Couple of thoughts.

First your experience is a bit backwards from normal but maybe it has to do with how you use the trimmer and or the conditions. I suspect you are hogging the trim area rather then advancing through it. Only the tip of the line is suppose to be cutting grass. When you force it through to fast or drop it into bad areas with imovable objects the line with be use much faster. Chainlink, stone/brick walls and such will chew up line faster then you can blink.

Its possible the specific conditions are allowing the thinner more flexible line bounce off the obstructions. All that said, if you can correct the line problem by how you use the trimmer I would stick with the .080" line since it apperently holds up in you grass conditions. Advantage is the thinner line will work the engine easier and to a better job of clean cutting. Just like a sharp mower blade cuts grass easier and cleaner, thin line line for the same reason does as well.

Another advantage is cost. Line is sold by the pound and there are more feet in a pound of .080" then in .095".

Good point. That's something I realized a while back too. It makes sense though. Smaller line vs. large line is effectively the same as a sharp blade vs. dull blade. The smaller cross-sectional area of the smaller line requires less power to cut the weeds. There is a limit to this though and I think there are a few things larger line will do better like cutting down really heavy tough weeds. For most purposes I think the line size you chose of .080 is the ideal size. Another point to consider is the fact that with small line you can wind more feet onto the spool as opposed to larger line.

I bet you are right, Nevada. My conditions, are about half the job to edge sidewalks and driveways, about 20% percent to get the grass around rock edging and the rest on normal string trimmer jobs (wood fences, metal and plastic edging, etc.)

But, the problem wasn't about the line wearing out, it would consistently shear off where it came out of the head. Before I bought the Stihl I had a little Ryobi cheapo. Ran it many, many hours. Not much power by comparison, but very few problems with the line. It would lose a line at the "eye" every once in a while, usually when I ran it too long between line advances and wore it too short. And, now that I went to the smaller line with the Stihl, no problems. I think it was an issue of the Stihl having the power to snap the larger line, whereas, as you suggest, the smaller line will "bend" but not break.

The aggravating thing is it was such a simple, if counter-intuitive, solution to the problem. Who would have guessed the solution is not to always get a bigger hammer? ;)

I'm sure you are right about that rdaystrom. My trimming involves 99% grass. No weeds and certainly no brush. Those wading into that kind of trimming certainly would probably be happier with the bigger sizes.

I guess, even with line, it gets back to the right tool for the job, I suppose.

But, I have to tell you, it was such an aggravation for so long, only to find out it was something so small. Ha.