Cordless electric chainsaw

Ruth Meyers wrote:My local tool dealer will be offering Snapper battery yard tools next season.  He didn't have anything on the floor yet to show, but gave me a brochure.  

This system is built around Briggs & Stratton 82VMax1 Lithium Ion batteries.

The chain saw uses the 2Ah battery.  It has an 18"bar, and full weight is 11.9 pounds.

Does anyone have experience with this product?

Found a saw roundup that has this one included. https://www.popularmechanics.com/home/tools/a28522787/battery-powered-chainsaws/

Bit of a shit review as it doesn't seem to mention the amp hours of the batteries used. One can only assume it is with the included basic battery.

In that case, this saw kind of sucks. Quite a few less cuts with its 2AH 82V(164WH) pack, than the Dewalt with a 3AH 60V(180WH) pack. Or, several of the other saws, but I happen to know what battery the dewalt comes with, being unlucky enough to own one.

Their other remarks about the snapper weren't real positive either. In trying to additional research, the snapper hedgetrimmer, does not list rated capacity anywhere. And, the 'operators manuals', are only for the batteries. Sloppy.


Of course, they liked the dewalt fine, and it's awful. The tensioner doesn't hold tension for more than a couple cuts, after a couple dozen batteries worth of use, the oiler oils like MAD at first and then clogs constantly, and the tools overdrain the batteries leading to very rapid degradation of capacity. None of this will be apparent in a quick review, but all complaints I found elsewhere once I encountered them myself...

Warranty process is awful, as well. Have had 3 RMAs of Dewalt gear, all bad experiences. Maybe better in US.

My other cordless tools are Milwaukee, and I don't know how the warranty is, because none of them have broken yet.



Despite being happy with my other Milwaukee tools, at this point I am leaning towards the newer Ego 18" to replace my dewalt.

I want a blower, pole multitool, and hedge trimmer as well as cordless chainsaw.

I've used the Milwaukee saw for a couple cuts. Felt good, less of a toy than the dewalt, actual steel bucking spikes and a regular chain tensioner... but, while it gets a decent number of cuts with the 18V/12AH battery... that is the biggest they make. With Ego, I am at 5AH/56V to start, and can get a 7.5AH; put it in WH, and max capacity is double...

More damning, the Milwaukee hedge trimmer is only rated at 1/4" material. That's not promising. The Ego is rated at 1". Ego also has a massive variety of blowers. Prices are lower, for higher power equipment. Warranty is 5 years on both.


The 16" Ego in the review, was not rated for number of cuts?? Comments were positive. In any case, the newer 18" uses a different motor entirely with much higher RPM.

The toolless tensioner makes me nervous after this shitty dewalt, but other than that it looks pretty good.


Echo does well in the chainsaw review, but plastic bucking spikes are a joke, and they have no pole multitool, and no 7.5AH batteries. What the heck? Not going there, don't want 3 battery systems.

The Stihl and Husq. stuff is just too much money, IMO. Plus, the bars are too small.


I want the electric saw for a few specific things.
1) Trailmaking and cutting lots of small saplings up to about 5" for chipping, where I especially do not want to run a gas saw for hours, but the volume of wood actually cut is low enough to make battery saws practical.
2) Keeping one on the tractor when doing road maintenance, to deal with trees on the road.
3) Construction, where I will make one or two cuts at a time, widely spaced, and don't want to start a gas saw.

I will use it whenever practical once I have it, but it has to shine at these 3 things, and the pro-brand saws are coming with 14" bars. This is a dealbreaker for use 2, and a concerning indication of inadequate power, IMO..



PS: paging Dale, you still happy with your Ego stuff?

And, have you seen this? https://egopowerplus.com/nexus-portable-power-station/

Dillon Nichols wrote:[quote
PS: paging Dale, you still happy with your Ego stuff?

And, have you seen this? https://egopowerplus.com/nexus-portable-power-station/

I am still extremely satisfied with the Ego equipment, particularly chain installation and tightening. It has never given trouble and I think the saw is getting close to five years old.

I haven't checked out their latest offerings, just because I don't have the need for more equipment right now. There's a possibility that I will take all of my old equipment to the Philippines and purchase some new stuff.

Both Stihl and Husqvarna have entered the market since I bought mine. My cordless Stihl equipment is still going strong, but it was much more expensive.

I'm still very happy with my Milwaukee saws and drills, but I haven't seen anything in their yard and garden line that I think would be productive enough.

Here's a link to a thread about using a cordless reciprocating saw with a carbide tipped pruning blade.

https://permies.com/t/107177/Reciprocating-carbide-Diablo-pruning-blade

This type of blade is bound to become very important to me, when harvesting and building with a bamboo. Bamboo is particularly hard on saw blades, so the carbide aspect will really help. I've seen people cutting it down with a machete, taking 20 or more blows to hack it off and wasting a foot of material in the process.

i think it was the stihl MSA 161 T that i was using a bit at work this past week
first impressions...
narrow kerf
seems to pinch easily
battery lasted longer than i would have expected
using left handed is a pain
i need to be able to take cuts with either hand this is the biggest flaw

Dale Hodgins wrote:

Dillon Nichols wrote:[quote
PS: paging Dale, you still happy with your Ego stuff?

And, have you seen this? https://egopowerplus.com/nexus-portable-power-station/

I am still extremely satisfied with the Ego equipment, particularly chain installation and tightening. It has never given trouble and I think the saw is getting close to five years old.

I haven't checked out their latest offerings, just because I don't have the need for more equipment right now. There's a possibility that I will take all of my old equipment to the Philippines and purchase some new stuff.

Both Stihl and Husqvarna have entered the market since I bought mine. My cordless Stihl equipment is still going strong, but it was much more expensive.

