Husky battery power tools - too expensive now or cheaper in long run?

[SteveA]

I find myself continually wanting to get into the battery powered tools that Husqvarna have to offer but the pricing of the batteries is seriously putting me off.

 

eg, the strimmer body is being sold at a fair price, and so is the chainsaw body, but adding on a couple of batteries (for a couple hours run time) + a fast charger makes it a very expensive bit of kit..... pushing it into the unaffordable category.

 

.....it's not the technology that's the problem; it's the price tag.

Anyone here feel the same? Cheers, Steve

 

eg;

1x 4.2AH battery is about £160 inc vat

1x 330w charger is about £84 inc vat

Total (2 batteries + charger) = over £400

 

That's a spend of over £400 before having something to plug them into!

[ThrustSSC]

I share your concern, but if you're using those batteries for chainsaw (approx. £250 for a quality item), strimmer (ditto for reasonable price), hedgetrimmer and possibly a brushcutter, then the cost looks more sensible.

 

Given I pay about £50 every time I order 3 cans of Aspen, I can see that £400 paying me back very quickly. Like you I'm watching all this very closely as the health benefits are huge, and the potential wallet benefits are also good!

 

One would hope the price will come down quickly - it generally does in new technologies.

[ArthurBottlesworth]

I'm dithering over nissan leaf ......

But potential savings well worth having

I reckon £350 a month possible .....

[Stephen Blair]

I have the Pillenic battery system, saw, hedge cutter, strimmer and blower.

There's about £3.5k all in.

Brilliant system for light duties, a joy to use.

The battery will last 2 days pruning , that's cutting 4/6" stuff non stop.

The strimmer will use a battery in under an hour non stop , I just did it to see, but usually a garden isn't big for edges.

I can get a week out it when getting used here and there for odd bits.

 

 

 

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[daveatdave]

i had the hedge cutter on demo last month the Eco setting is a waste of time as it reduces the cutting speed by half. it will cut for a hour then recharge for a hour,the plug would not fit into a all weather out door socket so you would need a fly lead the bigger battery is not available as yet (as far as i know) if you charge it from your truck you will need a inverter with the engine running and it will reduce the truck battery life so if you used it all day with 2 batteries your truck would need to be running all day not for me at the moment

[SteveA]

i had the hedge cutter on demo last month the Eco setting is a waste of time as it reduces the cutting speed by half. it will cut for a hour then recharge for a hour,the plug would not fit into a all weather out door socket so you would need a fly lead the bigger battery is not available as yet (as far as i know) if you charge it from your truck you will need a inverter with the engine running and it will reduce the truck battery life so if you used it all day with 2 batteries your truck would need to be running all day not for me at the moment

 

We're looking at being off grid, mostly via solar panels so the Husky batteries would be charged by that.

It'd be mad to run a truck just for charging the batteries - that would defeat the whole object of having battery equipment in the first place!

 

I think multiple batteries are needed - we could probably get by with two (perhaps), but ideally at least three or more.... and this us where the problem is: 3x batteries + charger = £560 ish

[Craig Johnson]

a small saw fill up with petrol is about 50p to charge a battery 3p. it will be the way to go when the next generation batteries come out with longer power output

[High Scale]

Yeah I'm looking forward to it, no noise, no fumes.

[Andy Collins]

Just a different line of thought, and not something I'd thought of before. If you keep the batteries separated well away from the saw when it's not in use, surely it makes the saw less of a target to thieves?

[Rich86]

I share your concern, but if you're using those batteries for chainsaw (approx. £250 for a quality item), strimmer (ditto for reasonable price), hedgetrimmer and possibly a brushcutter, then the cost looks more sensible.

 

Given I pay about £50 every time I order 3 cans of Aspen, I can see that £400 paying me back very quickly. Like you I'm watching all this very closely as the health benefits are huge, and the potential wallet benefits are also good!

 

One would hope the price will come down quickly - it generally does in new technologies.

Probably a daft question but im a noob so forgive me, what sort of health benefits? And would a couple of solar cells on the roof of your truck with them on trickle charge help or reduce the overall life of the battery