Battery Chainsaw?

[carlos]

i dont think the stihl msa 220 is up to woodland work,

could you try a small ported saw?

or a back handled version of a climbing saw?

[Macpherson]

1 hour ago, carlos said:

i dont think the stihl msa 220 is up to woodland work,

could you try a small ported saw?

or a back handled version of a climbing saw?

 

It's ideal for personal firewood or garden type work, tidying /caretaking in the wood yes but felling a wood definitely no.

One of it's best attributes is no noise meaning you don't annoy folk and can work just about anytime you like and if you're near a power supply one battery will charge quicker than the other runs down [ AP300s ] so potentially you can keep going all day with just 2.

 

It must be near 4 years since I bought mine and it's not a tool that I'd want to be without now, but as @scbk said bring on the fuel cell backpack👍

[Dan Maynard]

3 hours ago, pleasant said:

Dan, if they could improve a chain to eradicate those issues, then it would be here and now and on all saws...not specifically cordless. It would affect and improve all saws.

Yeah I guess it would, just thinking unless you do something about the sharp end then it's always going to need a certain amount of power.

 

On consideration I suspect the friction against the bar is not that much, even running a 261 which is near 3kW power would get the bar hot really quickly if a significant percentage of power was going in to heat. Hence blueing the bar when lubrication fails.

 

Other thing is in general chains are pretty efficient for power transmission, region of 98%. Not that much gain available.

[Treemover]

I have a husky t540ixp and i like it; but it hasnt been without faults. It has been back to the dealers twice and last time was for 2-3 months. 

My own list of pros are

• less noise
• no fumes
• i feel its safer as only running when I pull the trigger
• dont have to worry about mixes or poor quality fuel
• doesnt need a warm up so great for small dashes of work
• Excels in mewp situation, I did a entire day on one battery, which just shows how much faffing I was doing with the hoist. But had i a 2 stroke ding dinging in the basket I would have refuelled lots of times. 
• I can see doing some emergency work late at night will be an advantage with less noise. 

Cons

• yes I have 3 batteries and one already is back for a warranty claim. 
• but my main gripe would be i am not convinced of the reliability. Time will tell.
• Compared to my other saws, they dont really use all that much fuel in same tasks, so I am not fully convinced of the costs of fuel vs batteries. Its a lot of upfront capital

[pleasant]

All fair points.

 

One pro and con you may also wish to consider, which has cropped up a lot in conversation.

 

Battery. Con

 

No pre-warning of future operating issues

 

Petrol. Pro

 

Some pre-warning of iminent starting/running/performance issues prediminantly before machine packs up on a job completely. As a repairer, i have always been of the opinion, that dealing with warning issues- such as getting more difficult to start, irregular running, unusual noises etc etc are generally cheaper to deal with before it gets worse and a machine completely packs up.

 

To me, that is a pro and con to seriously consider. Cordless stuff are like a light bulb...they either work or they don't. You can turn a working light bulb off..next time you go to turn it on it won't work. No pre-warning, no noise, no poorer performance- just doesn"t work next time you want it to.

Edited January 1, 2023 by pleasant

[Macpherson]

1 hour ago, pleasant said:

All fair points.

 

One pro and con you may also wish to consider, which has cropped up a lot in conversation.

 

Battery. Con

 

No pre-warning of future operating issues

 

Petrol. Pro

 

Some pre-warning of iminent starting/running/performance issues prediminantly before machine packs up on a job completely. As a repairer, i have always been of the opinion, that dealing with warning issues- such as getting more difficult to start, irregular running, unusual noises etc etc are generally cheaper to deal with before it gets worse and a machine completely packs up.

 

To me, that is a pro and con to seriously consider. Cordless stuff are like a light bulb...they either work or they don't. You can turn a working light bulb off..next time you go to turn it on it won't work. No pre-warning, no noise, no poorer performance- just doesn"t work next time you want it to.

 

Aye, I'm just waiting for the day that I start to notice a change in the batteries, as for instance I did with my Makita stuff after a certain time... but on the whole that hasn't happened yet and the more time that goes by the less of a concern it becomes.

 

Having said that, I think that with all the extra electronic gubbins on the 300... it may be more fragile and susceptible to extra reasons to fail in some way, do I really need a 'smart' chainsaw  that can conjoin with with the nearest Alexa🤪

 

Kind of like the way that NASA spent millions trying to invent a pen that would work in space whereas the Russians just used a pencil.

[lurch_917]

On 01/01/2023 at 11:03, scbk said:

 

Ah yes, because when a petrol saw needs refuelled you just fill 'er up from a tree 

 

well yes in a way what is petrol ? if not from old fossilized tree breaking down .

[lurch_917]

On 01/01/2023 at 10:59, pleasant said:

Dan, if they could improve a chain to eradicate those issues, then it would be here and now and on all saws...not specifically cordless. It would affect and improve all saws.

they could do a little bit to the chains but things like roller bearings ect would put the cost of the chain through the roof. what we have at the moment is based on what we had 70 years ago why  because if it aint broke dont fix it .

[Echo]

When all is said and done, it looks like batter power is doing more

damage to our landscape, and costing more in the long run.

The intention to make our vehicles run on battery power will

eventually result in anything with batteries costing a premium,

there are only so much of the materials required available and

demand will be greater, its also keeping poor people poor, digging

with their hands in pits, in unsafe unhealthy conditions where machines

should be used. I will never buy into that.

Edited January 6, 2023 by Echo

[pleasant]

19 minutes ago, Echo said:

When all is said and done, it looks like batter power is doing more

damage to our landscape, and costing more in the long run.

The intention to make our vehicles run on battery power will

eventually result in anything with batteries costing a premium,

there are only so much of the materials required available and

demand will be greater, its also keeping poor people poor, digging

with their hands in pits, it unsafe unhealthy conditions where machines

should be used. I will never buy into that.

...and a very short service and repair life compared to petrol equivalents