Electric chainsaws

[Flyonline]

Sitting out in the bush today as the winds howled through I decided it might be a good idea to get a small electric chainsaw to throw in the boot on the off chance I have to cut my way out of somewhere.

So looking for suggestions for a small relatively cheap saw that I can take away with me and maybe do some quick pruning and the like for the good half. Not fussed on size (I have a 14" stihl petrol already) other than bigger than a 'pruning' saw. The only battery tool I have now is a Makita drill so not locked into brand at this stage, though it would be handy if it was something I could get other skins for later if not Makita.

DeWalt and Ryobi are the two that seem to stand out, both with 12" saws, battery and charger for ~$250.

[bigpete]

I have a 14" ryobi and its an excellent little chainsaw,but it will chew through batteries pretty quick. I think it gets about an hour out of a 6ah battery. It really is a good thing hey

[Die Judicii]

Sitting out in the bush today as the winds howled through I decided it might be a good idea to get a small electric chainsaw to throw in the boot on the off chance I have to cut my way out of somewhere.

"Cut your way out" of somewhere ???

Well obviously your NOT a poacher or thief.
They usually use electric/cordless tools to cut their way IN.

[Oldbloke]

Sitting out in the bush today as the winds howled through I decided it might be a good idea to get a small electric chainsaw to throw in the boot on the off chance I have to cut my way out of somewhere.

"Cut your way out" of somewhere ???

Well obviously your NOT a poacher or thief.
They usually use electric/cordless tools to cut their way IN.

Pretty sure he means if tree drops over track preventing him driving home. Often happens in the high country.

I've used an ozito couple of times. I'd say for occassional use would be fine.

[Die Judicii]

Well obviously your NOT a poacher or thief.
They usually use electric/cordless tools to cut their way IN.

Pretty sure he means if tree drops over track preventing him driving home. Often happens in the high country.

I've used an ozito couple of times. I'd say for occassional use would be fine.

Most people would have taken that as a given.
Your quite literal aren't you.

[wanneroo]

I have a Makita saw that is 16in but they also make the same saw with a 14in bar. It's a two battery 36V. I see they make some different saws down to 12in.

Here's a few clips of it in action on my Youtube channel:
https://youtube.com/shorts/YhwNYP2cs1Q
https://youtube.com/shorts/lygl0_5V15c
https://youtube.com/shorts/o4bbOnkWroY

It will cut through thicker trees and it is handy to use for quick jobs. However like electric cars, once you put them under heavy load, their "range' goes down fast, the saw/batteries heat up. As long as you give them a breather for cutting through thick logs they will last a little longer.

I carry it around the property because it is convenient to use and works good for cutting up tree fall on road but if I was going to do serious sawing to cut up a tree for firewood, gas is hard to beat, those saws just keep going.

Personally I would avoid the little weenie saws using one 18v or 20v battery. I have one, they are ok for the guy living in the suburbs and pruning a tree or something but not for serious work. If you are going to do it, I'd definitely go 36V or 40V. If you are going to have to carve up some tree fall on a trail, I think you will be disappointed trying to hack away with an 18V or 20V saw.

[womble]

Yea I think he meant tree falling over the road.
Electric chainsaw likely won’t be up to the task.

I have the ryobi and I use it more than my small petrol stihl because it’s quiet and just easier than mixing fuel.
And in most situations it can do anything my small stihl can
But as mentioned above when put to the task the battery dose’nt last long. Which is ok for me because I have about 8 batteries and ryobi skins for many tools.
So when you go that route you kind of have to pick a brand and commit. I think the makita is a good choice also. They have great stuff.
You can get car chargers for ryobi batteries too.
The ryobi chainsaw is a good unit though. I’ve dropped it from about 6 meters up a tree and bent the blade. Just bent it back and still works just fine.

You mentioned your better half had occasional need for pruning. It would make a nice gift and you could just borrow it when necessary. I think a chainsaw is a lovely gift for a woman and I’m sure she’ll appreciate it.

[Oldbloke]

Yea I think he meant tree falling over the road.
Electric chainsaw likely won’t be up to the task.

