Dewalt Electric Chainsaw

I'm not affiliated with Dewalt or Home Depot or anything else that would make me any money from this, just passing along a deal I saw.  Home Depot has the 20v Dewalt electris chainsaw on sale for $99.  It is the bare tool only, so if you don't already have 20v electric Dewalt tools, you may want to shop for a sale on those as well.  I bought one of the saws, as did a friend I showed this to.  Neither of us have had a chance to spend any real time with it, but it seems like a nice little saw for limbing and cutting smaller trees.  It's lightweight and quiet, with none of the noise, fuel, and associated hassles.  At this price, it may be cheap enough for people that were on the fence about trying an electric chainsaw.  Keep in mind, it's a 12 inch bar, so it's pretty short.  I had it delivered to my house at no charge.

Dewalt chainsaw at Home Depot.

What a great price!  And I can definitely use a chainsaw here.

'Tool Only.'  Understood, but I have all kinds of batteries and chargers here in the basement, surely Dewalt is represented ...

Skil. Two different from Ryobi.  Worx.  Wait, that's it??

To quote Deputy Dawg, 'Dagnabbit!'

I bought the Milwaukee. My neighbor has one, and I was very impressed. I got rid of my Stihl and bought one. So far, it is the best battery operated tool I have ever bought, and better than the Stihl. Can't recommend it enough. Go for the quality, not the price.

Tool only: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-M18-FUEL-16-in-18-Volt-Lithium-Ion-Brushless-Cordless-Chainsaw-Tool-Only-2727-20/307750956
Tool with battery and rapid charger: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-M18-FUEL-16-in-18-Volt-Lithium-Ion-Battery-Brushless-Cordless-Chainsaw-Kit-with-12-0-Ah-Battery-and-M18-Rapid-Charger-2727-21HD/305058651

Jim Guinn wrote:Go for the quality, not the price.

As in most things, quality is a range, not an either/or.  Milwaukee makes good tools.  I have some.  I also have lots of Dewalt tools, also very good.  Is the Milwaukee worth triple what the Dewalt is?  I'm not qualified to say, not having the Milwaukee  chainsaw, but my guess would be, it may be worth it if you are going to use it many hours a year, but probably not if you are a casual user.  I'm also going to go out on a limb here and say that most electric chainsaw users are casual users.  I've never seen a person that uses a chainsaw for a living, or for say, more than a hundred hours a year that uses anything except gas powered huskys and stihls.  Many people in this area, my family included in years past, cut firewood and/or pulpwood for a living.  None of them would ever use anything other than the aforementioned gas powered saws.  Electric saws simply aren't powerful enough or hardy enough to cut wood all day every day when you are doing it as a profession.  

I can see using an electric chainsaw if you owned something like a landscaping service or tree pruning service in an area where light weight, quiet chainsaws are necessary.  In a case like that, the Milwaukee may justify the extra cost.  

Either way, I wasn't trying to start a debate as to which tools are better, just to pass along a deal I saw.  Anyone that isn't interested is certainly free to skip clicking the link

Trace Oswald wrote:Either way, I wasn't trying to start a debate as to which tools are better, just to pass along a deal I saw.  Anyone that isn't interested is certainly free to skip clicking the link

Yeah, for most consumers as long as you go with one of the big 3 (makita, dewalt, milwaukee), you are good to go. And different areas have different dealers (think warranty), some with better deals and support than others. So it's hard to say what's best at the end of the day.

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If someone has enough batteries (or patience to wait), or the usage is minimal enough, or they don't own a gas chainsaw, then I'd say it'd be worthwhile to try it out. I do a lot of pruning, so I have a brushless reciprocating saw with several 5 aH batteries. One battery typically lasts for 20 minutes of continuous cutting, so I imagine that an electric chainsaw doing heavier/faster work would use up more power = less run time by comparison.  

The distinction I've made is that the reciprocating saw does a good job cutting wood that is less than 8 inches in diameter, and anything over 8 inches is best cut with a chainsaw. It's just a guideline I use, but it can depend a lot on what you are cutting as well.

Anyways, just some additional observations for curious consumers - I am also not here to start a debate :)

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My employer asked me about getting a dewalt electric chainsaw last year for his farm, but the price here in Canada is $250-300, so it was not really worth it. For $100 though, it's certainly worth a try. The worst case scenario is that you use it for 20 hours to clean up your yard, and sell it for half price later - a good return on investment either way.

That does seem like a good price, and I have that saw and it’s been great for me (had it 6months). However, given how it seems tool companies play the game, I would not be surprised it is  a precursor to a battery price hike. I think I got mine for 309$ with the 6aH battery, which I think was well worth it, but even with a full price battery separately 99$ is a great price.

I don't know why it took me a week to find this thread, but I am liking this.  I, too have recently become something of a battery powered chainsaw convert.  Mine is the 40v Kobalt brand which is good but not great.  It does a very nice job of cutting anything up to 12" in diameter and the 2.5 ah battery lasts a surprisingly long time.  Granted, mine is in the OPE category, while the DeWalt is in what I would call the "cordless tool" category.  I would love to hear a good review of either the DeWalt or the Milwaukee in action as both sound like nice machines.  I wonder how they would compare to my 40v (really a 36v to compare apples to apples) saw?

