Gas Vs. Electric Ryobi Grass Trimmers — How To Pick The Right One For You

Electric tools have been gaining ground over their gas counterparts for years now, and these days, it's not uncommon to see somebody down the road from you cutting their grass using an electric lawn mower. There's a debate whether electric mowers are worth the trouble, and the same thing applies to trimmers.

Ryobi, the Home Depot-exclusive brand, is budget friendly and offers quite a wide range of electric tools, including grass trimmers. Ryobi also has gas trimmers to choose from, and if you're in the market for a new trimmer, it can be difficult to determine what's better between gas or electric.

It's important to note that both types of tools get the job done, so it's not like buying an electric trimmer inherently means worse performance than gas. A lot of people pick out their tools based on price and performance, and electric trimmers are competitive enough in that area; however, there are some other factors to consider before buying your trimmer.

If you buy into the Ryobi ONE+ system, you can build up quite a collection of 18V and 40V batteries. The same 18V battery that comes with your trimmer can be used with an 18V Ryobi power drill if it's part of the ONE+ line, so there's a lot of value there. To use an example, the Ryobi 18V 10-inch Cordless String Trimmer costs $89 with a bundled battery and charger. If you have a big collection of Ryobi tools, something that's true of many homeowners, then you can skip the battery and charger, which drops the price down to $59. For comparison, the cheapest gas trimmer from Ryobi is $149 from Home Depot.

Going electric gives you the added benefit of not having to make a trip to the gas station when your lawn tools run out of juice. This also means you don't have to deal with the cost of gas at the pump, so switching your gas-powered tools to electric can save you money in the long haul, even if the upfront cost is higher like it is with some of the electric trimmers.

A fully charged battery gives you a fair amount of runtime as Ryobi advertises more than 35 minutes with a 2Ah battery in its 18V 10-inch Cordless String Trimmer. The runtimes vary by trimmer and battery as some can run longer and some run shorter.

It might not be the main selling point, but if you're somebody who likes to get their yard work done early in the morning, electric tools have a clear advantage over gas by being quieter. You don't have to worry about a gas engine going for an hour while you clean up the weeds in your yard, and that's something your neighbors will thank you for.

Weight is another key factor, where electric tools tend to come in lighter than their gas counterparts. Gas motors can be very heavy; for example, Ryobi says its $269 4-Stroke 30cc Gas Trimmer weighs 12.25 pounds while the 40V Brushless 16-inch Cordless String Trimmer weighs 8.4 pounds. While it's just a difference of four pounds, that adds up if you're walking around your house doing a lot of landscaping. The 40V HP Brushless Whisper Series 17-inch Cordless String Trimmer comes in at 12.95 pounds, so it's an outlier in that it weighs more than the gas one, but not by much.

This type of weight difference applies across Ryobi's electric line, and you'll really start to notice it as you move up to heavier tools like a lawn mower. The Ryobi 40V Brushless 20-inch Walk Behind Push Mower weighs 43 pounds compared to a DeWalt 21-inch 150cc Gas Lawn Mower that comes in more than double the weight at 95 pounds.

For something like a trimmer, power might not be as important as it is for a chainsaw, but more power typically means you can get the job done a little faster. For gas trimmers, Ryobi offers both 25cc and 30cc motors, and 18V electric trimmers fall behind both of those strength-wise. Even bumping up to an 18V brushless option doesn't overtake the 25cc gas trimmer considering Ryobi makes no mention of it.

If you want something that hits a solid middle ground, the 40V trimmers are what you need to set your sights on. Using the 40V 15-inch Cordless String Trimmer as an example, Ryobi claims it boasts more power than a 25cc motor. The next step up is Ryobi's 30cc gas trimmer for $269, but if you want to meet and surpass that performance with an electric option, you can grab the 40V HP Brushless Whisper Series 17-inch Cordless String Trimmer for $329 with a bundled battery and charger — or $279 for the tool alone. With this being part of the Whisper series, it has the added benefit of being 80% quieter than a gas trimmer, according to Ryobi.

If you don't need the strongest trimmer for your yard, electric comes ahead in several ways by being lighter, cheaper, and quieter. If you need something that packs a punch, the 30cc Ryobi gas trimmer or the 40V HP Whisper Series electric trimmer are the strongest trimmers available from the brand. If you branch out from Ryobi, you can get something far stronger than a 30cc gas motor or its electric equivalent, but you'll need to spend a lot of extra cash to make that happen. For example, an Echo 42.7cc gas trimmer costs $659.99 from Home Depot.

Runtime is something you need to keep in mind too. If you have a small yard, there's a good chance you can get all your work done with a single charge. If you have a bigger area to tackle, you might need to swap out the battery halfway through. That's not a big issue if you have an extra charged battery on hand, but if the trimmer is your only Ryobi tool, you probably only have one battery and that can become a big annoyance.