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Comment by micromacrofoot | Hacker News Reader

battery powered versions work fine, and tend to be quieter as a bonus

Perhaps for leaf blowers that it's all upside - but for good size chainsaws say something that can drive a 24" bar, electric just isn't available.

I love my electric 18"er, but most all of the ponderosas I have to fell on my property require my 24" gas Husquavarna. And if you look for electric alternatives you find nothing for actually for sale.

I agree in general, and my own chainsaw is battery powered. However this is about a major storm/outage. My batteries (if I can find them all and they are charged) give me about an hour of cutting before they are dead. That is not enough to clear out a storm. I know pros sometimes have battery backbacks that will run all day, but they still need a way to get that battery charged overnight so they can run again the next day. I know people who have been without power for several weeks after a major storm, so one day isn't enough for crews to clean up.

Is the extra backpack harder to store than the extra gallon tank of gas in the trailer? It's not like they can refill the gas tanks without pumps working at the gas station. If they do have access to gasoline, with modern trucks they should be able to charge from the IC engine.

Each backpack is $1000. A gas can is $20. Both are sometimes stolen from the back of trucks, but one is worth enough that it a big deal.

Interesting, I didn't realize the backpacks are so expensive.

Perhaps one of the effects of a ban on sale will be the development of more practical and accessible, from a price perspective, power sources?

You didn't know that batteries were more expensive than tanks?

I didn't know the battery packs were so expensive that having them in a landscaping work truck was a substantial liability.

You've never bought batteries? Or, did you think that light weight and small yet powerful batteries were somehow inexpensive?

Whenever there's a discussion of using batteries for anything, the three issues that come up are cost, weight, and size. You can take a hit on one or two to get some improvement on the remainder, but...

Batteries for portable equipment must be good on weight and size given the power required, so cost is what goes up.

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