Personally, I think it's to small for commercial use. I'm sure it cuts great, but the durability of it doesn't work for us. I think it depends a lot on what type of grass your cutting and what type of properties you mow. Down here in the south, .95 works great on warm season grasses and lots of people have privacy fences which isn't as hard on trimmer line like chain link is. Do you edge with it? We only use trimmer line edging beds and around things the mower can't get to. If you are edging concrete with it, .95 is the way to go. So long story shirt I think they both have their place but down here and with our accounts, .95 is the way to go. Maybe that helps you out.
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Ive never even tried .80 I always thought it was homeowner string! Not to say you guys cant school me if its better?

 

I use Echo .65 line. It is super flexible, especially if you store it in a bucket of water. It works awesome for general grass trimming. The thinner string takes less power to spin so you can run your line longer. However, .95 is better for weed whacking.

 

We Run stihl 80.

It's much better. You can fit more on a spool and let more out at a time.

We do keep a spool of 105 ready for our 1 chain link fence.
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There's some good points raised here. First exmarkking, you are correct. There's mostly privacy fences everywhere down here in the south, or at least where I'm at rather than chain link which makes it that much easier. As for grasses I'm cutting mostly Muda, St. Augustine, and little Zoysia. I went to stick hedgers, soley because I went to the Green Touch racks and it literally takes 30 seconds to pull the stick edger off, one or two pull start, and I can nearly run with that stick edger. So edging isn't an issue with the trimmer line. I guess I'm going to pick up a small spool and give it a whirl and we'll see how it goes. As mentioned for the ones who didn't know or just haven't ever tried, from my understanding .80 and the smaller lines for sure do a much better job cutting the grass. The smaller line cuts the grass with ease or at least from my studying and reading. It sounds to be a lot more precise. However, I won't disagree .95 is all I've ever used and seems to be pretty standard, I have heard many people saying the .80 line is cutting cleaner. One might say the .80 wears a little faster, but you can spool up a lot more .80 then .95, so I think you would re-load in just about the same amount of time being that .95 would wear slower, where the .80 you can spool more. It would be non-sense to use .80 on some tougher stuff, but we're discussing weekly accounts, which I'm thinking the .80 would shine on. Loveitgreen, I haven't seen any .65 around here. Are you picking that up at big-box? You stand correct, the lighter line, especially a .65, you can put more trimmer line out there to cut with than a heavier line without having to worry about rpm's. Seems like the .95 shines for whacking in our world, but I'm gonna have to try it out, I think the smaller line will shine on weekly cut accounts.

 

We Run stihl 80.

It's much better. You can fit more on a spool and let more out at a time.

We do keep a spool of 105 ready for our 1 chain link fence.
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Have you ran that .80 stihl along any Privacy or Wooden fences? We don't have much chain link around here. I was looking into the .80 stihl, I know it'd be great for weekly's, but I wonder how it holds up if you run it down the privacy fence?

 

I use the Echo 0.095 line just because it more available but I'm going with Echo 0.105 line. Overall last longer and more durable IMO.
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right now i use the .95 but i will say that if you are training guys the .80 is better, or at least it has been for me. it seems to be much more forgiving on the northern thin grasses. it doesnt scalp and go right down to the dirt as fast as the .95 does.
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You'll see more out of a good worker than the string. I mean an experienced person running a machine with any sized line is better than a newbie with whatever. We run the 95 echo line because of the spool price we get in the Spring. I bought 80 back when we had a lot of residential to do. 95 can go right through a PVC fence on a cool morning with the wrong person on the stick I have learned. I wouldn't overthink something as simple as string. Go buy something different and try it, what are you out if you don't like it vs. what if you do?

Ha- both sizes do a great job on dog crap.

 

I have some old .80 i will have to reload and compare
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Have you ran that .80 stihl along any Privacy or Wooden fences? We don't have much chain link around here. I was looking into the .80 stihl, I know it'd be great for weekly's, but I wonder how it holds up if you run it down the privacy fence?

