The Best Weed Eater Strings for Trimming of 2024, Tested

Nov 04, 2024

By Mark Wolfe

Updated on Jul 30, 2024 12:34 PM EDT

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The weed eater string in your string trimmer plays an important role in yard work. The wrong diameters or types of trimmer lines make trimming, edging, and brush cutting more difficult, leading to suboptimal results. The line might stick together inside the trimmer head, or pieces may break when they contact stone, concrete, or metal, forcing you to stop and reload more frequently. It can also make it impossible to get a crisp, clean cut. Choosing the best trimmer line for the tool and task prevents those problems and leads to clean cutting every time. After sorting through dozens of options, we spent 8 hours testing 11 different weed eater strings while performing various common lawn chores, including grass trimming, weed cutting, brush cutting, and lawn edging.

Our top choice, the Oregon Magnum Gatorline SuperTwist Trimmer Line, stood out from the pack, serving as an excellent all-around option for general yard maintenance. With minimal noise and vibration, it made fast work of grass and weeds and left crisp edges. It also edged our driveway quite well (though with more breakage than some of the other strings we tested). With that being said, your ideal choice will depend on your trimmer and work conditions. Below, we’ll share our observations from testing and discuss shopping considerations that will help you select the best weed eater string for your trimmer.

We tested light, medium, and heavy trimmer lines of different shapes that are designed to accommodate most gas and electric string trimmers. Whether you’re interested in precision lawn care, general landscape maintenance, or heavy-duty brush cutting, we have you covered. Check out the following reviews to find out how some of the best weed eater string types performed in testing to help determine which model is right for your needs.

Our Ratings: Cutting Performance 4.5/5; Durability 5/5; Value 5/5

Oregon’s 0.095-inch Magnum Gatorline SuperTwist trimmer line incorporates a high-strength inner core with high wear resistance. It provides more efficient cutting and minimizes downtime when reloading, and it offers better fuel economy and reduced noise.

Generally speaking, twisted line has less wind resistance, so it produces less drag than solid weed eater string. This can improve a weed eater’s fuel economy. Reduced wind resistance also cuts down on vibration and noise. This string’s large 0.095-inch diameter is suitable for grass and heavy weeds in residential settings, as well as light commercial work.

After testing the Gatorline SuperTwist weed eater string, we noticed that the cut edges of the grass and weeds had a clean, mowerlike look. The visual effect was more in line with a nicely groomed landscape than other areas we trimmed with different trimmer line shapes. However, we did note a greater amount of breakage when working around concrete surfaces. This string also struggled to take down the heavier stuff like blackberry brambles and thin tree seedlings. Still, aside from this, it performed impressively. If you’re looking for an edge to boost your lawn care routine, this string could do the trick.

Get the Oregon Magnum SuperTwist weed eater string at Amazon.

Our Ratings: Cutting Performance 4.5/5; Durability 4/5; Value 5/5

Those who like to save money by buying in bulk won’t be disappointed in the MaxPower 0.095-inch round trimmer line. This big 855-foot roll will reload a trimmer 42 times for maximum value. And this is no poorly made product—it’s an excellent value for a tough 0.095-inch nylon monofilament trimmer line.

While this string tears through dense, heavy vegetation, it also does a solid job trimming grass and weeds. Plus, it offers impressive abrasion resistance and tensile strength while trimming around concrete walls, curbs, and stone.

During research, we noted that several users complained of excessive breakage with this string. To avoid that problem, we decided to soak the line in water for 24 hours before testing. Whether it was the soak or not, we cannot say, but this line performed well in all of our tests, with good resistance to abrasion and breakage. It powered through heavy weeds and seedlings but tended to rip through coarse grass instead of cutting. This is probably due to its lack of sharp edges and its greater air resistance compared to twisted trimmer line.

Get the MaxPower 333695 weed eater string at Amazon, Lowe’s, Tractor Supply Co., or The Home Depot.

Our Ratings: Cutting Performance 4.5/5; Durability 4/5; Value 5/5

For the best-looking lawn, you’ll want a fast-moving trimmer line with a sharp cutting edge—otherwise, the difference is like mowing with sharp blades versus dull blades. Echo’s Black Diamond lawn trimmer string features a unique twisted square shape that reduces wind drag for improved fuel economy, reduced engine drag, and smoother cutting. The 5-pound roll contains 885 feet of 0.095-inch-diameter trimmer line, which is enough to reload 59 times. This version is ideal for light or medium-duty trimming and edging. For heavy-duty or commercial use, a 0.105 diameter Black Diamond line would be the better option.

