Battery powered chainsaws

[Tammy Champlin]

Hello All
Our company is working on incorporating battery powered chain saws. Does anyone have suggestions or training information they would like to share as to what is different about these compared to gas powered? I know there are definitely some differences in weight and sound, how do you think that effects working with a ground crew after years of using the gas powered saws? Any helpful tips or insight will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mick Dempsey]

Alright on soft stuff, dogshit on hard dead wood, especially on what you yanks call Black Locust.

Buy one and use it, you’ll figure it out.

 

[Stumpsprouts]

The husqvarna 540lixp seems to be the industry favorite for now. I absolutely love mine. The 535 isn’t too bad either.

Your workers will just need to learn what to do with all the extra time they aren’t spending at the shop replacing spark plugs, fuel filters, cleaning carbs, air filters, and broken pull cords.

The rear handled ones are ok. A ground crew that does mostly prune work could spend their whole day with just those. And it’s a great saw next to the chipper.

The only thing you’ll need to watch out for is complacency. These saws are deceptive in their ease, which can make someone a little more loose around safety and not respect its power. And have good systems around the battery transportation and charging. The casing of the battery itself will break on the corners if dropped a few times- they’ll still work fine but not a good look. You want to keep your charging ports somewhat clean.

 

[Tammy Champlin]

The husqvarna 540lixp seems to be the industry favorite for now. I absolutely love mine. The 535 isn’t too bad either.

Your workers will just need to learn what to do with all the extra time they aren’t spending at the shop replacing spark plugs, fuel filters, cleaning carbs, air filters, and broken pull cords.

The rear handled ones are ok. A ground crew that does mostly prune work could spend their whole day with just those. And it’s a great saw next to the chipper.

The only thing you’ll need to watch out for is complacency. These saws are deceptive in their ease, which can make someone a little more loose around safety and not respect its power. And have good systems around the battery transportation and charging. The casing of the battery itself will break on the corners if dropped a few times- they’ll still work fine but not a good look. You want to keep your charging ports somewhat clean.

Thank you for your input. Complacency is one of my biggest concerns! "It's not gas powered so it can't hurt me" type of attitude.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

complacency is one of my biggest concerns!

Not unlike how too many people work with handsaws.

 

[evo]

Not unlike how too many people work with handsaws.

Ditto from one who partly severed a tendon with one.. not the britest cyrannnon

 

[Vicente]

Not really much to learn, pretty much the same as a gasser, ground crews will have to be more attentive to letting climbers know they're going underneath for something because there's no saw start warning when you cut.

 

[Bart_]

The silent mode of armed and deadly is spooky compared to the obvious sound of a running gasser. Bit of a practical safety downgrade that way, but you can hear other danger or notifications so an upgrade that way.

 

[ghostice]

I debated about writing this, and maybe just me, but I find after more than a couple of years with an e-Husky in a tree, that the electric chainsaw is what I'd kinda call "sneaky". With a gas saw you know it's running but with an electric chainsaw, if you have the chain brake off, you can still have a live saw and no sound. That's what I'd want to point out to new e-saw users. It's the same as a circular saw or a recip saw - it's on and there. Touch the trigger and away she goes from dead quiet. The other thing is a reminder that at least with the BLi300 battery, you might get real close to running outta chain oil and still have battery left (at least I've had that a few times in summer). It's actually quite amazing how much you can cut on the same battery. And if you have spare batteries on charge, maybe keep the charging on the truck and run a cord? We've put spare battery and charger around the corner outta harm and sight and come back and found the neighbour's in ground sprinkler on - no damage but lucky that time.

 

[southsoundtree]

Get practiced at removing the power source on electric tools when people are used to the warning sounds of a running engine.

Pop out a battery for maintenance like sharpening.

Be especially sure that the throttle interlock works.

I made a habit of checking the throttle interlock when picking up saws.

I've had a few over the years where the spring popped out of place, rendering the TI inoperable on gas saws.

 

[SumoClimber]

I haven't had a chance to try out the Stihl or Husqvarna electrics, but have had the Milwaukee M18 rear handle for a while now. Love the saw, has higher torque than a farmboss 290. The 12 Ah battery definitely can last longer than the bar oil, so get used to checking that. I did have the saw quit on me a few weeks ago, discovered I was overheating the battery. Swapped it out for a fresh one, let the overheater sit before charging, was fine the next day.

I also have the M12 pruning saw. I love it and hate it at the same time, if that makes sense. It's amazingly small and useful, but I do have a "beef" with the ergonomics. Basically it's too small to be a two hander for my large frame and isn't designed with one handed use in mind. I'm able to use it one handed, but the hand position is sort of jacked up. I'm basically holding the safety button down with my index finger and triggering the saw with my middle finger. I would prefer a safety such as that found on 23 gauge pin nailers, where there's a second trigger behind the main trigger. 2nd trigger allows the main to be depressed. Milwaukee already has the capability, look at the handle for the M12 Pruners that were just released.

I do feel both saws would benefit from larger and stronger dogs, but I feel that way about most saws until we're getting into the 440s and up.

 

[stheis004]

I haven't had a chance to try out the Stihl or Husqvarna electrics, but have had the Milwaukee M18 rear handle for a while now. Love the saw, has higher torque than a farmboss 290. The 12 Ah battery definitely can last longer than the bar oil, so get used to checking that. I did have the saw quit on me a few weeks ago, discovered I was overheating the battery. Swapped it out for a fresh one, let the overheater sit before charging, was fine the next day.

I also have the M12 pruning saw. I love it and hate it at the same time, if that makes sense. It's amazingly small and useful, but I do have a "beef" with the ergonomics. Basically it's too small to be a two hander for my large frame and isn't designed with one handed use in mind. I'm able to use it one handed, but the hand position is sort of jacked up. I'm basically holding the safety button down with my index finger and triggering the saw with my middle finger. I would prefer a safety such as that found on 23 gauge pin nailers, where there's a second trigger behind the main trigger. 2nd trigger allows the main to be depressed. Milwaukee already has the capability, look at the handle for the M12 Pruners that were just released.

I do feel both saws would benefit from larger and stronger dogs, but I feel that way about most saws until we're getting into the 440s and up.

Thanks for insight, I've been curious to try the m12 pruning saw and have always thought the ergonomics looks kind of like what you described. Do you have issues with the thin bar on the M18 rear handle?; I consider myself pretty easy on equipment and split a few of the tips in no time and would loose the chain pretty often.

 

[colb]

Ditto from one who partly severed a tendon with one.. not the britest cyrannnon

X2

 

[colb]

Thanks for insight, I've been curious to try the m12 pruning saw and have always thought the ergonomics looks kind of like what you described. Do you have issues with the thin bar on the M18 rear handle?; I consider myself pretty easy on equipment and split a few of the tips in no time and would loose the chain pretty often.

The bars are essentially disposable - if anything goes wrong with the cut they'll break. If the cut is normal, they don't break. I keep two extra bars. The nice thing is that I don't break them often - just twice over three years. The bars are not expensive. Mainly, I would not use that saw to take a medium or large top while aloft. It's great for ground duty, decent for chogging small trunks, starts to be awkward above 12 inches diameter when up in a tree.