Milwaukee attempts to make the leap

M18 FUEL™ 20" Dual Battery Chainsaw | Milwaukee Tool

 

Probably weighs 20 pounds ready to use. Lol. Their single battery unit is heavy for its output.

 

Lol. 19.9 pounds. That doesn't say if its with batteries in it.

 

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.

 

You getting one? I've come close a couple times on a Dewalt single battery model.

 

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

 

Its 25 cuts for 15" hard wood as it uses both batteries at the same time. Not 25 per battery.

 

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.

 

Gotcha

 

I can hear campinspecter laughing. His pro Stihl battery saw (MSA300 I think) is sweet.

 

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.