25 cuts of 15" hardwood is where I am hanging up. My 501 does that and still has 2/3 a tank of fuel left. Makita will soon drop a backpack unit I bet.
Definitely that is a huge issue. Plus your 501 is 10.5 pounds sans bar amd chain. I can see a pro grade battery top handle for in tree work. The end. Oregon has backpack batteries for their equipment.
I've always thought that a a battery chainsaw would be handy to have when I'm camping in NH, twice a year. Lots of down falls and blowovers available for campfire wood.
A battery powered chainsaw would be good for those unexpected limb drops that happen outside of firewood season. Grab a battery and go. Less hassle. I am not sure about batteries that were intended for drills and hand held power tools being the best place to start for OPE equipment. I think I'll wait and see. Mfg are making huge technology leaps every year in this market. If anyone does buy one of those Milwaukee's please give us a review here!
Doubtful unless gifted to me. Fat chance on that as I bet the selling price with two batteries will be ~$600, if not more. I don't want one, but will give kudos to Milwaukee for at least trying. Lithium batteries cannot contain the same energy as gasoline in the same given space. This is why it is somewhat futile trying to get 6 horsepower out of them and why a backpack full of batteries or a giant battery will be needed. Also...why they gotta be so ugly? CampInspector's big Stihl is the best looking battery (conventional) saw thus far and it's still a little fugly IMO. This Milwaukee looks like they were trying to keep costs down...no glossy plastics even. The operator presense lever looks goofy...trying to reinvent the mouse trap.
For most people/homeowners, 50 cuts through 15" hardwood with the two batteries would be plenty sufficient imo. Not having to deal with the fuel related issues of their saw sitting for months(year?) on end will definitely be a good selling point
One pack is only 18V and to compete with 36, 56/60, or 80V tools, there's gonna be some serious amps involved which means heavier conductors in everything. The pack, the wiring, the motor - all of it. And being a chainsaw means that the sustained loads will not allow electronical witchcraft to cheat a bit and overload components for a limited duration. At least the dual packs on this unit mean that it's a 36V tool. But forcing dual pack operation has it's drawbacks too as now the packs must be of similar design & capacity, and ideally, age. Mis-matched packs just mean more trouble. And you can just about buy a complete 501 for what a pair of those XC 8.0 packs cost. ($400)
Milwaukee has a large battery. Marketing execs want customers to be able to use existing batteries rather than force to adopt the larger and more expensive batteries that won't work on their existing tools.
Milwaukee's stubborn strategy of remaining exclusively with 18V (and 12V) batteries has hobbled them a bit, especially for tools that have a high demand for more than a few seconds at a clip. They've publicly committed to their customers that they would maintain backwards and forwards compatibility withing the 18V line, and while that's technically true, it's not so peachy in reality as acceptable performance with certain high-demand tools is only obtained if you use the high-capacity or high-drain capable packs. It's all over their marketing. How many different "flavors" of 18V pack have they introduced? And of course the bundled packs you get with tools are often not the top performing pack for that tool. So naturally your encouraged to buy bigger, better battery packs, or at least forgo the bundled packs, buy bare tools and spend for the better batteries. And of course, the better packs all work with your older 18V tools, but those will get new versions issued with somewhat better specs, to take advantage of those more capable batteries, so you gotta get a better drill/impact/saw/ratchet/etc. Right?
I wonder how many cuts the average user will get in that 15" log when they have absolutely no idea what a sharp chain is and the cut takes forever.
I've only seen one company stay the course with their batteries since long ago. That company is Ryobi. I can buy their latest and greatest evar battery and it will still work in my *blue Ryobi tools. Vice versa with tools and batteries. They do get respect from me for that. I just bought 3 of their batteries on a deal and scored a free 6-1/2 circ saw. I have owned a drill/imp driver setup for a few years, so supplementing that. My main platform is Milwaukee, but I now have more than a couple batteries for Ryobi also. Makita has moved up to 40volt which will be stacked, I think making '80' volt tools. Milwaukee has their big battery that powers cutoff saws and .... electric 'generators'/powerstations. I've noticed that *real chainsaw manufacturers have offered neither a stacked setup nor a huge battery setup as of yet. If I were one of the big 3, I'd be talking to the dirtbike manufacturers who now have 250 class battery bikes and seeing if they can work backwards from there. The dritbikes have absolutely no 'power' issues compared to their ICE counterparts. Probably the best example I've yet seen for the batteries as far as 'replacing' ICE. Shrink the motors and batteries and slap a guide bar on there! The battery platform has to be thorn in the side for manufacturers. Consumers were anxious about adopting their systems because in the early days the tools and battery compatablility was constantly changing. Nobody wanted to 'invest' in a system that might only be around a couple years. They all decided to 'standardize' and now that tools have evolved, the batteries are falling behind.
That only seems to work when you don't demand the tools be top-tier for performance or stay away from the big-boy stuff altogether. They know their biz, and stay in their lane. I like that. And they seem to be very happy with the 36V/40V configuration (even for multi-battery capable tools) on all but the very most demanding tools, most of which don't apply to the home-gamer. I like the promise of the XGT system for the semi-pro and professional alike. Yeah, they have some catching up to do with Milwaukee, especially in mechanic's tools. But XGT allows excellent performing small tools like drills, impacts, small to medium saws, etc. and scales up to serious power demands of large saws, demo hammers, (actually useful) blowers and OPE, all using the same batteries. If you want to use HD tools on Milwaukee's platform, you need to invest in the Fuel MX line and they isn't cheap, so not feasible unless you need those tools frequently. And there's nothing in-between for tools that need to be light, but powerful, like chainsaws. Worth mentioning that Makita continues to invest in and release new 18V LXT stuff. I really like some of the sub-compact tools too. I have a sub-compact drill/driver that does 90% of the work around the house and leaves me wanting for nothing. Just wish they had some mechanics tools that were as good as the Milwaukee 12V stuff. But that's the problem, especially the battery. If you don't have room for those bigger batteries, it won't matter how good the motor and controls are. Also, modular battery packs are actually contributing to the weight/bulk of today's battery chainsaws. Much of that could be mitigated with pouch cells, and integrated battery designs but the user base would be in an uproar if they couldn't remove the battery from the tool to recharge. Agreed, the fact that the customer base demands backwards compatibility with tools that most of us have stopped using or thrown away years ago HAS to be a massive pain in the arse. Back in the 1990s, the batteries were improving, and every time the battery platform improved (9V -> 12V -> 18V, NiCad -> NiMH -> LiIon) a new generation of tools was released to take advantage of the increased power available. And we bought those tools because there were real gains to be had that made us more productive as tradesmen. OR - as a DIY'r, you stuck with the old battery platform and tools that were serving you just fine and those things were still available a decade or more after the superseding platform arrived. Hell, I think you can still buy OEM 18V XRP packs for Dewalt. Now, a tool evolution is a 5% spec bump, new stripe placement, and a different LED array. But that's not to lose sight of the fact that we can, and do, work 95% cordless in most trades today.