I have the ryobi and I use it more than my small petrol stihl because it’s quiet and just easier than mixing fuel.
And in most situations it can do anything my small stihl can
But as mentioned above when put to the task the battery dose’nt last long. Which is ok for me because I have about 8 batteries and ryobi skins for many tools.
So when you go that route you kind of have to pick a brand and commit. I think the makita is a good choice also. They have great stuff.
You can get car chargers for ryobi batteries too.
The ryobi chainsaw is a good unit though. I’ve dropped it from about 6 meters up a tree and bent the blade. Just bent it back and still works just fine.

You mentioned your better half had occasional need for pruning. It would make a nice gift and you could just borrow it when necessary. I think a chainsaw is a lovely gift for a woman and I’m sure she’ll appreciate it.

I guess that's a pretty good recommendation.

[womble]

And a lithium battery on fire is quite the spectacle. And difficult to approach without getting shot.
Not something you’d want to deal with in the bush.

[Wapiti]

There's a group of campers that come out here all the time, school holidays and stuff.
I used to work with these mates of mine, they're all Mech Engineers that run shutdowns etc so they're always in for the latest gadgets.

I don't know how many electric chainsaws they have gone through over the last few years, they were on this kick of finally getting one that did the job, on the extremely hard ironbark and yellow box. The trip always ended up with me lending them one of my smaller petrol saws. I'm a Stihl fan.

It got so bad, they were cutting and burning old, smoky featherweight she-oak that grows in the creeks, because you can cut it with your dick.

I do believe there are Stihl battery saws that are awesome, but their last trip at easter, I was proudly shown a brand new 172 petrol saw. They finally gave up.

[bladeracer]

I keep the saws in the vehicle when it's blowing here as trees always come down across the roads. It takes a few batteries but the saws will certainly do the job of clearing the roads. I've also been out in the bush and had to clear tracks of fallen trees. The smaller saws are handier if you need to hike a bit, the 58V saw, and batteries, becomes a handful in that instance. All the batteries live in a bag and go straight onto the chargers as soon as we get home, so they're always ready to go. Now when a tree drops in an annoying spot, we can break it up into firewood right away, without wearing ourselves out trying to start the bloody saw for an hour.

We're using AEG saws, two 12" 18V, and one 18" 58V saw. The little ones are much handier for dressing out a tree to get into the trunk, then the big one deals with the big stuff very easily. We bought the first one during the 2021 storms that hit us here and dropped trees everywhere. We were finally fed up trying to start petrol saws when you actually need them to start so I dashed into town and bought the 12", which was amazing. Then I went to Farmworld specifically to pick up the 58V saw at a discount, which I did. But they had a deal going where whatever you spent they gave you credit to buy more stuff. It was something like "spend $100 and get $25 credit, spend $500 and get $250 credit, spend $750 and get $500 credit, spend $1000 and get $1000 credit", so I spent big

The first 12" saw eventually blew the gearbox so while it was at Bunnings getting repaired I bought another one. The first one was repaired at no cost. We still have the Oleo Mac petrol saw but it rarely comes out anymore, only when we need to cut a really big tree trunk up.

We had a working bee at one of the pistol clubs last weekend so I took the saws and cut up a tree that had dropped against the back of a demountable a couple years ago.

[Flyonline]

Thanks all for the replies!

Yes, was meaning just cleaning up a track to get through, nothing more. If I need anything more serious, I'd be making a phone call for the cavalry or backing out and trying a different route. I figure that if I can get 6x full depth cuts than I'd be free - anything more and I'll be needing a big petrol saw and/or a winch to move serious size logs.

I've used the Milwaukee at work for cutting up pallets and the like, so realise I won't get hours out of a small battery and they do have limits.

You mentioned your better half had occasional need for pruning. It would make a nice gift and you could just borrow it when necessary. I think a chainsaw is a lovely gift for a woman and I’m sure she’ll appreciate it.

Great minds think alike She initially wanted a 'pruning' saw but I said that as I'd be the one sharpening and looking after it (and probably doing most of the heavy lifting), a 'proper' saw would be a better idea and more useful.

[wanneroo]

There's a group of campers that come out here all the time, school holidays and stuff.
I used to work with these mates of mine, they're all Mech Engineers that run shutdowns etc so they're always in for the latest gadgets.

I don't know how many electric chainsaws they have gone through over the last few years, they were on this kick of finally getting one that did the job, on the extremely hard ironbark and yellow box. The trip always ended up with me lending them one of my smaller petrol saws. I'm a Stihl fan.

