How do you restring a string trimmer?
Restringing a string trimmer takes a few minutes once you know the sequence: power down the tool, release the spool, wind on fresh line in the correct direction, and feed the ends back out through the eyelets. Always disconnect the battery or spark-plug wire first so the head can't spin while your hands are on it.Follow these steps for a single-line bump-feed head, which is the most common type.
- Switch off the trimmer and remove the battery, or pull the spark-plug wire on a gas model.
- Press the tabs and lift off the head cap, then take out the inner spool.
- Cut 10 to 20 feet of the line diameter your manual specifies.
- Anchor one end in the spool's hole or notch to stop it slipping.
- Wind the line on in tight, even rows, following the arrow moulded into the spool.
- Leave about six inches of line free and seat it in the retaining slot.
- Feed the free end out through the eyelet, then click the spool and cap back on.
Double-line heads use the same method but load two lengths into separate channels. If you're unsure what thickness to buy, see the note on matching line size to your growth in the string trimmers guide. Wearing gloves and eye protection while you work is sensible, and keep the tool unpowered until the cap is fully locked.
How much trimmer line should you load onto the spool?
Load only as much line as the spool is designed to hold — usually the 10–20 feet noted on the head or in the manual — and never overfill it. An overfilled spool crams the coils together, causes them to cross and weld, and stops the line feeding when you bump the head.As a rule of thumb, wind until the line sits just below the outer edge of the spool's line channel, leaving a small gap so the coils don't rub the housing. Two shorter lengths on a dual-line spool are easier to wind neatly than one long length crammed in. If you find the head jamming right after a reload, an overfilled or crossed spool is the usual culprit, not the trimmer.
How do you restring a fixed-line or speed-feed head?
Not every trimmer uses a wind-on spool, and the alternatives are faster. Fixed-line heads take pre-cut strips of line that you push into holes in the head — no winding at all — while speed-feed heads let you thread a single length straight through the head and twist a knob to wind it in seconds.The reload method depends on your head type:
- Fixed-line head: cut two short, equal pieces of line and push one into each hole until it locks; replace both when they wear down.
- Speed-feed head: line up the arrows on the head, feed one length in one side and out the other until even, then twist the knob to wind it evenly.
- Cartridge or pre-wound spool: pop out the empty spool and drop in a manufacturer's pre-wound replacement, skipping winding entirely at a higher cost per load.
Speed-feed heads are a popular upgrade precisely because they cut reloading from minutes to seconds, and many gas trimmers accept them as a retrofit.
What are the most common restringing mistakes?
Most restringing problems trace back to a handful of avoidable mistakes, listed below.- Winding against the spool's arrow, so the line won't feed out.
- Overfilling the spool, which crosses and jams the coils.
- Using the wrong line diameter for the head, straining the feed.
- Winding loosely, letting coils overlap and tangle.
- Leaving the tails out of their retaining notches, so the line unravels as you refit the cap.
Avoiding those five covers the vast majority of feed failures. Wind tightly and evenly, follow the arrow, seat the tails, and match the line size to what your manual allows. If the head still won't feed after a careful reload, check the eyelets and the bump knob for wear rather than assuming you wound it wrong.
How often do you need to restring a trimmer?
How often you restring depends entirely on how much and what you cut — a homeowner trimming soft grass weekly might reload a spool every few sessions, while someone cutting tough weeds against fences and concrete can empty a spool in a single big job. Line is a consumable, so frequent reloading is normal, not a fault.As a worked example, trimming a small suburban lawn with 0.080-inch line for the weekly tidy might use a spool over a month of cuts; the same person clearing an overgrown quarter-acre of weeds against a chain-link fence could go through that spool in an afternoon. If you're reloading far more often than the growth seems to justify, the cause is usually cutting too hard against hard surfaces, feeding out too much line past the shield's cutoff blade, or brittle old line — the same issues behind line that keeps breaking.
