Project Farm tests more battery chainsaws

[sean donato]

Very interesting results. I actually expected the Stihl to come out near the top in cut times given the price point of the saw. The fact that the Dewalt and the Echo mopped the floor with it is likely going to cause some internal reviews at Stihl. This channel now has a subscriber base of 1.5 million so I'm sure someone has already received an email at corporate haha.

I'd go for the echo if it wasn't so heavy...Lot of weight there. Not thrilled with the Dewalt charge times (139min??). Hmm, I'll wait to see what the pro Husky electric saw can do.

That 139min charge time is a load of crud, the charger he used (which comes with the kit) is where dewalt cheaped out. You need the 4 or 8 amp charger on the larger AH batteries to get any sort of reasonable charge times. I recently got the 20 volt 12" dewalt saw off ebay for light work, sans charger. Came with a 6AH battery. The charger I had took hours to charge it. Lowes had a sale on 5AH batteries and a 4 amp charger. Now it barely takes a half hour to charge the 5or6 AH batteries. And with the bigget saw, or any power hungry tools, the 8 amp fast charger (costs around $100.00) would make perfect sense. So I feel in that respect, specifically because i have a lot of dewalt tools already the proper charger to charge the bigger batteries would make sense over the crappy 1 or 2 amp charger it came with.

 

[OM617YOTA]

Have you purchased any other, compatible tools, or just the saw?

Thanks.

philbert

I started with the mower and string trimmer, which is why I chose that saw and why I have so many batteries. I added the blower later. Very happy with all of it for my 1/3rd acre homeowner needs.

 

[Pioneer]

I've personally used the same model Stihl saw with the 16-in bar and PS chain. It has no problems with 8-in hardwood or a bar full of softwood. Run time is quite reasonable, if you have two batteries you'll always be cutting while one is charging.
It's quite expensive but the quality is very good. It's up to you if that justifies the price.

 

[mountainlake]

Just another over priced Stihl in that vid. Steve

 

[toadman]

That's why they also offer 'homeowner' versions!

Seriously, in the right situation, the $1,000 could be built into the project cost, and the rest of the saw's life is 'free'.

Philbert

That's a good point!
with my small firewood business I figured out I can buy 2 $1300 saws each year without dipping into any funds besides what I personally make in a year using them.
It is nice, one of my favorite things is to cut wood & it fully pays for itself and some more
That said, I don't often find myself lusting for anything smaller that 70cc, or else top handle.
Electric fills a niche though.
Not often talked about, but my mom can and will use the electric saws, but with her noise triggered PTSD the gas saws are a big nope.
I really likevthe profile of the stihl, and that it has the same chain as my 193 & 200.

 

[Franny K]

If you have one of those it will give you an idea of how it compares to say the Echo.
It looks like most of them could use the same chain, most seem to have an Oregon 041 code bar tail, the Husqvarna bar is different but the chain would be the same.
Some are getting better calling their voltage max and putting an *
The energy until empty might be the energy until thermal overload of the battery and hence the recharge time might not be from really empty.
I have the older Husqvarna 4.2 amp hour batteries when they called it 36 volts and they cost like 80% of that whole Husqvarna package tested here.

 

[OM617YOTA]

I also chose the 80v Kobalt w/ 18" bar as it uses the 3/8 low pro chain. I had a pile of leftover chains from my Poulan/Craftsman days - have used up quite a few of them now. Wouldn't choose a saw based on that alone, rather buy the saw I want and whatever chain it needs is what I'm going to get, but it was definitely a nice bonus.

 

[Hermio]

I like my Kobalt 80 volt. It is handy for small jobs. But I use my MS500i when I want to do serious bucking for firewood. It cuts about 6 times as fast as the Kobalt.

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

Plastic bumpers...

I used a friend's Ryobi over the holiday weekend at a retirement community and it did great on taking out some limbs of very hard wood where it wasn't getting much bite, saving me a lot of work with a Silky hand saw. Later on I tried it a 3.5" oak tree and almost smoked the motor, fortunately smelling it before it was damaged.