In our tests, the Echo Black Diamond trimmer line produced the cleanest cut of all the lines we tested, hands down. The edges of the line felt distinctively sharp to the touch when we were loading the spool, and this sharpness clearly played out well during operation. It also made the trimmer handle vibrate noticeably less than the other 0.095-inch lines. We didn’t experience that uncomfortable hand numbness that often comes with extended weed eating. On the downside, in terms of durability, the Black Diamond was subpar when it came to edging along hard surfaces.

Get the Echo weed eater string at Amazon, The Home Depot, or ProPartsDirect.net.

Our Ratings: Cutting Performance 4.5/5; Durability 5/5; Value 4.5/5

It takes a combination of speed, toughness, and sharpness to kill weeds, tough vines, and tree seedlings. The Cyclone 0.095-inch 6-blade trimmer line features a copolymer composition that offers increased strength and abrasion resistance compared with nylon monofilament weed eater string. The six-sided star profile provides maximum cutting efficiency for dense grass, heavy weeds, and even woody seedlings and vines. The edges also help dissipate heat, virtually eliminating welding inside the trimmer head.

The Cyclone trimmer line felt slightly stiffer than some of the other weed eater strings we tested, and we were only able to fit about 13.5 feet of it on the trimmer head, while we were able to install just over 15 feet of other types. That said, it was easy to load, and it fed freely out of the trimmer head during operation with no signs of sticking or welding. The line showed a bit more breakage than average while edging along concrete, but its pure weed-wacking performance was excellent. This string made fast work of blackberry brambles and woody stems up to 0.25 inch thick and left surprisingly clean edges in its wake. In these conditions, breakage was low and abrasion resistance was high.

Get the Desert Extrusion Cyclone weed eater string at Amazon or Walmart (2-pack, 285 feet).

Our Ratings: Cutting Performance 5/5; Durability 5/5; Value 4/5

Coarse weeds and thick brush can easily wear through residential-grade trimmer lines, but Oregon’s heavy-duty square trimmer line is an ideal match for brush cutters. It features aggressive four-sided cutting, a high-strength inner core, and a thick 0.155-inch diameter ideal for tough cutting conditions in dense vegetation. This heavy-duty weed eater string is best suited for heavy-duty trimmer heads and engines rated 45cc and larger. Users will want to refer to the operator’s manual to ensure their trimmers are compatible with this line.

This was the toughest weed eater string we tested, but we had to use a larger machine to use it. The eyelets on our residential string trimmer head were too small to accommodate the large-diameter string, and we were concerned that it did not have adequate torque to feed the line properly. With our commercial-grade trimmer, however, we were able to level several hundred square feet of overgrown grass, tough weeds, and brush in just a few minutes with the square Gatorline. No vine or seedling stood a chance. It also excelled in edging applications, providing excellent resistance to abrasion and breaking. For grass, however, it was not worth carrying the added weight or dealing with the additional vibration compared to some of the more aerodynamic options.

Get the Oregon Magnum Square weed eater string at Amazon, The Home Depot (246 feet), or Tractor Supply Co. (246 feet).

Our Ratings: Cutting Performance 5/5; Durability 5/5; Value 4.5/5

This Husqvarna Titanium Force weed eater string is made of commercial-grade copolymer material for longer life and better performance. The combination of superior abrasion-resistant material and the round shape allows this 0.095-inch-diameter grooved string to hold up well while working around concrete and stone. The dimpled surface allows it to accelerate faster than other traditional trimmer lines and fly straight and level, which reduces fuel consumption and results in quieter operation. To maintain landscape edges initially cut with a steel-bladed edger, this string trimmer makes maintenance easy and efficient.

We were extremely impressed with the overall wear resistance of the Titanium Force trimmer line. That toughness, combined with high speed and low vibration, made it our favorite when it came to edging along pavement and stonework. It also did a nice job in the grass (although the cut was not quite as clean as with the Black Diamond line), and it powered through tough weeds and seedlings better than most of the competition. Amazingly, through 30 minutes of tough trimming, we only advanced the line once. Afterward, the exposed line appeared almost as good as new.

Get the Husqvarna weed eater string at Amazon, Lowe’s (840 feet), or Tractor Supply Co. (200 feet).

Our Ratings: Cutting Performance 5/5; Durability 5/5; Value 5/5

MaxPower’s residential-grade round nylon string trimmer line features a simple yet durable round shape that efficiently cuts through grass and weeds. The 0.080-inch diameter fits most residential-style weed wackers, including plug-in electric, gas-powered, and cordless string trimmer models.

If you’ve ever stored a large spool of trimmer line for the winter only to find it has turned brittle, a simple solution is to buy a smaller package that won’t need to be stored for so long. This string comes in a 340-foot pack, enough for about 17 spool refills or a single season of use in most smaller yards.

