Whether your garden is looking a bit worse for wear or you want to be prepared for warmer weather, a decent grass trimmer (also known as a strimmer) is an ideal investment and makes hefty garden jobs and general maintenance that bit easier.
Grass trimmers help you trim harder to reach places that lawnmowers can’t get to, such as path edges, around decking and immovable garden furniture. If you have grass that’s longer than your lawnmower can cope with, a strimmer can easily cut it down to make things more manageable.
Strimmers can also be used to manage patches that are tougher than grass, such as bramble or holly bushes.
A grass trimmer makes light work of maintaining your garden, so whether you’re a keen gardener and would rather spend time tending to your vegetable plot, or you just want to sit in a tidy garden and bask in the sunshine, a grass trimmer is a must-have garden gadget.
We’ve rounded up the best grass strimmers to help you decide which one is best for you. To ensure we’re giving you the best advice, we rigorously test each grass trimmer we receive. Before use, we assess how easy each strimmer is to handle, how heavy it is and what the controls are.
We then use each strimmer in real world settings by performing numerous tasks at varying difficulty levels to see how well it performs.
If your garden needs some serious help, be sure to check out our best cordless lawn mower list too.
Best grass trimmers at a glance
How we test
How we test grass trimmers We use the same tests for all of our grass trimmers, and use them all in real world settings. We first tell you how easy each strimmer is to use: how it feels in the hand, how light it is, and what the controls are like.For our performance tests, we attack a variety of tasks, including regular trimming of grass, and tackling the edges of a lawn. We then try the grass trimmers out on thicker weeds to see what the performance is like.Find out more in our guide to how we test lawnmowers and grass trimmers.
Stihl FSA 57 Cordless Grass Trimmer
Best overall
Pros
PowerfulWell balancedDecent battery life
Packed with safety features, easy to use and extremely powerful, it’s no wonder that the Stihl FSA 57 is one of our favourite grass trimmers.
Weighing just 3.5kg with the recommended AK10 battery attached the FSA 57 is a lightweight cordless trimmer that’s ergonomically designed for maximum comfort and control. Its height is even adjustable for extra ease.
The recommended AK10 battery offers a decent runtime of around 20-25 minutes, which we found is more than enough to see you through a medium to large sized garden. It’s recommended for the FSA 57 by Stihl as it offers a good compromise between weight and runtime.
Even so, you can pair the trimmer with larger AK20 or AK30 batteries if you do find yourself needing a longer runtime, just note that this will make using the trimmer heavier.
Included is an easy to load C3-2 mowing head which comes equipped with a 1.6mm cutting line, although you can also fit up to 2mm line if that suits your garden better. If you would prefer blades then there’s an optional polycut mowing head available which takes clip-in plastic blades too.
Although it lacks the rotating head of its predecessor, the FSA 57 performs impressively well and makes light work of the most dreaded garden tasks from mowing long grass to thicker and overgrown sections. It also has a flip-down space guard at the front which is perfect for maintenance and ensures you don’t get the trimmer too close to any plants or flowers.
The FSA 57 boasts nifty extra features including a battery locking position, which keeps the battery locked in place but without making contact, allowing you to easily transport the trimmer around without accidentally starting it, and easy to see charge levels indicated by LEDs.
Lightweight, powerful and perfect for medium to large-sized gardens, the Stihl FSA 57 grass trimmer is a perfect choice to challenge all garden tasks.
Reviewer: David Ludlow
Full review: Stihl FSA 57 Cordless Grass Trimmer Review
Stihl FSA 45
A well-priced and powerful cordless grass trimmer
Pros
Very flexiblePowerful cuttingExtremely lightweight
Reasonably priced, lightweight and powerful, the Stihl FSA 45 is a perfect option for those with smaller gardens but require a hard-working device.
Although the FSA 45 is lightweight at just 2.3kg, we found it still feels reassuringly durable and able to tackle jobs easily. The shaft length can be altered from 1100 to 1300mm for comfortable holding regardless of your height, plus you can adjust the main handle and cutting head to achieve the perfect angle you need.
Rather than a traditional strimmer line, the FSA 45 has two PolyCut blades instead which have been designed to provide a precise cut.
We found the FSA 45’s performance to be excellent as the dual PolyCut blades made light work of grass borders and cut through grass easily. Having said that, for longer or thicker clumps or brambles, we’d recommend a slightly more powerful grass strimmer as the FSA 45 had a tendency to jam when faced with such jobs.
Its battery is pre-installed which means the FSA 45 needs to be charged with the provided power adapter plugged into the main body, which is a slight inconvenience compared to models with external battery packs.
Speaking of the battery, we found it takes around three and a half hours to charge to 100% and then subsequently will last for around 20 minutes. Stihl promises that this is long enough to tackle lawn edges up to 250m and we concluded that it was plenty for a small to medium-sized garden.
If you have a small garden or minimal grass and shrubbery to maintain, then we can’t recommend the Stihl FSA 45 enough. Not only is it lightweight and adjustable for comfortable use but the two PolyCut blades cut through grass with little effort.
