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Battery operated outdoor yard tools

We had a bad storm come through in April that dumped a foot of heavy wet snow and followed that up with torrential rain. Many of the younger balsam trees on our property didn't survive and snapped off about halfway up. I have about 15 trees I now have to remove. I'll be tackling it slowly with the electric chainsaw. My back can't handle a full day of cutting with a heavy gas saw but I can work away at it over the summer using the greenworks as it's lighter and usually about the time the battery is done, so am I. 😆
 
bczoom said:
Because of this thread, I bought a battery operated leaf blower. I use it all the time (for smaller jobs).
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Just out of curiosity, what brand, voltage, model?

Simply because of battery compatibility that I currently use, I limited my search to GREENWORKS PRO and RYOBI. But even within Ryobi there are probably 8 different commonly available models in 2 different voltage, wtih differing CFM moved and different wind velocities.

Mine has 110 mph wind speed and 525 CFM airflow, running on 40v batteries. $179 at HomeDepot, picked it up refurbished for $70
 
I think the EGO brand has a better reputation than Greenworks Pro and certainly better than Ryobi.

Do you also have a gas blower? How do you think the gas compares with the battery?

For me the battery is sufficient but not overly powerful. Battery just so darn convenient. But real yard work goes to the gas powered blower.

I also find the electronic fan whine to be objectionable on high power, not sure if it is as loud as the gas engine but it has a horrible high pitch that is piercing. On low power it is quiet enough.
 
I have 2 Stihl BR600 backpack gas blowers. They (pun intended) will blow away anything electric or battery operated.

A lot of my day-to-day use isn't enough to pull out the gas blower. Things like cleaning dirt off the shop floor or cleaning off the ZTR of grass clippings before putting it away.

I have a few corded/electric blowers which also work nicely for small stuff but the battery is much more convenient.
 
bczoom said:
I have 2 Stihl BR600 backpack gas blowers. They (pun intended) will blow away anything electric or battery operated.

A lot of my day-to-day use isn't enough to pull out the gas blower. Things like cleaning dirt off the shop floor or cleaning off the ZTR of grass clippings before putting it away.

I have a few corded/electric blowers which also work nicely for small stuff but the battery is much more convenient.
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My wife has a Echo 770 back pack blower, she hates leaves and BTW it’s never been on my back but it rocks!
 
I'm guessing your Echo is about the same as my Stihl's.
OK, ask her go take it into your shop and clean the dust off everything, including the stuff on the shelves. My Stihl when idling will knock almost everything off the shelves. With the battery one, I can put it at its lowest output setting and clean things without everything ending up on the floor.
 
I was rather impressed. I took the greenworks chainsaw out today to clear some downed trees and brush in the back wooded area on our property clearing out a campsite for this weekend (more on that later). For that purpose, it's perfect. That thing actually cuts better than my husky 350. I was able to cut out 150 feet of trail and 7 sites for tents.

Now for the rest of the story. I'm a scout leader. We have a nice camp with a main cabin and 4 bunk cabins sitting on a rather large chunk of property. We all know covid shut many things down including the scouts program. Since things opened up, scouts national was scared to make a decision on how to open and instead instructed all the groups to contact their local health unit. This opened a can of worms. Long story short is that the camp can't reopen until there is a drilled well and hot water even though it's been run for years with bringing out jugs of water.

So, the scouts needed an alternative place to camp. That's where my back property came in. Our property also backs onto a large property owned by the fairgrounds. I contacted them and got permission to use the grounds for anything that our scouts need. Hence me clearing out campsites back there.
 
I used my Milwaukee pole saw today. 18v. Holds a charge even over the winter months. I used it for a small job a few days ago then topped off the battery and used it today for trimming a row of chestnut trees. It performed great. And reminded me of this thread and how handy the battery operated chainsaws are. So I went shopping online. Found a Milwaukee 18" bar chainsaw that used an 18v battery for $349. Whoa. And that's without the battery. So I checked out Greenworks. They have a 40v 16" chainsaw for $189 including the battery and charger. Sold. It will be delivered next week.
 
Used my new Atlas 20" electric mover last weekend at the Springfield bungalow. I mowed my place, my neighbor's place and the empty lot next door. Still had plenty of charge.

