“Chinese” electric chainsaws and delimbers: what are they worth?
published: 26/03/24, 11:47
It's spring, I had pruning work to do in addition to a fairly large and laborious firewood project: a plot of old Christmas trees to cut down and limb...(see below)
To make it easier to delimb the fir trees (a horror), I bought 2 mini electric chainsaws (€50 each) on Amazon...
So I share my experience with you.
These are 2 small loppers / pruners of 15 cm / 6 inches...
My selection criteria:
a) Highest possible voltage, I didn't want 12 or 14V.
So I took 21V, or 5S lithium.
So be careful in this regard the Chinese speak in max voltage (21V = 5 *4.2V) while the brand manufacturers (like Bosch, Makita...) speak in nominal voltage.
In other words a Chinese 21V = 18V brand (18V= 5*3.6V).
b) Customer comments and some YouTube videos
c) The price: I didn't want to spend 100€ on Chinese equipment with questionable reliability and especially quality of batteries...
I didn't want to spend €200 on a single brand machine...
d) Battery compatibility: they are the same.
Bonus, obviously, these models use compatible “Makita” batteries...ah ah ah, holy Chinese!
Otherwise there are always adapters between major brands...that's good to know!
e) At this price, no automatic lubrication and the chain is tightened with tools.
In short, I received these 2 models and their 4 batteries a few days ago and I have already done 3 fir tree lopping sessions lasting around 1h30 in the field (time to empty the 4 batteries)...
Why is the channel missing on the 2nd? Because it is already dead...after not even 3 hours of continuous work...It starts and stops after a few seconds, even without a chain....Return to sender (hello planet... )
My feedback on these “toys” after a few hours
They look like toys, which will make all users of thermal Stihls laugh, but in fact they work quite well (when they still work...
)
a) The design is quite good: it's light (with the 2Ah = 36Wh batteries, they are the smallest) and it fits well in the hand...for disconnecting at height it's the best!
b) The cutting power is there and for standing limbing it's great: I cut oak with a section of 15 cm at a height of 5m without any problems and without blocking the chain. No need to bother with a thermal or an extension to raise high... In 10 minutes it was fixed (vs at least 30 min if I had done it with the thermal)
c) The actual autonomy is around 10 min per battery in "cut" mode (not empty therefore)...a timed test would have to be carried out.
The power indicated by the docs is 550 and 600W...not verified...but that seems a lot to me: 600W on a 36Wh battery is 3min36 continuously...so it doesn't add up...
d) I noticed that the autonomy depends enormously on the tension of the chain : with a chain that is too tight, you easily divide it by 2.
You must have a chain a little "loose" to promote autonomy without it obviously jumping...
The instructions talk about 3mm of travel when pulling on the chain, that's far too little!!
Now I leave 3mm of arrow without pulling on it. This seems to me to be the best compromise...
e) I lubricate with WD40 every 10 minutes, the chains are still fine (very sharp to the finger) after a few hours of cutting
f) It takes 4 to 5 minutes to trim a 3m “all inclusive” tree
f) BIG NEGATIVE POINT.
There is a double safety system: battery and machine (engine temperature I presume)...
They can stop and not restart even with a 100% battery... that's quite annoying. You need to let them cool for 5 minutes. This also preserves the battery which has time to cool down. Hence the usefulness of having 2 machines in the field. Limbing fir trees is very intense work in terms of machine time...So I think it's an excellent test of their robustness or not...(the proof ) ...
The 2nd model has definitely become visibly safe...
Too bad it cut a little better than the other...
On these "1st price" models, they are carbon motors, I didn't pay attention to that, to replace the HS model I just ordered a brushless model with an 8 inch chain with the same "Makita" batteries from 4Ah...for 70€...so at the same price as the others with the difference in the price of the batteries...I will tell you if it performs better.
Temporary conclusion
If you have the means to do pruning work, especially at height, this type of tool is great! Up to 20, even 25 cm, in section, they will do the job if you use them well.
It's the ideal tool for thinning medium-sized hazelnut trees!
For continuous work, such as intensive fir limbing, they show their limits quite quickly (on the other hand for the price... you shouldn't expect miracles but it's rather quite positive overall if we omit the HS machine...)
Ah I forgot the most important thing, I'm doing the tree work with a friend who does it with a thermal chainsaw, he had to do 2 full tanks during 1 "battery" session...and didn't delimb much more than me ...and above all he was much more exhausted at the end!!
We limb up 15 to 25 fir trees per hour per person...
To be continued !!!
