zogger
Tree Freak
Variation on a meme: go six amps or go home! 
I've just spent the last two days, in between my regular work, running the just hitting the markets shortly Oregon PowerNow CS250E.
Fast take: This is a real saw! A real tool you can do real work with. The Oregon guys have done their homework. It's small, but within design parameters, it does the job.
FULL DISCLAIMER: I now own this saw. My opinions and considerations were unsolicited by me towards the company, nor did I do the first day review thinking I was going to wind up owning it. I was approached to give the saw a workout, using it like I normally would my current small saw, and I did just that. I cut the same stuff I normally do during my day to day workday, various species and small to getting on to medium sized wood, one to around eight inches diameter, with a little more "extra" as noted below. I am keeping the saw now and will be providing further observations and notes, both here on this thread as updates, and directly back to the company. There was no "quid pro quo" arrangement of any kind set up in advance for the purposes of testing, nor is there one now, this is all voluntary on my part and the generosity of the company.
Their product page is here, OREGON® PowerNow™ 40V MAX* Cordless Chainsaw Tool System Home, and it is available at a popular online book and merchandise place for pre orders, search for cordless chainsaws.
Background: I was contacted and meeting set up where I live. The company rep came out, and we went to cutting in the afternoon. I had set up a stash of downed wood in advance down where I clear at the creek and fencelines, had targeted some standing dead to take down, and an area where I am thinning small live trees, so we had a nice variety of wood to try it out on. I took it out again today and bucked some more on a larger deadfall tree. I have a few pics I will post as attachments here, and sometime soon I hope to have the professional pics taken by the rep, and perhaps a video, not sure on that yet.
First impression, like I said, this is a real saw. I have seen and hefted a couple other small cordless saws, this one is much more realistic in size and capability. It is roughly equivalent in size to a small gasser. The ergonomics is fine, good spread from front to rear handle, excellent balance with the stock Powersharp system bar and chain. Until you get close, it "looks" like a normal small chainsaw.
The Powersharp system is integrated into the saw, the sharpening stone is under what would be called the clutch cover on a regular saw. There is no clutch though, being electric and direct drive, and the bar attachment is tool less, with a front tensioner, a normal slotted screw. I have been told a regular bar and chain may be used with the system, but you have to remove the sharpening stone. It is primarily intended to be used as shipped, part of the "no hassles" they want to emphasize. It does use regular bar oil, and has a clear window to watch the level. It does oil well.
The battery itself is pretty large, much larger than any cordless drill battery I have ever used. We used the "endurance" 20 cell pack batteries for the testing. In the pictures you can see most, but not all, I what I cut with around three full batteries. I am deducting a little because some of the wood is not in the picture, I left it down to de-ant for a week, some of the dogwood is in another pile for splitting, plus..I had to do it...I buried the thing in a 30 inch oak log and ran it until I was satisfied It would keep cutting. It would as long as long as I didn't push it too hard. The system has a thermal overload protective circuit and it most definitely will kick in if you try to overwork it. It protects the battery and the electric motor. Stay within design parameters, it keeps cutting. Again, part of the no hassles idea, no one wants broken equipment.
Ha, I also cut a ten inch or so hickory cookie..OK, it cut it, won't win any GTG races though,,but it cut it.
I cut wood of various species, a lot of sweetgum thinning, dogwood, some cherry, some maple, just a few little pine cuts, some other hardwood I don't know the name of, grows along the creek and is sort of like an aspen with catkins (burns good, I have cut a lot of it), there's some elm in there and just generic local woods whatever. Eastern deciduous mostly. Size went from around an inch to a lot of two-three inch pieces all the way to beefy enough rounds they should be split, six to eight inches.
By my measure, I can easily cut one day's worth of midwinter wood with one charged battery. Call it at least two full wheel barrows, going on three. That's one to three days for me, shoulder season to midwinter coldest days.
Small pieces make the battery last longer, cutting larger stuff once over around four inches tends to deplete it rapidly.
RPMs are slower than modern gas saws, but fast enough to get the job done.
Oh, BTW, this saw is really quiet! What a bonus! As in much less noise than a circular saw going through plywood. Way quieter than any gasser saw.
The Powersharp chain "bites" different from other chains, the cutter is sharpened on the top. You get different looking chips as well, sort of a cross between noodles and square grind. It tended to want to skate on me until the kerf was started. Then I noticed you just had to really aim it in square and perpendicular and get your first bite solid, then it went. It's just different, that's all.
The sharpener works perfectly fine, takes just a few seconds to go from cutting rough to back smooth. Just give it some gas...err..amps, pull back on the sharpener lever for a few seconds, done. I cut a buncha dirty wood right off the bat, to try and dull it, just so I could use the sharpener.
Speaking of giving it some gas, this is ON/OFF. No sitting there idling, no tuning required, the full torque and speed is just there as soon as it gets going, no yank start, just on, cutting with a fast spool up, or off....that's it. Normal finger throttle with the safety interlock built into the side, that you close with your thumb.
My GF goes "I don't have to yank it!!!cool"! She is just not very fond of yank start devices......
