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Battery-powered electric saws are light, quiet, fast, and ideal for fall and winter cleanup. Battery Chainsaw Trimmer

The fastest and easiest way to clean up a tree or limb brought down by a fierce autumn or winter storm is by using a battery-powered chainsaw. Click in a charged battery and get to work. So long as you keep its chain sharp and bar oil in the reservoir, you’ll make quick work of dicing up that wood.

This simplicity stands in direct contrast to the exacting maintenance protocol required for gas-engine chainsaws. You have to store one of those with ethanol-free, two-cycle engine mix or by mixing a preservative with its fuel. And you need to run a gas-engine chainsaw at least several times a year and keep it tuned with a fresh spark plug and air filter. If you do that, you’ll be rewarded with a saw that starts easily and runs reliably. Skip any aspect of that protocol and you have a finicky piece of power equipment that will likely fail you when you need it most.

Of course, there’s no substitute for the hard-charging torque of a properly tuned and well-maintained gas-powered saw, particularly for big woodcutting jobs. But for cleaning up fallen limbs, landscape maintenance, and tree pruning, battery chainsaws are more than up to the job. And chances are you already own a string trimmer or other cordless tool that uses a battery that can power the chainsaw. What’s more, professional-level tools compare very favorably with gas-engine saws when it comes to power.

Take a look below at quick info of the best chainsaws from our testing. Then scroll down for buying advice and in-depth reviews of these and other models.

Pro-duty electric saws powered by a battery are expensive, costing in the range of $300 to $400. A mid-duty model is likely to cost about $250, and an inexpensive one suitable to handle the occasional downed tree limb is going to run you roughly $150 to $200.

Also, an inexpensive electric chainsaw is not going to churn through a pickup truck’s worth of firewood in a morning. Our top-tier professional saws can make as many as 100 cuts (or more) through a 6-inch-diameter hardwood log. Other electric chainsaws that we would classify as professional, but are not as effective as our top performers, produce 40 or 50 cuts. A homeowner-duty saw will make 20 to 30 cuts through the same log.

The longer your cutting session, the more wood you expect to cut. And the more frequent the sessions, the more electric chainsaw you need to buy. Really, it’s that simple.

There are many differences between a gas-engine chainsaw and an electric chainsaw powered by a battery and motor. The latter is noticeably quieter. Gas-engine chainsaws are loud–about 105 decibels; a cordless chainsaw is roughly equal to a corded electric circular saw, at about 100 decibels. (You still need hearing protection for both, though.) As for weight, cordless electric chainsaws are equal to or a couple of pounds heavier than their gas-engine equivalents. A fueled 50-cc gas-engine saw, with an 18-inch bar, weighs 11 to 12 pounds. The cordless chainsaws we tested weigh anywhere from 11 to about 14 pounds. For small jobs, a cordless chainsaw may be faster than a comparable gas-engine model, because you don’t have to take the time to add fuel. Just push in a charged battery and go. On the other hand, gas-engine saws excel at big jobs: timber felling for lumber or firewood, storm or disaster cleanup, and tree removal.

Both types of saws require bar oil and a sharp chain. That means knowing how to hone that chain, and you’ll need at least one spare in case you get the saw’s nose into the dirt or hit a nail buried in the log.

We ran our test saws through a truckload of hardwood logs (ash, white oak, locust), each about 6 inches in diameter. We charged each saw’s battery, strapped a log onto a saw buck, and proceeded to rapidly and repeatedly cut test discs (or “cookies,” as they’re called) by pivoting the saw through the log. The test exposes vibration, stalling, hesitancy, and lack of trigger response. If the saw has a low threshold for thermal cutoff to protect the battery and circuitry, that will shut the saw off. Rapid repeat cuts through hardwood generate a lot of internal heat in the tool, both from current flow and in the chain drive. For a handful of these saws, we used them to cut up trees felled by storms. (For these saws, you’ll see the disc count marked as N/A.)

You take one look at the number of discs this saw cut and think, That’s some machine. And you’d be right. What that number doesn’t tell you is how quickly and easily it got to that number—without stalling, vibration, or tiring us out. The 540 LiXP is equipped with a massive 9.36-Ah battery, and that certainly helped boosts its number. But there’s more to it than battery girth. Clearly it’s got a great motor and drivetrain. As far as comparing it to the Stihl above, we need to be clear that its test discs were slightly smaller in diameter. The MSA 220 C-B cut so many, we ran out and had to revert to the next smaller size of test material when it came time to run the Husqvarna. Still, this is a formidable power tool that competes directly with that one. The 540 LiXP is perfectly capable of firewood production, storm cleanup, and landscaping maintenance and closes the gap between electric and gas-engine saws.

