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Published August 2, 2026. Prices and specs checked September 1, 2026.
The verdict. Of these three, the Greenworks 60V 16-inch Gen 2 Brushless String Trimmer, model ST60L254, is the one to buy at $219.99, and it wins this scorecard 88.0 to 73.3 to 72.1. It is the only one of the three whose maker publishes all six numbers a buyer needs on the product page itself: price, weight, cutting swath, line diameter, runtime and warranty term. The RYOBI 40V HP Brushless 17-inch String Trimmer Kit, model RY402110, at $329.00, is second and is the pick only if you already own 40V RYOBI batteries. The EGO Power+ 15-inch String Trimmer with POWERLOAD, model ST1521S, is last here, and the POWERLOAD head is the single reason to overrule that.
One warning before the tally. Cordless string trimmer runtime is the number every one of these tools is sold on, and it is the number you cannot check. All three makers publish a minutes figure. None of the three publishes the load it was measured at, and none publishes a watt-hour rating for the battery that figure depends on.
I’ve trimmed enough yard edges over the years to know that a runtime figure means little until you know what it was measured against. That’s the lens for everything below.
Which string trimmer should you buy?
- Best overall: Greenworks ST60L254, $219.99. It’s the cheapest of the three and the only one with a complete published spec sheet.
- Best if you already own the batteries: RYOBI RY402110, $329.00. It has the widest head here at 17 inches and the thickest line at 0.105 inches.
- Best for the line-feed mechanism alone: EGO ST1521S. POWERLOAD reloads without opening the head. EGO publishes no price for it.
Which string trimmer scores highest on five weighted axes?
Five axes, chosen for this matchup, each weighted with the reason printed beside it. The rule is the same one this site applies everywhere: a maker that does not publish the axis scores zero on it. Disagree with a weight? Set it to zero and re-run the tally. Three of those re-runs are printed below.
How do the publication, runtime and warranty axes score?
| Axis (weight, and why it carries that weight) | Greenworks ST60L254 | RYOBI RY402110 | EGO ST1521S |
|---|---|---|---|
| Published on the maker’s own product page (30). Heaviest because every other axis here depends on it. Six items at 5 points each: price, weight, swath, line diameter, runtime, warranty term. | 6 of 6: $219.99, 7.9 lbs without battery, adjustable 14″/16″, .095″, up to 53 minutes, 4-year tool and 4-year battery. 30.0 | 4 of 6: $329.00, adjustable 15″–17″, 0.105″, up to 67 minutes. No weight, no warranty term. 20.0 | 4 of 6: 15″ swath, .095″ line, up to 30 minutes, 5-year limited warranty. No price, no weight. 20.0 |
| Runtime claim, normalised to the battery in the box (20). Scored in proportion to published minutes per watt-hour, then 10 points deducted where the maker’s own comparable model contradicts it. This axis scores a claim, not a measurement. | 35.3 minutes per 100 Wh, the best of the four figures below. But Greenworks publishes 40 minutes for the same 16-inch head on a bigger battery. 20.0 − 10.0 = 10.0 | 27.9 minutes per 100 Wh. No comparable RYOBI model contradicts it. 15.8 | 21.4 minutes per 100 Wh, the lowest here. Consistent with EGO’s other published figures. 12.1 |
| Warranty in writing, anywhere on the maker’s own site (20). Split 10 for the tool term and 10 for the battery term, each scaled to the longest in this set. This axis asks whether the term is printed anywhere the maker publishes it, not only where you are standing when you buy. | 4 years tool (8.0) + 4 years battery (10.0) = 18.0 | 5 years tool (10.0) + 3 years battery (7.5) = 17.5. Both live on RYOBI’s support site, not on the product page. | 5 years tool (10.0) + 3 years battery (7.5) = 17.5 |
How do the recall and currency axes score?
| Axis (weight, and why it carries that weight) | Greenworks ST60L254 | RYOBI RY402110 | EGO ST1521S |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recall record on the same battery platform, per CPSC and Health Canada (15). You are buying into a battery family, not one tool. 15 points less 5 for each recall touching that platform in the last three years. This scores the published regulator record and nothing about how safe any of these machines is. | Nothing on the Greenworks 60V line. 15.0 | Two: the 40V hedge trimmers and the 40V mowers. 5.0 | One, the 56V HT2410 hedge trimmer, dated June 1, 2023, which falls outside the three-year window. 15.0 |
| Named model and its included battery both current on the maker’s site (15). Buying into a discontinued model or a discontinued battery leaves you stranded on parts and accessories. | Trimmer current and priced; the LB6025 2.5 Ah battery is current. 15.0 | RY402110 current and priced; the 40V 6 Ah battery is current at $219.00. 15.0 | Trimmer listed among EGO’s 11 current string trimmers, but the BA1400 2.5 Ah battery page reads discontinued. 7.5 |
| Total (all five axes) | 88.0 | 73.3 | 72.1 |
How does the string trimmer ranking change when you re-weight it?
