A good-looking lawn is a national obsession, but it takes more than a mower to do the job right. Grass strimmers are the essential backup tool, giving you a way of hacking away at long grass to get the lawn in shape for mowing and trimming those awkward areas around garden furniture, decking, raised beds and walls. Most can also be used for edging around the borders, while more heavy duty models can be conscripted for weed-whacking duties on overgrown plots. In other words, a good grass trimmer is one of the most versatile garden tools around.
That said, picking one’s not actually that easy. Can you get by with an inexpensive, lightweight strimmer or do you need something with a bit more beef? Should you go mains-powered, cordless or petrol, line or blade? Well, we’ve picked through the best available models to find the best grass strimmers for every kind of garden and every kind of gardener. Whether you’re after a monster that can slice through meaty nettles or a more manageable tool to quickly spruce your garden up, there’s a trimmer out there that can keep your lawn in shape.
How to choose the best strimmer
How much do I need to spend?
Buying the right garden tools is all about working out your budget, then being realistic about your needs. If you only have a couple of compact lawns to trim and edge, then even cheap, lightweight strimmers at around £30 will do the job, and it’s not worth the extra cost or weight to buy a more powerful machine. As bigger strimmers can be hard to handle, you may even get a worse result. If you have a larger plot and areas of thicker grass, however, you’re going to need that extra welly – particularly if parts of the garden have a tendency to get overgrown.
What do the power ratings mean?
Electric strimmers will be rated somewhere between 250W and 600W, and while manufacturers will claim they use clever gearing systems or integrated processors to do more with less, the more power at your disposal, the heavier the work the strimmer can do. It’s a similar issue with petrol strimmers – look for the capacity in cubic centimetres of the engine – or cordless strimmers, where you need to look at the voltage. There 24v will get you more cutting power than 18v or 12v, and professional models might reach 60v or more.
How important is a strimmer’s cutting width?
It’s no coincidence that the more powerful the trimmer, the wider the cutting width or swathe tends to be. The bigger the figure, the more grass you trim away with each sweeping move and – theoretically – the less time you’ll spend on the job. Strimmers generally go from 20cm up to 35cm, though the professional petrol models used by landscape gardeners can go up to 42cm and beyond.
Generally speaking, the more power you have and the bigger the swathe, the heavier and more expensive the trimmer is going to be – and the more capable it will be of handling a larger plot for many years to come. Trimming is a tiring business, though, so you don’t want to spend more or lug anything bigger than you have to.
What kind of strimmer should you buy?
The next thing you have to think about is how you’re going to power the thing, and here again there are compromises to be made.
- Electric strimmers usually hit the sweet spot for price and performance, but you’re then restricted by the cord, which is a menace in a larger garden and almost guaranteed to get sliced through in an unguarded moment. That makes choosing a model with a long and preferably replaceable cord a good idea.
- Cordless strimmers are more convenient, though you’re limited by the battery life; half an hour might not be enough in a larger garden. Here, go for the faster charging, longer-lasting lithium-ion battery models over the cheaper NiMH battery options.
- Petrol strimmers: If you’ve got a massive garden and a lot of undergrowth to hack through, petrol really is the best option, but petrol strimmers aren’t just environmentally unfriendly, but also bigger, heavier and harder to manage – not to mention sometimes temperamental when you try to start them up.
What other features should you know about?
A strimmer's cutting action relies on a line-and-spool mechanism, where a plastic line emerges from a covered reel and breaks off against the shield (the bit that stops you slicing into your foot) to reach the right length. After that, either a manual feed or auto-feed mechanism keeps the line coming as it’s steadily worn down or snapped off. As a rule of thumb, the thicker the line (usually 1.3mm to 2mm in diameter), the heavier the grass and the bigger the weeds it can cut through. However, some strimmers use plastic blades instead. They’re easier to replace than line, which has to be wound onto the spool, but you’ll generally have to replace them more often. The costs soon mount up.
Some strimmers can also support a heavy-duty line or cartridge, ideal for tackling weeds, nettles, brambles, annoying saplings and daffodil leaves (though you should really leave them to die down naturally, right?).
Otherwise, strimmers can come with a range of useful features, including edging wheels to hold the trimmer in the right position for edging, wheeled decks that turn your trimmer into a lightweight mini-mower and plant protectors: usually thick, wire barriers that prevent you slicing into your prized perennials while you’re thinking about something else – surely one of the biggest pleasures of any garden job.
The best strimmers to buy
1. Flymo Contour XT: The best cheap electric strimmer
Price when reviewed:£33
If you just need a strimmer for some lightweight trimming and edging on one or two small-ish lawns, the Flymo Contour XT has you covered. With a 300W motor and a 25cm cutting width, it’s cheap and light – in fact, it feels lighter than the 2.8kg weight would suggest. It also has some nice practical features, like the chunky wheel for edging, the quick swivel mechanism that takes you from trimming to edging in a few seconds, plus the plastic plant guard and the handy hooks built into the handle to wrap the 10m cable around for easy storage. It’s not the most powerful grass trimmer and certainly not built to take on larger gardens or tougher weeds, but it does a fine job of the basics and doesn’t cost the Earth.
