Stihl 161 T or Husqvarna T535iXP cordless top handle 12"?

[Dan Maynard]

Not at the moment. New saws are bound to come out though, over the next year or two.

[treevolution]

Run the echo 2500 and its a brilliant saw. 

 

Its the lightest of the battery saws but very capable. 

 

You can buy the full kit including a free battery from chainsawbars.co.uk.

 

Loads of info on utube about the saws. 

[herco]

t540i  !!

[AHPP]

My experience:

A 161T sings on a 10" 1/4 picco bar. Great for cut and chuck if that's your style and you've got the wrists to balance the saw. Far less good on bigger stuff. I use a Stihl 220 with a 16" 3/8 picco, which is pretty good but not breathtaking. Still fine for big takedowns though.

 

My research:

If I wanted more power, I'd look at the Husky battery options (and that's from a man who's never felt the need to look at any other Husky saw). They've got the reputation for being better than Stihl for the burlier work. I saw one in a shop the other day marketed as being equivalent to a 40cc petrol saw.

 

Conclusion:

Aware I didn't totally answer the question: Nevertheless hope I said something useful.

[tim361]

I’ve got 2. I’ve got the echo 2500 for small pruning and the 540i for everything else.

The echo is a very good saw when run with the stihl 1/4” chain is even better. I really like the husky as well but it is a lot bigger and heavier. 
If I had to get one of the two you had picked I’d got husky but not the 535/536 I’d get the 540. Virtually not weight or size difference and to me it’s a much better saw. Only thing I might do with mine is swap it over to the 1/4” stihl chain. 

[gand]

9 hours ago, Slad said:

Thanks for all the comments.  Are the warranties on the Stihl any good?  Will they cover repairs to the oil pump?

 

@gand - Do all the new ones have the Upgrade kit as standard?

 

The T540iXP looks really good but it's got two problems; it's out of stock everywhere (which says something) and really expensive for me.  The T540iXP is about £770, the Stihl about £500 - £270 difference.   (That's another battery, a few beers and a bunch of flowers for the Mrs...)

 

Scratching my head now.  Sell a kidney and wait until next year, look at the Makita 36v or something else.  Is there anything else?  Something that will cut as fast as the Stihl

 

 

 

 

I'll be honest I don't know. We haven't had any new one's delivered yet. Only found out this week there was the upgrade. Their's a few lads that have had numerous new pumps and it's been on warranty even after it's ended. They are good with warranty IMO. From my experience of using a top handle saw in the tree, I'd get the Husqvarna T540iXP for bigger stuff or the Echo 2500 if for smaller. Having used the 535 and the 2500 the Echo was better for me.

[AHPP]

I have to borderline argue with groundies about oil when I send a battery saw down for a battery change. 

 

"It's still got some in."

 

It's no different to a petrol saw. They're built to fail safe, i.e. to run out of fuel before they run out of oil. It doesn't matter if it's liquid hydrocarbons or positrons and electrons.

[openspaceman]

27 minutes ago, AHPP said:

 

It's no different to a petrol saw. They're built to fail safe, i.e. to run out of fuel before they run out of oil. It doesn't matter if it's liquid hydrocarbons or positrons and electrons.

Yet there have been a couple of posts here where people have admitted running the battery saws out of lubricant because they forgot to top it up.

 

I only used one of the earlier top handled battery saws I bought very briefly, just to see if they worked, we bought them for night work.

[AHPP]

12 minutes ago, openspaceman said:

we bought them for night work.

I bought my first battery saw to fell a tree (in which local children had built a swing) at 07:00 on the Saturday morning of a bank holiday weekend, to make way for a developer's garden grab. I made loads of money for doing so, on the doorstep of an arbtalker that I don't like.

Brings a tear to the eye.

[Slad]

So, I did some extra work over a weekend and put it towards the 12" Husqvarna T540iXP.  Couldn't get a Bli200X for love nor money, so went with the bigger Bli300 (9Ah) battery. (And the Q330 charger)

 

Thanks very much for all your suggestions.  I came very close to the Stihl 161 + charger + 2 x batteries which would have probably been cheaper but wouldn't have made me as happy.

 

 

And I'm glad I bought the 300 battery.  With the wind the other night, we've has some trees down. The saw got a good workout (so did I) and I flattened the battery by the afternoon.  200X battery might give it short term extra grunt but being able to cut for longer is more important to me as it turns out.

 

Lovely saw, it rips through wood super quick. Definitely something to use with caution - it feels like a toy compared with my 20" cheapo POS but cuts as fast/faster. Nice and "quiet" too.