Review of Makita 36v, 14" chainsaw

I ordered it Friday. It arrived on Saturday. Anyway, my main saw was a Stihl Farm Boss with an 18" bar.  It now seems to be the Makita.  It is still early in my ownership, but I am impressed.

First, it is a real chainsaw. It feels like a real chainsaw. It acts like a real chainsaw. I spent 45 minutes run time putting it through routine homestead chores.  The chain was lighter than I would have liked. Frankly, I tired out before the batteries did. And, it came with 4, 5 amp 18v batteries. So, I could have swapped out and continued working.  I did not do any formal structured test. My objective was to see how it worked on my homestread.  I counted 100 cuts and stopped counting.  I am certain that I continued well past 200.  I primarily went after blow downs.  The largest cuts were 12 inches. Probably the smallest cuts were maybe 2 inches. The wood ranged from Hickory and Red Oak to Mimosa. I made numerous smaller cuts that I did not count.

In the online reviews, there were complaints about the saw automatically shutting off after 3 seconds.  I had no such problem.

I checked the bar oil, it was about 1/2 empty ( unless,  of course, you see it as 1/2 full).  The unit reminds me of the 42cc Craftsman I have. The bar looks similar. Frankly, the Mikata out performs the Craftsman.

The batteries recharged in about 30 minutes.

John, which Makita model is this exactly? I'm looking for a battery-powered chainsaw as well and there are just so many to choose from.

LXT Brushless.

XCU03PT1

OK, thank you! There is a saw with a cord in the house but I consider it unsafe. Or I just consider myself clumsy enough to make a mess with it.

Hi Crt,

I will post something a little more detailed in a few days.

Pic of saw

Dang. Now I want one.

Grabbed the DUC353Z model. Possible difference in model naming for the US vs. EU market. The batteries hum at a noise level of a stick blender when powering up. That's the extent of my impressions so far

John, I totally meant to respond to your Chainsaw review but then never got around to it.  My apologies.  Based on your review, that saw sounds like one impressive tool, the sort of tool that competes right up there with gas powered models but without all the hassles of gas.  I think I want one now!

Eric

We've also used one of these and I would prefer it personally even though it didn't quite have the power of our petrol one, much lighter and easier to use. We felled about 20 small trees from 3 inches up to 10 inches and cut them up into 4ft lengths and didn't exhaust the two 5Ah batteries.

My experience with it is getting even better.

This photo may be more to the point