Zogger: I just found and read through this entire thread. It's not a thread as much as it's a semester in evaluating this saw. The Oregon reps were in with this saw this week, and you have answered more questions than I would have thought to ask. THANK YOU! And extra thanks also to Philbert! Adding some marketing thought to your observations I'm drawing a few conclusions. Tell me what you think.
First question with something new is "Who's going to buy it?" One type person who should really own this saw is the occasional user type. The guy who only uses his saw once in a while, and can never get it started; usually due to old gas. But I really think for most of them, the price is going to get in the way. You correctly point out that the amount they spend bringing the cheap gas saws back to the shop to get them running again can quickly add up to the price of this cordless. But most of these folks will balk at the price and pay to have the cheap gas saw fixed or by another one while promising themselves that "This time I'm going to take care of it." Of course, that promise is rarely kept. LOL.
This is also a great option for older guys and many women who are simply incapable of starting a gas saw. The price for this customer may not be too much of an issue, if it eliminates the exasperation of trying to start a gas saw. Some these people actually need a saw for more than simply occasional use, so your experiments on how much real work/firewood someone can do are very good.
I like how you altered your approach in post #49 by trimming off the useless branches with the hatchet so the saw is only used for "take home" cuts. I have a few women customers who cut firewood, and for the most part they stay within the size range that this saw seems to be happy with. Regardless of what they cut it with, they need to be able to handle the wood. Both you and Philbert seem to feel that going beyond 4" wood begins to affect battery life significantly. I would expect that much cutting for people trying to produce some firewood would be in 6" wood. How dramatic do you feel the drop off is for that size wood?
The pics of how much wood can be cut on a single battery are really not too impressive in my mind. This suggests to me that a second battery would be necessary to make this a reasonably practical tool. And that maybe puts the price into the "I don't know if this makes sense" bracket. What is the cost of a second battery? If the saw and extra battery is going to cost as much as a 562XP, it will be a tough sell.
But what you are doing is really exploring the upper productivity limits of this unit. Using some common sense and thinking ahead, you can get a fair amount of work done. I'm having another thought here that the smaller sized wood in which this saw seems happy, is similar to when people cut firewood with a bucksaw and an ax. They would tend toward the smaller stuff because it was more easily workable with hand tools. So, it's maybe the same approach with a cordless saw, minus a ton of sweat and effort.
I'm not going to sell this Oregon unit. Gotta take 5 and short terms for one thing. But mostly because Husky is coming out with a few new cordless saws this fall. (If they can accomplish the rare feat of meeting one of their own forecasts.) They will have both top and rear handle models. A couple of which are XP's and are outfitted with hooks and such for climbers. My guess is that they will also be fairly expensive, especially the XP models. (I have no other info on these things spec wise.)
But again thanks for doing such an exhaustive study on this saw. It is really very informative and helpful.
You are welcome, it has been fun and informative for me as well.
Target market..NO HASSLES and it JUST WORKS.. It's the #1 selling point. On/off, just cuts. No trying to learn to hand sharpen or have to stop in mid job and trudge to the shop for a grind. Expensive to buy, but cheap to operate, pennies in electric per "tank". I've just done a lot of cords of oak in my front yard and it is running me just a little under a gallon of mix per cord when using the gassers. That's close to six bucks. I can cut 1/4 cord per battery if I hit the sweet spot. Well under a buck a cord in juice bill. Bar oil is a little over three batteries per small tank full.
This is the only saw I have that my GF can start and operate. And no worries on letting it sit on the shelf for six months to a year, it'll still start and run.
Quiet, you can run it in packed suburbia at 6 am sunday morning and not bother anyone. No arcane tuning skills needed, no fuel line and filter replacement, no air cleaner replacement, no trying to find no-ethanol stations, no yanking with no start..all that jazz. Like they say, no hassles.
I also like it when trimming out a tree because I can set it down and it is OFF, no sitting their idling or stopping it then restarting it. I cut, move brush, go to cut again.
At six inches you can still get a lot of cuts. I have always just milked out trees, so this is normal for me to start at 1-2 inches on a tree and work my way back to the stump/butt end. It fits in the saw and cutting rotation then. I go now, hatchet, battery saw, mid size saw a 30,40 or 50 cc (whatever I just got running to try out, this is a variable with my cutting), then my larger saw, a 74cc depending on the work if I need that one.
For pro firewood guys who slap ignore anything smaller than six inches and just leave a slash pile and only take the huge log blocks, nope, not real practical. For anyone else, it is fine, IMO, as the small saw in the lineup and as the backyard saw for joe burbs, or like a camping saw for the weekend, that sort of thing.
Yes, it is expensive...just price a high end cordless drill, then it is a fair price, and their batteries are the cheapest of the other two similar saws, the battery stihl and bosch. Until Husky's saws hit, this is it, three practical cordless chainsaws (and the only one really readily available in the US), although there are a dozen much smaller and cheaper makes and models out there. And this is the only one with built in sharpening, which actually *works* quite well.
You can get a good/pretty decent plug in drill for $40, a cordless is $300-400 for a good one, a top of the line unit. You are paying for convenience, ease of use, reliability, etc. So the saw price isn't really out of line compared to other high end cordless battery tools. And supposedly, they have more yard tools coming out that you will be able to use the same battery and charger for, so the battery itself becomes a lot more practical.
And for me, and I realise this doesn't apply to most people because of their mindset, I like it because if TSHTF and something happens to fuel availability and prices, I have a small, modest but functional solar array which I can use partly as my gaspump for this saw. For a long, long time. Just cutting from one recharged battery a day, I KNOW I can more than cover my yearly firewood fuel needs. I've done the real world tests and measured six ways to Sunday, it could be done, plus extra. And one battery would last me almost three years/seasons of cutting every day.
I currently own 32 saws, around a dozen runners and another dozen waiting for me to finish them, plus parts saws, and if you made me, this is the last saw I would part with. I feel exceedingly lucky and blessed with this thing, first run, first generation of the 21st century practical chain saw. it's almost like being give the first laptop way back when, something like that.
Don't get me wrong, I love my gassers and antiques, but this is just rad, especially since I learned to use it properly.
My two must have firewood tools, this saw and my fiskars splitting axe, because they are top of the line best in breed that I can get my hands on, and if all else fails, just them two tools and I am covered, and my GF and I can stay warm in the winter and cook food year round.
Looking forward to the husky lineup! Competition is good! I'd like to see a pole saw attachment, using the same powerhead, and also just a much more powerful battery saw. Something that can pull at least an 18" chain with some authority.