Supposedly the batteries can sit for a pretty long time and retain most of their charge, and they claim they can be recharged like around a thousand times. I don't know that yet of course, but all my other modern Lithium battery devices are similar. That's a lot of cutting. Recharge from full depleted takes around two hours with the 20 cell endurance batteries I have. The charger itself is low watts, looks to me like besides charging from a wall you could use an inexpensive vehicle 12 VDC to 115 VAC inverter to recharge out in the field or like camping. I know from my other experience that a single decent solar panel, with a controller/deepcell batt/inverter, would be way more than enough to keep one of these things going as long as the LiIon battery could hold a charge. That's a couple years plus change full time at a charge a day, or a quite a lot of weekends at your remote camp/cabin, with no worries about gunked up carbs, stale gas, etc. That's pretty spiffy actually if you think about it...
Each battery has its own built in circuitry with the protection features plus the status indicator, LED lights. It fits where the air cleaner and carb usually go, simple lever pops them out, and slap a fresh one back in.
I have no other cordless saw experience except my combo unit drill/jigsaw/sander, so there ya go. I do have a small Remington plugin electric saw, the PowerNow cordless is "more saw" than that, no contest. It isn't as powerful as a small gasser, but it IS powerful enough to do honest real work, and the battery does last long enough to make it practical, especially for smaller jobs. It's bone stock easy to use, the smaller the cut, the longer run time-more cuts you can make on a charge. The larger the cuts, the less cuts you can make. Run it a bit and you get the feel for it, in order to maximize your output with it. It can do light limbing and small diameter bucking, just learn the saw and let the chain do the work and it will keep pulling. The thermal overload protection works, it will not let you damage it. That's cool, too.
I think it has potential for a small saw in your "plan", a car trunk or pickup toolbox saw, trail clearing, keep it handy for those fast backyard cleanups or that oddball "whoops, a little too long" piece you pull from the woodstack..even say if you use your lawn tractor and trailer cart, it will for sure fill that up for you on one charge out at your woodlot out back.
And like I said, I know for a fact now one battery charge can do at least one, going on two day's worth of firewood for me at midwinter heating demand level. More than adequate to deal with some yard trimming and downed branches. I get most of my firewood from these same fenceline trims and cleanups, so in effect it was doing what I normally use my little Husky for. I cut up nice branches, dropped a few standing dead, and some live trees. It worked.
My first impression on just hearing about it and reading about it in the threads here..it worked better than I thought it would.
Any questions, ask! Pics below, I will post more as I receive them, these are just some I took today.
I've just spent the last two days, in between my regular work, running the just hitting the markets shortly Oregon PowerNow CS250E.
Fast take: This is a real saw! A real tool you can do real work with. The Oregon guys have done their homework. It's small, but within design parameters, it does the job.
FULL DISCLAIMER: I now own this saw. My opinions and considerations were unsolicited by me towards the company, nor did I do the first day review thinking I was going to wind up owning it. I was approached to give the saw a workout, using it like I normally would my current small saw, and I did just that. I cut the same stuff I normally do during my day to day workday, various species and small to getting on to medium sized wood, one to around eight inches diameter, with a little more "extra" as noted below. I am keeping the saw now and will be providing further observations and notes, both here on this thread as updates, and directly back to the company. There was no "quid pro quo" arrangement of any kind set up in advance for the purposes of testing, nor is there one now, this is all voluntary on my part and the generosity of the company.
Their product page is here, OREGON® PowerNow™ 40V MAX* Cordless Chainsaw Tool System Home, and it is available at a popular online book and merchandise place for pre orders, search for cordless chainsaws.
Background: I was contacted and meeting set up where I live. The company rep came out, and we went to cutting in the afternoon. I had set up a stash of downed wood in advance down where I clear at the creek and fencelines, had targeted some standing dead to take down, and an area where I am thinning small live trees, so we had a nice variety of wood to try it out on. I took it out again today and bucked some more on a larger deadfall tree. I have a few pics I will post as attachments here, and sometime soon I hope to have the professional pics taken by the rep, and perhaps a video, not sure on that yet.
First impression, like I said, this is a real saw. I have seen and hefted a couple other small cordless saws, this one is much more realistic in size and capability. It is roughly equivalent in size to a small gasser. The ergonomics is fine, good spread from front to rear handle, excellent balance with the stock Powersharp system bar and chain. Until you get close, it "looks" like a normal small chainsaw.
The Powersharp system is integrated into the saw, the sharpening stone is under what would be called the clutch cover on a regular saw. There is no clutch though, being electric and direct drive, and the bar attachment is tool less, with a front tensioner, a normal slotted screw. I have been told a regular bar and chain may be used with the system, but you have to remove the sharpening stone. It is primarily intended to be used as shipped, part of the "no hassles" they want to emphasize. It does use regular bar oil, and has a clear window to watch the level. It does oil well.
