Chainsaws: why I went battery

I was a petrol chainsaw stalwart for twenty years. They're affordable, they'll run for hours on a jerrycan of fuel, and they're powerful enough to cut large trunks with relative ease. Battery-powered chainsaws, on the contrary, have a short run-time, unless you carry a huge battery on your back, or have some place to charge batteries. The batteries cost a fortune, compared to the price of a can of petrol. Unless you're willing to spend a huge amount of money, a battery-powered chainsaw won't be as powerful as a petrol one, and it will take you longer to process each tree -- particularly if you have to stop and charge the battery half-way through a cut.

It's only in the last few years that battery chainsaws have come down in price to the point where I'd even consider buying one. Partly, I guess, they've become cheaper because of improvements in battery technology, but perhaps it's also because there are so many more battery-powered appliances around these days. You can even get battery-powered angle grinders these days -- something I never expected to see.

Whatever the reason, when my last petrol chainsaw gave up the ghost, I was willing to consider buying a battery-powered one. In fact, not only did I consider it, I actually bought one. Now I wish I'd made the change years ago although, of course, I couldn't have afforded to.

Battery chainsaws are inferior to petrol in all ways except one, but that's the one that really matters: safety.

A battery chainsaw starts immediately at the press of a button. I'm never tempted to leave my saw running in cold weather, just because it's going to be a pain to start again -- something I did all the time in winter with my petrol saw. If I have to carry my battery saw up a ladder, I don't have make the difficult choice between trying to pull-start it in the tree, or carrying it up the ladder with the motor running: I just push the button when I'm ready to cut.

When I release the trigger on my battery saw, the chain stops immediately. My battery saw doesn't vibrate, and make my fingers numb. It's much, much quieter in operation than a petrol model, so the constant noise doesn't exhaust me. I can finally hear what's going on around me when I'm working. It's lighter in weight, too, than an petrol saw of similar bar size.

From a safety perspective, the limited battery capacity also works to my advantage, in an odd way. In practice, I get about an hour's cross-cutting from a charge, or I can fell one or two trees -- which is about what I can handle before exhaustion at my age. I haven't been tempted to buy additional batteries, because I don't want a reason to work for longer. It's not as if I'm being paid by the trunk, after all.

I'm just an amateur/volunteer forester, but I understand that a lot of professional forestry contractors are also turning to battery power now. I would have been surprised to find this before I went battery myself, but it makes good sense now. The advantages of the petrol chainsaw simply don't outweigh the risk of losing a leg.

Chainsaw users can be judgemental. They compare bar lengths like small boys... well, you get the idea. But size isn't important -- it's what you do with it. And nobody mocks my saw after they've seen how effective it is in use.

Of course, a battery saw won't be suitable for every job, unless you're willing to spend a fortune. But it's surprising how many jobs mine can tackle, and with less effort, noise, and smoke. And risk.

Published 2026-02-25, updated 2026-02-25

Chainsaws: why I went battery

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