electric chain saws (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Joined
Nov 6, 2013
Threads
17
Messages
815
I bought an electric Craftsman chainsaw a couple of years ago and used it for some small stuff and then put it one a shelf and didn't touch it until today.
It has a 16" bar and when I got it out checked the bar oil and started cutting.
I also have a 14" 40volt saw I bought about 6 months ago.
That little saw goes through a sizable piece of wood pretty quick.
In 1980 I went off the grid and heated with just wood and then where I am now with wood until two years ago.
All that time it was mess with the chainsaw to get it running for the season and mess with them during the season.
I am sure someone will claim to never have problems with their chainsaws but it was never the case with me.
After I put a furnace in two years ago I planned on never cutting wood again but the power company said I needed to remove some trees on my property that were to close to the transformer.
I don't like cutting live trees and the fact that they were Sassafras made it even harder so rather than let them be ground up I had them leave the trees for me.
I diced up some of it but would like to do something wit the larger pieces rather than just burn it.
Anyone have experience with Sassafras?
Her are some pics of my old ars using the electric chainsaws.
This is the 110V Craftsman
1922585

The 40V from harbor freight
1922586
 
I've watched several youtube vid reviews of some of the newer cordless saws from major manufacturers and they do look surprisingly impressive in cutting ability. Less so on runtime though.
 
Yes run time is restrictive for the battery saw.
I figure half hour of solid cutting before performance starts to drop but any more I am ready to knock off in a half hour and if I do have the desire to keep going there is the 110 plug in as long as I can get the logs with in 25 feet of an out let.
One can find draw backs in just about any thing but what I have liked most about the electric is low noise, no exhaust and the constant torque.
 
well, I have no direct personal experience with electric saws, but I can see that a corded one would be pretty much useless for my needs. Unless you have a very small place and yet somehow lots of wood, the cord reach limitation is just too big a drawback for me. However, I will say that for a climbing saw, a light tiny battery saw seems very appealing.
 
I bought an Aldi electric chainsaw as an experiment. It is 110 volt and has a 2 or 3 year warranty. It does surprisingly well.
 
We have the green pro. the middle size battery. Great for little jobs about the house. It's definitely not for continuous long term cutting, but to take down one small tree to do some branch trimming it's awesome. I have to agree with OP that I've moved away from all small gas motors - they all go bad and then I have to drop them off, pick them off, pay a lot of money. If I were to buy again, I'd buy the big one. It lacks the torque of gas.
 
I'm not that fond of ICEs in general, I must say. The design is quite clunky in the big picture and not that satisfactory to folks fond of elegant designs I think, in contrast to electric motors. However, having said that, I must add that I'm also stunned at how well ICEs function and how reliable they are. I have at any given time probably close to a dozen little gas engines around the house. In various forms, and may have had close to that many for 20 or 30 years. I have NEVER had to bring one to a repair shop. And I'm no expert on those things, just a regular DIYer. I don't use fancy premixed gas either, just my own run of the mill on the spot mix. And I am in one of those states that impose large amounts of ethanol on their sheep. Only preventive maintenance I do is to empty the tanks before long time storage and clean the air filters every so often. Over the last 20 or 30 years, I may have had to change 3 or 4 gas lines, maybe one fuel filter (not even sure about that). And I don't mean for each, I mean total. I may have squirted some carb cleaner in an intake 2 or 3 times. And futzed with carb screws maybe 2 or 3 times. In over 20 years. That's it. I never had one die on me or one that could not be started. Generally, they all start within less than 5 pulls and for most, within 2 or 3 pulls. Admittedly, I don't use those professionally, just homeowner work. And I don't have crap generic chinese engines. But I can't imagine I'm unusually lucky either.
 
I’m still doing small stuff with a corded Stihl my Dad bought when I was ~8ish, because Mom ‘laid down the law’ on a gas saw.
And pops wanted firewood during my Summer breaks, so we had that saw & a hydro splitter myself & sister got real used to.

