Husqvarna 122C vs Stihl FS 55

Put these two side by side on paper and they look like close cousins: both are small, curved-shaft, 2-stroke petrol trimmers built for grass and light tidying rather than brush. The Husqvarna 122C and the Stihl FS 55 share the same basic mission — light weight, easy starting, no pretensions about clearing brambles. Where they actually diverge is engine size, brand ecosystem, and — for a lot of buyers — simply how you get hold of one.

At a glance

	Husqvarna 122C	Stihl FS 55
Engine	21.7 cc, 2-stroke	27.2 cc, 2-stroke (larger)
Weight	Light, comparable class	~5.0 kg, light
Shaft/handle	Curved shaft, loop handle	Curved shaft, loop handle
Cutting attachment	Line only, no blade capability	Line head only out of the box
Fuel	2-stroke petrol/oil mix	2-stroke petrol/oil mix
Buying route	Standard online/retail availability	Dealer-only — no direct online checkout
Brand backing	Husqvarna dealer and retail network	Huge Stihl dealer network for parts/service
Best suited to	Small gardens, grass edges, touch-ups	Maintained lawns, occasional taller grass

Engine size: a real gap on paper, a smaller one in practice

The Stihl FS 55’s 27.2 cc engine is meaningfully larger than the Husqvarna 122C’s 21.7 cc, and that shows up in tall or dense grass — the FS 55 has more reserve to push through thicker growth without bogging down. But neither machine is trying to be a workhorse. If your reference point is a tidy lawn with occasional overgrown patches rather than a field, the 122C’s smaller engine rarely gets tested. The gap matters more the bigger and rougher your patch of grass is; it matters much less if you’re mainly tidying edges and awkward corners.

Handling: light, curved-shaft, easy for beginners

Both trimmers use the same basic formula — a curved shaft and a loop handle, which keeps the weight close to the body and makes for comfortable, low-fatigue swinging around beds, fences and tight corners. Neither is designed for reach or leverage the way a straight-shaft brush cutter is, and that’s deliberate: these are grass trimmers, not clearing tools. If you’ve never run a petrol trimmer before, either one is a reasonable, unintimidating starting point, and the difference in how they feel in hand is smaller than the spec sheet suggests.

Where you can actually buy one

This is the practical fork in the road. The Husqvarna 122C is available through normal retail and online channels, so you can compare prices, read reviews, and check out the way you would with most garden tools. The Stihl FS 55 is dealer-only — Stihl restricts sales through its authorised network, so there’s no direct online checkout, and you’ll be visiting or calling a local dealer to buy, service, or get parts for it. That’s not necessarily a downside — a dealer relationship means someone local who can service the machine and talk you through startup issues — but it does mean the buying process itself takes more effort and isn’t a same-day online purchase.

What neither one will do

Be clear-eyed here: both are line-only trimmers. There’s no blade attachment on either, so brambles, saplings and woody scrub are off the table regardless of which you choose. Pushing either machine into that kind of growth just stalls the engine and chews through line. If brush clearing is a real, recurring job rather than an occasional stray bramble, neither the 122C nor the FS 55 is the right tool — you’d want a blade-capable straight-shaft brush cutter, such as the Husqvarna 128R or the Stihl FS 131.

Choose the Husqvarna 122C if…

• You want a straightforward online purchase without visiting a dealer
• Your garden is small-to-medium with mostly maintained grass and edges
• You’re comparing prices across retailers rather than committed to one brand
• You mainly need light touch-up trimming, not extended tall-grass sessions

Choose the Stihl FS 55 if…

• You want the larger 27.2 cc engine’s extra headroom in taller or thicker grass
• You’re happy buying through a local Stihl dealer and value that relationship for servicing
• Stihl’s reputation and dealer parts network matter more to you than shopping convenience
• You’re a first-time petrol buyer who wants a name-brand entry point with local support

Which should you buy?

If convenience of purchase and price comparison matter to you, the Husqvarna 122C is the easier route — it’s available through standard retail, and it does the same basic job of tidying grass and edges without fuss. If you don’t mind the extra step of finding and visiting a Stihl dealer, and you want a bit more engine to lean on in taller grass along with Stihl’s dealer support network, the Stihl FS 55 is worth that extra effort.

Neither is a brush-clearing tool, so don’t buy either expecting to tackle brambles or scrub — that’s a different machine and a different budget entirely. For pure grass and light tidying, both do the job; the choice mostly comes down to how you’d rather shop and how much extra engine headroom you actually need.