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Comment by jakedata | Hacker News Reader

It is important to choose your battery system and stick with it. I selected Makita because that's what my contractor uses to make a living. I recently took advantage of my state's green lawn care rebate to purchase a heavily discounted Makita lawn mower which -crucially- came with 4 big batteries that fit all my other tools.

It is also important to realize that a pair of 18v Lithium Ion batteries can deliver more wattage than a regular (USA) household electrical outlet, especially while using an extension cord. The Makita chop saw is a great example of a battery product that is actually superior (IMHO) to the corded version.

Makita's fast chargers have a built-in fan that cools down a hot battery and maintains optimal temp during the charge cycle. Even my oldest batteries still work great.

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This is true for contractors, where you have a bunch of batteries, some (human based) system to charge them and keep them charged, so when you need to do something, there's always a battery ready. I have a corded drill, and that thing always works... i need an extension cord, sure, but I plug it in and it works, 1 minute, 1 hour, 10 hours,... it just works. I have a battery powered angle grinder, and the battery is always empty. Need to cut something? Empty... take out the old electric one, do whatever I needed to cut, charge the battery ~half way (storage charge), put it away. Two years later, I need it again.. battery empty. Charge it, but since it went too low (overdischarge, undervoltage), the capacity is reduced now. Work, charge, work, charge, then back to the case for the next two years, and two more years when the battery is empty and practically dead with maybe 5 hours of actual use. In the meantime, I have a circular saw from 1980s that still works.

tldr: if you need power tools once per year or less, corded might be a better choice.

I would say that infrequently used tools are an especially good choice for battery-powered cordless tools when the alternative is typically a tool powered by a gas small engine. For example, I need a chainsaw for infrequent jobs, but every time I ran it, I'd have to fiddle with the carb and the spark plugs, throw out old gas, make a new gas/oil mix, etc., so it was a major pain and I'd use it only if I really, really needed it. I replaced it with a 36v Makita chainsaw and it's a breeze to use every time.

But I don't think it's about those kinds of tools. The type of power tools who truly benefit from having a combustion engine motor are not getting replaced by battery powered tools anytime soon because of energy density restriction.

If you could replace a gas-powered tool with a battery tool, either it would be way overkill or really old and inefficient.

In my opinion if the chainsaw you mentioned seems sufficient, it is probably not that necessary and you could get away with infrequent rental or even human powered tools. Then again if you have the budget and don't mind spending it on things that deliver less value, why not but arguably if you were to spend that much on this type of tool you could get a much better gas powered chainsaw for the price...

The battery tools are rapidly catching up; five years ago none of the tree maintenance crews I saw had anything but the gas; now they all have a Milwaukee or similar battery chainsaw in the truck. It's much quicker, lighter, and easier for all sorts of things that don't need the biggest gas saws.

And the price difference is dropping (the Milwaukee is about $500 including battery and charger, without sales) which is "close enough" to a quality saw, once you take into account the consumables.

That's the whole "golden age" - we are at or passing the point where the cordless tool is just better even accounting for all the various options.

Not who you're replying to, but I also have a brushless 36V Makita chainsaw. I buck and split 2-3 full cords of firewood every year for myself. The biggest logs I've cut with it are ~30 inches in diameter. I only have a 16" bar, so that means coming at it from all around. The Makita is stunningly good for my use case, much better than the gas saw I used to have.

I have two sets of batteries, and they'll get me through more cutting than I want to do in a day. Occasionally weather will cause me to need to do more than I want in a day, and one set of batteries will charge in just enough time for me to get through the other set and take a little break, so I can go all day long. In my case, the only time I'm not cutting near grid power is when I'm clearing a log that fell across a trail I'm riding in my UTV, but I'm not going to keep riding down a trail that has enough downed trees to consume a set of batteries.

There's no place to rent chainsaws within an hour's drive of where I live (I live in a rural, forested area). There are certainly more powerful gas-powered saws, but I don't need the power. If I suddenly feel like getting some cutting done, I much prefer not having to worry about whether I have gas and premix (I still have to worry about bar/chain oil, but a gallon lasts me 2-3 years). The nearest gas station is a 30-40 minute round trip. I love not having to worry about disturbing my wife or the neighbor when their windows are open. It was fun last summer when my neighbor came out of his house to be surprised that I'd bucked 3 logs, each 30 feet long and 18" in diameter, while he slept with his windows open. Saying there are "much better gas powered" saws implies a single dimension of comparison. That's not the case - there are just different trade-offs.

I guess it's even more important that if you don't use it for work, you will probably like 90% use it at home, or your own property where you know you will have power (and an extension cord).

Not true for professionals doing work somewhere or spontaneously.

I chose Makita for the same reason and I've loved the stuff. The tools are solid and well thought-out, the batteries have lasted for years, and I've been able to get away with far fewer batteries than I have tools which saves a bunch of money.

There are now various adapters that you can buy for the batteries so you aren't vendor locked by it.

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