The MSA 220 C-B is power tool excellence. In terms of its power, productivity, safety, handling, quietness, and convenience, it’s as good as many gas-engine chainsaws that we've tested. It’s slim and powerful and pivots nicely through the cut without stalling or vibrating. And when it comes time to add oil, you’ve got a quarter-turn bar oil cap that’s quick to release and tighten. Adjusting the chain tension is easy, requiring no tools. Flip up the lever on the adjustment wheel located adjacent to the bar and turn it counterclockwise to release tension on the tightening mechanism. Next, turn the thumb wheel above the bar forward to tighten the chain; turn the thumbwheel back to release tension on it. When you’ve got the chain where you want it, flip the lever back down and turn it counterclockwise to lock the position of the tightening mechanism. Add to these features how the chain (which Stihl manufacturers itself) is high quality and easy to sharpen, and you have a well-rounded, well-featured saw that cuts firewood, handles yard cleanup tasks, and prunes hardwood and softwood trees with ease.

We found the RY 40580 to be a good, fast-cutting saw, with an ability to hang in there during difficult cuts without tripping the thermal overload switch. You can be confident in its ability to handle the yard work you need to do. We particularly appreciated several of its features, like its long bar reduces the amount of stooping you do to get at wood you need to cut, Also, it’s equipped with a chain brake—not merely a front hand guard—to protect you against kickback. Finally, its rapid charger is four times faster than a standard one. You can do a lot of cutting with this saw, take a rest break, and put sufficient charge on the battery to cut some more. We found that it leaks oil while not in use. But there are steps you can take to reduce that, such as storing the saw without bar oil and turning down its adjustable oiler.

Two side-saddle, 20-volt batteries (4-Ah apiece) supply the hefty side-mount motor on the WG385. It looks, feels, and cuts like a solid little saw, as its disc count more than amply illustrates. Other features we like are its crisp chain brake, large bar-oil reservoir, easy-to-grip oil cap, tool-free chain tightening, and well-located button to help you quickly determine how much charge is left. If you’re invested in Worx 20-volt and 40-volt power tools, this chainsaw would make a sensible addition to your arsenal.

DeWalt fans will not be disappointed with this saw. It’s a powerful cutter, and the cookie count doesn’t convey how enthusiastically it goes about its work, thanks to the great big motor and an equally massive battery to provide the needed current. It’s an easy saw to use, with excellent battery access and visibility. The tool-free chain tightening further improves our opinion of it. Our only dislike is the thumb-activated safety switch, which is too stiff.

With this Makita, you get a compact saw that exhibits outstanding fit and finish, in line with the company’s other power tools. Consider that, at its widest point, the saw is only 5.5 inches across. Sure, others produced more cookies, but they’re more than 2 inches wider; bulk and weight add up the longer you use any power tool. We also like the XCU07PT’s crisp chain brake, its sensibly located power switch at the front of the handle, and a bright, well-placed battery gauge that you can read even in harsh sunlight. If you’re already invested in the company’s 18-volt power tool platform, get this saw. No, it didn’t have the guts of the Echo or the Milwaukee. But it’s adequate for landscape maintenance and a whole lot lighter than those other saws, by about 3 pounds.

The CS1604 puts out impressively little noise and boasts a large dial to tighten the chain. It can zoom through even large-diameter hardwood logs, and it comes with a five-year warranty. A couple of words of warning regarding user-friendliness: The filler neck for bar oil is narrow and easy to overfill, and the cap isn’t tethered to keep it from getting lost or rolling around in the dirt.

Contractors who are fully on board with Milwaukee’s 18-volt platform will appreciate this stubbornly powerful tool that runs on the same batteries as its drills and other saws. It cuts viciously, and we pushed it as hard as we could. You get a saw that speeds through the log, cut after cut until its battery is done. And you also get a little more convenience than the other guys. The big red machine is equipped with onboard storage for its scrench (screwdriver-wrench). The tool clips into a compartment on the bottom. The downside is that if you really try to produce firewood with this saw, you’ll quickly wear the bar out. We did, and that’s exactly what we found. But maybe that’s okay. We produced a shed full of wood in the process.

