Gas-Powered Muscle. Battery-Powered Convenience. Toro’s Trimmer Has Both.

5 min readSome people have manicured lawns, neatly defined garden beds, and a few feet of sidewalk to edge. I tested Toro’s Flex-Force carbon-fiber string trimmer on property that’s closer to what you might call a farmette. It has three acres of lawn, plus a barn and enough surrounding vegetation to make trimming less a matter of tidying up than keeping nature from reclaiming my place.The biggest battle came along the perimeter where tall hay and timothy grass constantly crept inward. If I ignored it for a couple of weeks, the visible property seemed to shrink around me as the taller stuff invaded the better-maintained parts of the lawn. That made the place a pretty unforgiving proving ground for a cordless string trimmer, after I’d gone through three different gas models in 25 years.My first thought on introducing the Toro to that environment was this: It would never have the guts to make it through all of that in a single battery session. Truth be told, the Flex-Force handled it better than either the Troy-Bilt or Craftsman gas trimmers I previously owned.ProsExcellent power, even in tall grassLightweight and well balancedResponsive, controlled bump feedConsPricey if you’re not already on Toro’s 60V platformKey SpecsWeight12 lb (with battery)Voltage60V MaxBattery2.5AhCutting width16 in. maxLight, Powerful, and Surprisingly Comfortable What impressed me most was the Toro’s combination of power and light weight. I’ve never found string trimmers to be particularly well-designed in terms of ergonomics. They tend to leave me with shoulder, neck, and wrist strain. You’re essentially swinging a motorized pole back and forth in front of you—and in my case—sometimes for close to an hour. Even a decent trimmer can eventually leave you aching by the time you call it quits.The Toro is different. Its carbon-fiber shaft keeps the weight down to 12 pounds with the battery—many 60-volt trimmers can tip toward 15 pounds—while the adjustable length allowed me to lock the tool into my ideal height and arm position. I set it once and never thought about it again. The rear forearm rest was immediately useful, too, as it’s flat and wide, giving me another contact point with the tool and contributing to a nicely balanced feel.None of that would matter much if the Toro were merely light. It’s way more than that, delivering across the spectrum of power, balance, and ergonomics.Trevor RaabThe carbon-fiber shaft gives the Toro trimmer exceptional strength while reducing the weight over traditional steel.I routinely pushed it into the taller grass and weeds along the lawn’s perimeter, and I don’t recall it bogging down once. More importantly, the trimmer head never grabbed the grasses and spooled them around the driveshaft, a situation I was annoyingly accustomed to untangling with my gas trimmers. These were the initial characteristics that ultimately changed my perception of cordless trimmers. I’ve used a few that were perfectly adequate for suburban touch-up work. But this one could knock down weeds on the island in Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are.Less Noise—and Less Flying DebrisThe brushless motor is quiet enough at the 75 to 85 decibels of most cordless trimmers that I could probably have worked without hearing protection, although I wore headphones anyway as a matter of best practices. More surprising was how little debris the Toro threw back at me. I’ve used trimmers that peppered my legs, arms, and face with dirt, twigs, and small stones so relentlessly that I opted to wear a face shield. With the Toro, ordinary safety glasses were sufficient—a welcome departure in the summer heat. The combination of its substantial guard and controlled head speed seemed to keep the cutting action completely contained.Trevor RaabThe trimmer head is consistent, reliable, and easy to re-spool.The bump feed was equally drama-free, probably one of the biggest advantages for those who use a string trimmer on a regular basis. To say a feed can be finicky is a huge understatement. A single tap of the Toro head reliably advanced the line, and I could immediately hear the excess hit the cutting blade on the guard. There was no repeated banging of the head against the ground and no tendency to spit out more line than what I wanted. Even reloading the line avoids one of the traditional string-trimmer headaches: Rather than wrestling with a pre-wound replacement spool, you feed the line through the head and wind it using the dial—a simple system that gets you back to work quickly.The Catch: You’re Buying Into a PlatformI have a hard time finding much to criticize about the Toro Flex-Force itself. But there is one consideration if your budget is a factor: Price. At around $260 with a 2.5-amp-hour battery and charger, this isn’t an inexpensive way to cut weeds. And, if this is your first Toro 60-volt tool, you’re also buying into another battery platform.This equation changes considerably if you already own—or plan to own—other Toro products. The same 60-volt batteries work across more than 75 Toro lawn and outdoor power tools, including mowers, blowers, chainsaws, and snowblowers. In that context, the cost becomes easier to justify; however, if all you need is an occasional-use trimmer for a small suburban yard, there’s a good chance you’re paying for more capability than you need.A Cordless Trimmer for Big PropertiesThe battery runtime on the Toro Flex-Force is impressive, as well. Using the battery supplied with the trimmer, I could work around the three acres and barn without feeling as though I was constantly checking the charge gauge. Toro rates runtime at 45 minutes on a full charge, but that seemed low to me as I trimmed for a full hour without the battery running dry. I’ll chalk that up to the time it took to move between areas while I wasn’t squeezing the trigger.Final ThoughtsThat’s ultimately why I chose this Toro for a spot in our 2026 Gear of the Year issue when I first tested it—its runtime. Carbon fiber and clever ergonomics make it comfortable. The bump head and easy line loading make it convenient. But its real accomplishment is combining all of that with enough sustained power that I never once found myself thinking, “This is nice, but I’d rather have a gas trimmer.”That distinction—going gas or electric—matters, particularly on a larger property. I’ve used many cordless outdoor power tools that work beautifully right up until the job gets bigger, the grass gets taller, or the leaves get heavier. This trimmer never gave me that feeling. It handled routine trimming just as easily as it powered through the heavier grass along the edges of the property, and it did so without becoming tiresome to carry.In a world filled with so many noisy, gas-fed moving parts, I enjoy when a cordless solution arrives on the scene with enough power to take their place. The Toro Flex-Force is one of them.Shop the Toro Flex-Force 60V String TrimmerOther String Trimmers We RecommendHusqvarna 110iL FLXi Cordless Grass TrimmerNow 20% OffWorx 3 in 1 Cordless String Trimmer and Mini MowerEGO Power+ 56-volt Cordless String TrimmerNow 17% OffPaul Russell Smith is a former NYC ironworker turned screenwriter (Grace Point) and home renovation specialist. He lives in a crooked old farmhouse in Stockton, NJ, where he’s just as likely to be clearing a clogged pipe as rewriting a third act. When he’s not working, he enjoys hiking, pedestrian beer, and cooking over a live fire. His self-proclaimed spirit animal is the English Bulldog.Brad Ford has spent most of his life using tools to fix, build, or make things. Growing up he worked on a farm, where he learned to weld, repair, and paint equipment. From the farm he went to work at a classic car dealer, repairing and servicing Rolls Royces, Bentleys, and Jaguars. Today, when he's not testing tools or writing for Popular Mechanics, he's busy keeping up with the projects at his old farmhouse in eastern Pennsylvania.