Eric

Eric Hanson wrote:I don't know why it took me a week to find this thread, but I am liking this.  I, too have recently become something of a battery powered chainsaw convert.  Mine is the 40v Kobalt brand which is good but not great.  It does a very nice job of cutting anything up to 12" in diameter and the 2.5 ah battery lasts a surprisingly long time.  Granted, mine is in the OPE category, while the DeWalt is in what I would call the "cordless tool" category.  I would love to hear a good review of either the DeWalt or the Milwaukee in action as both sound like nice machines.  I wonder how they would compare to my 40v (really a 36v to compare apples to apples) saw?

Eric

I have the dewalt flexvolt(60V max, aka about 54V) and the 16"/56V Ego saw. I have used the Milwaukee M18 saw, briefly.

The dewalt is a piece of shit, and the service from the company disgraceful. I've bitched about it at length in other threads.

The m18 is a real chainsaw in electric form. It has a proper tensioner and actual steel bucking spikes, albeit small. It didn't seem any less powerful than the dewalt, and I would trust milwaukee build quality and battery longevity more than dewalt.

The Ego is built more like the dewalt. The ergnomics aren't great. The motor is revy, not torque, takes a bit of getting used to. The lack of bucking spikes sucks hard, and the oil filler is annoying. But, the toolless tensioner works ok so far, and the battery runtime is much, much better than the dewalt. I had 5x 2AH and 3x 3AH(at 60v) dewalt batteries. That 16AH got less work done than 2x 5AH Ego batteries.. and 7.5Ah batteries are available.

I like and use M18 tools, but the better runtime and lower price drew me to the Ego. So far seems like both are good options, but IMO stay far away from the dewalt...


It is maybe worth noting that the m18 packs suitable for use with the saw will have several 18v strings in parallel, vs always 3x 18v strings switched into series for the dewalt. The Ego packs look to use between one and three 54V strings in parallel depending on capacity.

So, comparing the voltage between the dewalt, ego, and milwaukee is a bit misleading. A bit like describing a pair of gas engines as '1L cylinder displacement' vs '1.5 cylinder displacement'. Number of cylinders is important!

D,

Interesting that you find the Ego to be "revy" with low torque.  My Kobalt definitely has a lower chain speed but I can really apply pressure while cutting with barely any lack of cutting speed.  In fact I would say it has quite good torque for the saw.  I still wish that the saw could accept larger capacity batteries, but even the 2.5 ah batteries can cut quite a bit and it is not too difficult to carry a second battery along with me should I need more cutting power.

I have seen the Milwaukee chainsaw in action and I agree that it is a very nice looking tool--if a bit expensive.  If memory serves, about 2 years ago Home Depot had a demonstration out front where they were cutting away.  At the time the saw was free as long as you bought a 12 ah battery for $400!  That may have been a nice saw, but that price made it a bit pricey for me, even if I were in the Milwaukee platform which I am not.

Eric

Since Milwaukee went from American to Chinese made, I stopped buying their tools. If they were competitive in price it would be different but I'm not paying two to three times the price for tools made in China.

I own the Ego as well and I consider it one of the worst purchases I have made. The chain oiler has never worked correctly, and it quickly went to not working at all.

funny, at work there have been many problems with even brand new electric saws not oiling properly

M. Phelps wrote:funny, at work there have been many problems with even brand new electric saws not oiling properly

My ego oils, but definitely sparingly. It has a VERY fine filter screen on the oil filler.

My dewalt SPEWS oil, you need to refill faster than you need to change batteries, which is very fast..

Eric Hanson wrote:D,

Interesting that you find the Ego to be "revy" with low torque.  My Kobalt definitely has a lower chain speed but I can really apply pressure while cutting with barely any lack of cutting speed.  In fact I would say it has quite good torque for the saw.  I still wish that the saw could accept larger capacity batteries, but even the 2.5 ah batteries can cut quite a bit and it is not too difficult to carry a second battery along with me should I need more cutting power.

I have seen the Milwaukee chainsaw in action and I agree that it is a very nice looking tool--if a bit expensive.  If memory serves, about 2 years ago Home Depot had a demonstration out front where they were cutting away.  At the time the saw was free as long as you bought a 12 ah battery for $400!  That may have been a nice saw, but that price made it a bit pricey for me, even if I were in the Milwaukee platform which I am not.

Eric

It is not at all that I find I am running out of power when cutting, but rather that a VERY slight obstacle will stop the chain from starting when you first pull the trigger; there is a split second of spin-up and then you can cut away. More noticeable than with the dewalt or m18.

Unlike the dewalt, I have found the Ego saw able to buck doug fir well over the length of the bar, cutting in from both sides. Obviously it is not intended for this, and will chew through batteries, but it did it. A definite selling point if considering it as a saw to carry in a truck in case of a downed tree...

A quick question as I'm using a DeWalt cordless chainsaw now for a lot of late winter cutting....

It appears that storing the saw with chain oil will result in oil leakage unless tilted upward slightly from the bar.  My question pertains more to walking into woods with it in a back-pack....any experience out there with doing this?  Could it be positioned in the back-pack with the bar straight up?  ...or could this cause some problems of which I'm not aware?  Thanks!

You can't possibly cause damage when the saw is not running. Just find a sweet spot where the chain oil stays in the reservoir, and you're good to go.

FWIW, I have a pretty nice Stihl gas/oil saw that pees out the chain oil when stored as well. So I just found the angle where it can hold its bladder in storage, and now we get along.