The mower is light weight, sturdy and rather convenient to use. A single lever easily changes cutting height. I filled the rather large grass bag six times. Neighbors grass was more than eight inches from all the rains. The mower senses torque and applies more voltage to speed up the blade automatically. Up to 80 volts from the two lithium batteries.

My only negative was the wheels. They extend about 1/2" beyond the mower frame so it is hard to cut close to a wall.

$220 bucks at Harbor freight ples the batteries (2 @ $110 each) and a charger (@$120. But I already had those for my chain saws and trimmers.
 
I came across a good deal on a battery trimmer. I've got 3 pos gas trimmers that barely run. Every time I try to tackle the edge trimming, it's a joyous chorus of choice words coming from the shop trying to get at least one running. I've about had it with them. Since I've already got a greenworks 60v chainsaw, I was looking at extra batteries for it. Well, I can get just a battery alone for $169 Canadian. I decided to take a look at greenworks 60v trimmers. Here, they're on sale right now for $329. I found the same thing on ebay. Trimmer, battery, and charger for $114 us. Even with exchange I'm saving. Screenshot_20220616-171635_eBay.jpg
 
I bought the greenworks 16" 40v chainsaw in part due to this thread. I got a chance to use it and was happy with the results. It fires right up, but you have to wait a second or two for the chain to get up to speed. once up to speed I was able to cut 2 and 3" branches like butter. I used it less than 30 minutes so no clue on battery life yet. Very handy little saw. Great for smaller jobs around the property.
 
Ever since I got the EGO leaf blower, a hedge trimmer and a string trimmer have appeared in the stable. I love all three of them just for their sheer convenience. They don't have the stamina of the gas powered equivalents but for a quick 15-minute job, they can't be beat. Somewhere down the road I may pick up a chainsaw for the little stuff. I already have a battery Stihl pruning saw. I'm liking this battery powered stuff more and more.
 
This year I took the plunge and bought the Milwaukee 18v trimmer and the 18v stick vacuum for the garage. The trimmer does my 1/2 acre lot with 1/2 a battery charge. I use the 8 amp/hour batteries. the stick vac is great to have in the garage - we have a large landing where we take shoes off and on (no shoes in the house), and the vac does a great job - it’s one of the few with a motorized beater-bar.

Very happy with these two items…
 
Melensdad said:
My Greenworks Pro mower and snow-thrower are both great tools. I'm curious how your battery tools compare to the gas trimmers.
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I just ordered the trimmer yesterday. If it works as good as the chainsaw, I'll be happy. I've got a husqvarna 42cc with 18" bar and for a straight up head to head cut, the greenworks with 60v battery will cut easier and faster than the gas saw. But, I can cut all day long with the gas saw. For overall grunt, the greenworks 60v is more powerful.

I typically hate doing the trimming when I do the lawn simply because of the task of getting the gas powered trimmer to start. I usually do it in stages due to my back giving out on me. So a battery trimmer is a good option for ease of doing it. I imagine that the battery will last longer than my back. Lol
 
So yesterday I had to go to dad's shop to pick up an extension ladder to bring over to mom's place in town. It was so windy the other day it tore a 4'x4' section of shingles off the roof. While I was there, I noticed he had a ryobi battery powered weedwacker and 2 batteries. I grabbed them to try out.

First impressions were that it's a decent trimmer with an automatic string advance. Light enough to carry comfortably. It took both batteries fully charged to do all the trimming around the yard but considering we have 2 acres roughly of lawn and trees around the house that I mow and trim, that's not bad. In the past, sure I could trim twice as fast with the gas trimmer but getting it running was a workout. The ryobi is a single string trimmer that held it's own yesterday as I hadn't trimmed anything yet this year so it was trimming 1-2' tall grass.
 
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NorthernRedneck said:
I came across a good deal on a battery trimmer. I've got 3 pos gas trimmers that barely run. Every time I try to tackle the edge trimming, it's a joyous chorus of choice words coming from the shop trying to get at least one running. I've about had it with them. Since I've already got a greenworks 60v chainsaw, I was looking at extra batteries for it. Well, I can get just a battery alone for $169 Canadian. I decided to take a look at greenworks 60v trimmers. Here, they're on sale right now for $329. I found the same thing on ebay. Trimmer, battery, and charger for $114 us. Even with exchange I'm saving. View attachment 150570
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I've been using this trimmer for 5 years without issue. I use the lower speed as it extends the battery life by a great deal.
 
