My old gas chain saw, which has been hard to start for the last few years, is finally beyond my ability to fix it. I use it about 4 times a year, usually for a couple of hours at a time. This is mostly for cutting up limbs and the occasional tree that falls on my property. Once every few years, I might take down a standing tree, but probably nothing larger than 6 inches.

My chain saw is the last 2 cycle piece of equipment I own, and there is a definite appeal to the thought of never having to mess with mixing oil and gas again, and especially not having to disposing of what's left at the end of the season.

So, has battery technology gotten to the point that it is viable for use in yard equipment? I know my battery packs for my cordless drill and saw have lasted well beyond what I expected.

I'm looking at Husqvarna, Dewalt and Kobalt.
The Kobalt is 80 volt and the other 2 are 40 volt.

I have a Makita string trimmer, hedge trimmer, and all the carpentry tools. They all do a great job, and the yard tools with 4 or 5 amp hour batteries work great.

As far as a chainsaw, if I were shopping, I'd look at the weight. If it is significantly heavier than a gas model...

I've always treated the cheap corded chainsaws as single use tools, I'm not sure of the value of a cordless electric chainsaw, if the power isn't there, and it's heavy.

quote:

Originally posted by arcwelder76:
I have a Makita string trimmer, hedge trimmer, and all the carpentry tools. They all do a great job, and the yard tools with 4 or 5 amp hour batteries work great.

As far as a chainsaw, if I were shopping, I'd look at the weight. If it is significantly heavier than a gas model...

I was surprised, the weight seemed to be the same as the comparable gas models.

I did notice that the 40 volt batteries were in the 4 AH range while the Kobalt 80 volt was 2 AH, so I'm not sure if you are gaining (or losing) anything by trading volts for amp hours.

Stihl has battery powered saws too. I will be buying one of the top handled trimming saws that a climber can take up into the tree. It will cost around $700. There are reviews on YouTube of Husquvarna and Stihl saws that seem favorable.

Makita has a line of battery powered chainsaws. They are all 36V (2x18X).

https://www.makitatools.com/pr...ordless#c:chain-saws

I have a Makita electric chainsaw that I use with my Honda generator and it has worked very well.

At that amount of usage I would seriously look at either just buying the premixed gas/oil, or just renting one on an as-needed basis.

It is hard to justify spending $300+ on a saw that sees duty that light.

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At that amount of usage I would seriously look at either just buying the premixed gas/oil

I just started using some of this myself and it works well. I am using TruFuel 40:1, but it also comes 50:1. It is high octane, stabilized, and pre-mixed.

I am a Stihl (Farm Boss) owner. It was my #1 saw until I had back surgery last year. In my search for a battery powered saw I checked everyone available and settled on a Ryobi. Very light, $129 and appeared to be able to do light work (up to 6"). I've not done extensive work with but test cuts have been satisfied so far.

Santa brought me a Sears corded chain saw one year. Despite my disdain, I ended up using it heavily for several years before it was worn beyond repair.

One year a large locust tree was fallen by the wind/rain. I cut all the smaller branches up to about 6" with it. Lots of use around the estate on feral cherry/plum/apple/, got plenty of use out of it. Hauled my Honda 2000 generator around in the lawn tractor trailer & worked the devil out of that electric saw.

Some day will buy another about like it for $100 or so.

I can see one for limbing small stuff but the power needed to do any amount of work would soon run the battery down.

One of the best saws Stihl made was the 011 and 012 models. It is light weight and has plenty of power. Here is a tree I cut down and split for firewood:



I would look at fixing your old saw. Just run some fresh gas with Sea Foam added to clean out the carb. If it has been setting for any length of time, the fuel line may need cleaning out. I have seen ethanol completely plug up fuel lines.

Always use ethanol free gas in your saws.

http://www.pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=VA

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Keep the gas saw. Tske it to a shop for service if you need to. Gas saws are typically cheap to fix and live forever.

Get yourself some premixed fuel.

No need to spend a large chunk of change on a battery saw. If you really do need another saw get an Echo CS310. If you're even considering a battery saw you aren't using it much. The CS310 is small, lightweight, reliable, and only $200. It's not appropriate if you're doing large jobs but perfect for the occasional tree trimming.

For anything other than smaller trees and limbs, I would say no. I have a corded electric chainsaw that I use for cleaning up the trees at my house. Also have a gas powered for the bigger jobs.

I derided my wife when she bought a battery powered chainsaw from Amazon. I patiently told her that it could never have enough power to be useful. My Husquavarna Rancher 55 was THE tool.

So, my wife used the battery powered saw for a few little jobs in the garden.

When she asked me to help her with something one weekend, she was using "her" battery powered chainsaw. Instead of walking back to the garage to get "my" saw, I just used hers.

Well...it's may not be a Husquavarna, but it turns out it's a terrific little tool for certain jobs.

