(Dis)Advantages to using battery powered chainsaws

[Finnie]

Geeezzz!!! How much building stuff do you do to use and maintain all those batteries?
....or do you just have a battery/tool math problem

Seems to me if he did have a few batteries go dead, it would hardly make a dent!

 

[gtaus]

Seems to me if he did have a few batteries go dead, it would hardly make a dent!

That's true. Unfortunately, I'm at an age where I am often running on empty before I drain even one tool battery.

Well, that's not exactly true for batteries in a chainsaw because the chainsaw drains a battery down in little time. They are really energy hogs, but they get a lot done. I now have three 40v 4Ah batteries for the 14 inch chainsaws, and that gives me about an hour of cut time total. More than enough for most of my yard clean up work. If I have a really lot to clean up, then I will take out the 18v chainsaw for all the limbing and small work with all those 18v batteries I have, using the 40v only for the big cuts.

The electric lawn mower, leaf blower and grass trimmer eat up the batteries as well. I have a mini tiller that I use every so often, and that can drain down the battery pretty fast. Most of the outdoor equipment sucks the life out of a battery. So, it's good to have extra batteries for that work.

Most of my tools, like drills, impact wrenches, reciprocating saws, circular saws, flashlights, etc... can go for hours of use and still have lots of life left in the battery.

 

[Finnie]

I wish you lived closer to me…

 

[gtaus]

I wish you lived closer to me…

Yeah, my younger brother comes to visit me suspiciously around the time he needs something fixed or worked on. Just happens that way, I guess...

 

[Hayden Goseek]

Well everyone, thanks for the input (Whether I took your advice or not.)
I bought the Milwaulkee circular saw and drill motor as a set (M-18).
I saw a couple weeks ago that they were bringing their dog and pony show to the nearby Home Depot. I bought the set, with 2 batteries, charger and tool bag for $300. The blade size wasn't listed on the box but the sales person said it was 6.5 (it was 7 1/4). I think I'll be happy with them.
I charged the battries and tried them in my old drill motor and they worked. The old charger went into the trash. The chuck on the old motor was getting pretty ragged so it was time for a replacement anyway.

 

[gtaus]

Well everyone, thanks for the input (Whether it took your advice or not.)
I bought the Milwaulkee circular saw and drill motor as a set (M-18).
I saw a couple weeks ago that they were bringing their dog and pony show to the nearby Home Depot. I bought the set, with 2 batteries, charger and tool bag for $300. The blade size wasn't listed on the box but the sales person said it was 6.5 (it was 7 1/4). I think I'll be happy with them.
I charged the battries and tried them in my old drill motor and they worked. The old charger went into the trash. The chuck on the old motor was getting pretty ragged so it was time for a replacement anyway.

Glad to hear everything is worked out. Nice upgrade to the 7-1/4 inch saw!

 

[sdm111]

Well everyone, thanks for the input (Whether it took your advice or not.)
I bought the Milwaulkee circular saw and drill motor as a set (M-18).
I saw a couple weeks ago that they were bringing their dog and pony show to the nearby Home Depot. I bought the set, with 2 batteries, charger and tool bag for $300. The blade size wasn't listed on the box but the sales person said it was 6.5 (it was 7 1/4). I think I'll be happy with them.
I charged the battries and tried them in my old drill motor and they worked. The old charger went into the trash. The chuck on the old motor was getting pretty ragged so it was time for a replacement anyway.

I would suspect the 7.25 drive is beefier and can take more torque than the 6.5. Basically not burning out as fast. Let's be honest there's people that use tools then people that USE tools. I'll still always be a gas fan of somethings like chainsaws over cords or batteries although the electric corded pole saw works well but I did bend the chain blade that probably would not have happened on a gas unit

 

[sdm111]

I would suspect the 7.25 drive is beefier and can take more torque than the 6.5. Basically not burning out as fast. Let's be honest there's people that use tools then people that USE tools. I'll still always be a gas fan of somethings like chainsaws over cords or batteries although the electric corded pole saw works well but I did bend the chain blade that probably would not have happened on a gas unit

I'm a 2 stroke fan in general. They can be tuned to outright scream.

 

[gtaus]

I'll still always be a gas fan of somethings...

I'm still that way with snow blowers. Our local Home Depot sold a bunch of battery snow blowers a few years ago, and the manager told me that they were all returned. They were just not good enough - yet - for our northern Minnesota winters and snowfall.

Having said that, last year I purchased a small Ryobi 40v powered snow shovel and it's really good for light snowfalls, and for cleaning off the sidewalk and deck where I don't want to run the big gas snowblower.

But even the full sized battery snowblowers cannot match the performance of my big gas snowblower for clearing the driveway. I look forward to the day when the battery snowblowers are as good as, or better, then my gas snowblower.

 

[gtaus]

I'm a 2 stroke fan in general. They can be tuned to outright scream.

Problem is, I think most of us really don't know how to "tune" a gas engine, let alone keep it running right, without bringing it into the repair shop periodically for tune-ups and maintenance. That costs big money for labor these days. The labor cost alone exceeds the value of many used gas machines.

My battery-operated tools never need that type of maintenance or tune-ups. I'll let you know if/when any of my battery motors dies on me. I have battery grass trimmers over 10 years old now and still running like new with a fresh battery. I used to have to replace a gas trimmer every 2-3 years because of carburetor problems and the cost of repair exceeded the value of the used machine. I look forward to replacing my gas engines as fast as I can with electric motors - when the performance equals or exceeds the gas engines.