What Size Line Is Compatible With Ryobi String Trimmers?

Now that we're in the thick of spring, it's a great time to stock up on all of your gardening and landscaping tools to get your yard looking perfect. That's why you may want to check out the tools from Japanese manufacturer Ryobi, (though you won't be able to buy Ryobi products at Lowes, unfortunately). There are plenty of Ryobi tools every home landscaper might want, including lawn mowers, cultivators, and, of course, string trimmers.

String trimmers can help you reach and cut those awkward places in your yard that your lawn mower can't, like along fences or right up against pavers. And Ryobi makes more than enough string trimmers to choose from that one is bound meet your needs, with many of them utilizing the company's line of interchangeable and rechargeable batteries. In fact, Ryobi's batteries are compatible with all of their tools — not just string trimmers — allowing you to freely swap them between each other.

However, what isn't interchangeable between the Ryobi string trimmers are the trimmer lines. Ryobi sells trimmers that use 0.065", 0.080", 0.095", and even 0.105-inch trimmer lines, but with so many tool options, it's hard to know which line size is compatible with your trimmer. So, to clear up any confusion, let's run through which size line is compatible with which Ryobi string trimmer.

We're starting with the string trimmers that use a 0.080" line because they make up the vast majority of Ryobi's lineup. In fact, if you own a Ryobi electric string trimmer, chances are it will need a 0.080" line.  

First up is the Ryobi 18V One+ HP Brushless Brush Cutter/String Trimmer that has a 15" string trimmer cutting width and requires a .080" line. It's also one among many Ryobi tools that do more than just one job, doubling as a brush cutter. Other One+ HP string trimmers that use a .080" line include the base model Brushless 15" String Trimmer, the Brushless String Trimmer/Edger, and the Brushless Whisper Series 15" String Trimmer, one of Ryobi's quietest lawn care tools. 

If you have any of Ryobi's 13" string trimmers, you'll also need a .080" line, whether it's the 18V One+ 13" String Trimmer/Edger Kit that uses an 18V 4Ah Lithium Battery or the 18V One+ 13" String Trimmer/Edger with a 2-in-1 Pivoting Fixed Line blade head. And last but not least, the Ryobi 40V 15" String Trimmer also uses a .080" line, the only product of the 40V line to do so.

If you didn't notice your Ryobi string trimmer in the section above, it will likely appear here, as the .095" lines are the company's second most prominent size, and most of their 40V tools fall under this category.

First is the standard 40V Brushless Attachment Capable 15" String Trimmer, which uses a .095" line and features a Reel Easy+ 3-in-1 Bump Head Feed for quick and easy reloads in under 60 seconds. As the name suggests, it's also compatible with all of Ryobi's Expand-It attachments, including the blower, edger, and pruner attachments.

Then, we move on to Ryobi's high performance (HP) string trimmers. The 40V HP Brushless Brush Cutter/String Trimmer offers 15" of trimmer cutting width with a .095" line. Similarly, the 40V HP Brushless 15" Carbon Fiber Attachment Capable String Trimmer and the 40V HP Brushless 16" Carbon Fiber Shaft String Trimmer use the same line size. The former has an adjustable 13-to-15-inch cutting width, while the latter increases the adaptability to 14-16 inches.

If you've stuck with the article for this long, you're either the biggest fan of Ryobi's string trimmers or you still haven't seen your string trimmer listed. If it's the latter, you're in luck, as that means your tool can only require one of two line sizes: 0.065" or 0.105". These are Ryobi's smallest and largest line sizes, respectively, so understandably, there aren't very many string trimmers that use them, with the company focusing on the more versatile, mid-range sizes. 

If you use the original 18V One+ 10" String Trimmer, which is practically the base model of the Ryobi lawn care tools, you'll need a .065" line to keep your yard in tip-top shape. Despite how basic it is compared to the rest of Ryobi's line, it's still one of their best reviewed string trimmers with 4.6 stars. The 18V One+ 10" String Trimmer/Edger is the second and final Ryobi tool to use a .065" line, the smallest of all trimmer lines. Much like the previous product, this trimmer/edger combo is one of Ryobi's first products to combine the two tools into one, so it won't have as many features as previous ones we've mentioned.

And last but not least, we have the 40V HP Brushless Whisper Series 17" Carbon Fiber Shaft String Trimmer. Just as its name is the longest among its product-peers, the string this trimmer requires is the longest as well: .105". This is also Ryobi's most expensive string trimmer at $329 for the kit.