ECHO 58 Volt Cordless Chainsaw

[zemmo]

The deal is, it's only been a few years now since the decent battery saws came out. Ya, some earlier ones, I mean the "hit practical use stage". Now in those few short years, they are like *twice* as good! For the same loot or even cheaper! Much stronger electric motors and much longer lasting and more powerful batteries.

Think about ten years from now.

Yep, gas saws still rule on weight and power, but the batt jobs aren't sneaking up, they are sprinting now! Show me any stock (not ported, stock from the factory) saw that in a few years time, same displacement, is twice as good for the same/similar or even less money.

Once graphene and carbon nanotubes are being used in the batts, lookout!

I agree, it's exciting! 2 stroke gas saws are a mature tech. I want a cordless saw now, just don't want it to weigh more than 11 lbs or so. If the brushless Oregon gets good reviews will probably buy one in the fall, with a weed-whacker.

 

[zemmo]

They said that they were able to increase the capacity of the larger battery without adding weight, by 'improving efficiency'(?).

I expect they're just using higher capacity, more expensive 18650 cells.

 

[Andyshine77]

Stopped by HD today and had a look at the Echo. Nice looking saw, but boy does it have some weight to it, a hair lighter than the 590 sitting next to it. I still may pick one up, but the weight definitely is a big negative. I also saw some similarities between it and the Ryobi saw, I'm thinking Ryobi may be making these tools for Echo.

 

[Chainsaw10]

I only had a chance to run 1 pack thorough the new saw today, thats about 20 minutes of nonstop carving. There was one glitch within the first minute of running. Power cut out and I had to re-click the battery just like the first saw yesterday. ...but the rest of the twenty minutes I had no problems. When it works it is really an awesome saw, but the electronic glitches leave me doubtful.

 

[Philbert]

I'm thinking Ryobi may be making these tools for Echo.

All made by TTI exclusively for Home Depot
http://www.ttigroup.com/en/our_brands/


More info in this thread:
http://www.arboristsite.com/communi...-cordless-chainsaw.177392/page-9#post-5271046

Philbert

 

[zogger]

I only had a chance to run 1 pack thorough the new saw today, thats about 20 minutes of nonstop carving. There was one glitch within the first minute of running. Power cut out and I had to re-click the battery just like the first saw yesterday. ...but the rest of the twenty minutes I had no problems. When it works it is really an awesome saw, but the electronic glitches leave me doubtful.

Hopefully, they can get it fixed. I'd contact the company and get a real tech/engineer on the line, explain what is happening, and look for a *real* fix, not exchange one from the same production run for another one.... Might be one simple electronic do dad needs to be upgraded, who knows though....

 

[Philbert]

I'd contact the company and get a real tech/engineer on the line . . .

Probably impossible. Remember, these are not supported by ECHO. They are exclusive to The Home Depot, which only has the capability to exchange, refund, or do very simple repairs if they have a rental department.

I could not even get basic sales questions answered by the manufacturer, except when I 'ambushed' them at a store sales demo.

Philbert

 

[Chainsaw10]

I'm going to use it for the next few days first and get to really know the saw first. ...then I will try to contact someone early next week.
I shouldn't really be modifying this saw at all because I'm really not sure if I'm keeping it....but I did a little something. I cut the back of all the cutting teeth....so now I can do plunge cuts. It's impossible to plunge with this 3/8 .043 chain without doing this.

 

[Philbert]

Maybe we will see 'reconditioned' (returned) saws available on line for less in a few months?

Philbert

 

[Chainsaw10]

I ran 3 full battery charges on the saw today...all the way to cutoff....and I pushed it hard. Flawless the whole time. This thing really blows the Stihl battery saws away as far as power and chain speed goes!! You can really push it hard and it doesn't slow down in a cut. Very very happy with how the saw ran today...and grinding the back of the cutters off makes the saw much better.
Run time is not nearly as long as the stihl saws, but there is tons more power.....so I guess thats understandable. I will pick up a second battery if I'm still happy with this saw a week or two from now(actually I will probably grab a string trimmer because it comes with a battery for i think $300....and a new battery alone is about $200 i believe)

 

[jhellwig]

All made by TTI exclusively for Home Depot
http://www.ttigroup.com/en/our_brands/


More info in this thread:
http://www.arboristsite.com/communi...-cordless-chainsaw.177392/page-9#post-5271046

Philbert

And seeing as how that is also the parent company of ryobi and milwaukee maybe some of milwaukees awsome batteries made their way into it. Milwaukee is doing good getting power and battery life out of their stuff. Plus they are making their own cells in their batteries.

 

[Philbert]

Panasonic used to make batteries for Milwaukee. Hard to keep track. Some of these tool companies have been bought and sold several times in the past several years.