Three re-runs, because a tally you cannot argue with is not worth printing. Zero the publication axis and it reads Greenworks 58.0, RYOBI 53.3, EGO 52.1. Drop the warranty axis and it reads Greenworks 70.0, RYOBI 55.8, EGO 54.6. Set the runtime axis to zero and it reads Greenworks 78.0, EGO 60.0, RYOBI 57.5. The winner does not move in any of them.
Second place is a different story. In the full tally the two runners-up sit 1.2 points apart, and the runtime re-run above already flips them. Delete the last axis, so you stop caring whether the model and its battery are still current, and it flips the same way: EGO 64.6, RYOBI 58.3. Most of that distance rests on a battery page.
How do string trimmer runtime claims compare per watt-hour?
Each maker publishes minutes against a different battery. RYOBI’s 67 minutes comes off a 6.0 Ah pack, Greenworks’ 53 off a 2.5 Ah pack, EGO’s 30 off a 2.5 Ah pack at a third voltage. Not comparable as printed. And no maker here publishes a watt-hour figure that would make them so, not on the tool page and not on the battery page.
So the watt-hour column below is computed from each maker’s own two published numbers, voltage multiplied by amp-hours. If a maker’s headline voltage is a peak rather than a pack figure, its watt-hours fall and its minutes-per-100-Wh rises. That caveat applies to all four rows and cannot be resolved from what any of them publishes.
| Model | Maker’s published runtime | Battery in the box | Watt-hours (V × Ah) | Minutes claimed per 100 Wh | Maker’s price ÷ claimed minutes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greenworks ST60L254 | Up to 53 minutes | 60V, 2.5 Ah | 60 × 2.5 = 150 | 35.3 | $219.99 ÷ 53 = $4.15 |
| RYOBI RY402110 | Up to 67 minutes | 40V, 6.0 Ah | 40 × 6.0 = 240 | 27.9 | $329.00 ÷ 67 = $4.91 |
| EGO ST1521S | Up to 30 minutes | 56V, 2.5 Ah | 56 × 2.5 = 140 | 21.4 | No price on EGO’s own store, so not computed |
| Greenworks ST60L413 (same 16″ head, bigger battery) | Up to 40 minutes | 60V, 4.0 Ah | 60 × 4.0 = 240 | 16.7 | $199.99 sale ÷ 40 = $5.00; $319.99 list ÷ 40 = $8.00 |
Why does one Greenworks head claim two different runtimes?
Read the last two rows together. Greenworks sells two 60V trimmers with the same adjustable 14-to-16-inch head and the same .095-inch line. It rates the one with the 2.5 Ah battery at 53 minutes and the one with the 4.0 Ah battery at 40 minutes. Per watt-hour of battery, that is 35.3 against 16.7. The same maker claims 2.12 times the efficiency from the same cutting head, depending on which box you pick up.
Across makers it is 35.3 against EGO’s 21.4, a 65 percent gap on paper. Compare the two 240 Wh rows and RYOBI claims 67 minutes where Greenworks claims 40 from the same computed energy. These figures are measured at different loads, and none of the three says what load.
That is why this ratio carries only 20 of 100 points, and why the maker with the best figure loses half of them. A number you cannot audit is worth something. Not much.
Are any of these string trimmers under recall?
No string trimmer in this comparison is under recall. RYOBI and EGO each have a recall on a tool that shares the trimmer’s battery. That is the pattern worth knowing before you buy into a platform, and it is the reason the scorecard scores it.
RYOBI’s 40V line carries two. CPSC recall 25-334, dated 12 June 2025, covers about 113,000 RYOBI 40V 24-inch cordless hedge trimmers in the United States. The models are RY40620VNM, RY40602VNM and RY40602BTLVNM. The recall followed 27 reports of the blade activating on one control instead of two, with 16 injuries. Health Canada’s matching alert adds roughly 15,000 units and one finger laceration. RYOBI’s own recall page also lists a current battery-powered mower recall covering twelve 40V models sold between January 2021 and January 2025.
EGO’s 56V line carries one, and it is more than three years old. CPSC recall 23-212, 1 June 2023, covers about 85,000 EGO Power+ HT2410 hedge trimmers in the US plus 4,000 in Canada. It followed 34 reports of unexpected activation and 8 injuries needing stitches.
Does the 2026 Greenworks recall cover the 60V string trimmer?