Anyone who has followed our tool reviews knows that we’re fans of Echo outdoor power equipment, especially the company’s string trimmers and chainsaws, which are simple to use and very effective. So it is with this saw. If you’re moving over from a gas model to a cordless, this would be a good choice. Yes, it’s heavy like a gas-engine chainsaw, and its length, width, and balance will feel familiar to gas-engine users. But its cut performance is similarly very good. Our only complaint is a small one. We’re mystified why the company put such a puny timber spike on the saw. And it’s plastic. Even on these saws, a sharp metal timber spike is a necessity to dig into the log and form a pivot point.

This was the only self-sharpening saw in our tests. To use this feature, called PowerSharp, you run the saw and simultaneously pull the red lever. It’s easy and incredibly fast, producing a razor-sharp chain in seconds. All of the saw’s other features were likewise designed for speed and ease, from oil filling to chain tightening.

About two cut discs per volt is a good metric for cordless chainsaw performance, and the CS40L412 got there easily and rapidly. It made one neat slice after another. That disc count and its rapid performance shouldn’t really come as a surprise. This is a reasonably hefty power tool, with a 40-volt motor. With the bar-oil reservoir topped off, it weighs about 12 pounds. We’d classify it as a light to medium-duty firewood cutter or as perfectly adequate for landscape and trail maintenance, and it’s certainly adequate to deal with the occasional downed tree or limb. Saws in this class are equipped with a chain brake (this one is), not just a hand guard, and a large bar-oil reservoir. Given its performance, we think it could use a slightly more aggressive bumper spike (the spikes are rounded off), but that’s a small complaint. At least it has one, which is more than we can say for many mid-duty cordless saws. Our other observation: tool-free chain tightening? No. You’ve got two bar nuts and a slot for a screwdriver.

One of the most remarkable chainsaws we’ve tested recently is the little GTA 26, a 10.8-volt model weighing about 3 pounds with a 4-inch guide bar. It’s built for pruning and woodworking, yet it’s surprisingly capable and can punch well above its weight. How far above? Up the street from our office, an 8-inch-diameter tree limb snapped off and fell across a sidewalk, completely blocking it. It took just 15 minutes of work to cut through the tangled chest-deep mess using this petite saw. The biggest limbs it hewed through were the 6-inch-diameter branches coming off the trunk of the main branch. And in the course of the work, we tackled a number of spring poles that were bent under tension. The saw is so light, you can hold a branch in one hand and saw it with the other. When the work was done, we tucked the saw, its battery, a pair of work gloves, and safety glasses in a small tool bag (designed for a cordless drill) and walked back to the office. A number of pedestrians out on their lunch break strolled through the newly restored path, branches heaped up on either side of it. The tool is so quiet, the walkers seemed unaware that a chainsaw had just cleared the way.

One way to look at this little 20-volt saw is that it’s the kid brother to some of the larger chainsaws above. It appears that the brand intended it as much for carpentry and fence building as it did for yard cleanup, since Craftsman equipped the CMCCS620M1 with a pair of bubble levels (picture topping posts level to the ground, for example). The saw is small (it has a 12-inch bar) and light, weighing just 10 pounds with its 4-Ah battery. We didn’t do any carpentry with it, and you’re not going to use this saw for firewood production, but we did some general yard cleanup on fallen branches and found that it has enough oomph to get the job done.

The HLCS01’s disc count tells nearly the entire story; 46 hardwood discs is equal to a morning’s work, especially when you’re talking about cleaning up a small tree that blew down in a storm or a bunch of branches that fell over the course of the winter. You wouldn’t use this saw for firewood production, but it will handle cleanup jobs without complaint. It’s a basic model with a 14-inch bar (that’s not a lot of reach, and you’ll have to bend to work close to the ground), onboard scrench storage, and a generously sized bar-oil cap that provides a good grip.

Roy Berendsohn has worked for more than 25 years at Popular Mechanics, where he has written on carpentry, masonry, painting, plumbing, electrical, woodworking, blacksmithing, welding, lawn care, chainsaw use, and outdoor power equipment. When he’s not working on his own house, he volunteers with Sovereign Grace Church doing home repair for families in rural, suburban and urban locations throughout central and southern New Jersey.

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