Battery powered chainsaw

[Treekiler307]

Recently purchased a milwaukee pole saw and I'm loving it. Crazy lite, breaks down and stows nicely on the work truck, and definitely exceeded my expectations on performance. No it will never replace my 133HT but definitely has found a permanent home in both my work trucks. I've seen alot of climbers on the web and Instagram running battery powered saws but just havnt been able to bring myself to even think about owning a battery chainsaw. I have several 200Ts, 193Ts, and a 194T so why even consider a battery operated on. Again nothing will ever replace my 200s obviously but I can definitely see where a battery operated saw would come in handy. Would like to go milwaukee being I have a ton of their tools and batteries already but I want whateveris going to be the best. Anyone have much experience or any recommendations?

 

[Stubby]

I'm happy for you . 🙂

[pleasant]

From our experience, cordless machines are going to add to landfill and not reduce it. We are now seeing first generation cordless stuff coming back with issues. Stuff that is now around 5 years old- predominantly domestic stuff used by homeowners. These people have purchased top quality cordless items which are around the same price as buying a decent petrol version- Sort of £350- £400 mark.

 

Biggest issue are batteries and the replacement cost relative to the purchase cost of the machine 5 years ago. When we are quoting £200 for a new battery, plus diagnosis fee of £40 you are over half the cost of the machine.........you would have to cause some serious damage to a similarly priced petrol machine for it not to warrant repairing.

 

And this is the thing.....you quote £240 to replace battery and customer simply buys a new machine even though it is only 5 years old and done low use. Whereas I can pretty much guarantee a petrol machine with an issue can be repaired a lot cheaper- £80-£100 as a ball park, in which case a customer is more likely to see that as a cost efficient option compared to throwing his 5 year old petrol machine away and starting again.

 

As a dealer- that is exactly what we are now experiencing, and I dare say, most on here as a consumer would do the same

[Stere]

Agree with alot of stuff above but.....

 

 I don't think thats so much the case  with makita as once you buy into there battery range you only will bin individial "bare tools" if they break and can't be  repaired or the repair is too pricey to be worth it.....

 

Makita 18v 5 amp batteries are only £65 (were £50) . . Off brand ones cheaper.

 

Are cordless generally  any harder to fix than petrol?

 

Why should  the parts  be  more expensive than petrol  if the retail price is similar?

 

When ther bearing went on the makita cordless trimmer there was a full parts list available from online sellers and it was a cheap fix a standard sized bearing. Granted  some other of the brushless motor parts listed were alot more pricey.....

 

Parts are always  often way over priced V new for both petrol and cordless, better buy  2 or multiple of everything  strip the parts or get  the non runners off ebay etc for  any spares. 😏

 

All thoose binned ones should be kept   & harvested for parts like scrapped cars rather  than just binned.

 

If there is an increase the  enviro issue of a throw away culture, its mainly the companies policy and dealers networks responsibility as they should have  schemes to encourage the reuse of "reconditioned" parts from the old machines & all new  product designed with ease of servicing in mind.... ?

 

 

 

Edited September 12, 2022 by Stere

[rodp]

"When we are quoting £200 for a new battery, plus diagnosis fee of £40 you are over half the cost of the machine."

 

You can get batteries reconditioned now, new cells fitted. Or even buy a battery spot welder and do your own.

[dumper]

But can you get the batteries, makita batteries are not the best quality the stihl batteries I’m told are made by Bosch and a generation ahead in technology 

[Stere]

Not heard anything  about there batteries tech being behind/worse got any info on that?

 

 

 

 

Theres is  a digital display diagnostic gizmo availabe to test them not sure why it has to  £250 quid expensive......

 

 

Seem easy to use from watching a youtube video 

 

 

 

Something dealers should have  (or maybe they do have) for  the  expensive  stihl & husky batteries?

 

 

 

 

[pleasant]

9 hours ago, rodp said:

"When we are quoting £200 for a new battery, plus diagnosis fee of £40 you are over half the cost of the machine."

 

You can get batteries reconditioned now, new cells fitted. Or even buy a battery spot welder and do your own.

Of course, in any walk of life there are ways around things...particularly if you are an individual not goverened by public liability and insurance, but as a business and a representitive of a product we have to abide by the 'correct' way of doing things- not 'bodging' or using non genuine parts, or being 'inventive' with repairs. We are repairing items to a high approved dealership standard which covers us should anything go awry and end up in an injury, a loss of income, damage or all three. I know there are ways around things and if it were my own machine being repaired in my shed, then of course I would probably find a cheaper way of doing things.

 

I am sure, if you bought a big mac and the burger inside was made of pork instead of beef you wouldn't be happy, but does the same job and is cheaper., but McDonalds simply cannot let individual restaurants go out and source their own ingredients......for the same reason a dealer cannot do that. Has to be up to a global recognised standard the customer expects.

 

Edited September 12, 2022 by pleasant
spelling

[pleasant]

1 hour ago, dumper said:

But can you get the batteries, makita batteries are not the best quality the stihl batteries I’m told are made by Bosch and a generation ahead in technology 

Stihl did used to out source battery and charger manufacturing, but now have their own in house facility

 

STIHL sets up in-house battery production line in Waiblingen

WWW.STIHL.COM

---

The STIHL Group is setting up an in-house production line for battery products at its headquarters in Germany. In doing so...

 

They certainly were not originally made by Bosch.

[coppice cutter]

4 hours ago, dumper said:

But can you get the batteries, makita batteries are not the best quality the stihl batteries I’m told are made by Bosch and a generation ahead in technology 

I've been researching this stuff high and low for the past few weeks prior to buying in to a proper system for the first time and I haven't seen anything anywhere to support that view.