We have about 30 of those that were donated over the last two years. They cut well, but are not durable at all since they are made mostly of cheap plastic.
I like them for inexperienced cutters: There’s no clutch to burn out when holding the throttle wide open with the chain brake on. They are significantly more quiet, so you can get an operator’s attention more easily. There’s no throttle to figure out, so they can concentrate on the forces and reactions due to cutting. Later when you graduate them to a gas unit, they already have an idea on how to handle the saw. The kickback is almost nonexistent. The internal relay will cut the power off minimizing what little kickback does occur. That’s sort of a catch-22 as it builds a false sense of security to some degree.
It’s really fun to give a battery saw to the guys who like to walk around goosing the throttle all the time (that’s what they have to do with their saw at home to keep it running.)
While the 4 and 6 A-hr batteries give a decent time for cutting, the time is greatly reduced when cutting 10-plus inch material.
As the technology grows, I can see battery operated units growing to be more prominent in the industry. For production operations on the ground, I don’t see them replacing gas equivalents anytime soon.
Seeing how snappy Tesla's are, seeing what kids doing hacking those lightweight old Civics and loading them w/ LiPo cells and it becomes a game, not of power//weight, but of setting up transmissions/wheels to harness the power....LiPo's next 5-10yrs in chainsaws will exciting as hell I can't wait to see the 1st unit that's comparable to a 200t/201t!!