If you have a larger garden or thicker weeds and brambles to chop through then we’d recommend a more powerful model such as the Stihl FSA 57 instead.Reviewer: David LudlowFull review: Stihl FSA 45 review
EGO ST 1300E Cordless Line Trimmer
A fast and light battery-powered grass trimmer for larger areas
Pros
Quiet and suitable for residential areasFast cuttingIntelligent battery means you can’t harm it
If you want a cordless grass trimmer that can handle larger areas and a variety of grasses and weeds, the EGO ST 1300E Cordless Line Trimmer is a great choice.With its bump-feed dual line, the ST 1300E can cut quickly and powerfully. We found that it coped well with grass and even managed to work its way though fibrous weeds that often cause problems for other strimmers.We found that the ST-1300E occasionally clogged when cutting long, mature grass of the type you might find in an orchard. In these cases, the cordless grass trimmer would simply shut down until the grass was pulled out. Impressively, the ST-1300E works fast, letting you deal with large areas quickly.The EGO ST-1300E Cordless Line Trimmer is often available online body-only, although you can easily add a range of batteries and chargers. We tested with the CH2100 E, and the 2.0Ah 56V Li-ion battery pack, which provides a reasonable 30 minutes of run-time under load and a 45-minute charge time.If you have a big garden or paddock to deal with, the fast EGO ST-1300E Cordless Line Trimmer is a great choice.Reviewer: Ian BowdenFull review: EGO ST 1300E Cordless Line Trimmer review
Husqvarna 115iL
A very powerful cordless strimmer that can handle the largest of lawns
Pros
Powerful, clean cutHighly adjustable for fitGood run-timesWill handle 2mm trimmer line
Cons
Quite weightyIn-line charger
The Husqvarna 115iL Cordless Grass Trimmer is designed for grass and light weed trimming duties in larger gardens, with a powerful motor that makes short work of these tasks. It’s quite a chunky beast, but get past the physical size and there’s plenty to like.With 30 minutes of run-time per charge, the 115iL should cope with most jobs – although you can buy additional batteries of varying sizes and opt for an upgraded fast charger if you need to reduce the turnaround time.The wide 33cm cutting head made short work of wet and dry grass, with the motor never slowing – even when dealing with thick clumps. The default, relatively thin, 1.5mm cutting cable is a little fragile for tougher scrub, although you can upgrade this for bigger jobs: we recommend trying the 2mm line.At 4.2kg with a battery, the Husqvarna 115iL Cordless Grass Trimmer is rather large and heavy. If you can get past that, however, its solid cutting performance and long run-time make this a great grass trimmer for medium-sized lawns upwards.Reviewer: Richard StevensonFull review: Husqvarna 115iL Cordless Grass Trimmer review
The most versatile garden tool that we’ve ever tested
Pros
Superb power and run times45 minute charge time1-2 hour run durationVersatile tool selectionExcellent build quality
Cons
Heavy and a bit cumbersomePole use only
The EGO Power Multi-Tool MHSC2002E isn’t just a garden trimmer: it’s a full system for managing your garden. With this fully loaded kit, you get get a line trimmer head, edge trimmer, brush cutter blade, pole saw and hedge trimmer, all of which fit onto the same body. With the quick changeover, you can turn the MHSC2002E into practically any tool that you need, giving a huge amount of versatility and reducing the total amount of storage space that you need. Alternatively, you can buy the power head and add attachments as you need them.This model ships with a giant 5Ah battery, which gives an impressive 60 to 120-minutes of runtime, depending on the task at hand. That’s enough to tackle a large garden, and you can add an additional battery for continuous use: the charger takes the battery from zero to full in 45 minutes.Impressively, the MHSC2002E is a great all-rounder: its massive 38cm cut-line trimmer and brush blade deliver excellent results, although the pole length makes operation a little unwieldy; good pole reach, and powerful chain saw and hedge trimmer deliver unrivalled cordless pole pruning.If you’re looking for a single tool to tackle many jobs in your garden, look no further.Reviewer: Richard StevensonFull review: EGO Power Multi-Tool MHSC2002E kit review
FAQs
What type should I buy? The main choice of strimmer comes down to the power type used. Plug-in, electric trimmers are the cheapest and will run for as long as you need them, but the cables can get in the way. Cordless models run on battery power, giving you greater freedom – but make sure you have a sufficient number of batteries to cover the area you want. Petrol models are also cordless and can be refilled to keep going, making them a better choice for large areas or professionals. For most homes, a cordless strimmer will be the best option, offering the right combination of power and flexibility, plus they don’t emit fumes in the way of petrol models. Is cutting width important? The cutting width indicates how much grass can be cut in one go. The wider the width, the quicker you can tackle jobs. More expensive, professional-level strimmers tend to have a wider cutting width. For small-to-medium gardens opt for between 220 and 280mm; larger gardens will need 330mm upwards. What about the cutting type, should I go with blades or lines? Line cutters are the traditional type of strimmer, using a line that spins at high speed to do the cutting. Lines can break when hitting something hard (and through use), but come on a spool so you can pull out more. Some models have an automatic feed, while others use a bump feed, where you bump the strimmer to extend more line.The thickness of the line also plays its part. Lines are generally available between 1.3mm and 2mm, and you can often upgrade the thickness from the type with which you’re initially provided. The thicker the line, the thicker the weeds and grass you’ll be able to cut through. Typical gardens with long grass and a few weeds will do well with 1.6mm line, but upgrade to 2mm if your garden has thicker undergrowth.Some trimmers use plastic blades, which are more expensive to replace but can cut through brambles and weeds with greater ease.
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