(Dis)Advantages to using battery powered chainsaws

[gtaus]

UPDATE: I told you all about my Amazon off brand Ryobi 40v battery bad experience. I just got a battery capacity load tester from Amazon this week and have been checking out some of my batteries. Here is a link to that specific thread.

DIYer's - Testing my old Power Tool batteries

Anyways, I'm thinking about trying a different Amazon reseller and checking out the capacity of their Ryobi knock off batteries with my new battery load tester. I have been watching Home Depot for a sale on tools with original Ryobi 40v batteries, but nothing good has been on sale. So, I'm leaning towards a knock off battery again. Amazon has been great to return a product that you don't like, or is defective. As an Amazon Prime member, I take advantage of easy returns when I don't like a product.

 

[gtaus]

UPDATE: My original Ryobi 40v 14 inch chainsaw had a fixed battery compartment on top of the unit. That limited me to using their largest, at the time, 40v 4Ah battery. I was OK with that, but now there are other options larger than the 4Ah battery which would provide longer run times.

You can see the battery inserted into the top of my old chainsaw in this picture....

There are times that it would be nice to have more than 15-20 minutes of cutting time with my single 4Ah battery chainsaw. So, I jumped on a pre-winter sale of the Ryobi 40v Snow Shovel kit that came with another 4Ah battery. I was thinking that I would have at least doubled my runtime with 2 4Ah batteries.

Now, I really did not care about the snow shovel itself. I have a big 2 stage 26 inch gas snow blower for cleaning the driveway. This small snow shovel is never going to replace my gas snow blower here in northern Minnesota. However, I got the entire kit, on sale, for less than the price of a new 4Ah battery. Basically, I was getting the new 4Ah battery for less money than it cost to buy it alone, plus I was getting and new powerhead, a new charger, and the snow shovel attachment for free. Seemed like a no brainer for me to jump on that deal!

As you have probably guessed, it did not work out that way. The new 40v 4Ah battery did not fit into the fixed battery compartment of my older Ryobi chainsaw.

I immediately contacted Ryobi customer service and told them that their new 40v 4Ah batteries were about 1/4 inch larger than the older versions of the Ryobi 40 4Ah battery and that it would not fit into my chainsaw. So, I requested to swap out my new 4Ah battery with another Ryobi 4Ah battery that would fit my original chainsaw.

That turned out to be impossible for Ryobi. First of all, they said cannot replace a battery in the kit with a different battery. To which I replied, you would send me out a different battery if this one failed, so what's the big deal? Then they responded that all their 40v batteries work with all their 40v tools. Again, I said, I have the original chainsaw and the new battery here, and the battery does not fit into the fixed battery compartment. They replied that I was wrong and that all their batteries were compatible and would work in my chainsaw.

I am thinking customer service used to be much better.

Anyways, I packed up everything and went into town to our local Home Depot. I asked to talk to a manager. I told him that I was getting nowhere with Ryobi customer support, and asked him to show me how their new 40v 4Ah battery fits into my original chainsaw. I handed him my original 4Ah battery which fit, no problem. Then I gave him the new 4Ah battery and asked him to show me how it fits. Of course, he could not get it to fit either. The newer case is about 1/4 inch too big.

To his credit, the local HD manager was willing to swap out a battery for me. He took 3 different 4Ah batteries he had in the store, opened each package, and none of them fit!

At that point, I stated that I had no problem with my Ryobi chainsaw, but I was very concerned that Ryobi no longer has a battery that will fit into my chainsaw and essentially, I have an orphaned tool. And, I added, to make it even worse, this chainsaw is still under warranty.

To cut to the quick, the local HD manager swapped out my old chainsaw under warranty replacement with a brand new chainsaw kit, with battery and charger and said he was going to talk to their regional Ryobi rep when they come around the next quarter.

The new version of the chainsaw comes with an open battery compartment on the underside, so you can use any battery including the newer higher 5 and 6Ah batteries.

In the end, thanks to the local HD manager, I came out ahead on this deal. The new chainsaw kit costs about twice the price I paid for my original tool only purchase of this chainsaw. I only had 6 months left on the original warranty, but I am hoping that the new chainsaw will last much longer. I did not get a new 3 year warranty, but, all things considered, I am not going to push that point.

I have many Ryobi tools, and by and large they have served me well, but their customer service is really no longer responsive, or maybe just not well informed. How can they tell me that their new batteries fit into my old chainsaw? Do they just read from a script? Nobody from customer service seemed to understand, or care, about my issue. I am glad that this was not my first experience with Ryobi.

A few weeks later, I got an email from a "manager" at Ryobi who stated that they were going to pass my issue up to some technical support team. They asked me for the S/N of the old Ryobi chainsaw and the S/N of the new battery. That's the last I heard from them - about 3 months ago.

 

[aart]

To cut to the quick, the local HD manager swapped out my old chainsaw under warranty replacement with a brand new chainsaw kit, with battery and charger

Whew, boy, you lucked out big time there!!!

I wouldn't buy an EGO chainsaw until I took my EGO trimmer battery to the store and proved it would fit in the chainsaw.

 

[Sally PB]

I'll caution DH about this. We have all DeWalt tools, but you never know. Planned obsolescence.

 

[gtaus]

Whew, boy, you licked out big time there!!!

I wouldn't buy an EGO chainsaw until I took my EGO trimmer battery to the store and proved it would fit in the chainsaw.

I don't live in a big metro area, so our HD does not carry lots of things that are available online. The powered snow shovel kit I bought was from online sales. My local HD does not carry that package. But, HD has been really good in both returns and exchanges for things that I buy online. So, no complaints in that regard.

But, yes, I would have brought my chainsaw into the store to make sure the new battery in that kit would fit my chainsaw. Having said that, Ryobi customer service still insists that battery was compatible with my model chainsaw. Nothing like tools in hand to verify that assumption.

Again, my original chainsaw had a fixed battery compartment on top of the unit that the battery slipped into. I think they realized their mistake because the next version of that chainsaw moved the battery compartment to the bottom of the unit and was left open, meaning you could use any future bigger sized battery as well.

My lesson learned was not to buy tools with fixed battery compartments.

 

[gtaus]

I'll caution DH about this. We have all DeWalt tools, but you never know. Planned obsolescence.

Ryobi prides itself on making their tools and batteries compatible. In my 18v One+ tool line, my ~20 year old tools work just fine with any battery I would buy off the shelf today. No planned obsolescence in that respect.

Although all my original Ryobi Ni-Cad batteries are no longer in service, I still am using my 10+ years old Li-Ion batteries. I tested one of them this past summer and it still held about 80% of its rated charge. I would call that a success considering batteries only have a warranty of 3 years. Out of maybe 30 Ryobi tool batteries, I only had one fail within the warranty period and they replaced it no problem.

This chainsaw was in their 40v line of outdoor tools, and like I said, I think they realized they made a mistake with a fixed battery compartment and corrected it in the next version of that chainsaw. Where I think Ryobi dropped the ball is that they do not provide their customer service reps with the knowledge that their battery cases were redesigned and might not fit into older tools, like my original chainsaw.

Well, happy ending for me. I started off with only one 4Ah battery, and now I am up to 3 4Ah batteries, which should give me up to about one hour of runtime for much larger projects than I could do before. I used my battery chainsaws for about 95% of my jobs around the house, and now, with 3 batteries, it might even be more.

 

[sdm111]

The disadvantages I see are the environmental damage batteries do during manufacture and after they wear out. I hope that ban doesn't spread.

This x 1000! Also a point to make. How do the batteries get charged? How it the electricity created? I'll run my chainsaw with about an 1/8th gallon of gas and be done with what the poster pictured. How much fuel will be used charging the 2 batteries for a week?

 

[sdm111]

In general, I am much happier with my battery powered equipment than with my older gas yard equipment. For example, I used to have to buy a new gas trimmer every 2-3 years because the carbs would always go out on them. I have had my battery trimmer now for almost 15 years - still works like day one. Of course, the batteries don't last that long and have been replaced.

I bought into the Ryobi line of tools, so whenever I buy a new battery I can use it in all my Ryobi tools. Whatever tool line you buy into, it's great that your batteries will work on your other tools. Over the years, I have purchased many batteries and tools that all share the same battery platform. For me, buying a few new batteries every 2-3 years is a lot cheaper than having to replace my fouled gas carb equipment.

FYI, I do have a gas Sthil 16 inch chainsaw. It starts up and runs fine for about 10 minutes, then it floods out and will not start again that day. Unfortunately, shop time repairs on gas engines too often exceed the value of the item to be repaired. About 5 years ago, I bought the Ryobi 14 inch chainsaw and does almost everything I need to do around the house. Would I like a longer run time on my batteries. Yes. But, I'm OK with spreading the job over a number of days and just taking my time.

I'm old enough to remember using hand tools out at my grandparent's lake cabin where we had no electricity. We had to hand saw all wood and I first used a manual drill that you had to hold in place while you hand cranked the thing. It worked, but not so fast or convenient as our battery operated tools of today. We built an entire new cabin without the use of any electricity, and no battery powered tools back in the day.

It's not that I hat gas yard tools, but rather that I got tired of having to replace so many of my small gas engines after a few years because the carbs would go bad.



Yep, love my Ryobi battery powered chainsaws (I have both the 40v and 18v versions). I have been buying Ryobi 18v tools for almost 20 years, and have many batteries in my collection. For a high drain device like a chainsaw, you need lots of batteries if you plan on doing a big job. I could probably run my Ryobi 18v chainsaw all day and still have some batteries left to use at the end of the day. But, the 18v chainsaw is a smaller 12 inch bar, so you are not going to be playing lumberjack. The 40v chainsaw is more powerful and cuts faster, but I only have 2 batteries for the 40v line. Batteries are expensive, so I usually just do part of a big job each day using the batteries I have.



Once you buy into a brand, you are pretty much locked into their tools. For my DIY/Home use needs, I found Ryobi to be the best fit for me in both price and quality.



I bought a Ryobi 18v 16 inch mower a number of years ago. I use it close to the house and in places where I cannot mow with my riding mower. It works great and runs on the same batteries as my Ryobi tools. There was a mix up with my order, and I ended up getting a second 18v mower for almost nothing. I came out ahead on that deal.

As for a shredder, if what you are talking about is a wood chipper, then I have mixed opinions of those options. I have a larger gas chipper that will chip up to 3 inch round branches. I have a smaller electric chipper that will chip up to 1.25 inch branches. For small stuff, I just use the electric chipper, but it takes forever to chip up a garden wagon full of wood. My gas chipper, is much, much faster, but sometimes it is a challenge to start.

I use wood chips for the chickens all the time. Since I found out that I can get a trailer full of free wood chips at our county landfill, which takes me about 20 minutes to load, I have been less excited about chipping wood at home with my chippers. That trailer full of free wood chips at the county landfill takes me 20 minutes of work to load up, but if I were to chip up that much wood at home, I would be spending hours and hours even on the bigger, faster, gas chipper.

I still use my chippers at home, but only for yard cleanup and I don't go out of my way to chip up wood at home unless I have the time. If I don't have the time for chipping yard waste, it just gets dumped in a big pile out in the tall grass/woods behind the house.

Carbs only "go bad" from lack of running them once a week or two to avoid the gas gumming up the jets. Or you could simply put stabil or any other fuel treatment or use gas without ethanol. That's your fault not the equipments. And it dying after about 10 min. Sounds like it's seizing from overheating. Do you use 2 stroke oil in the gas? Highly unlikely to flood after it's hot and running

 

[sdm111]

You have me thinking about battery chainsaws again. They're not going to do a BIG job but most jobs are small. ( I wonder if a battery sawsall would work for a lot of those?)
I have lost so many chainsaw and generators engines to 'varnish' in carberator ports!
I broke down and got an electric mower for my small yard and I love it.

When we need chainsaws we may not have a way to charge batteries or could save the generator for more pressing issues and a bottle of stabil will solve gumming up

 

[Sammster]

I like my battery-powered tools for their convenience, light weight, quiet. They aren't environmentally friendly. Aside from the reasons mentioned above - there is the energy used to charge them. Electricity plants are mostly powered with coal. Very dirty. And batteries last only so long. Often costing more than (or close to)a whole new tool/battery purchase. This fills the landfills with otherwise usable tools. Very dumb and wasteful.