Ego Energy+ 18-inch electrical chainsaw assessment: Does it reduce it?

My dad has been taking a look at electrical chainsaws for some time however hadn’t pulled the set off on one, and so being the great son I’m (particularly since he lets me ship bizarre Chinese language electrical automobiles to his property), I made a decision to purchase one for him. There are a couple of electrical chainsaws on the market, however I’ve heard good issues about Ego’s instruments and so I made a decision to attempt a type of. A pair clicks on Amazon and some days later, a shiny inexperienced Ego Energy+ 18-inch 56 volt electrical chainsaw confirmed up on the door.

I went for the 18-inch chainsaw mannequin as a result of I figured it might be sufficiently big for just about something he must do round his property, and it’s slightly bit extra sturdy than the corporate’s smaller fashions.

My dad doesn’t have some other Ego instruments, so this meant he’ll should to wrangle one more charger and battery normal into his storage, however I assume these are simply the occasions we dwell in. Since this explicit software was a present, I determine he received’t thoughts making room on his battery shelf for one more colour of energy software batteries.

And whereas it’s technically his noticed now, he let me commandeer it upon arrival so I might spend a day with it and assessment its efficiency.

The primary check was positively not a stroll within the park. He’s had a pile of phone poles on his property for a couple of years and a few of them have gotten fairly nasty to the purpose the place they’re not likely helpful for a lot of of his numerous tasks.

He needed to toss them in a building dumpster he’s bought there quickly, however the issue is that they had been too lengthy to suit.

This was an awesome likelihood to place the chainsaw work chopping these suckers in half. The assorted phone poles had been someplace between 12 to 14 inches (30-36 cm) in diameter and the chainsaw appeared to chop by them like a scorching knife by butter.

Chopping piles on the bottom is a bit tough, so after doing a couple of of them, I used my electrical tractor to elevate them, although that created a brand new situation once I didn’t go away sufficient of a reduction wedge and the noticed kerf would squeeze the blade.

After wrestling the noticed free, re-tensioning the blade took about three seconds.

The noticed has a quite simple tool-free chain tensioning system that makes use of a handy twist dial, so it’s very straightforward to make use of and also you don’t have to spend so much time getting it arrange (or resetting it after you struggle to free your noticed from an enormous log).

So long as I had my angles proper so I ended getting my blade squeezed within the kerf, the noticed reduce by these phone poles like they had been balsa wooden. It was fairly darn spectacular.

Only for enjoyable, I reduce out a couple of skinny cross-sections of the phone poles, and the chainsaw simply went proper by them with out protesting.

In my first check of getting these phone poles reduce down (and a few simply plain enjoyable chopping dinner plate-sized cross sections from them), I discovered that the chainsaw was heavy obligation sufficient to really feel stable and highly effective, however not so heavy that it was tiring to make use of when making many cuts in a row.

At round 14 kilos (6.4 kilograms), it’s bought modest heft with out sapping your arms.

That’s particularly essential for my dad who continues to be a powerful man who works with fingers on a regular basis, however is closing in on 70 years outdated, and so I’d reasonably not have him wielding a brilliant heavy chainsaw.

Subsequent, I needed to reduce some numerous logs to get them into the burn pile after a couple of bushes had been knocked over within the final main storm. They’ve been sitting round for some time as my dad went forwards and backwards about whether or not or to not get a brand new noticed.

As I labored on these bushes and branches, the chopping was even simpler than the phone poles. That is smart based mostly on the smaller diameter, but it surely was nonetheless a very good check for a extra frequent use case (not many individuals have a pile of phone poles).

My final chopping mission for the day was to complete felling a small tree that bought knocked over within the final hurricane however that was nonetheless rising principally parallel to the bottom.

My dad needed to see if he might flip that tree right into a bush because it has some fairly flowers that it sends out for a couple of months annually.

To attempt to make a bush out of it, we reduce it off primarily on the floor to let it begin rising a bunch of smaller shoots proper at floor degree. 

For the uninitiated, that is Florida and in order that stump goes to be rising again right into a tree very quickly. You possibly can’t kill issues rising in Florida, life merely finds a approach. I don’t know if it’s the each day rains or the seemingly 30 hours of daylight every day, however issues simply develop and develop. And that tree attempting to develop sideways alongside the bottom was only a hazard for everybody. Now it is going to hopefully flip into a pleasant flowering little bush.

After a day of chopping nearly the whole lot I might discover that wanted to be reduce, I ended up draining solely round 20% of the battery.

I don’t know precisely what number of cuts you get out of a cost since I don’t have sufficient stuff to chop to burn by a complete huge battery. They are saying it is going to do 300 cuts by a 4×4, however that looks like a really particular use case. If I must make 300 cuts in a 4×4, I’m utilizing a round noticed!

What I CAN say is that I did a bunch of various duties across the property that mirror real-world utilization, and I nonetheless had 80% of the 56V 5Ah battery remaining. And so to me, the battery positively appears to final fairly a very long time.

For many who want much more juice, you possibly can, after all, simply hold a spare battery round. And when you have a bunch of Ego instruments, which means you have already got a few of their batteries in your storage, then it can save you some cash by shopping for simply the chainsaw and never the battery or charger.

All in all, I feel this was an awesome buy and I’m actually impressed with how nicely the noticed works. It value a fairly penny at practically $350, although the 16-inch and 14-inch variations can prevent some dough. Clearly you may get a less expensive little 50 or 60cc gasoline-powered chainsaw, however then you definately’re coping with protecting gasoline round, and can most likely a heavier software to wield, and also you’ve bought the potential of irritating engine issues resulting in a bunch of surprising upkeep.

Whenever you want a chainsaw, you often want it proper then. Discovering that you just’ve bought a carburetor downside is an actual bummer. In order that’s the great thing about electrical instruments like these. They’ve principally the identical upkeep degree as an electrical energy drill, with the expectation of oiling the blade and sometimes changing it on occasion. However the drivetrain is basically maintenance-free, similar to your drill.

So I’m actually proud of this factor. Certain, it’s not low cost, and it’ll nonetheless be a couple of years earlier than electrics can rival gas-powered instruments on worth, but it surely positively wins in quite a few different classes and handles the whole lot I (or my dad) may need for general-purpose duties.