Thread: Petrol vs cordless chainsaws

There was a huge thread on this not long ago.
Yes i would buy one

Originally Posted by TheEntertainer

Looking at the new cordless battery powered chainsaws., no cords, no 2 stroke, no smell and less noise, easy start...

But how close do they get in performance compared too the petrol powered ones.

Would you buy one?

Provided there is a facility for charging from your car then absolutely I would have one. Get two batteries. Oh, get a good one, not a Bunnings special.

10-14inch go battery
16inch+ go petrol
24inch+ use detcord

Originally Posted by TheEntertainer

Looking at the new cordless battery powered chainsaws., no cords, no 2 stroke, no smell and less noise, easy start...

But how close do they get in performance compared too the petrol powered ones.

Would you buy one?

No comparison in terms of performance!

But yes! .. for sure get one .. depending on what you want it for.

If you were an arborist, you'd have to try one out to see if it works for 'ya.

Got my dad a AEG 50-something(54v I think) volt full sized brush cutter and it's perfect for him.
Mind you he has 2 acres to trim back too. Battery lasts at least an hour which is more than enough for him(he's 80+).
But there's no starting issue(at over 80 he has no strength to start a petrol trimmer), and it powers through his bush block.
Going by that(which I've used as well of course), I'd say a proper full sized high voltage cordless chainsaw would be very useful.

On a personal note, my only use for a chainsaw is mainly for camping firewood.
For that I chose a Ryobi 18v(One +) cordless.
Already have a few other One+ tools, so it was a natural choice. Batteries galore, mainly their 4AHr types.
It's slow, but makes no noise.. whereas everyone else is making a racket in the bush .. and you go bush to get away from the racket of the big smoke!
While it's slow(er) compared to even a baby petrol saw, it still does the job. We've hacked 12" plus hardwood(all dry tho) .. and you just have to be mindful that it's going to take longer .. but it does the job.
The last time, we cut slices/wedges out of a fallen redgum(about 2 metes in diameter) but only to the point where an axe or splitter would hack the rest with one blow.
And you can get a nice 12v charger for the Ryobi One+ system too. I got it mainly for the chainsaw, but it's still a handy charger to have for the other tools if it ever came to it.
(if you're a lazy bugger like me, then you use the car charger if you're working on stuff near the car, rather than walk the 15m back to the house to charge a battery!)
The other things I like about the battery powered saw is that it's a lot safer to teach the kids to use a chainsaw too .. (12-15yo's) so the length of time it takes doesn't really matter, as they have a ball all chopping up the timber for the fire!
And following on from that, it's very easy to use one handed(and hence much safer than a petrol powered one).
The other week I had to (finally!) chop down a tree growing on the side of my house. Been putting it off for about a year now, as it's one of those too hard jobs that you always put off.
I waited mainly to time it so that there was absolutely no wind on the day. Tree about 4 meters tall, and I could only get up by about a meter to get as high as I could to chop it in as small pieces as possible .. and not have it fall and destroy the pailing fence too!
So one handedly I had to hold the top most of the trunk that I could reach and the other hand gently trimming enough timber(down low) so that as it gently fell, I could direct the top, 2m or so that I was cutting off towards a safe area.
in the end I trimmed only so much that it hardly even fell, and it was more like that it floated down as the timber softened and bent slowly(like a shock absorber damping effect).
There's no way I could have one handedly operated a petrol saw like that. (well, I'm not game too)
The tree was about 10" in dia, so it took longer than even a small petrol saw .. but I was glad that I only had a battery powered saw.
Took an hour to do the entire tree(about 10 cuts to keep the job manageable) and cut it down to a short stump in the ground now .. and the 4Ah battery still had plenty of juice to go!

Would I buy one .. no! .. but only coz I already have one

ps. the only annoyance with the Ryobi 18v One+ model is that if you use it for camping, you have to be sure you securely position it in an upright manner or it leaks oil(chain oil) out of somewhere.
If it tips, or is laid to rest on it's side, you get oil everywhere. But it doesn't come out of the cap!(I'll have to look into it one day).

With the Ryobi One+ set - add a Recip saw ($99) and cut all the firewood you like with almost no effort.

Cordless chainsaw experiences and recommendations?

Originally Posted by Tombie

With the Ryobi One+ set - add a Recip saw ($99) and cut all the firewood you like with almost no effort.

(EDIT: Haven't) Got one! .. never thought to take it with us.
They're much weaker with hard wood tho, so I stopped trying with it.
It literally stops if you push it hard with (say) redgum. Chainsaw must obviously have lower gearing as it doesn't feel as weak(by comparison) ..

but still a good option to have.

EDIT: I confused reciprocating with circular .. oops!
I do have a cheapie Ozito type reciprocating saw .. other than the odd pruning job, it's pretty weak.

I have a Stihl arborist battery chain saw. Does the job it's meant to do very well. I recommend two batteries.