Edit addition, here is my electrical arsenal tests further down in this subject
The Einhell from science-and-technology/chinese-electric-chainsaws-and-delimbers-what-is-it-worth-t17647-100.html
To make it easier to delimb the fir trees (a horror), I bought 2 mini electric chainsaws (€50 each) on Amazon...
So I share my experience with you.
These are 2 small loppers / pruners of 15 cm / 6 inches...
- Screenshot 2024-03-26 at 10-37-30 Your orders.png (127.12 KiB) Viewed 3043 times
My selection criteria:
a) Highest possible voltage, I didn't want 12 or 14V.
So I took 21V, or 5S lithium.
So be careful in this regard the Chinese speak in max voltage (21V = 5 *4.2V) while the brand manufacturers (like Bosch, Makita...) speak in nominal voltage.
In other words a Chinese 21V = 18V brand (18V= 5*3.6V).
b) Customer comments and some YouTube videos
c) The price: I didn't want to spend 100€ on Chinese equipment with questionable reliability and especially quality of batteries...
I didn't want to spend €200 on a single brand machine...
d) Battery compatibility: they are the same.
Bonus, obviously, these models use compatible “Makita” batteries...ah ah ah, holy Chinese!
Otherwise there are always adapters between major brands...that's good to know!
e) At this price, no automatic lubrication and the chain is tightened with tools.
In short, I received these 2 models and their 4 batteries a few days ago and I have already done 3 fir tree lopping sessions lasting around 1h30 in the field (time to empty the 4 batteries)...
Why is the channel missing on the 2nd? Because it is already dead...after not even 3 hours of continuous work...It starts and stops after a few seconds, even without a chain....Return to sender (hello planet... )
My feedback on these “toys” after a few hours
They look like toys, which will make all users of thermal Stihls laugh, but in fact they work quite well (when they still work...
)a) The design is quite good: it's light (with the 2Ah = 36Wh batteries, they are the smallest) and it fits well in the hand...for disconnecting at height it's the best!
b) The cutting power is there and for standing limbing it's great: I cut oak with a section of 15 cm at a height of 5m without any problems and without blocking the chain. No need to bother with a thermal or an extension to raise high... In 10 minutes it was fixed (vs at least 30 min if I had done it with the thermal)
c) The actual autonomy is around 10 min per battery in "cut" mode (not empty therefore)...a timed test would have to be carried out.
The power indicated by the docs is 550 and 600W...not verified...but that seems a lot to me: 600W on a 36Wh battery is 3min36 continuously...so it doesn't add up...
d) I noticed that the autonomy depends enormously on the tension of the chain : with a chain that is too tight, you easily divide it by 2.
You must have a chain a little "loose" to promote autonomy without it obviously jumping...
The instructions talk about 3mm of travel when pulling on the chain, that's far too little!!
Now I leave 3mm of arrow without pulling on it. This seems to me to be the best compromise...
e) I lubricate with WD40 every 10 minutes, the chains are still fine (very sharp to the finger) after a few hours of cutting
f) It takes 4 to 5 minutes to trim a 3m “all inclusive” tree
f) BIG NEGATIVE POINT.
There is a double safety system: battery and machine (engine temperature I presume)...
They can stop and not restart even with a 100% battery... that's quite annoying. You need to let them cool for 5 minutes. This also preserves the battery which has time to cool down. Hence the usefulness of having 2 machines in the field. Limbing fir trees is very intense work in terms of machine time...So I think it's an excellent test of their robustness or not...(the proof
) ...The 2nd model has definitely become visibly safe...
Too bad it cut a little better than the other...On these "1st price" models, they are carbon motors, I didn't pay attention to that, to replace the HS model I just ordered a brushless model with an 8 inch chain with the same "Makita" batteries from 4Ah...for 70€...so at the same price as the others with the difference in the price of the batteries...I will tell you if it performs better.
Temporary conclusion
If you have the means to do pruning work, especially at height, this type of tool is great! Up to 20, even 25 cm, in section, they will do the job if you use them well.
It's the ideal tool for thinning medium-sized hazelnut trees!
For continuous work, such as intensive fir limbing, they show their limits quite quickly (on the other hand for the price... you shouldn't expect miracles but it's rather quite positive overall if we omit the HS machine...)
Ah I forgot the most important thing, I'm doing the tree work with a friend who does it with a thermal chainsaw, he had to do 2 full tanks during 1 "battery" session...and didn't delimb much more than me ...and above all he was much more exhausted at the end!!
We limb up 15 to 25 fir trees per hour per person...
To be continued !!!
Edit addition, here is my electrical arsenal tests further down in this subject
The Einhell from science-and-technology/chinese-electric-chainsaws-and-delimbers-what-is-it-worth-t17647-100.html
