Battery powered chainsaw

[Hay Dude]

I was talking with the salesman at my ACE hardware Stihl & Ego dealer about electric saws. He said as of right now, the Ego electric saw was better and had less customer complaints.
I was dubious of his opinions, but he also runs the Stihl repairs counter inside the store. Ego way cheaper, too.
I’d really like to try the Stihl electric 20”, but it feels like they need a few more years of improvements.

 

[bdhsfz6]

One source of trouble with these electric saws is the battery and charger. If you have cordless tools, it may be smart to buy a saw that uses the batteries you already have. Saves the worry about being able to find replacements in the future.

 

[WinterDeere]

My echo M18 pole saw is Oregon bar and standard chain.
It is a single hole for the bar nut, so not sure what other bars would fit.

A lot of the smaller saws now have single-nut mounts, even one of my Husqvarna's, albeit it's a top-handle (climber's) saw.

 

[WinterDeere]

He said as of right now, the Ego electric saw was better and had less customer complaints.

I'd believe it. Any 2-stroke gasoline engine in an E10 or E15 world is going to be more troublesome in the hands of an occasional user, than an electric saw.

I think the battery saws probably are the best option for anyone who's not using their saws at least once every week or two. They don't mind sitting on the shelf months between uses, no carb to gum up with old fuel, etc.

Most Ace locations are serving a lot of homeowners and DIY'ers, and while pros may buy equipment there as well, the their repair stat's are going to be heavily swayed by that homeowner customer base.

 

[Hay Dude]

I'd believe it. Any 2-stroke gasoline engine in an E10 or E15 world is going to be more troublesome in the hands of an occasional user, than an electric saw.

I think the battery saws probably are the best option for anyone who's not using their saws at least once every week or two. They don't mind sitting on the shelf months between uses, no carb to gum up with old fuel, etc.

Most Ace locations are serving a lot of homeowners and DIY'ers, and while pros may buy equipment there as well, the their repair stat's are going to be heavily swayed by that homeowner customer base.

I mean just from a reliability standpoint.
He said the Chinese made Ego has less repairs/complaints than the German made Stihl.

 

[WinterDeere]

One source of trouble with these electric saws is the battery and charger. If you have cordless tools, it may be smart to buy a saw that uses the batteries you already have. Saves the worry about being able to find replacements in the future.

I haven't really been following the brands and models, but I thought most were operating off much higher voltages than the average cordless drill or impact driver. The only name brand I remember seeing that shared batteries between chainsaw and typical power tools was the Milwaukee M18 system, and I think that was a pretty tiny saw.

 

[WinterDeere]

I mean just from a reliability standpoint.
He said the Chinese made Ego has less repairs/complaints than the German made Stihl.

Oh... you mean Ego vs. Stihl battery? That's disappointing.

 

[Hay Dude]

Oh... you mean Ego vs. Stihl battery? That's disappointing.

Yes. I thought the same thing.
Could be because the Ego is primarily being used by occassional user and Stihl being used by commercial user.

 

[bdhsfz6]

I haven't really been following the brands and models, but I thought most were operating off much higher voltages than the average cordless drill or impact driver. The only name brand I remember seeing that shared batteries between chainsaw and typical power tools was the Milwaukee M18 system, and I think that was a pretty tiny saw.

Both my DeWalt cordless saws use 20/60V flexvolt batteries, which work in both 20V and 60V tools.

 

[rumwrks]

One gotcha I've run into with bars is making sure the oiler holes line up and sometimes the adjusters aren't entirely compatible either. For instance you have to buy a conversion kit to run Sugihara bars on Stihl saws and I've had to drill a couple of oregon bars for the oiler holes to line up nicely.

I ended up with a 60v Dewalt, it was on sale for real close to the price of the 16ah battery and I found a deal on 70% off of some 60v 12ah batteries at the same time ... plus for better or worse I have a bunch of dewalt stuff already...

I use gas saws probably 90% of the time (mostly it's more "all day in the woodlot" projects at the moment..), but having a grab and go saw for knocking a downed limb out of the way and as a tractor carry saw is kind of handy.

I've heard good things about the Ego saws as well and a couple of friends invested into the Greenworks ecosystem (which seemed more worth while if you're invested in multiple tools..).