmer to a leaf blower to a snow thrower. If that kind of versatility is appealing, and all you need in a trimmer is basic grass-cutting, then this could be a great option, though we did not test any of the other attachment products.