This was a really good product, best reserved for grass and light weeds. After running several spools of 0.095-inch trimmer line, this 0.080-inch string felt fast and smooth. The thin diameter was especially useful while trimming grass as it created a clean, level finish. We also noted faster (but not excessive) wear while edging around concrete, which we expected due to the thinner material. Breaking was minimal. It took us longer to cut through coarse weeds, but this is to be expected because of the thin diameter. Regardless, the thin profile cuts cleanly and will help you get the most from your lightweight gas or battery trimmer.

Get the MaxPower 333180 weed eater string at Amazon, Lowe’s, or Tractor Supply Co.

Our Ratings: Cutting Performance 5/5; Durability 5/5; Value 4.5/5

Heavy-duty weed eater string is durable enough to withstand the higher torque and faster revolutions per minute of commercial-grade string trimmers, as well as the toughness to trim longer with fewer stops to reload. This 0.155-inch-diameter SuperTwist weed eater string has a twisted exterior shape to improve fuel economy, reduce vibration and noise, and cut cleanly through grass and weeds. Inside is a tough and flexible core for added durability and shock absorption. It is compatible with most fixed-line and bump-feed heads.

We again used our commercial trimmer to test this heavy-duty trimmer string because it was not physically compatible with the narrow eyelets in our other trimmer head. It vibrated more than the thinner twisted weed eater strings but less than the other shapes. As with the thinner strings, the 0.155-inch-diameter SuperTwist cut grass much more cleanly than other shaped lines of the same diameter. Because of the added thickness, it also did a good job cutting the coarse weeds and brush. It held up much better than 0.095-inch twist-shaped lines under all conditions, but it wore down faster than the 0.155-inch square line when it came to edging.

Get the Oregon Platinum SuperTwist weed eater string at Amazon.

Our Ratings: Cutting Performance 4/5; Durability 4/5; Value 5/5

In commercial applications, weed eater strings designed for general use are ideal because of the wide variety of client needs. Stihl’s X-Line is a good option for a wide range of weed-eating projects because it does so many things well. It features an X-shaped profile that takes down overgrown weeds and grass easily, and it resists wear reliably, making it good for edging. The four-pointed line leaves a clean and level cut when working on lawns. The string is flexible, durable, and resistant to welding. The 921-foot roll of 0.095-inch-diameter X-Line that we tested can respool a trimmer head more than 60 times.

We really liked using this Stihl trimmer string, and the price was great, but it didn’t win top scores in any of our evaluation categories. It was easy to load and fed smoothly throughout the test. In the lawn area, the finished quality was fairly clean, and it chewed through the tough stuff pretty well, too. As for durability, we only advanced the line three times through the entire test, second only to Husqvarna Titanium Force among the 0.095-inch diameter strings. This sort of jack-of-all-trades performance is just right for an entrepreneur who prioritizes time and cost value over perfection.

Get the Stihl weed eater string at Northern Tool + Equipment or Stihl (280 feet).

Our lineup of weed eater strings included 3 line diameters (0.080, 0.095, and 0.155 inch) and 5 different profile shapes (round, star, square, twist, and X). We tested each of them for 30 minutes of weed eating on a lawn, along driveway and sidewalk edges, and in a patch of overgrown grass, coarse weeds, brambles, and tree seedlings. To get the most accurate comparison, we used the same trimmer and rapid-feed weed eater head to test all of the 0.080- and 0.095-inch-diameter strings before changing to a more powerful trimmer with a fixed-string head for the 0.155-inch-diameter strings. After the field test, we compiled our notes on a scoring rubric before assigning the award titles.

Before buying string for your weed trimmer, consult the owner’s manual or the manufacturer’s website for the types of trimmer lines that will fit your power equipment. With that information in hand, there are five aspects of weed trimmer string to consider while you shop: shape, durability, material, weld resistance, and line size.

Weed trimmer string is available in round, square, multisided, twisted, and serrated shapes for different types of yard work. The shape of the string affects performance in several ways, including the cleanness of the cut, the durability of the string, and even the noise level. It is important to match the shape with the application for which you’ll be using the string.

The difference in durability becomes apparent when used consistently with brush, heavy weeds, and hard surfaces. A more durable string allows you to do more work per spool. Trimmer string durability varies based on its material, shape, what you’re trimming, and friction with fixed surfaces like stone and concrete. Given the same shape and material, the thicker the string, the more slowly it will wear out.

For the greatest durability, a round string is standard. Combining more material with less surface area, it has a longer wear time. Round string made of reinforced nylon or non-nylon polymer or string with hardened core material will provide greater durability than basic nylon.