I'm still very happy with my Milwaukee saws and drills, but I haven't seen anything in their yard and garden line that I think would be productive enough.

Here's a link to a thread about using a cordless reciprocating saw with a carbide tipped pruning blade.

https://permies.com/t/107177/Reciprocating-carbide-Diablo-pruning-blade

This type of blade is bound to become very important to me, when harvesting and building with a bamboo. Bamboo is particularly hard on saw blades, so the carbide aspect will really help. I've seen people cutting it down with a machete, taking 20 or more blows to hack it off and wasting a foot of material in the process.

Great, thanks! Looking forward to ditching this awful yellow saw. Now I just have to decide if I grab the standard hedgetrimmer or the modular system version first...


I picked up a pruning blade for my M18 Hackzall the other day, prompted by that thread. Haven't tried it yet. Thinking the hackzall one-handed tool will be ideal for this use though.

They make a higher end 'fuel' version now.. I love mine so much I may buy one despite my current one still working fine. It's the sort of tool I wouldn't mind having two, and I'm bound to wear the current one out sooner or later.

I've always found when I have a tool that works well but it's nearly done, it's better to buy a similar tool but not something exactly the same size. That way the old one can still be used in a pinch and you're not just duplicating things.

If I were doing fancy topiary pruning, I think the hacksaw might be useful, but because I'm cutting down bulk, I find the Milwaukee fuel Sawzall is the way to go, because of speed. It's still slower than a chainsaw, but can reach into some very tight spots and do a very neat job.

I'm hoping that somebody comes out with a high quality, lightweight hedge trimmer with a long handle. My Stihl machine is excellent, but it's overkill for many jobs and I'm just carrying the extra weight and length. I'd like something that only reaches 4 feet on the low setting and maybe 7 feet on the high setting. That would be perfect for a lot of chop and drop operations. I could see using a lighter hedge cutter for dropping tree fodder to goats and other critters.

Right now, it seems that you can get really good stuff from Stihl and Husqvarna, that reaches a long way in the air, or you can buy really lightly built junk for smaller jobs.

A slightly larger version of this would be great for a lot of chop and drop.

Some further thoughts after four years ownership of the cordless Husqvarna 120i.

It’s a joy, and has replaced the 16lb Stihl gas-powered machine, in most of what I used to do with it. And truly, the 120i feels much safer to operate.

I stand by what I said about it being efficient for softwood-round cutting up to 6” diameter. And by “softwood” I’m referring to conifer limbs of pretty dense species such as larch and Douglas fir! It also works fine for fairly thick broadleaf wood like birch, so long at the log isn’t really dry (seasoned). Same goes for some thick hazelnut branches from a couple of trees/bushes I needed to cut down in late summer.

The battery that came with my saw stopped taking a charge (reason unknown) after quite a bit of usage. The hearsay is that this battery failure is unusual.  But mine was replaced by the dealership (no charge, as within warranty).

Drawbacks & cautions:
In a lengthy session, with a gas saw you can refill the fuel in a matter of a couple minutes to continue working. If, as I do, you just have the one battery that comes with the 120i kit, you may get about 45 minutes of continual work, then have to re-charge the battery for about that long before you can resume. And an extra battery, for alternation, is expensive.

I learned the hard way that when you remove the battery from the 120i to recharge it, you must not leave the saw where an unexpected  passing shower (or spray from an irrigation sprinkler) may drip into the saw’s empty battery chamber. Placed in a warmish, dry indoor environment, it took more than a day for moisture that had seeped into the saw’s electronic circuitry and/or motor to evaporate! The saw wouldn’t run normally before thoroughly drying out.

wow, 4 yrs ago I commented about my ryobi brushess 12 inch saw (18v)  and here we are with the same discussion. Yes, I know Ryobi is the low end of the chinese repertoire (not the lowest) but for occasional hard use and the odd branch now and then it still works just fine.  The batteries are relatively cheap, but I rarely have them run out when I'm working and always keep extras charged--I'm off grid so extra batteries are cheaper than electric bills (and gas)

I bought the 16 inch 40 v version of the brushless saw, but to date it is still in the box, the 12 inch just keeps going, even after numerous times being rained on- serious rain- and all sorts of abuse, all I've done is replace the chain once or twice.   I find the rain is worse on the batteries than the tools themselves.

I had a small ryobi compressor in one of those black and yellow plastic boxes-you know, the ones that leak water to the inside sometimes.

Anyway, investigating that box about a year later I found that compressor under water that had accumulated in the box--a rust line midway up the tool from where it was submerged-- I let it dry out for a while and just for fun one day put a battery in it and the son of a gun ran, hard to believe, but true.

So I'm still in love with my ryobi chain saw, not the top of the line, but a serious machine nonetheless.

About the Husqvarna cordless saw I started this thread to report on: I 'll add something about the battery (37 volt, model BLi22). I'm told it's also sold with some other types of Husky cordless tools.  I'd been using the saw to cut a lot of Douglas-maple rounds, varying from about 2-5 inches. At one point, I checked and of the three battery cells, two were still lighting green (charged). I continued on for  maybe 20 minutes, and got a red-triangle symbol — you shut the power button off, when you see that... and wait a moment or two. But the red triangle continued to show up whenever I pushed the power button on.

I carried the battery to where I have the charger, and plugged the charger cord into the battery.  Saw one flashing red LED on the charger and another on the battery. In four years of ownership & use, hadn't seen this before. Turns out this indicates the battery unit is hot inside, though the little booklet that came with the saw doesn't mention this! I left the battery in our basement for about an hour, tried  charging again and everything worked out. (Really didn't want to have to buy a new one.)