Ego Energy+ 18-inch electrical chainsaw evaluate: Does it lower it?

My dad has been electrical chainsaws for some time however hadn’t pulled the set off on one, and so being the nice 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 just a few electrical chainsaws on the market, however I’ve heard good issues about Ego’s instruments and so I made a decision to strive 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 could be sufficiently big for just about something he must do round his property, and it’s a little bit bit extra sturdy than the corporate’s smaller fashions.

My dad doesn’t have some other Ego instruments, so this meant he’ll must to wrangle one more charger and battery customary into his storage, however I assume these are simply the occasions we reside in. Since this explicit device was a present, I determine he received’t thoughts making room on his battery shelf for one more shade of energy device 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 evaluate its efficiency.

The primary take a look at was undoubtedly not a stroll within the park. He’s had a pile of phone poles on his property for just a few 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 varied tasks.

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

This was a fantastic 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.

Slicing piles on the bottom is a bit tough, so after doing just a few of them, I used my electrical tractor to carry them, although that created a brand new difficulty once I didn’t depart 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 lower by these phone poles like they had been balsa wooden. It was fairly darn spectacular.

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

In my first take a look at of getting these phone poles lower 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 strong 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 remains to be a robust man who works with palms on a regular basis, however is closing in on 70 years outdated, and so I’d slightly not have him wielding a brilliant heavy chainsaw.

Subsequent, I needed to lower some varied logs to get them into the burn pile after just a few 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 sensible primarily based on the smaller diameter, nevertheless it was nonetheless a superb take a look at for a extra frequent use case (not many individuals have a pile of phone poles).

My final chopping undertaking for the day was to complete felling a small tree that bought knocked over within the final hurricane however that was nonetheless rising mainly 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 just a few months annually.

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

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

After a day of chopping nearly every little thing I might discover that wanted to be lower, 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 large battery. They are saying it would do 300 cuts by a 4×4, however that looks like a really particular use case. If I have to 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 undoubtedly appears to final fairly a very long time.

For individuals who want much more juice, you possibly can, after all, simply maintain a spare battery round. And in case you have a bunch of Ego instruments, that 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 believe this was a fantastic 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 will get a less expensive little 50 or 60cc gasoline-powered chainsaw, however then you definitely’re coping with protecting gasoline round, and can in all probability a heavier device to wield, and also you’ve bought the potential of irritating engine issues resulting in a bunch of surprising upkeep.

Once you want a chainsaw, you normally want it proper then. Discovering that you simply’ve bought a carburetor downside is an actual bummer. In order that’s the fantastic thing about electrical instruments like these. They’ve mainly the identical upkeep stage as an electrical energy drill, with the expectation of oiling the blade and sometimes changing it infrequently. However the drivetrain is actually maintenance-free, similar to your drill.

So I’m actually pleased with this factor. Certain, it’s not low-cost, and it’ll nonetheless be just a few years earlier than electrics can rival gas-powered instruments on value, nevertheless it undoubtedly wins in plenty of different classes and handles every little thing I (or my dad) may wish for general-purpose duties.