The Ryobi Expand-It Universal String Trimmer

Trimming grass has never been fun for me, but I do find it super satisfying. There’s just something pleasing about taking the perfectly leveled sea of grass and flushing it up against every perimeter.

Also, it has the part that’s missing from mowing. When you mow, there’s tall stuff in front, and a neat carpet behind, but you don’t get to see that boundary line of change progressing down the yard. With a trimmer, you do.

Of course you also get to see grass clippings flying everywhere, so make sure you’re rocking those safety glasses!

I don’t know how many different trimmers I’ve used in my life, at least a dozen. From small corded units, to 12v battery, gas operated, etc. There are two things that make trimming really annoying. One is not having enough power to quickly cut through weeds, the other is having enough line out to cover a good bit of ground, and the two are related.

Taking a momentary detour back to high school physics, kinetic energy is (mass x velocity^2)/2. When a trimmer has a larger cutting width it has more trimmer string flying, so more mass. Also, that cutting width is actually a diameter because the string is swinging in a circle. That larger diameter (cutting width) means a larger circumference. Without getting into centripetal acceleration, because the motor is spinning at same RPMs the leading (cutting) edge of the string is moving faster with more mass the longer it is. More mass and velocity means more energy, which means better cutting, especially in dense weeds.

The Ryobi Expand-It String Trimmer is adjustable between 13” - 15” of cutting width to either conserve battery power or get greater cutting power. With those large cutting widths, I didn’t have a problem buzzing through my edging or the tough weeds in the neglected corners of my property I’m embarrassed to show.

The string trimmer comes with a comfortable handle that tightens over the shaft of the power head. It’s slightly textured, just enough to keep grip when your hands get sweaty, but not enough to be uncomfortable.

The guard is just the right size. Tiny guards don’t offer enough protection from debris, and large guards get in the way and prevent getting into tight spots. The guard on the Ryobi Expand-It String Trimmer kept the weeds off me, but leaves about 300 degrees of the arc open. So it never got in the way while trying to get into corners or tight spots.

As far as operation goes, the Ryobi Expand-It String Trimmer head has a bump feed. And for anyone who has wasted what felt like all of summer trying to re-pack a trimmer head with string, you won’t worry about that with this one. The trimmer comes with a winding handle and whenever the head goes empty reloading is as easy as feeding a new piece of line through the head (several extras are supplied in the box) and winding it up.