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..).

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

I had a Stihl MS291 20" saw that constantly gave trouble, parts breaking, I used Stihl oil mix & careful with it. Finally muffler fell off, bolts stripped out of the jug. Probably 40 hours use max. I gave it to the tree cutter here last spring when I had lots of trees down. Every saw he had was Stihl.
Mine still had $600 sticker on it. Stihl dealer I bought it from said just past warranty.
I have a small Greenworks 40V saw I've had for years...never a problem. If I cut lots of trees of course I'd go with gas.
I helped Dad cut trees and in the 50s he had a David Bradley 4 cycle saw. Manual oiler. Wish I had it for nostalgia.

 

[ultrarunner]

40 years ago I bought my first cordless drill driver and flashlight set from Makita with the 7.2 battery.

Contractor friends laughed saying nice toy.

My first project was sheetrocking a 650 square feet cottage and I never looked back...

I still have that combo kit and it never let me down.

Almost 10 years ago I bought my first Stihl battery saw for the Christmas Tree Farm and now it's all we use.

No more keeping 4 gas chain saws just to make sure 2 would always be ready.

During the busy season the hundreds of daily start/stop took a toll on the gas saws... battery saws no issue,

Every fall I would take the gas saws to the dealer for seasonal tune up where my battery saws have never seen the dealer after sale.

The SF Bay Area fuel causes a lot of carb problems across the board for seasonal equipment... garden tractors, Farmall Cub, Chainsaws, Generators, etc...

For all I know the plan is to weed out gas power tools... it's illegal to use gas powered blowers and brush cutters in a growing number of cities here...

Battery is an investment with the greatest pain the first purchase buying battery, charger and tool.

My thinking is Stihl AP line will have longevity and so far battery enhancements are backward compatible...

It does make it a little easier on the pocketbook that my battery tools are used in business and expensed...

I probably should sell the gas powered equipment that no longer gets used.

It's a regional thing as I have picked up Honda Mowers, Echo Chainsaws and Trimmers for free as households get rid of them at the annual bulky pickup day...

 

[WinterDeere]

I had a Stihl MS291 20" saw that constantly gave trouble, parts breaking, I used Stihl oil mix & careful with it. Finally muffler fell off, bolts stripped out of the jug. Probably 40 hours use max.

??? what do you think happened? Factory defect? Counterfeit saw?

I've owned a lot of Stihl saws, and they've all been great. I will say 20" is a heck of a lot of bar on a saw as small as a MS291, I wouldn't even run a bar that big on an 036/362, given the amount of oak and hickory we cut. The softwood guys north and west get away with longer bars per cc than we do here on the east coast.

I gave it to the tree cutter here last spring when I had lots of trees down. Every saw he had was Stihl.

Yeah, that's normal here, too. Most of the tree companies seem to be Stihl only or Husqvarna only, with Stihl having the larger share of that pie around here. I'm pretty friendly with two local tree guys, and one is all-Stihl, while the other buys Stihl for his crews but prefers Husqvarna for himself.

 

[DKCDKC]

Love my Ego battery saw. I live at the end of a mile long driveway through a forest. When trees or branches fall across the road, it is wonderful to go cut it up and get it out of the way right away without having to gather stuff and work to start my big gas Stihl Farm Boss. I have cut 14 inch trees up with little problem. I have other Ego stuff and multiple batteries for major situations. I also have multiple chains - although I need to take them in now to get sharpened after two years.

 

[Grumpycat]

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.

All EGo batteries work in all EGo tools. All are 56V.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

??? what do you think happened? Factory defect? Counterfeit saw?

I've owned a lot of Stihl saws, and they've all been great. I will say 20" is a heck of a lot of bar on a saw as small as a MS291, I wouldn't even run a bar that big on an 036/362, given the amount of oak and hickory we cut. The softwood guys north and west get away with longer bars per cc than we do here on the east coast.


Yeah, that's normal here, too. Most of the tree companies seem to be Stihl only or Husqvarna only, with Stihl having the larger share of that pie around here. I'm pretty friendly with two local tree guys, and one is all-Stihl, while the other buys Stihl for his crews but prefers Husqvarna for himself.

I used 18" & 20" bars. I bought it from Ace hardware, Stihl dealer, $599.95+tax. Maybe a lemon, counterfeit, who knows...but one problem after another.
I'm sure tree guy was happy, maybe fixed everything. What's funny is he had lots of workers here...one grabbed my saw, couple pulls, it started & cut down a large Bradford Pear with it...no muffler & LOUD!
Today I used Greenworks 60V a lot...but white pine (soft) & it sure worked great.

 

[Hay Dude]

I can’t get the RPM’s out of a lectric saw I like to move fast through a downed tree or bucking logs, but I recognize and appreciate the surging popularity of the battery saw.

Had a DeWalt 60V with a 18” bar. Just ran too slow for me. I sold it.
Really like the looks of the Stihl MSA 300, but man is it expensive….

 

[John_Mc]

When I was shopping for my electric saw, part of what tipped the decision to DeWalt was the fact that they had contracted with Oregon to make the bars and chains.

Milwaukee does the same thing, as do several other chainsaw manufacturers. (don;t let the name painted on some of the bars fool you.)

I suspect Oregon, Tsmura, and Carlton are probably making bars for half the other brand stamps you'll see on the market, but each manufacturer can specify a different mounting pattern.

That is correct.
BTW, Oregon owns Carlton.

 

[Hay Dude]

I liked Makitas approach of twin batteries from years ago.
I think the Stihl 300 with twin batts might be the way to roll.
Especially if you could have a single batt for a short bar for light limbing, then switch to a 20” bar and twin batts for logs.

 

[John_Mc]

Milwaukee has jumped on the dual battery bandwagon. Their model 2827-22 is claimed to have the power of a 70cc gas chainsaw.

I have not laid eyes on one yet.