Well, I would have put this in the Lounge section, but I have not got access to that.
Recent storms have either completely unrooted or felled major limbs in about 15 large oak trees surrounding my house resulting in a major cleanup,
I have a gas Husqvarna 257, but I am hearing sensitive and do not wish to use it primarily for such a major cleanup. As everybody knows gas chainsaws are extremely loud. Battery chainsaws are said to be not nearly as loud. I have done some research and have sort of narrowed it down to the Stihl MSA 220 C-B 36-volt from Ace Hardware and the Husqvarna 350i 40-volt from Lowe’s.
Anyone here have experience with battery powered chainsaws and/or can provide a recommendation?
I use mainly dewalt cordless tools, so Im sort of tied to that platform. I havent sprung for one, but they now make a cordless chainsaw with an 18” or 20” bar that they claim is equivalent to a 50 cc gas saw. Thats not logger type power, but not too far behind. Most light commercial / heavy home use saws are roughly in the 35-50 cc range. Id consider getting one sometime. I have their 8” cordless pruning saw and its pretty nice. Who needs a top handle saw any more? It was pretty cheap too
Yes, Home Depot has the Dewalt battery chainsaws. Went by there recently but they had those in a cage and could not directly inspect them. I have a large Dewalt corded drill and I like it. I’ll look at their chainsaws online again.
About 10 years ago I bought a Porter Cable kit consisting of reciprocating saw, circular saw, drill, and a work light with 2 batteries. One battery died and the other seems weak. Good service though.
One thing to consider with battery powered tools is that you become married to one brand.
This is an Oregon chainsaw and like said above you get dependent on the batteries. We just have one and that’s good for our needs but if you’re going to be working for a long time then you would best have two batteries.
My husband has two Milwaukees, one is a big one and one is a smaller one for pruning. He likes them quite a bit, but we have a lot of Milwaukee tools already so the batteries were already here. We’ve looked at the bigger Stihl models as it can get tough on bigger diameter hardwoods. It’s really nice to not have to worry about gas or fumes. They are quieter but he does still wear ear protection.
I bought a 48V Greenworks lawn mower which gets the job done in my small yard it uses 2 24V batteries. I went ahead and got the Greenworks Drill, driver, hedger. Weedwacker, small hedger and car vacuum which all use the 24V Greenworks batteries. I also have the 24V Geeenworks chainsaw and it does fine work on anything I say about up to 2.5" diameter.
Of them all the weedwacker is the only one I feel is underpowered for my needs. Not to underpowered to get the job done but more power would have been appreciated.
Greenworks also makes 40V and 80V versions of there tools.
Well the whole reason for this reply was to have you make sure you select a vendor you want to stick with. its good to have multiple batteries form one vendor then several from several.
Both Stihl and Husqvarna have good battery platforms for their saws, you’d likely be happy with either. Even with a battery saw you need a helmet with hearing protection and a face guard.
After using the brand of ear plugs that are heated up in really hot water and then cooled for a few minutes to mold to my exact ears I have sworn off of the cheap foam ear plugs. I forget the brand name and they are expensive but there is no comparing the quality. Think I got them at Walmart also, if my memory is correct.
Also use double hearing protection by using ear muffs over them.
there are always going to be certain jobs for which a hand tool is equivalent too or superior to a power tool. Just the other day, for example, i had to cut an odd bevel on the end of a wooden race track my boy and i were building down in the shop. I could have spent several minutes setting up a chop saw or table saw to make the cut, and then have the process be loud and dangerous, but instead i drew a couple of lines on the board and grabbed a sharp scrub plane and had the bevel done handily in no time.
To me, pole pruning is usually like that. Sure, there are sometimes big honkers that you want to deal with and the powered unit is nice, but most of that high limbing tends to be stuff under 3” or so, and a sharp Japanese tooth pole pruner can make such quick work of it. I had a powered pole pruner for and wound up returning it. It could only reach half as high, and holding it up in the air was as much work as the tried and true alternative. That was my experience anyway. Id spring for a nice extendable Silky, or if thst were too much, maybe a Corona.
Shorthand, it means better, faster, stronger. Instead of using electrical contacts to power the motor, it is powered by a “smart” digital waveform. Its how most pro-sumer (ie “contractor grade” tools operate these days, and the difference is VERY noticeable.
I have the Stihl MSA 220 and two batteries, I also have the stihl brushcutter, which had a magnet fall lose in the motor after 2 years of medium to low use(maybe 40 hours of usage)… that was a let down but was repaired under warranty.
The chainsaw I have cut up a decent amount. maybe two large trees and 50 medium and small trees over about 2 years. also some small jobs like woodworking. I don’t feel the need for ear protection, just eye protection.
I think there are better brands, I think “project farm” has youtube videos doing comparisons. but it is what it is in the end, electric things are fun but not battle tested like gas chainsaws.
When I first started cutting trees I used a $49 corded chainsaw but only could go 150ft from an electric outlet. Now I use a Stihl gasoline powered. Not very noisy compared to my wood chipper. I do use ear protection if I’m using those for more than 5 or 10 minutes. The reviews of battery powered chainsaws I posted should help.
Thanks for posting. I see that you’re in West Germany.
What run time do you get off of a fully charged battery and how long does it take to fully charge up the battery after its down?
I’ve noticed that Stihl sells a robotic lawn mower. Doubt if it uses the same battery as the chainsaw though. Sells one rated for up to 1.24 acres. Thats about the size of my lawn. Thats what I really need. Don’t have any idea how its flexible programming automatic charging works.
I bought the Echo saw a few years ago based on the Project Farm test. Plenty pleased with it. My arms get tired before the battery runs out. Got it at my local New Holland Agricultural Equipment dealer. I have a ancient Stihl 029 and a fairly new Husqvarna 550 for heavy work around the farm. But its so easy to grab the electric saw and not worry about stale gas or hard starting.
