Husqvarna 542i XP Review Rating
Performance – 4/5
Price – 3/5
Usability – 5/5
Overall – 5/5
Pros
- Near silent (quieter than the T540)
- Incredible power for it’s size
- Well thought out design, low oil warning light, double lock for the battery, perfectly balanced etc
Cons
- Inhales batteries and big dense stuff
- The clutch system, while great takes some getting used to
- Well thought out design, low oil warning light, double lock for the battery, perfectly balanced etc
Husqvarna 542i XP Review
What I don’t really understand is why I didn’t buy a Husqvarna 542i XP earlier? Or to take it further why is this the first back handled battery saw I’ve bought or even used? I’m not biggest spender in the word but I bought the Husqvarna T540i as soon as it came out and despite trying other petrol and battery top handles since, it’s gone up pretty much every tree with me since.
Because it’s amazing. It’s not as light as the little echos and it’s not as powerful as some of the bigger petrol top handles. But it starts with the press of a thumb, cuts everything in front of it and (surprisingly) takes a battering (which is handy as it’s been dropped from 10-15m twice). Call me a battery proselytizer, I’m not standing on street corners yelling their virtues but I’m not far off. But in my heart of hearts even I thought that a groundsaw would be a bit meh.
So why did I buy one?
We got busy and suddenly those lazy Saturday mornings in bed, turned into waiting by the chipper with synchronized watches waiting for 9am so that we can make a racket without ruining everyone else’s weekend. Which is all well and good until you can’t fell any of the trees on site before then either. This isn’t helped by me putting a silly exhaust on the 550 and an even sillier one on the 372. Leaving me with the option of getting a Husqvarna 542i XP or a very big silky and price wise there’s not much in it (kind of). I went with the former and I love it.
Out of the box, it looks slick and feels sturdy. I did the stupid thing of marveling at how light it was and then putting the battery in, to realise it’s probably heavier than the 550. Though with the battery in the middle it’s balanced brilliantly.
On site, the most important thing, it cuts well, really well. Not just for a battery saw either but for any saw of that size. We used it for logging up a load of 16-18″ birch and 10-13″ oak and it was ideal. Struggled with none of it and it meant that the rest of us weren’t listening to a saw screaming for 90 minutes.
The first job that we took it out on was a site clearance with some pretty decent sized trees to take down. Obviously we went to fell the chunkiest thing we could with it. Which was an ash stem that the 15″ bar just about could reach through.
And I’ll concede it struggled with it. I can’t tell if it’s something that I’m doing wrong but all of us have found that it struggles disproportionately with the diagonal top cut on gobs. The clutch (I’ll get to this in a second) kicks in the second that you put too much pressure on, which is an improvement over the 540i, which just stops but is still frustrating. Though on all lateral cuts, it goes great as long as you listen to it and don’t try burying it in to the wood straight away. I’m not smart or interested enough to really understand how the clutch works on this. What I can say is that I like it and it at the very least provides you with a audio warning that the saw is struggling so that you can back it off before it comes to a complete halt.
It’s come out with us every day since and I’ve started to notice that we’e not bringing the 550 with us anywhere near as much, which is a testament to what this can do. As a final note, we were taking down a couple of dead ash at a horse riding school on Friday, everything to stay on site. We did the lot with battery saws. No noise, no spooked horses and no shouting into comms to be heard over the chogging, it was just relaxed.
