I’d say if you’re getting an all new setup, go for the 80v. I did buy both a new Gen 60v and an older Gen 80v. I gave the 80v 18" to my dad and he really likes it.
I kept the 60v because my mother owns a lot of other 60v tools so I have beaucoup batteries. My other reason for keeping the 60v was it had a longer bar and I wasn’t interested in trying to find out which aftermarket bar fit the 80v.
I should note that 90% of what my 60v saw does is buck down logs and branches.
Did a cleaning on my 60v saw, here’s what I really like about the Greenworks. I’m sure a lot of other battery saws do this, I hope they do at least.
Here’s a pic before cleaning.
Here is a video to take a look at:
I did not realize the counterfeit’s were being marketed so closely labeled confusing.
Watch the whole video to see a bit which tools usages you’d really want to keep corded powered.
Watch to 19:00 minutes to see the burn down shorted not-safe cell batteries.
S.U.
There used to be more mistakes, in packaging and grammar. The counterfeits actually performed pretty well tbh.
Fake USB flash drives and sd cards got so bad, I won’t order those online.
I actually wonder what happens if you put the right batteries in them, if they perform as well, and dont have the automatic disable after self-discharge like you ran into with the genuine ones.
More surprising was the short test and the fake ones had a blowable fuse, and the genuine didn’t, and relied on the batteries themselves to short. Samsung batteries have a blowable fuse built in to protect against internal shorts that cause fires similar to the one at 19:00.
Brian and i have a lot of Makita tools chainsaws , grease guns , drills and impacts ect , over here we are lot lucky to have the great prices that guy mentioned for genuine batteries , here a 6amp Makita is around $180 AU do a conversion and works out at around $120 for a single battery , we have been buying the rip off 9ah batteries now for 5 years with pretty good results as long as you don’t take them down to where they cut out , they seem to last a good long time , we have had 3 that once run down over and over have gone into fault mode , so now we only use down too 1 bar at $99 for two 9ah were ok with that .
Dave
Google around. There MIGHT be a way to bring them out of fault mode. IIRC you charge the batteries with a pwm charging supply -slowly- without the control board until they are above what the minimum voltage is supposed to be.
When I was looking at the teardown of the greenworks knockoffs besides the battery quality, the biggest difference was they didn’t solder all the temperature and fault detection wires to the board, which is like 2x as much work, but the boards looked close to identical and the spots were on the board for the extra wiring.
Missing ground wires and such were the difference in the soldering iron I got as well.
I had an cheap Skil (19€) that hold up 14 years before the magic smoke leaked out, now they don’t make that model.
hi Göran
old Skil angle grinders had Bosch internals, they were good tools.
i had both Bosch and Skil, scavenged parts from one to fix other.
but not anymore.
newer Skils both 230mm and 125mm were typical chinesium crap.
now i have migrated to Makita, they are pretty cheap, considering their quality.
one thing i love in Makita 125mm grinder is the size of the reductor - it is really small.
that’s good for reaching difficult places.
first thing to fail in Makita is the rotor(armature), but replacement costs around 25 euros - not so bad.
I picked up the 8ah battery for my saw. It is a long walk back to where I am currently cutting. The small one is good for brush but it dies too fast for an actual tree. I wanted to order it before US stock ran out and tariffs kicked in on the new stock. (which I am unclear whether it affects small dollar items or not. Before they didn’t tariff -everything- just over a certain dollar amount.)
Well I’ve finally used this chainsaw enough to give it a proper review. Got is last fall for $230 CAD. It came with a 16in bar and chain, but no batteries. The chain it had was a smaller file size, so I either had to buy a file or get a new bar and chain. I opted for the latter option since I wanted to try the Oregon PowerSharp bar and chain setup anyway. It is a 36v platform using two 18v batteries. Milwaukee makes some of the best batteries out there (in my opinion), Payed almost $400 CAD for the two 8.0ah high output Milwaukee batteries. It was almost a little to expensive, but since I can use the batteries on other Milwaukee tools as well, I figured that it would be worth it to just buy the best batteries I could.
I forgot to mention in the video, that yellow housing with the grindstone is for mounting on the end of the chainsaw bar. Then the grindstone is pushed into the end of the chain for about 3-5 seconds and the chain should be sharp again. I have not had to try this yet.
I was able to cut about three quarters of that spruce tree on about half a charge. Overall I have really enjoyed this chainsaw. It lasts way longer than both the Dewalt and Greenworks 80v (4.0ah) that I have already tried. It will go for about 10 min non stop then it is overheated and will take a bit to cool down again. But that is as long as the Dewalt and Greenworks saw lasted. Dewalt lasting a little longer that Greenworks.