That saw still works great to this day, somewhere and it’s close to 40yrs old real soon.

That said, I saw pretty impressive reviews of 40v & 60v DeWalts - somehow the 40v beat the 60v, and there were some ~4 other brands in the review/shootout.

I almost think @e9999 posted the article link, if he recalls talk of the fire dept where he lives packing the DeWalts on the truck - it’s been a easy 6-8mo since we talked it.
 
Gentlemen I have and have had a dewalt 20v cordless chaninsaw for a year and its a beast last long enough on a 20 volt 6AH battery to turn a brich tree into an all night campfire easy. doing a video on it this weekend hopefully answer some questions. ate the tree pictured blocking the trail like a overwei
DSCN0119.JPG
ght young man would a oven prepared baked good.
 
i got the dewalt 60v this spring. its pretty damn great. havent maxed out the runtime yet but i should be able to run it dead in a week when im chopping up old sections of dock. friend of mine also has the 20v and used it at work to cut up telephone poles for a project all day. he likes it.
 
^^^ agree w/ both @RFB & @kruisinkid opinions.

-Some guys just swear they need the 2-stroke fumes, and I agree fully a Stihl 049 is the balls if you’re living off-grid, doing a crazy level of trail maintenance work, or obviously a fulltime logger.

Aside from that the new gen of battery saws can do work, esp if you learned on gas saws so you barely ever pinch the chain/bar.

The rest of us can get a whole lot done on a Dewalt (best aside from Stihl, but Stihl is 4x the $$$ w/ the proper battery) - or even the old corded saws if you have an outlet or generator handy.

If I want to wear 2-stroke fumes, I’d want to earn it on a YZ250, but my old butt can’t handle the bike like I could in ‘05 when they went AL frames & the bike went berserk like a scalded cheetah.
 
I have both gas and battery Stihl saws. The battery saw won’t replace the gas for all day work but it’s my goto for most work on my property. I also take it camping and on the trail. When it comes time to cut firewood all day it’s the gas saw.

3C833965-1B4B-4D7C-BD5B-AD2DF5969BAA.jpeg
 
Last edited:
I have both gas and battery Stihl saws. The battery saw won’t replace the gas for all day work but it’s my goto for most work on my property. I also take it camping and on the trail. When it comes time to cut firewood all day it’s the gas saw.

I have two gas saws a corded electric and a battery chainsaw.
Up until three years ago electric wouldn't have cut it, no pun intended, with the amount of fire wood I was bringing in.

I put in a furnace three years ago and hardly use any of my saws since then.

They have all set on the shelf for the most part but I was just on the front deck and looking at the oak tree outside my studio thinking I should trim the limbs that are getting close to the roof.

I will bet dollars to doughnuts that neither of the two gas saws will start with out a lot of pulls and farting around if they start at all but with the electric I just check chain oil level and I am good to go.

Just getting my old carcass up in the tree will be the real chore.
 
My gas saw starts each season with little resistance? 15 years old now, I replace the air filter and plug occasionally. It’s carb has never been touched since leaving the dealer.
Depends on the gas you use and how you store it.
My Still is 12 years old and I use the ethanol and don't drain it when not in use so the carb diaphragm is always getting brittle and needing changing.
I have a Walmart gas saw, can't think of the brand with out looking, that my son has been using for almost as many years and it starts every time with minimal fuss.
While he does use ethanol he drains the gas when not in use and uses seafoam.

I cut those tree limbs I mentioned but did't use a power saw.
They were about 2 inches in diameter so rather than climbing a ladder I used an extension handle with the hook saw on the end while standing on the ground.
After cutting four of them it makes just about any power saw look good.
 
I never drain mine. I’m sure it’s full now of gas from last fall. No ethanol.

+1 - but I do buy & try to use Sta-bil in my gas / various carb’d stuff.
:meh:
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom