What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[gtaus]

Menards Pruning Pole Saw Sale

If you have a local Menards, I recommend signing up for their Flash Sale emails. Every once in a while, I find something at a deep discount that I buy. The item gets ships to my local Menards, and I just pick it up when I go to town.

Today, they sent out another email and I took notice of their Pruning Pole Saw kit that is on sale...

I bought my Ryobi Pruning Pole Saw about 10 years ago and spent considerably more for it just for the saw itself. I don't know the quality of this North Tech saw, but the kit comes with 2 batteries, charger, an extra chain, and even some gloves.

What I really liked about this North Tech kit is that the saw can be detached from the pole and used as a handheld pruning saw. I cannot do that with my Ryobi pole saw. The chainsaw is permanently attached to the pole.

I can tell you that I have a separate Ryobi pruning saw which I use all the time around the house. I use it more than my full-sized chainsaws. Most of the time, I only need to cut up smaller branches that fall on the lawn. I only use my pole saw maybe a couple times a year, but when I do use my pole saw, it's the perfect tool for that job.

With this North Tech kit, you get both advantages of a pole saw and a separate pruning saw. It's a 2 for 1 tool that costs a whole lot less than it would cost you with other tool brands. Again, I don't know the quality of this product, but it you don't like it, Menards has always been great at accepting returns.

FYI, here is the current sale price of my Ryobi 18v 6-inch pruning saw...

And here is my Ryobi 18v pruning saw...

I am very happy with my Ryboi pruning saw and the pole saw, but I paid well over $200 for both, tools only, no batteries or extra chains.

I don't know how Menards is able to offer these types of tools so much cheaper than their competitors, but I have recently purchased a replacement corded miter saw and table saw from Menards. They just had what I needed at considerably lower prices. So far, the tools I have purchased from Menards have been well worth the money for my needs and I have not had to return anything yet.

 

[Finchbreeder]

We don't have Menards or North Tech in Australia, that I have seen.
We have the Aldi and Bunnings comparisons.
I got my Ryobi battery opperated pruning tool from Bunnings. It cuts through branches with a diametre of 5cm with ease - and up to 8cm occasionally. Much better than when I had to brace the old pull cord job against my gut and pull like hell. It gave me a hernia.

 

[Finchbreeder]

That's cause I was pruning them off the tree above my head.

 

[gtaus]

We don't have Menards or North Tech in Australia, that I have seen. We have the Aldi and Bunnings comparisons.

I don't think Menards is everywhere in the USA, either. Even if you don't have a Menards, I hope people will consider getting a pole saw/pruning saw where the head can detach and you can use it as two tools. Like I said, when I bought my Ryobi pole saw ~10 years ago, I never saw a kit where the chainsaw head could be detached and used separately. So, I ended up buying both tools over the years at a considerably higher price than what a new pole/pruning chainsaw kit costs today. You can save a lot of money if you buy a unit where that head comes off and can be used separately.

I don't think Ryobi sells a pole saw where the head detaches. So, you would end up buying both a powered pole saw and a powered pruning chainsaw, like I did, for a lot more money.

Much better than when I had to brace the old pull cord job against my gut and pull like hell. It gave me a hernia.

I had a manual pole saw for many years before I got my powered Ryobi pole saw. Of course, I would never go back, either. The manual saw worked fine, but I aged out! Too much work for me. I had to get a powered saw or hire out those jobs to a younger man. The powered saws let me to continue to do things myself as I get older. That's a good thing.

BTW, I don't know how much other people have to pay for an arborist to trim trees, but where I live it can cost you hundreds of dollars for even small jobs. At $50.00 for that pole saw kit from Menards, if it only was used for one job that you could do yourself and not hire out, it will have more than paid for itself. Even better, now you have a tool that you can use until that saw or batteries die out.

Speaking of batteries, one of the big reasons I got into the Ryobi 18v line was that they promised to keep their 18v battery format forever. So far, my old blue 18v Ryobi Ni-Cad era tools I purchased ~20 years ago are still working great today. They even work better with the new Ryobi 18v Li-Ion batteries. I have saved a lot of money going with the Ryobi 18v tool line when I did. Prior to that, I had a mix of brands of battery powered tools that worked fine, but when the Ni-Cad batteries died after a few years, I could not get replacements. Great tools don't work with dead batteries. I have never regretted going with Ryobi just for the promise of keeping one 18v battery format for all 18v tools. My old Ni-Cad batteries are all long dead, but the tools live on with new Li-Ion batteries.

Don't underestimate how much it costs to buy batteries for your tools. If you are in a different brand of tools, I would suggest just trying to find what you need that shares your existing batteries. I suspect that some of these tool companies would be happy to give away some of their tools if you end up buying into their batteries.