It's good for limbing, for clearing small trees (if the bar is long enough to handle the tree, the tree can be taken down with the saw without annoyance). It can be slower than the bigger gas powered saw, but it's also far lighter. And when I was using it in the woods, at a bad angle, in a questionably safe way (I know, I know) and the saw got stuck in the cut, I just popped out the battery pack. Now I had a MUCH lighter piece of hardware to deal with, which made it easier to free.

So, yes... I'd say definitely "ready for prime time." Not as a 100% replacement for a gas saw, but definitely as an adjunct or for a suburban homeowner who does only small work.

Electric saws are ok for small work with brush near the house and the like, but if we're talking about serious tree cutting, gas is the only way to go. I regularly cut up 24"+ logs and cannot imagine an electric saw keeping up.

No, I don't think so, not for any real work.

quote:

Originally posted by RichN:

quote:

Originally posted by arcwelder76:
I have a Makita string trimmer, hedge trimmer, and all the carpentry tools. They all do a great job, and the yard tools with 4 or 5 amp hour batteries work great.

As far as a chainsaw, if I were shopping, I'd look at the weight. If it is significantly heavier than a gas model...

I was surprised, the weight seemed to be the same as the comparable gas models.

I did notice that the 40 volt batteries were in the 4 AH range while the Kobalt 80 volt was 2 AH, so I'm not sure if you are gaining (or losing) anything by trading volts for amp hours.

I don't know anything about the specific tools in question, but I can tell you a bit about the electrical properties of lithium batteries and the devices that run off of them.

Well, the energy capacity of the two is the same (40V * 4AH = 160 Watt-hours, 80V * 2AH = 160 Watt-hours), so at the most basic level, they have about the same energy capacity and should be able to do about the same amount of work.

With that said, using a higher voltage power source makes it easier to make an electrical device that consumes more power and does so more efficiently (i.e., more of the consumed electrical power is converted into actual mechanical work).

So, in theory, with all else being equal (which it never is), the unit with the higher battery voltage should be more powerful, work longer, or both.

Differences in design between the tools could render all that completely moot, though. A better tool with a lower voltage battery could outperform a worse tool with a higher voltage battery in every way.

Have you ever thought of just using a bow saw and an ax? For any of the bigger jobs you can just rent a saw.

quote:

My old gas chain saw, which has been hard to start for the last few years, is finally beyond my ability to fix it. I use it about 4 times a year, usually for a couple of hours at a time. This is mostly for cutting up limbs and the occasional tree that falls on my property. Once every few years, I might take down a standing tree, but probably nothing larger than 6 inches.

I don't know what kind of saw your "old gas chain saw" is or what size it is.... so I don't know if it's worth trying to fix.
Having said that, it sounds like you use a saw enough that a gas saw would be better than the battery powered options. Have you considered a newer, smaller, lighter weight saw? Maybe yours is just too old and too heavy to continue messing with?

My brother and I both used to have Stihl MS290s. Now I have a Stihl MS362 and he has a Stihl MS250. We are both happy. Of course if he has anything big he always calls me...

Also, DON'T EVER put fuel with ethanol in it. You don't use it enough to keep it fresh and keep that ethanol from gumming things up. Ethanol starts breaking down in 30 days.
I have to go far from St. Louis County to legally buy ethanol-free gas because I won't put ethanol in my saw.

Thank you all for your perspective and insights.

Several people have mentioned renting. The closest place to rent around here is 30 minutes each way, and it costs $33 per 4 hours. Since it will take me 30 minutes to get home after I pick it up and I will need to leave 30 minutes to get back to the shop to return it, that only gives me 3 hours of actual work. Factor in gas to pick up and drop off and additional gas to run the saw, and you are probably up to at least $36 per 3 hours of actual work time, or $12 per hour. If I buy a saw for $360 (everything I've looked at has been cheaper than that) I only need to get 30 hours of actual work out of it in order for it to pay for itself. If I use the saw for 10 hours per year, it will takes 3 years to pay for itself. Now granted, my estimate was more like 8 hours per year, so I guess I'm taking a bit of a risk.

I've eliminated the Husqvarna because it only has a 14" bar and a 2 year warranty. The other two have at least 3 year warranties, so I won't have to worry about them dying too soon.

The other factor against renting, and against using manual saws, is convenience and time. If I want to knock out a quick hour or two of work on a Sunday afternoon, the rental shop won't be open, and with a manual saw I won't be able to get the same amount of work done as I can with a chainsaw. That second issue becomes more pertinent every year now that I am over 50.

Also, regarding Ethanol free gas, the link listed above showed the closest available was almost an hour away. There's that time and convenience thing, again.

I can't speak directly for battery powered chain saws but I purchased a battery powered ice auger for ice fishing this year. It's a 40 volt lithium ion battery and I'm astonished at the performance.

It claims it will cut through 1600 inches of ice before it needs to be recharged and after using it I have no reason to doubt the claim.
Most holes I drilled this year were from 18 to 26 inches of ice and it went through that like a hot knife. No more pulling away trying to get a gas powered ice auger started, no gas smell and virtually no noise.

Have drilled as many as 40 to 50 holes a day a few times without any sign of slowing down.
I see no reason a battery operated chainsaw could not be made that would perform this well.