Key specs – 300W motor; 25cm cutting width; 1.5mm line; Weight: 2.8kg
2. Ryobi RL T6030: The best 600W electric strimmer
Price when reviewed:£51
Moving up to the Ryobi gets you a great value 600W corded grass trimmer, with a 30cm cutting width and a range of useful features. At 3.4kg, it’s a fairly heavy trimmer, but surprisingly well-balanced, with a pole you can adjust to match your height. The auto-feed spool works well, and by pressing down on the EasyEdge pedal you can switch almost instantly between trimming and edging modes. Whatever you’re doing, it does a nice, clean job, with a plant protector to stop you doing too much unintentional damage. When it’s time to pack the RL T6030 away, the cord wraps neatly around the top handle and a hook near the cutting head. The only major criticism is that there’s no safety switch, so you could start it up when you grab the handle without being ready. Watch out for your feet!
Key specs – 600W motor; 30cm cutting width; 1.5mm line; Weight: 3.4kg
3. Black & Decker GL7033: The best high-powered electric strimmer
Price when reviewed: £62
Black & Decker’s 700W grass trimmer is built to handle heavier workloads, with a 33cm cutting width that’s ideal for tackling medium-sized and larger gardens and 2mm line that can hack through longer grass. B&D’s E-Drive tech is designed to make sure you get extra power if you need it, and when it’s time to break out the big guns, you can take out the main spool, slot in the one with extra heavy-duty line, and teach thick weeds and nettles some respect. The weight gets tiring on the arms after a while, but the mid-mounted motor and curved shaft improve the trimmer’s balance and keep the business end away from your feet. What’s more, the wheel edging guide helps it do a decent job of edging too. Overkill for smaller gardens, the GL7033 is brilliant for bigger, more unruly plots.
Key specs – 700W motor; 33cm cutting width; 2mm line plus heavy-duty lines; Weight: 3.2kg
4. Worx WG169E: The best cordless strimmer
Price when reviewed:£80
Cordless strimmers tend to be weedy or expensive, but the Worx WG169E might be an exception. With a 1.65mm line and a 30cm cutting width, it can still tackle a decent-sized garden, providing the 30 to 40 minutes use you get from the lithium-ion battery is long enough to do the job. If not, it takes roughly three hours to recharge. The Worx does a fine, clean job of cutting and edging, with a head that titles 90 degrees for work on the border, and a clever tilting head you can reposition to trim almost flat underneath garden furniture. You can even use it on its wheels like a mini lawnmower, though the lawn in question had better be pretty flat. Inexpensive, lightweight and very usable – what’s not to like?
Key specs – 20V; 2Ah li-ion battery; 30cm cutting width; 1.65mm line; Weight: 2.6kg
5. Bosch ART 30-36Li: The best cordless strimmer under £200
Price when reviewed:£199
If you have a larger, rougher garden but don’t want the hassle of a petrol strimmer, the Bosch Art 30-36LI is a good bet. With a 36V battery, it has more power than your average cordless trimmer, which Bosch’s Syneon Chip technology can harness to give you just what you need for the current conditions. With a 30cm cutting width, it can tackle a good-sized plot, though the lithium-ion battery will only last for around 30 to 40 minutes before needing a ninety-minute recharge. Just be warned: at 4kg, it’s one of the heaviest non-petrol strimmers around, and even with a well-balanced design and soft-grip handle your arms are going to get a workout. There is, however, scope to clip a harness on. A serious strimmer for serious garden work.
Bosch ART 30-36 LI Cordless Grass Trimmer with 36 V Lithium-Ion Battery, Cutting Diameter 30 cm
Key specs – 36V; 2.6Ah battery; 30cm cutting width; 1.6mm line; Weight: 4kg
6. Stihl FS40: The best budget petrol strimmer
Price when reviewed:£159
Some gardens need a petrol trimmer, and the Stihl FS40 is a good, affordable example from one of the biggest names in the business. The two-stroke engine gives you plenty of power for even the toughest, most overgrown gardens, and if the 2mm line can’t get through the weeds, you can fit an optional three-tooth, poly-cut head to get through thicker undergrowth and brush. Stihl has worked to make the FS40 easier to handle, with a simple bump-feed mechanism where you bump the head on the ground to release more line. It’s easier to start than most petrol strimmers too. However, at 4.1kg with the motor placed right at the end of the stalk, it’s not going to be manageable for everyone. Still, this is the kind of rock-solid, heavy-duty strimmer that will last you years.
Key specs – 2 stroke engine; 0.34l tank; 38cm cutting width; 2mm line; Weight: 4.1kg