Battery Chainsaws

[Fabnosh]

Morning

I saw (pun fully intended) a Makita battery chainsaw in my local hardware shop and wondered if anyone had any first hand experience of this make or battery powered chainsaws in general. For my occasional use on a few boughs for firewood away from home, it seemed a reasonable alternative to the conventional chainsaw not needing to carry fuel etc..

Any thought or experience gratefully received.

Thanks

FN

 

[Bavarianbrit]

I use a Makita drill and I am very pleased with the quality chainsaw with the same batteries should be good, my neighbour uses the angle grinder version also very good.

 

[User00035]

A number of hedge layers I know use makuta battery saws and rate them highly. They're probably the best of non-big name saw brands (ie Stihl and Husky). Avoid cheap Chinese brands like the plague.
It depends how much you want to cut and how big. Up to 10" would be the limit for a saw like that.
The best battery saws are the pro Stihl models imo but they're a lot of money and you have to factor in how much work you'll do with them away from a power source. Any prolonged cutting and you'll need two batteries, a rapid charger and an inverter to charge from a vehicle. Adding those ups the cost. A lot of saws only come with a single battery and a basic charger. Check what you're getting with the deal as extra batteries and chargers put the price up significantly. If the price given is "from" £--- you can bet that's just the saw body. You can easily double the price from there when you start adding power bits.
For a few minutes here and there grabbing the odd bits of firewood where you find it the Makita will do the job well and a lot cheaper than a pro Stihl. Anything more ambitious and you're better off with a small petrol saw.

 

[lochty]

My boss has a Husky, which isn't too bad, but we only get about 40 minutes cutting from the battery. Don't forget you also need to top the chain oil up..... something he frequently forgets.

 

[Heym SR20]

My father has a Bosch electric chainsaw. It’s light in weight put perfect for sawing up a barrowload of logs, pruning the odd tree etc.

He is well into his 80’s now and happily uses it. Battery gives him about 30 to 40 minutes use - prevents him from overdoing it.

No its not a big powerful petrol driven professional saw, but its not designed to be. Nor does it have the weight and need to go off with fuel cans and buy petrol and then all the associated smell and mess of filling up saws.

When battery is empty, plug it into charge and go and do something else.

With an electric saw a sharp blade makes a huge difference.

 

[Fabnosh]

Some great counsel guys, thanks very much.

FN

 

[gixer1]

Don’t rule out some of the powertool brands - milwaukee make top of the line tools and the battery life and robustness of their tools are fantastic (you will see vids of the US folks throwing them in buckets of water and sand etc to test them!)

Expensive, But will last you years of looked after.

 

[The Singing Stalker]

I have a Makita battery chainsaw. Run time is about 20 minutes to 1/2 hour depending on the size of the logs. so it is ideal to take it to a site to chop the occasional bough and you don’t have the issue of getting there then slinging your petrol chainsaw across the field because the fuel has gone off and you have flooded it trying to start it.

don’t ask me how I know. So yes, I am happy to recommend the Makita.

 

[A1fos]

Power tool that are sold without batteries are ofter referred to as " Naked "
Also the AH figures on the batteries are important the higher the better but more expensive.

 

[Turnips]

I have a Makita battery chainsaw. Run time is about 20 minutes to 1/2 hour depending on the size of the logs. so it is ideal to take it to a site to chop the occasional bough and you don’t have the issue of getting there then slinging your petrol chainsaw across the field because the fuel has gone off and you have flooded it trying to start it.

don’t ask me how I know. So yes, I am happy to recommend the Makita.

I run all my 2 stroke gear on Aspen now, no more fuel problems or sucking in fumes when using a hedgecutter at face height all day.

Definitely +1 for electric for occasional use. I can't recommend Makita as I moved onto Milwaukee quite a few years ago for my power tools. Got my wife a Milwaukee strimmer which she loves and has impressed me to be honest.

 

[243ack]

I was given a Hecht with two 40V batteries. Excellent saw and one battery lasts longer than I do!.

 

[arron]

I use a makita chainsaw alot , great for snedding and anything upto 9 ich or so ,, they are the way forward for anything upto mid sized firewood, being thin chain and bar they go through it like butter

 

[croydbay]

I cut all my firewood from stacks with an EGO 16 in. i have also purchased the strimmer and the hedgetrimmer as the 56amp hour battery fits all

 

[old keeper]

I've used petrol chainsaws for years but due to age my son now uses these and I bought a little Stihl MSA 120C battery-driven saw.

I was amazed at just how good it is, far better than I expected!

 

[Swedish]

I cut all my firewood from stacks with an EGO 16 in. i have also purchased the strimmer and the hedgetrimmer as the 56amp hour battery fits all

I have an EGO (ho ho ho) strimmer and hedge trimmer, fantastic bits of kit.

 

[mudman]

I have an EGO chain saw. Main buying point was how quiet they are, can be useful in some situations…

 

[Feugh]

I bought a DeWalt anf looking at a bunch of YouTube reviews and comparisons and have enjoyed using it. I also have a 50cc petrol saw. I use the petrol for long jobs or ones which need a bit more grunt. For short jobs or ones where the additional noise of the petrol saw in unwelcome I will use the battery saw.
The battery saw is no toy and works well. I have found that it does pinch more easily (which may be user error)

 

[BenBhoy]

Are any of the battery offering capable of felling?

 

[Goingback]

Are any of the battery offering capable of felling?

My Husky could if needed

 

[Yorkie]

Fwiw

Project farm performed a test on battery chainsaws on youtube. Links will not work.