Privacy fences are most of ours. Seems to do fine, we ran 90 for a week once when we bought all new spools, and the guys wanted to go back to 80

Needs to be quality 80 line like stihl or Oregon.
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right now i use the .95 but i will say that if you are training guys the .80 is better, or at least it has been for me. it seems to be much more forgiving on the northern thin grasses. it doesnt scalp and go right down to the dirt as fast as the .95 does.
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I'm glad you mentioned that, one of my new guys said exactly that.
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I usually run the. 095 gatorline, but have considered going smaller also. I have chain link fence in spots, but the times when it grabs and runs up the fence I wish I was running smaller line. I had an old boy swear by his. 060 because it left a cleaner cut and didn't white tip the grass. If you can get the smaller packages versus a 3-5 lb spool, give them a try.
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Been using and am VERY happy with Oregon's Platinum SuperTwist Gatorline in .105 which is more akin to a .095 line size-wise. VERY durable and sharp for detail work as well as edging. This discussion sure has me curious about this same line in .095.

Just occurred to me that when I remove the guard, which is a personal choice I might add...that I basically NEVER see any lengths of line laying around on my customer's properties like I would had I been using a guard that slices off the excess when advancing the line. This ain't rocket science, but seeing lengths of line laying around surely must remind the customer of their hired help.
.02

 

I run .095 line. I have tried .080 and .105 and just prefer the middle ground that .095 gives me. I also get the best deals on .095 line so that makes the economy of .095 another win in my book.

 

.095 seems to be the norm and most readily available. Walmart sells it like its the ultimate trimmer line, whereas a commercial mower shop rarely carries anything smaller. I ran some .105 in a Shindaiwa T-230 and it tore the head up. Ended up eating through the metal grommets. I always try getting the clear gatorline so that there aren't little orange pieces left visibly laying around. I run the guard on my Stihls, but have never tried it without even though I know a lot of people run without them. I do notice after stepping up to KM130's that it is sometimes difficult to tell that you have the maximum amount of line out because of the torque. I know sometimes I am bumping the head unnecessarily and it would probably be worse with a lighter line.
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Been using and am VERY happy with Oregon's Platinum SuperTwist Gatorline in .105 which is more akin to a .095 line size-wise. VERY durable and sharp for detail work as well as edging. This discussion sure has me curious about this same line in .095.

Just occurred to me that when I remove the guard, which is a personal choice I might add...that I basically NEVER see any lengths of line laying around on my customer's properties like I would had I been using a guard that slices off the excess when advancing the line. This ain't rocket science, but seeing lengths of line laying around surely must remind the customer of their hired help.
.02

Or the mowed grass
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Can't find this in stock locally to try it out. Where online is cheaper?

Been using and am VERY happy with Oregon's Platinum SuperTwist Gatorline in .105 which is more akin to a .095 line size-wise. VERY durable and sharp for detail work as well as edging. This discussion sure has me curious about this same line in .095.

Just occurred to me that when I remove the guard, which is a personal choice I might add...that I basically NEVER see any lengths of line laying around on my customer's properties like I would had I been using a guard that slices off the excess when advancing the line. This ain't rocket science, but seeing lengths of line laying around surely must remind the customer of their hired help.
.02

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I have for years used 95 but one day ran out and rushed into a local hrdw store which only had .80 so I bought it. I new instantly that my speedfeed head would hold more line and I could not tell any difference in the cut. Used it ever since.

 

I run .80 in my small engine trimmers. It will rev up and doesn't overload engine. It will breakoff more often than .95 if you edge beds that aren't moist.

 

I use .080 exclusively. I feel that my trimmers are more responsive and rev quicker with the thinner line. The durability of the line gets no consideration from me. Trimmer line is cheap. I carry extra preloaded spools so there is no difficulty associated with having to stop and rewind a spool. You just pop the old spool off and pop the new spool on.