The battery itself is pretty large, much larger than any cordless drill battery I have ever used. We used the "endurance" 20 cell pack batteries for the testing. In the pictures you can see most, but not all, I what I cut with around three full batteries. I am deducting a little because some of the wood is not in the picture, I left it down to de-ant for a week, some of the dogwood is in another pile for splitting, plus..I had to do it...I buried the thing in a 30 inch oak log and ran it until I was satisfied It would keep cutting. It would as long as long as I didn't push it too hard. The system has a thermal overload protective circuit and it most definitely will kick in if you try to overwork it. It protects the battery and the electric motor. Stay within design parameters, it keeps cutting. Again, part of the no hassles idea, no one wants broken equipment.
Ha, I also cut a ten inch or so hickory cookie..OK, it cut it, won't win any GTG races though,,but it cut it.
I cut wood of various species, a lot of sweetgum thinning, dogwood, some cherry, some maple, just a few little pine cuts, some other hardwood I don't know the name of, grows along the creek and is sort of like an aspen with catkins (burns good, I have cut a lot of it), there's some elm in there and just generic local woods whatever. Eastern deciduous mostly. Size went from around an inch to a lot of two-three inch pieces all the way to beefy enough rounds they should be split, six to eight inches.
By my measure, I can easily cut one day's worth of midwinter wood with one charged battery. Call it at least two full wheel barrows, going on three. That's one to three days for me, shoulder season to midwinter coldest days.
Small pieces make the battery last longer, cutting larger stuff once over around four inches tends to deplete it rapidly.
RPMs are slower than modern gas saws, but fast enough to get the job done.
Oh, BTW, this saw is really quiet! What a bonus! As in much less noise than a circular saw going through plywood. Way quieter than any gasser saw.
The Powersharp chain "bites" different from other chains, the cutter is sharpened on the top. You get different looking chips as well, sort of a cross between noodles and square grind. It tended to want to skate on me until the kerf was started. Then I noticed you just had to really aim it in square and perpendicular and get your first bite solid, then it went. It's just different, that's all.
The sharpener works perfectly fine, takes just a few seconds to go from cutting rough to back smooth. Just give it some gas...err..amps, pull back on the sharpener lever for a few seconds, done. I cut a buncha dirty wood right off the bat, to try and dull it, just so I could use the sharpener.
Speaking of giving it some gas, this is ON/OFF. No sitting there idling, no tuning required, the full torque and speed is just there as soon as it gets going, no yank start, just on, cutting with a fast spool up, or off....that's it. Normal finger throttle with the safety interlock built into the side, that you close with your thumb.
My GF goes "I don't have to yank it!!!cool"! She is just not very fond of yank start devices......
Supposedly the batteries can sit for a pretty long time and retain most of their charge, and they claim they can be recharged like around a thousand times. I don't know that yet of course, but all my other modern Lithium battery devices are similar. That's a lot of cutting. Recharge from full depleted takes around two hours with the 20 cell endurance batteries I have. The charger itself is low watts, looks to me like besides charging from a wall you could use an inexpensive vehicle 12 VDC to 115 VAC inverter to recharge out in the field or like camping. I know from my other experience that a single decent solar panel, with a controller/deepcell batt/inverter, would be way more than enough to keep one of these things going as long as the LiIon battery could hold a charge. That's a couple years plus change full time at a charge a day, or a quite a lot of weekends at your remote camp/cabin, with no worries about gunked up carbs, stale gas, etc. That's pretty spiffy actually if you think about it...
Each battery has its own built in circuitry with the protection features plus the status indicator, LED lights. It fits where the air cleaner and carb usually go, simple lever pops them out, and slap a fresh one back in.
I have no other cordless saw experience except my combo unit drill/jigsaw/sander, so there ya go. I do have a small Remington plugin electric saw, the PowerNow cordless is "more saw" than that, no contest. It isn't as powerful as a small gasser, but it IS powerful enough to do honest real work, and the battery does last long enough to make it practical, especially for smaller jobs. It's bone stock easy to use, the smaller the cut, the longer run time-more cuts you can make on a charge. The larger the cuts, the less cuts you can make. Run it a bit and you get the feel for it, in order to maximize your output with it. It can do light limbing and small diameter bucking, just learn the saw and let the chain do the work and it will keep pulling. The thermal overload protection works, it will not let you damage it. That's cool, too.
I think it has potential for a small saw in your "plan", a car trunk or pickup toolbox saw, trail clearing, keep it handy for those fast backyard cleanups or that oddball "whoops, a little too long" piece you pull from the woodstack..even say if you use your lawn tractor and trailer cart, it will for sure fill that up for you on one charge out at your woodlot out back.
And like I said, I know for a fact now one battery charge can do at least one, going on two day's worth of firewood for me at midwinter heating demand level. More than adequate to deal with some yard trimming and downed branches. I get most of my firewood from these same fenceline trims and cleanups, so in effect it was doing what I normally use my little Husky for. I cut up nice branches, dropped a few standing dead, and some live trees. It worked.
My first impression on just hearing about it and reading about it in the threads here..it worked better than I thought it would.
Any questions, ask! Pics below, I will post more as I receive them, these are just some I took today.