I can see where they have uses, like at a community where loud noise can negatively impact the residents, however I was happy to get back to a 42cc gasser, which unlike the saws in Project Farm's video cost under half the price of battery powered saws and is far, far faster in wood than anything he tested. But, for only three 5-inch-and-under branches the battery powered saw did great!

 

[OM617YOTA]

A 3.5" piece of wood should have barely made the Ryobi pause, whether hardwood or softwood. You say it wasn't getting much bite, sounds like the chain was dull. That'd be a problem for any saw.

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

A 3.5" piece of wood should have barely made the Ryobi pause, whether hardwood or softwood. You say it wasn't getting much bite, sounds like the chain was dull. That'd be a problem for any saw.

The chain was super-sharp, I *think* that possibly caused too much bite into oak and over-stressed the motor due to too much current draw? The motor didn't seem to slow down much and did not seem as if it should be overloaded, but it definitely was.

Before/after of the tree it worked great in.

 

[OM617YOTA]

That's still a chain sharpening failure, saw should have handled that with zero issue. My Kobalt 80v would have taken apart that entire tree, on a fraction of one battery, with no stress.

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

That's still a chain sharpening failure, saw should have handled that with zero issue. My Kobalt 80v would have taken apart that entire tree, on a fraction of one battery, with no stress.

I checked the rakers: You're right, they're too low and non-uniform.
Looks like I'll have to find some time to clean up the chain. Thanks for the tip, I hadn't thought of that as a source of the problem.

 

[HumBurner]

I checked the rakers: You're right, they're too low and non-uniform.
Looks like I'll have to find some time to clean up the chain. Thanks for the tip, I hadn't thought of that as a source of the problem.

Chains have to be maintained to a high standard with these battery saws (not that any chain shouldn't always be, but.....) as the motor isn't capable of/won't allow you to power through a cut with an improperly maintained chain like a gas motor will (at the expense of the saw, bar, and chain)

It's an oddly interesting way to test one's abilities.

 

[HumBurner]

I also want to say, I have been using the 540ixp nearly exclusively for two years in place of a smaller saw (350/353/42/543), including slash cutting trees, which you absolutely have to have chain/motor speed to perform safely.

I've had the 16" bar buried in both hard- and softwood with .043/.325m semi chisel chain and depths lower than .025. Still cuts, though the narrower kerf needs to be cleaned out like bucking a big log with a big saw.


I think most of the nonsense spewed on this site and others about how slow/weak battery saws are is sheer ignorance and unwillingness to accept that battery saws are coming up to par with gas saws.

Will they replace large gas saws? Not likely. Can they compete? Hell yes!

 

[Philbert]

Will they replace large gas saws? Not likely

Not in the short term.

As with any tool, the key is finding the right applications.

It would be interesting to see reliable industry sales figures of battery saws as a percentage of all saw sales.

Of course, guys on this site appreciate how long a well cared for, gas saw can last.

Philbert

 

[Hard_Yakka]

I bought a Makita top trigger 36v to use for marking/trimming but it has come in handy during IPL II-IV for small jobs. Slower than 261 but respectable just short run times. I went Makita since I have a ton of batteries and too retired to swap out all the portable tools.

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

This weekend provided the opportunity to test:

12V Milwaukee Hatchet: WOW. Really powerful for 12V, "high" chain speed for a handheld, great for taking out 1-1/2" or smaller trees, no earpro needed. The self-oiler did way better than my 42cc chainsaw which wet itself despite turning down the oiler before starting. Better than the STIHL handheld which has no oiler.

Chinese-made battery hedge trimmer: Did well for removing small buckthorn limbs, light, quiet, battery lasted surprisingly long.

From a weight/noise standpoint it was nice to use those instead of my STIHL Kombi unit with KM 131 motor when the situation allowed; they also didn't have the vibration of a gas unit, and there's a lot to be said for that after 8 hours of busting out a job. Overall the Kombi system is superior when it comes to productivity in thick stuff, though it was fun to try/use homeowner equipment, and I can definitely see why homeowners like battery-powered "stuff" from a maintenance standpoint.