I can also tell when a spool is getting to run out and if I'm on a larger job I'll just replace it before heading out to trim.

 

Can't find this in stock locally to try it out. Where online is cheaper?

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Last year I found Oregon's Platinum SuperTwist at a commercial parts store and bought it on a whim after reading about it here. Give it a try. The small amount I bought will easily last the remainder of the upcoming season. Tough stuff.

I hear the Oregon Magnum SuperTwist is even more durable, but haven't tried it yet.

 

I'm going to chime in with an update. I happen to be at TS other day and they had a 3 lb. spool of .80 on sale for cheap. I went ahead and picked up a spool to give it a go around. This morning I trimmed a few with it, including one chain link fence. I know Echo trimmer line use to be good, but it seems like they've made some changes on their line in the past year and it's been nothing, but a headache with me. I've never seen so much line break. Possibly all the spools of Echo I bought last year were old or bad, but I doubt it. It seem like their line quality has changed over the past year or two. As for the .80, Richard is right. My trimmer revs higher and better than ever. The cut is precise as I expected and I don't care what anyone says, the .80 cuts and splices grass just as well as the .95 did. As for durability, I know some said line is cheap and they don't care about durability. Well that's in fact true, line is cheap, but I like to see a little durability. Nothing is worse than line breaking all the time for me. I was quite surprised, the .80 was much more durable than I thought it would be. Not one time did it break on me, and that was after one lawn with a large bed with rock all around the edge, nor did it break against the long, long chain link fence that that poor Echo line used to break on every time. Over all, I'm extremely happy with it. People say the smaller line is suppose to splice the grass better, I could tell a little difference in cut quality and the durability was much more than what I expected for such a small line. I think the line actually puts the high-reving two stroke more up in the rpm range where our 2-strokes like and favor.

 

I think a lot of it depends on what exactly you do with trimmers. If you run stick edger's for all the concrete then .80 is probably the way to go with the slightly better cut and the fact that its easier on your machine. But I personally don't use stick edgers, I have always been pretty talented at edging with the trimmer and I expect the same of my guys. I am almost exclusively residential and I think maximum productivity is achieved when all stick work is done with the same machine in one continuous pattern. End result, I use .95 for the durability since we do all the edging with the trimmers.

 

I think a lot of it depends on what exactly you do with trimmers. If you run stick edger's for all the concrete then .80 is probably the way to go with the slightly better cut and the fact that its easier on your machine. But I personally don't use stick edgers, I have always been pretty talented at edging with the trimmer and I expect the same of my guys. I am almost exclusively residential and I think maximum productivity is achieved when all stick work is done with the same machine in one continuous pattern. End result, I use .95 for the durability since we do all the edging with the trimmers.

That's understandable, most certainly. I agree with you completely if you do your edging with the trimmer the .95 is certainly the better line of choice. As for my situation, I don't do edging with the trimmer anymore, so I think the .80 will be much better to my advantage. As for as productivity from using one vs. two sticks, I think it all varies on what works best for each one of us. I can edge good nicely with the trimmer. In fact that's all I ever use to use growing up. However, with the stick edger I can pretty much run with it and my edges will be perfectly straight. Now with the trimmer I can walk fast, but if I tried to job with it, it wouldn't work to my advantage. Many swear my edging with the trimmer, many vice versa. If you have the Green Touch trimmers on the right side of the trailer and get use to them, it doesn't take no-time to pull the edger off and fire it up. But then again, the trimmer you usually already have it out. It's a matter of personal preference I guess. The advantage of edging wit the trimmer is you got one less engine to worry about. :laugh: Now let me ask you this. If you we're to do a commercial job with a hundred yard stretch of sidewalk, would you do it with the trimmer still? It seems like to me it's much more efficient with the trimmer for small residential, but when you're doing something with a good long stretch, I think the edger might put you ahead.