What electric (battery) chainsaw?

In reply to RossJonnes :

I like the 17'-4" foot Old Town.

As further notes to the comment earlier about getting an EGO saw.

We had a large pecan tree (4' diameter trunk) and a large sweetgum tree (2.5' diameter trunk) felled last year by a professional company. They came out, climbed each tree, took them down piece by piece from the top. For taking the majority of the tree down and for bucking it once down they used small battery saws (a top-handle stihl with a belt-mounted battery with an umbilical to the saw, and a greenworks commercial with the battery as part of the saw).

When time came to do the last few trunk cuts, they used a big monster gas powered Stihl. Only a half dozen cuts on each tree were using gas, the rest was all electric.

The arborist said he loves his top handle electric because it's quiet, nimble, and like a scalpel while he's up in the tree. Said he likes the greenworks commercial because it has the same chain speed as a gas saw but it's quiet. Didn't like the reliability of the greenworks commercial though, and has had to send it in for service a few times.

I still like my saw, and it's seen mild homeowner use. Biggest thing it's cut is a 10" log, but that's about my speed. Keep the oil tank full and don't worry about much else.

the_machina said:

(a top-handle stihl with a belt-mounted battery with an umbilical to the saw, and a greenworks commercial with the battery as part of the saw).

Didn't like the reliability of the greenworks commercial though, and has had to send it in for service a few times.

I wonder what Stihl saw that is. I've never heard of a remote battery pack for an eletric chainsaw. I know EGO makes a battery that can be used with it's corded equipment, which is pretty cool. 

My friend bought the Milwaukee M18 saw and loves it. He got it for $399 including the two M18 12AH batteries. Battery life has been fantastic and he said it's easily as capable as his Husqvarna Rancher.

We have both 40 and 80 volt Kobalt. My brand new gas one died after 2 trees. Will not run period no matter how it's adjusted. It's for sale cheap if you want it. I didn't even beat it with a hammer. I was too disgusted.

The Kobalt 80 volt is really sweet. 3 or 4 trees in and I will most likely never go back to gas. 

Just my 2 cents.

Here's something: 

Makita offers a 36v chainsaw with not one, but 4 batteries and a charger for $389. They also now do a top-handle 36v chainsaw as well.  Nice thing is, if you have any problems you can probably return it to your local Home Depot without much trouble. You can get a Makita 18v LXT battery set for $20, or a set of bigger ones for $50. 

Just as a benchmark, Stihl's battery chainsaws are 36v as well. Stihl's AP100 batteries are about $100 each. The AP300 batteries are $180+

I would be hard pressed not to trade some slight inefficiencies of Makita's saw for it's far cheaper batteries and far wider selection of tools that use them. 

pheller said:

Here's something: 

Makita offers a 36v chainsaw with not one, but 4 batteries and a charger for $389. They also now do a top-handle 36v chainsaw as well.  Nice thing is, if you have any problems you can probably return it to your local Home Depot without much trouble. You can get a Makita 18v LXT battery set for $20, or a set of bigger ones for $50. 

 

Just as a benchmark, Stihl's battery chainsaws are 36v as well. Stihl's AP100 batteries are about $100 each. The AP300 batteries are $180+

 

I would be hard pressed not to trade some slight inefficiencies of Makita's saw for it's far cheaper batteries and far wider selection of tools that use them. 

 

 

That's the real answer. Invest in a platform, not a single tool. Makita makes great stuff on the 18V (and dual-battery 36V) platform. Milwaukee M18 tools are also great. If you're going to use a bunch of outdoor battery tools, make them all EGO, or Greenworks, or Kobalt or some other platform where you can share batteries.

Makita makes a 18v lawn mower too haha. They seem to have the largest spread of homeowner tools on a single battery systems. 

About the only thing Makita doesn't make is a big concrete/masonry cutoff saw. 

Like he said - first consider what platform you are buying into: makita, Dewalt, etc. Life is better when all your tools, batteries and chargers are interchangable. 

I am happy with my Dewalt 60V electric chainsaw. Spent many hours with it last summer and filled about 20 trailer loads of cut trees and brush. Worked fine for that kind of intermittent cutting. Lightweight and quiet. No fussy gas mixing or engine tuning. But it still gets oil on things from the bar oil. I eventually broke it when I made a long cut through pressure treated wood and didn't notice that the wet chips weren't being ejected properly and blocked the bar oil from getting to the chain. Still, Dewalt gave me a new bar and chain to fix what was probably user error so +1 to Dewalt on that!

As for the rest of my Dewalt tools - no complaints. When it was time to turf my old makita cordless tools I thought I was going Milwaukee (used them at work and they were great) but Dewalt offered the price and selection I wanted. FWIW I got some of my Dewalt tools as refurb units at their regional office for about half price. Also FWIW, Dewalt's tool prices seems to be inconsistent between Canada and USA so if you live near the border check online prices in both countries.

Canoe. 

In any case, we got dad the smallest STIHL that there was. The reasoning being, we figured that the best one at being a chainsaw would be the safest, and we figured that if there was anything too big for it, it wasn't a job dad or ourselves should be taking on. So far we're quite happy with it.