The saw’s flat-bottom design is interrupted by a housing screw, which is baffling. They’re one of the easiest-to-use chainsaws on the market, and they’re surprisingly powerful. The pole saw attachment has a 12-inch bar and chain, giving you a bit more capacity than the 10-inch models. For select cordless chainsaws, the first of two (or sometimes three) stages of starting is an electronic power button. In odd positions, such as reaching around a tree while limbing, sometimes the mechanical lockouts can be tricky to slide. Entirely gas-powered and highly recommended for replacements. There are at least a couple of brands of bar and chain oil available that are biodegradable, but Stihl’s Bio Plus is a reliable, premium product. It’s only a minor annoyance, however, as the more telling results are all products of our hands-on testing. Clearly it’s got a great motor and drivetrain. You need to snug it up at least a few times as it breaks in. The lower voltage simply has to produce more amps (current) to get there. bumper spikes, felling spikes, or dogs). Note: This short guide applies to gas chainsaws and not electric chainsaws. PTR contributor, Michael Springer, decided to switch to bio-oils a decade ago after seeing the huge pile of sawdust he generated during a chainsaw test sit outside for years in his compost area without decomposing. Off the clock, his faith and love for his family are his top priorities, and you'll typically find him in the kitchen, on his bike (he's an Ironman), or taking folks out for a day of fishing on Tampa Bay. Aside from having to landfill all of your petroleum-preserved sawdust, it’s just good practice to minimize your exposure to petroleum oil on your skin, clothing, and the atomized portion that you breathe in. It’s tough to beat the Stihl’s Kombisystem for a cordless pole saw. Some European countries regulate stated voltages more stringently, and it seems that it could only serve to help if the simple math all added up. If you haven’t bought into a system yet and may pick up more outdoor power tools in the future, check out the entire lineup from a brand. Boy, did we open a can of worms when we started searching and testing to determine the best battery-powered chainsaw models across a range of applications. For small jobs, a cordless chainsaw may be faster than a comparable gas-engine model, since you don’t have to take the time to add fuel. Would love your thoughts, please comment. The introduction of battery pruners with a 4- to 6- inch bar and chain ups the ante. Unfortunately, this makes some comparisons more challenging. Adjusting the chain tension is easy because it’s tool free. Our complaints are few. The downside is that if you really try to produce firewood with this saw, you’ll quickly wear the bar out. When the work was done, we tucked the saw, its battery, a pair of work gloves and safety glasses in a small tool bag (designed for a cordless drill) and walked back to the office. Is This The STRONGEST Impact Driver? As to weight, cordless chainsaws are equal to or a couple of pounds heavier than their gas-engine equivalents. The saw comes stock with a 14-inch bar, but you can also order the XCU09 if you want the same saw with a 16-inch bar instead. The smoothest cutting is done at the highest chain speed, even for small limbs, so we’re not sure of the utility of this feature on electric saws. The current UL standard requires an electric chainsaw to have a trigger with “two separate and dissimilar actions required” to start the chain moving. In these cases, you’ll see the test disc count is marked N.A. However, I think the word “cheap” is used far too often to signify “inexpensive”. It cuts viciously, and we pushed it as hard as we could. adds to potential confusion. Supported by M18 FUEL technology, this unit reaches full throttle in less than 1 second for ultimate control and productivity. Pulling a lever atop the saw pushes a curved sharpening stone against the special chain for easy sharpening on the fly. Our only complaint is a small one. Its 18-inch bar offers top-tier capacity from a cordless saw and you’ll get plenty of runtime from the 4.0Ah battery that comes in the kit. It’s built for pruning and woodworking, yet it’s surprisingly capable and can punch well above its weight class. You wouldn’t select this for firewood, unless it’s to feed the fire pit in the backyard. The biggest limbs it hewed through were the six-inch-diameter branches coming off the trunk of the main branch. For example, a 40V machine will produce more power than a 20V machine. One other consideration for these saws is the system of battery-powered OPE to which they belong. Battery voltage itself doesn’t determine the power output of cordless tools like it used to. Or dispense your oil from a syrup bottle that has a tapered, pull-to-open tip. Usually, 2.6 ~ 6 Ah durable heavy-duty batteries are required for different sizes of trunk cutting. Consider that at its widest point, the saw is only 5.5 inches wide. There’s one key thing to note about Pro Tool Reviews: We’re all about the professional tool user and tradesman! Popular Mechanics participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. However, the biggest and strongest chainsaws made all have dual stud bar mounts. Shortly after putting it to use, it settles into a slightly lower voltage—it’s nominal voltage. With yard-based applications in mind, we gathered a group of cordless saws and ran them through a truckload of white-oak and ash logs. The MSA 220 C-B cut so many, we ran out and had to revert to the next smaller size of test material when it came time to run the Husqvarna. amzn_assoc_asins = "B073FTGBZY,B00DRBBRU6,B084ZVL534,B00N8PQCE2"; See Also: Can battery power cut it? Another cause of spills is an oil tank with a filler neck that is too narrow. We say “usually” for a reason. Next, use an indelible marker to mark the first cutting tooth to be sharpened. So we picked a couple of each for you. New electric models make short battery life a thing of the past. An engineer from a major chainsaw manufacturing company explained to us that this means a chainsaw should not be able to be triggered “on” with a single grabbing motion of the handle and trigger, rather the trigger lockout mechanism and the trigger require separate deliberate actions. Though not as powerful as the Greenworks Commercial 82V, its balance of 40cc power and weight makes it an excellent all-rounder for cordless cutting. It also works with Ryobi’s Expand-it line of attachments – which are even backwards compatible with products I bought over 10 years ago. The aggressive, hooked teeth of the PowerSharp chain can be too brutal in some tree species, so standard Oregon 91 chain can be substituted—just don’t try to use the sharpener with it. SALEM MASTER Gas Chainsaw 42CC 2-Cycle Gas Powered Chainsaw, 16-Inch Chainsaw, Handheld Cordless Petrol Gasoline Chain Saw for Farm, Garden and Ranch $125.99 - $139.99 #30 But there are still some tasks in which a gas chainsaw cannot be matched in power and cutting speed. This is a very thorough article, one that deems to give the person who is looking to buy a battery powered chainsaw, as much information as possible for them to make their choice. No Gas, No Problem: Stihl's Battery-Powered Tools Get the Job Done, So You Have a Chainsaw—Here's What Else You Need, Filler neck for bar oil is easy to overfill, Bar not rugged enough for firewood production, Seamless transition if you’re moving from gas to cordless, Small, quiet, lightweight—yet very capable. We like the versatility that comes from adding more tools to give the powerhead a better value proposition and justifying its place on the trailer. REDLITHIUM™ batteries deliver more work over the course of your day and over life of the battery. Some of those cuts have been in test materials, but in other cases they were in the real world, made through car parts, house walls, floors, roofs, and tree roots and during disaster relief work where flooded houses and their contents were caked with mud.