After the 10 min of working non stop if your willing to coaxes it along stopping for a bit every few minutes it will just keep going. like I mentioned in the video, I did about half a cord of dry elm a few weeks ago with this method on one battery charge. And the good thing was I wasn’t completely exhausted after that.
The bar and chain made a huge difference on the greenworks. The makita might have come with an oem oregon bar and chain. I don’t know.
What I do know is dewalt used the higher quality parts on then greenworks did on theirs. Otherwise, I am not sure they aren’t the same electronics and motor. And by the time you put the higher quality parts on the greenworks, it may make more sense to get the dewalt. 
I bought a used Stihl MSE 140C last year. Used it for the first time 2 weeks ago with a dull chain to cut away on a stump in my driveway. Bogged the worn chain down a number of times. Kept the chain adjusted and hand sharpened with a guided file. The tool-less chain adjuster is nice and easy to use. Even has a chain brake. Saw quit on me. Humm. I downloaded a manual. I found it had an easy access circuit breaker built in. Pushed the button and back to working again.
I bought some cheap chains on Amazon. 3 for $24. Whacked away on pruning a mulberry. Worked nice. The auto oiler seems to be pumping enough oil.
I already forget what I paid for the saw ($75?) but am happy so far.
Apparently Greenworks has their Commercial 5kw 80cc equivalent saw out. 98ft/s chainspeed. They sell it with up to a 28" bar, but the saw itself with a battery is 1700 bucks. (their bar and chains suck) Probably out of most people’s price range unless you are a tree service and need to work in the city or the saw vibration or noise is a problem
82V OPTIMUS HOGSAW 5.0kw Chainsaw Kit with CORE530 Battery & DP Charge?
edit: They also have a 3.4kw 65cc equivalent for 500. 82 ft/s 13000rpm.
They want 460 for the stihl 220c which is 35-40cc equivalent, and no battery or charger. However the case is nicer for drops from trees and they claim waterproof or resistant at least.
I saw a youtube the other day about a guy testing a stock 60cc gas saw with no mods and then a tubed muffler. Ran worse with the modified muffler but at the end he pulled out this saw You have shown and what was taking 20 seconds to cut with the gas saw took 14 seconds with this one. I have the 56V Echo. It doesn’t cut like that. You could actually do some timbering with this OPTIMUS but here is the twist. I dropped a 10 inch dia, 30 foot long dead maple the other day and cut it up today with my battery saw. It would not do the whole tree on one charge. Admittedly the chain could have been sharper but it will never replace a gas saw and even cutting up firewood you would need several expensive batteries to swap out or have a lot of down time.
What Tom said, batteries drain your wallet. But with a sharp chain it doesnt really make a difference as long as speed is ok. I really like the lack of noise.
A sharp chain is the difference between 4 and 40 cuts with a battery saw.
if it is dull i get like 4 cuts. if I sharpen it, I get maybe 20 cuts. If i take it in to get sharpened it is like 40 cuts.
My saw just knocked out a similar size box elder that had fallen with a new chain (otherwise I had to wait until Monday to get my other one back.) and it just ripped through it with like 2/3 bars still left on the battery. The old chain, struggled with a similar fallen tree. I don’t know what they do at the Stihl dealer, but they are always that much better even with the same profile.
Used to be an old guy in Traverse City that I took my chains to for sharpening. 4 bucks a loop and they were actually better than new. He was in his 90’s and when he croaked I was finally forced to do them myself. Of course that was twenty years ago. Took me quite a lot of practice to get half way good at it. I haven’t use my Oregon chain sharpener in a while but some of my chains are out of wack enough that they could use a bit more attention.
Not sure if anyone is interested, but I am trying the new Oregon PowerSharp chain and bar on my electric Makita Chainsaw. This chain design uses a sharpening stone that you mount on the end of the bar when you sharpen. Takes about five seconds to get a sharp chain again.
Right out of the box it was super sharp. Got about 1.5 cords of wood cut before I sharpened it the first time. Have yet to see how long that sharpening will last but I think I should last a while.
What is wack???
Here is an oldie, but the sharper it is the less time to cut which means less battery used. It looks like the round electric one does the best… I wonder if that is the style they use at the saw shop.
The link is to his chart for results no sense in watching the whole video.
On the plus side, I jump started my second battery which discharged too far, and it charged. but only to 80v so it might have a dead cell as it only charged to 80v instead of 83v like the other one… Which may also explain why it drained…
A typo for whack it just means not straightened up or not quite right. You have to give it a whack to get it straightened back up.
The top and side plate angles may not all match Don and sharpening with the machine is the easiest way to get them back to spec. I don’t usually worry to much about the 10 degree down angle with a file so I reset it with the machine. The old guy I mentioned hand filed all the chains and I’ve seen buckets of them in his shop from tree services.