Basic trimmer string is made of hardened monofilament nylon. This material has been the industry standard for years, but manufacturers are making constant improvements to increase durability and capability. Plain nylon line is still effective, but stronger materials are now available.

Better materials increase cutting power and efficiency. Reinforced composite nylon has a greater degree of resistance to breakage. Some products incorporate strengthening materials into the nylon, such as aluminum, or feature a hardened core material to prevent breakage. Other trimmer strings are made from non-nylon polymers or copolymers for increased durability.

Welding occurs when a trimmer string overheats inside the trimmer head and sticks together on the spool. It is caused by operating the trimmer at high speed while cutting along a resistant surface like a fence or concrete sidewalk for an extended time. The added friction causes excessive heat buildup, which softens the string and eventually causes it to stick together. A welded line does not feed out of the spool, so you’ll have to remove it and restring the spool.

While the materials used to make trimmer strings are all reasonably weld-resistant, some string types have a higher degree of resistance than others. Given the same material, shaped line is more weld-resistant than round line because of the increased surface area. A round string has the least amount of surface area, allowing heat to build up more quickly.

Every string trimmer, whether cordless, plug-in electric, or gas-powered, has limitations with line size. Line diameter is a good indicator of durability. Assuming the same material and shape, a thicker line lasts longer. Thicker line also costs more.

When deciding on the right line thickness, consider the cutting conditions, how often you want to reload, and how much you want to spend. Not all sizes fit all trimmers, so be sure to read the manufacturer’s directions before purchasing a string for your trimmer.

Light-duty weed eater strings of 0.065-inch to 0.085-inch diameter are suitable for small and medium yards with few weeds. Medium-duty trimmer strings of 0.085-inch to 0.110-inch diameter are a good choice for larger yards and yards with thick grass and more weeds. Heavy-duty strings with a diameter greater than 0.110 inch are best for large properties with heavy weeds, including woody plants, lots of fences, and edging.

Now that you’re more familiar with weed eater strings and some of the top product picks, it should be easier to make a choice. Before you do, though, here are a few answers to some of the most frequently asked questions that will help you get you up and running with your new weed wacker string.

Weed eater string sizes range from about 0.065 inch to 0.170 inch. A line with a large diameter requires a properly sized trimmer head and greater power to operate. Be sure to check the weed wacker’s manual for compatibility before attempting to load a new size.

Square trimmer line has four hard-cutting edges designed to aggressively cut through coarse weeds and green underbrush, where it excels. Round line is quieter and more fuel-efficient due to reduced wind resistance. It is also more durable than a square line of the same size because it consists of more material. For generally weed-free lawns, a round line could be the best choice.

Some string trimmers require precut lengths of line. Others use either one or two long lengths of line that wind onto a spool. You may need to remove the spool from the housing or load it in place. Refer to the owner’s manual or manufacturer’s website for detailed instructions for your specific trimmer brand and model.

Wind the string in the opposite direction of its rotation. In most cases, you’ll want to wind the string counterclockwise. Many trimmer manufacturers imprint an arrow on the spool to show the proper direction in which to wind the string.

As long as it is feeding properly and in good working order, you only need to replace the string when it runs out. Old string or string that has been exposed to the elements for an extended period can become brittle and may need to be replaced.

This depends on your needs. Thick trimmer line is more durable and cuts tougher weeds more effectively. Thin trimmer line cuts grass more cleanly, causes less noise and handle vibration, and puts less strain on the weed eater engine.

For better wear resistance, choose round or square weed eater string, or a thicker string diameter. During use, keep the string parallel to the ground and, as much as possible, avoid hitting hard surfaces like pavement, stones, and fences. Store your extra trimmer line out of direct sunlight to avoid ultraviolet damage. Some manufacturers recommend that you soak weed eater string in water for 24 hours prior to installation to minimize breakage if it has become brittle.

Be sure to consult your owner’s manual or the manufacturer’s website before choosing a weed eater string replacement. Line shapes of the same diameter are interchangeable, but all line diameters are not compatible with all trimmers. Engine/motor size and the design of the trimmer head determine which string diameters are compatible with the trimmer.

With more than 20 years of experience in the nursery and landscaping industries, Mark Wolfe is a writer and product tester who reviews all the latest outdoor power equipment, hand tools, lawn care products, and other outdoor-living goods.

Staff Writer

Mark Wolfe is a second-career freelance writer based in Georgia and has an extensive background in the horticulture industry. Since 2020, he has contributed numerous gardening and home improvement articles to BobVila.com, along with a variety of consumer product reviews.

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