More on the greenworks 60v 18" chainsaw. Every time I use it, I'm more and more impressed. My buddy and I went out and bucked up a pickup load of wood earlier today. I recently discovered a long forgotten pile of mixed tree length wood that's perfectly dry and ready for the fire pit not far from my camp. I brought out the greenworks to try on some bigger diameter wood. My buddy has a smaller stihl with a 16" bar. I fully expected to be reaching for my husky after a few cuts but that little saw impressed both of us. I ended up cutting 3/4 of the wood with the greenworks in the time it took him to cut 1/4. And he was huffing and puffing. I was fine as the trick with the electric saw as I discovered is to not put much force into the saw and let the chainsaw do the work. It easily sliced through 12 pieces of 18" spruce like a hot knife through butter. Now that I have an extra battery from the trimmer, I don't see me using the husky as much. We'll see. Not quite ready to totally abandon the gas chainsaw.
 
I have tree branches 'over growing' the lot line causing way too much unwanted shade . . .
and the branches are not 'low'
an electric chain saw/trimmer with a long reach is definitely something I could use.

battery or plug in - not an issue. power / performance at 25-30 feet is the issue.

any can speak to that issue?
 
chowderman said:
battery or plug in - not an issue. power / performance at 25-30 feet is the issue.

any can speak to that issue?
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I think my long reach battery chain saw is on a 5' pole.

If you are looking for a 20' pole to reach 25'-30' then you are looking at specialized commercial equipment. I have seen hedge trimmers on long poles, so they exist. Not sure what brands.
 
This morning was the first time I used my RYOBI 40volt Chain Saw, 14" bar.

Meh, the saw is bulkier and I think a little heavier (with battery) than my little STIHL limbing saw. Just based on size, weight and power I can't give this a "5 Star" review. Maybe more like 3.75 Stars. It just seems to big and too heavy for a 14" saw. If it was a 20" bar it would seem to have a more appropriate size/weight ratio. I did appreciate that it starts instantly, and it is quiet enough to not need ear protectors too. It is handy and for most of my cutting needs will probably replace my gas powered STIHL, even if it is not as good as the STIHL, but because it is far more convenient that the STIHL. This is not a commercial grade/industrial duty saw.

It cut OK, but not great, on a 20' long Locust branch. I was cutting the Locust because we had a branch come down in a storm. Right across a walkway in my back yard. Diameter of the cuts was 3 to 4 inches.

Locust is a dense hard wood, a good bit harder than White Oak, it tends to dull saw blades quickly and clogs sandpaper too. It was no surprise that the saw had some issues cutting the large branch into bite size pieces for the table top fire pit. So maybe a little less power than I had hoped, but again, because this was hard locust, then I might be being a bit too harsh with my criticism.

I have a pine that needs to come down one of these days, perhaps I'll try it on that tree. I suspect with pine it should easily gut through that trunk.

Only got about 8 to 10 cuts in this morning, I was trying to beat the rain. I failed. The rain changed from drizzle to downpour and I abandoned the project, but not before I cleared the thicker part of the branch from the walkway. The battery is still reading as 75+% after the cuts so it should finish off this 20' branch with battery power to spare since the thickest cuts are already done.

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I see the 14" saw as more of a quick pruning saw if you have a couple branches sticking out. For larger amounts of wood, gas is the way to go. But for me, if I'm just heading out bird hunting in the fall and come across a dead tree across the trail, I now have the confidence that my greenworks 18" will handle it on a single charge. I did a comparison test on the same log using both my husqvarna 350 with a new chain vs using the greenworks.

Right off the bat, the greenworks jumped ahead with the grab n go ease of use. I won't get into the whole "sure, the gas one has to first be filled with fuel and oil etc" argument.

On a head to head comparison, from the time that turning chain touched the log until it was cut through, the greenworks was quicker. And, where I had to put some weight into the husky for it to bite in, the greenworks is opposite. Very little force is needed and let the saw do the work.
 
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