Greenworks is the interesting one, and the honest reading cuts in its favour. CPSC recall 26-611, 9 July 2026, is the biggest of the three by a distance. It covers about 554,780 units, string trimmers among them, after 34 reports of batteries smoking, sparking or catching fire when charged through the USB-C port while still in the tool. No injuries were reported. But those are Kobalt-branded 24V and 48V tools that Greenworks manufactures, and CPSC’s notice excludes 60V entirely. Greenworks’ own recall page lists no 60V string trimmer. A big recall on the same factory is not a recall on this platform, and reporting it as one would be the opposite error.
All three makers require eye protection and specify how to handle the battery. Follow the manual that comes in the box, not this page.
RYOBI’s 15-Inch Trimmers Are Discontinued
RYOBI’s 15-inch HP trimmers are no longer sold. RY40290, the 40V HP brushless 15-inch carbon fiber model, reads Discontinued on ryobitools.com. So does RY40270, the 40V brushless attachment-capable 15-inch. Both pages are still live and still full of feature copy. Either model can still turn up in a search result or an older retailer listing.
What RYOBI sells now in that slot is the 17-inch RY402110 kit at $329.00 with a 6.0 Ah battery. It has a bigger head and a thicker line. It answers a different question than a 15-inch trimmer does, and the two are not interchangeable in a comparison.
Greenworks 60V 16-Inch ST60L254: what it publishes
The ST60L254 is $219.99, the cheapest of the three, and the only one whose product page answers every question a buyer asks. It weighs 7.9 lbs without the battery. It adjusts to 14 or 16 inches and takes .095-inch line. Four years cover the tool and four cover the battery, which is the longest battery term here. Greenworks is also the only maker of the three with no recall anywhere near this platform.
Its runtime claim is the weak spot, and that is Greenworks’ own doing. Rating a 2.5 Ah machine at 53 minutes and a 4.0 Ah machine with the same head at 40 means one of those numbers answers a different question. Take the 53 as marketing.
Skip this if you already own RYOBI 40V or EGO 56V batteries. A third charger and a fourth battery chemistry in the garage costs more than the $109.01 you save against the RYOBI.
RYOBI 40V HP 17-Inch RY402110: priced, but not weighed
The RY402110 has the widest head here at its 17-inch setting, and the only 0.105-inch line. Thicker line survives the fence posts and stone edging that snap .095. RYOBI ships the biggest battery too, 6.0 Ah, rated at 67 minutes.
What RYOBI will not print on that page is what the tool weighs, or how long it is covered. The warranty exists: five years on 40V outdoor tools, three on batteries and chargers. But it lives on RYOBI’s support site, one search from where you are deciding. A spec on a support page is not published where the buyer stands.
Skip this if you are starting from zero. $329.00 against $219.99 buys a wider head and a thicker line. It also buys into the one battery platform of the three carrying two open recalls on adjacent tools.
Listed Without a Price on EGO’s Own Store: EGO Power+ ST1521S
POWERLOAD is real and it is the reason people buy this trimmer. You thread the line through the head, press a button, and the spool winds itself. Anyone who has knelt in wet grass unpicking a welded spool understands what that is worth, and it is not a number on any scorecard.
Everything around it is thinner than EGO’s reputation suggests. The ST1521S sits among 11 string trimmers on EGO’s collection page with no price beside it, and none on its product page either. There is no weight there either. EGO’s operator’s manual gives 7.28 lb (3.3 kg) for the tool-only versions of the same trimmer, the lightest figure in this comparison and buried in a PDF. The manual also carries the best warranty term on this page, unadvertised: a lifetime warranty on the carbon fiber shaft, against five years on the tool and three on batteries and chargers. And the 2.5 Ah BA1400 battery that runtime figure is quoted against reads discontinued on EGO’s own battery page.
Thirty minutes is also the shortest published runtime here, from the smallest battery.
Skip this if you want to know the price before you walk into a store, or if you trim more than about half an hour at a stretch. Budget for a bigger battery on top of a price EGO will not quote.
How well does each string trimmer cut?
This scorecard rates what the makers publish: price, weight, warranty, runtime claims and recall record. It does not rate torque, cut quality, or how any of them handles a wet clump of crabgrass. No maker here publishes a load-rated performance figure that would let anyone score that from public information.
That is partly a limitation. A maker that prints its weight, its warranty and its price where you can see them is telling you something about the rest of the transaction too. Greenworks does. RYOBI and EGO each keep back two of the six.
If you want the yard handled without holding a tool at all, our robot lawn mower comparison prices four wire-free machines against the acreage their makers claim. Watering runs on a similar logic in our smart sprinkler controller comparison. And once the trimmer, the charger and two batteries need somewhere to live, our outdoor storage comparison sizes deck boxes against sheds. More in the Beach & Backyard category.
Prices are approximate, current as of publication, and change frequently — confirm the latest price with the retailer before buying.
