THIS response from Philbert should be required reading. You homeowner, weekend warriors, with your Granddads Lilac Bush...go electric. That way, as the acceptance curve shows as positive to the gov't, the rest of us will still be felling and bucking 4' logs, while fogging mosquitoes, and actually working.I'm 5 years (ish) in to having electric stuff in my arsenal. It was like most things.. What's the worst that could happen.. What could possibly go wrong? It started with an Echo trimmer, with a 56 volt battery.. Well.. only having one battery sucks, so I picked up a second battery with it. The charger ran ( barely), off the power port in my truck, so keeping a battery on the charger was easily do-able when I tried it out with my landscaping crew. And, as it was the Echo P.A.S. system, I could also use the power head of the trimmer to run other attachments. Sure, not the big ones, but it'd run most of them.
It's like drugs.. they get you hooked cheap, and then they want to sell you more! So.. Since I already have the batteries and charger, why not grab a saw? The "bare tool " was pretty cheap. But, you know what? Although it's not my "go to" saw, during the Summer.. it's my "go to " saw during the Winter, when my other Stihls and Echos have been Winterized and fogged and are put away. Toss it in the back of the truck, and forget about it.. no fuel issues, no worries about starting.. Just grab it and go, if I needed to cut up a fall, and get it out of the driveway. Even at sub zero temps, it worked fine. Just give it a bit of light duty, before beating on it, to let the battery warm itself up. No different than an I.C.E. saw needing a bit of idle time when it's colder than a witches tit.
My neighbour has a 33 cc Poulan. I've tuned it and sharpened it. The electric Echo kicks it butt under any cutting scenario, and one battery lasts about as long as a tank of fuel on the Poulan. He hates me for being right .. I hate him for thinking that a Poulan is considered a SAW. so, we're even
If I was going to upgrade to a new system.. It'd be...
https://www.stihlusa.com/products/chain-saws/battery-saws/msa220tco/
But, after cutting a ton of crap with the Echo, ( O.K., truth be told, I give it to people who want to help, but may be a bit clueless), the batteries are holding up just fine, and other than that it has plastic dogs, I can't find anything to complain about it, for the price point. It just effin works.
Unfortunately, for all of us, the future is electric... whether we like it .. or not..
Personally, I've learned not to tilt at windmills, as we are effed into this by C.A.R.B. , and lilly white handed tree huggers who don't understand what some of us do for a living. But, as a group, we are too dis-organized to properly lobby Government for a logical solution to the crap we're having jammed down our collective throats.
Battery operated saws, are just going to keep getting better and better.. Gas powered saws, are just going to get legislated out of existence.
Not at all.
I'm actually going through this process now for the 2nd time. I went through the process first when I started buying Dewalt battery powered tools. After +15 years, my drill is starting to get worn out so I'm moving over to Milwaukee which has always served me better anyway. So now I'm buying red tools with batteries. The saving grace is that for these 2 brands, there are cheap adapters that make the batteries interchangeable. This means I can buy the Milwaukee (tool only) to get what I really need while continuing to use the black and yellow batteries until they are worn out. When tools on the "want" list go on sale with a battery, I'll start adding red batteries.
That’s great! Might be a bit awkward for some situations, but great if / where it works.
I'm actually going through this process now for the 2nd time. I went through the process first when I started buying Dewalt battery powered tools. After +15 years, my drill is starting to get worn out so I'm moving over to Milwaukee which has always served me better anyway. So now I'm buying red tools with batteries. The saving grace is that for these 2 brands, there are cheap adapters that make the batteries interchangeable. This means I can buy the Milwaukee (tool only) to get what I really need while continuing to use the black and yellow batteries until they are worn out. When tools on the "want" list go on sale with a battery, I'll start adding red batteries.
That's actually what I'm doing. I convinced my wife to buy me a Milwaukee Quiklok string trimmer with for fathers day. It came with a charger and 8 ah battery. Need to figure out how to talk her into a leaf blower next... Any new tools will be red. In addition to being better tools, I like that most of the Milwaukee lawn tools and high output power tools just take 2 of the M18 batteries instead of a unique 40v or 60v version.
We bought Milwaukee's battery chainsaw and blower to use around the sawmill. The blower works great, the saw is a bit disappointing. The saw's chain tensioner is cheaply engineered and made. The OEM bar is made from a steel that is soft, doesn't take much to bend it out of shape. The OEM chain is also soft metal, doesn't hold an edge for long. Having said that' it is convenient around the saw mill. We also picked up the grease gun which works ok, if you get the grease cartridge to prime correctly.
That’s big wood for that saw. It would excel with 4-6” limbs and branches.
STIHL has a new ‘PRO’ battery saw too. Also with an enhanced battery.Based on the research I have personally done, I think the Husqvarna 540i xp is the best electric saw option currently on the market. Plus, most of the big name youtube tree guys are using the 540i xp. There is a reason for that. I know when I eventually get an electric saw, it definitely will be the 540i xp.
Guilty of treeson just recently did a comparison video on 4 of the big saw brands. Stihl, Husqvarna, Milwaukee, and I think Marita? Check it out.
Imo the 540i xp takes the cake
You need to watch for sales at Direct Tool Outlet. Two days ago they had nearly everything 50% off, they had the 14" 40V with a battery for $100. Just today they're having a 50% off sale in the stores only but lots of places they don't have a store nearby. Their blemished stuff is basically new the box may have a ding but comes with a full 3 year warranty. I've had a few issues with the factory reconditioned batteries. I usually avoid the reconditioned stuff. If it's not on sale there it's not worth the effort. I've bought a lot of tools from them. 50% off is pretty rare they usually run 30-40% sales.
I was mainly just messing with it to see how many cuts I could get with a 4Ah battery. Normally anything that size is going to be the Echo 590 or the Husky 455. I can almost fill up my 17 cu.ft. yard trailer with one battery in smaller stuff, there's 3 rows in there of not so great White Oak in the trailer.
