I bought the Echo because of a review on Project Farm. I usually rely on him for honest appraisals. I think that even more than gas saws, keeping your blade razor sharp is the key. As far as dogs on these saws go, I don’t need them for the stuff I cut.
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Bought my wife a Ryobi 12" 18v to try,(she had a small gas saw for years) she really likes it a lot better than the gas one. We cut for about an hour, small trees after goats were done. So an hour of cutting on a 4ah battery, not bad.
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Well now for a saw for me, looking at three, Greenworks, Echo, Ego, all 18"bars, any advice? They are all less than fifty dollars of each other.
I can only speak for Greenworks but they’re nice.
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Here is what I based my purchase on Al… I don’t remember if he did Greenworks but did do Echo and Ego.
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If it dont have steel dog teeth, Id stay away. They know the consumer is going to reef on those teeth and burn up the motors and batteries. Yes I understand how to use them, I also engineer and look at things from the companies perspective. If they are plastic then the manufacture is not confident enough to put steel teeth on the product.
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Echo is the best out of the bunch that you are looking at. Echo is more professional grade. Then the Greenworks would come next. The Ego has plastic teeth and the batteries are more expensive.
Greenworks makes the saws for the Kobalt brand so batteries I do believe are interchangeable. One thing you want to consider besides how well the saw performs is the cost of the batteries. You want to research the cost per watt/hour on the each makes batteries.
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Yes battery cost was a concern, but it’s hart to tell, prices vary a lot. I think because of knockoffs.
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Hi Guys I searched for “Rebuild portable tools batteries” and found three different companies doing this currently in the U.S.
I also found some youtubes of course.
And found this text informational link for DIY’s:
So far for my older 12vdc and 14.5vdc stuff come the no-more-useable rechargeable pacs I have been cording them out to an auto lead acid battery.
Two 12’s 'aught to power well my new Milwaukie 18vdc stuff just fine ever the need.
S.U.
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One great tool for rebuilding batteries is the mini spot welders. If the batteries came with nickel strip to connect them it’s a bad idea to solder, but two or four little spot welds is plenty and won’t get the cells hot.
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for about 5 minutes, then it could overheat and burn out. I doubt there is overvoltage protection or a regulator. You should use a voltage regulator or a buck converter to go from 24->18v first. They aren’t that expensive but you have to look to see how many amps the tool draws.
What you say SeanO is math’s speculation so far as DC electric motors.
50 years doing DC overvoltage of electric motors with lead acid batteries says the immediate hazard is motor overspeeding.
These were many old 6 volt tractors pickup and cars with 6 volt Dc starters, fan blower motors and windshield wiper motors then running on jack-up 8 volt systems. Engine running these were actually regulator set at 9.2 volts.
Then their were some 32 volt marine DC electrical starters experiences. Ha! The actual starters motors were internal components 24 VDC.
My 1990’s Craftsman 12VDC cordless drill work just fine after batteries were obsolete corded rewired to 12VDC auto systems. Battery detached fed 12.7 down to 10 volts. Worked better with running vehicles at 14.2 volts.
Ha! That was the plan for my early 2000’s 14.5 volt Makita. But used much it’s clutch is going bad now.
These were both brush types.
My chosen replacement 18 volt Milwaukie systems are all brushless DC input motors.
The thing about lead acid batteries is the dropping voltage at discharge rates. It is too low of voltage that caused much quicker motors overheating then even working loading IF the battery bank can try and supply the then drawing too many amps.
The electronics in the Milwaukie’s might just toes curl at 30% overvoltage.
Only way to know it to work it try.
I will once I have three pieces of of the Milwaukie system to be able to lose one. Torched by DC over volting then I’d know. And extra factory battery pacs are cheapest to buy in equipment tools system packages.
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Motor is not the issue. The speed controller can only take in so many volts and amps.
Maybe true MattR.
Then I quit investing in Miwaukie and switch to someone elses brush type system using a resistnace speed control trigger.
I wear wool socks year around. My wife loves carpet. On our few truly artic air dry-times of the winter I am zapping me and everything that I touch. One ceiling mounted horrible too bright LED ceiling metal chain pull light will actually zap light flash me touching it. Hate it’s light quality. Die. Just please die. I did this last cold-dry spell finally zap kill one older VCR. Oh well. Move onto the next. I don’t always remember to touch-other discharge myself.
And I do leave loads attached to my run until out of fuel electric generators. None have actually died yet. And these are more expensive much electronics inverter units.
This is an old-school approach. Equipment’s have to proofs serve you. Don’t actually intentional abuse break them. But establish normal working parameters. Then the manufacturers who can satisfy this gets your business.
The old logger way evolved from the early steam engine days. Working saltwater marine works the same way.
S.U.
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I think most if not all new lipo powered tools are going have brushless systems requiring an ESC. I doubt you will find anything new running a brushed system but I could be wrong. It also would not supprise me if the brushless motors in all of these brands come from the same distributor and like wise with the other components. They just design the saw but the electronics are sourced from other manufacturers.
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The small motor and lack of cooling, it could happen. It could blow up the low voltage side. The mosfets appear as though they can handle up to 40v. And there would seemingly be a voltage regulator for the low voltage side that could blow.
Apparently the battery protector in the battery on those if it gets tripped 3 times it will disable the battery. that was from a amazon description for the battery circuit board from the seller authfrank.
It appears as though you already have at least three naturally aspirated brush cutters. 
Everytime I see a goat, I think about a story I read about how goat herding helped double the size of the sahara desert because of overgrazing.
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Yes, but I can’t get them to cut, and stack after they kill the trees. 
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