It got so bad, they were cutting and burning old, smoky featherweight she-oak that grows in the creeks, because you can cut it with your dick.

I do believe there are Stihl battery saws that are awesome, but their last trip at easter, I was proudly shown a brand new 172 petrol saw. They finally gave up.

I have a brand new Stihl 40V electric pole saw I got a year ago and sadly just have not had the time to use it once. But I will definitely need to use here soon in summer time as quite a bit of stuff is growing into the roads. Will be interesting to see how it does. I have a Makita 36V electric pole saw which is a beaut. It does a great job on cutting up the tops of downed trees.

[wanneroo]

Thanks all for the replies!

Yes, was meaning just cleaning up a track to get through, nothing more. If I need anything more serious, I'd be making a phone call for the cavalry or backing out and trying a different route. I figure that if I can get 6x full depth cuts than I'd be free - anything more and I'll be needing a big petrol saw and/or a winch to move serious size logs.

I've used the Milwaukee at work for cutting up pallets and the like, so realise I won't get hours out of a small battery and they do have limits.

You mentioned your better half had occasional need for pruning. It would make a nice gift and you could just borrow it when necessary. I think a chainsaw is a lovely gift for a woman and I’m sure she’ll appreciate it.

Great minds think alike She initially wanted a 'pruning' saw but I said that as I'd be the one sharpening and looking after it (and probably doing most of the heavy lifting), a 'proper' saw would be a better idea and more useful.

If you go with a 36V or 40V 14 or 16in saw from a quality manufacturer it will have no problem doing 6 cuts. And that is where electric saws shine, plug the bats in, press the button and go. If you were cutting it up for firewood, different story.

[wanneroo]

I keep the saws in the vehicle when it's blowing here as trees always come down across the roads. It takes a few batteries but the saws will certainly do the job of clearing the roads. I've also been out in the bush and had to clear tracks of fallen trees. The smaller saws are handier if you need to hike a bit, the 58V saw, and batteries, becomes a handful in that instance. All the batteries live in a bag and go straight onto the chargers as soon as we get home, so they're always ready to go. Now when a tree drops in an annoying spot, we can break it up into firewood right away, without wearing ourselves out trying to start the bloody saw for an hour.

We're using AEG saws, two 12" 18V, and one 18" 58V saw. The little ones are much handier for dressing out a tree to get into the trunk, then the big one deals with the big stuff very easily. We bought the first one during the 2021 storms that hit us here and dropped trees everywhere. We were finally fed up trying to start petrol saws when you actually need them to start so I dashed into town and bought the 12", which was amazing. Then I went to Farmworld specifically to pick up the 58V saw at a discount, which I did. But they had a deal going where whatever you spent they gave you credit to buy more stuff. It was something like "spend $100 and get $25 credit, spend $500 and get $250 credit, spend $750 and get $500 credit, spend $1000 and get $1000 credit", so I spent big

The first 12" saw eventually blew the gearbox so while it was at Bunnings getting repaired I bought another one. The first one was repaired at no cost. We still have the Oleo Mac petrol saw but it rarely comes out anymore, only when we need to cut a really big tree trunk up.

We had a working bee at one of the pistol clubs last weekend so I took the saws and cut up a tree that had dropped against the back of a demountable a couple years ago.

One thing that helped big time with gas saws was I started using canned pre mix fuel and that solved a lot of the problems of getting the gas saws going.

[bladeracer]

One thing that helped big time with gas saws was I started using canned pre mix fuel and that solved a lot of the problems of getting the gas saws going.

Drain the tank and carb after use and fill them up with fresh when you need them?

[JohnV]

I use Castrol outboard oil at 60 to 1 and Premium fuel , it's a good idea to run the saw out of fuel before storage but I never bother . I have plenty of wood so my saws have not been used much this year but they start up good now as I have worked out a system to hold down the one that has insane compression and no decompressor valve .
My chainsaws don't run on the choke . They fire on the choke then I push it off and then they fire up . They definitely run better on Premium fuel .

[Bugman]

Yep. Love the small of two stroke in the morning.

[wanneroo]

One thing that helped big time with gas saws was I started using canned pre mix fuel and that solved a lot of the problems of getting the gas saws going.

Drain the tank and carb after use and fill them up with fresh when you need them?

Well probably should but I don't.