Philbert

 

[Chainsaw10]

Ran the saw for about 15 minutes today. I had to re-click the battery at least a dozen times because power was cutting out again. It never cuts out when pushing it hard....only when doing light stuff. I'm gonna have to call tech support, because this saw is awesome when it works...but I can't deal with the electric constantly browning out.

 

[zogger]

Ran the saw for about 15 minutes today. I had to re-click the battery at least a dozen times because power was cutting out again. It never cuts out when pushing it hard....only when doing light stuff. I'm gonna have to call tech support, because this saw is awesome when it works...but I can't deal with the electric constantly browning out.

Sounds bad, two in a row. Most likely be a recall on them then.

 

[Andyshine77]

Thought this was somewhat interesting. He seems to push the Ego stuff a bit, however much of what he said makes sense, at least to me it does.

 

[Philbert]

Thought this was somewhat interesting . . . much of what he said makes sense, at least to me it does.

Verrrrry IN-ter-est-ing. . . . .! Thanks for posting that link.

Learned a lot about battery pack thermal issues. Liked the phase change material and 'potting' of the electronics on the Ego batteries. Also interesting to just take a tour of the internals. Now I want to see the insides of the STIHL, Husqvarna, Oregon, etc. batteries! Wonder why he is only comparing these two brands? He has a few related ones on YouTube. Might have a dog in the fight?

Not surprised that the 56 V and 58 V batteries are really 'the same'. I understand that the 36 V and 40 V batteries are also 'the same', just described differently.

The batteries, of course, are an important (and expensive) component of these tools, but only part of the total user experience. I might put up with a longer charging time, and shorter battery life, if I liked the operation of one tool better, or if the price difference was significant. Home Depot may be warranting the ECHO batteries for 5 years (hard to get a straight answer) for residential use - so 'better' batteries may not be such a critical factor for some users if they get that kind of life out of it.

Philbert

 

[Chainsaw10]

Yeah ,it's pretty clear that Ego batteries are definitely better quality after watching that. I was already thinking about returning this echo tomorrow and picking up an ego to try out. I think that video sealed the deal. It's just gonna cost more if I like the Ego... $300 to get started...then if I like it I'm gonna need the 4ah battery($200) and a quick charger($100)

...anyway I'm not screwing around with these brand new Echo's not working properly. It's a shame they didn't even test there own products before they released them. Power is great when it runs....but what good is it with the aggravation of having to constantly remove/reinsert the battery while working.

 

[zemmo]

View attachment 429325

Verrrrry IN-ter-est-ing. . . . .! Thanks for posting that link.

Learned a lot about battery pack thermal issues. Liked the phase change material and 'potting' of the electronics on the Ego batteries. Also interesting to just take a tour of the internals. Now I want to see the insides of the STIHL, Husqvarna, Oregon, etc. batteries! Wonder why he is only comparing these two brands? He has a few related ones on YouTube. Might have a dog in the fight?

Not surprised that the 56 V and 58 V batteries are really 'the same'. I understand that the 36 V and 40 V batteries are also 'the same', just described differently.

The batteries, of course, are an important (and expensive) component of these tools, but only part of the total user experience. I might put up with a longer charging time, and shorter battery life, if I liked the operation of one tool better, or if the price difference was significant. Home Depot may be warranting the ECHO batteries for 5 years (hard to get a straight answer) for residential use - so 'better' batteries may not be such a critical factor for some users if they get that kind of life out of it.

Philbert

I've never seen a sleeve of "phase change" material used before. A battery bank is the cells, the protection circuitry, cooling, and packaging. Both of these battery packs are using 2000mAh cells, at the lower end of capacity in today's marketplace, probably Chinese. The best cells are nearly twice that capacity now. One could probably figure out exactly which cells the Echo is using, if one could read the string of characters on the vid.

 

[Philbert]

I've never seen a sleeve of "phase change" material used before.

I understood it to mean that there is a piece of phase change material held against each cell by a sleeve of heat shrink tubing.

Philbert

 

[Andyshine77]

Yeah ,it's pretty clear that Ego batteries are definitely better quality after watching that. I was already thinking about returning this echo tomorrow and picking up an ego to try out. I think that video sealed the deal. It's just gonna cost more if I like the echo. $300 to get started...then if I like it I'm gonna need the 4ah battery($200) and a quick charger($100)

...anyway I'm not screwing around with these brand new Echo's not working properly. It's a shame they didn't even test there own products before they released them. Power is great when it runs....but what good is it with the aggravation of having to constantly remove/reinsert the battery while working.

Do you feel it's something as simple like bad contact between the connectors, or something in the electronics?

I was really about to pick one of these up, I think I'll wait awhile and see what happens. Before you take back the Echo and if it's not too much trouble, a video of the Echo and Ego cutting in the same log would be nice. I know, I know, faster isn't always better, especially if you have to pull the battery all the time.