Milwaukee has a deal in a few places, Home Depot being one - that you can get the Milwaukee string trimmer, 9.0 amp hour m18 battery (about 45 min - 1 hr runtime) fast charger, and a free Milwaukee blower for $299.
I think other places offer the same deal too online.
That 9.0 battery is $165 by itself.
The Milwaukee deal is basically the same price if you bought the Ryobi trimmer and blower together.
Says out of stock online. You can try the store.. hd has both the blower and trimmer deal as free tools.. that's $150 savings. Other websites have the same promo I believe.
Blower deal
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwauke...-Blower-Bare-Tool-2725-21HD-2728-20/301547331
Trimmer deal
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwauke...Trimmer-Bare-Tool-2725-21HD-2726-20/301547330
Milwaukee always seems to have the best sales. They have other promos with the single tools and additional 9.0 battery as a deal too
I BELIEVE - the higher voltage options come at a cost of lower amp hours - which is what provides your runtime. The Ryobi 40v is only 2.4 amp hours from what I see. Ryobi and Milwaukee are both owned and made by TTI. Milwaukee is the premium line.. pretty sure it's a safe bet that they wouldn't allow the Ryobi to outperform their premium Milwaukee brand. Check out the Milwaukee thread, lots have jumped on this deal and everyone is saying they are impressed.
Even with the Ryobi being on sale, it's basically a wash if you include the second tool like the blower, plus - you get the m18 battery which will work on your other tools if you have m18 stuff.
Also, the Milwaukee string trimmer offers two speeds along with the variable trigger, Ryobi is a single speed variable trigger. And the Milwaukee uses the thicker line, the Ryobi takes thinner.
Lastly - THAT MODEL Ryobi, uses a single line head.. the expand it version looks to use a double. The Milwaukee is a double line cutting head.
Good Milwaukee video review.. I think the tool speaks for itself.
Full disclosure, obviously most people on here know I'm a big Milwaukee fan, but - I tried to find a good video of the single line Ryobi 40v, but there aren't many since most of them are of the dual line expand it variation, and two of the single line head vids I found show the Ryob's head smoking lol. So I won't post those..
Eh. Ok - I'll post one -