Ryobi 18v chainsaw?

Anybody have any experience with these little guys? I want something for clearing smallish downed trees from an unsanctioned trail I help maintain in the fall and winter. Stealth is important. I imagine this will see an hour or two of use maybe 5-10 times a year. I know the Dewalt or Milwaukee stuff is probably better, but I already have other ryobi lawn tools and would love to stay in that same ecosystem with the batteries and chargers.

Anyone? Love to hear about battery life, noise, and reliability. Thanks!

I can’t speak to the Ryobi, but the Echo 60v I have for small around the house use is great. It seems like all of the brands have picked up their game in terms of battery powered chainsaws in recent years…. Checkout Youtube for review videos of the specific model you’re looking at…

Its so nice to not have to worry about carb maintenance or old gas when using it so infrequently…

“Unsanctioned”

I can’t speak to Ryobi, but the Milwaukee one does its job. Since I got one that gets probably 75% of the work, and the larger Stihl with the 20” bar gets about 25% of the work. The old Stihl “Mini Boss” has been replaced and I should probably just give it away. I don’t see where I’d use that small of a gas saw again.

Dutchboy wrote:

“Unsanctioned”

Yes I am a bad person who breaks the rules from time to time. The other 50 or so people who ride these trails appreciate me though

They do all right.

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Nice Fella wrote:

They do all right.

Holy smokes. What amp hour battery do you use and how is the life on it? Impressive.

I went through 27 batteries on that trunk.
(just kidding; that was staged, obviously)

Overall I’ve had decent luck with that little saw, for the same types of little jobs you’ve described. After this recent storm I cut up several smaller trees up to 12″ dia. with it, no problems. It has a bar oil reservoir/pump button and little wrench attached.
Of course all my work was sanctioned.

It’s the only Ryobi attachment that I’m satisfied with; the weed whip is terrible, string feed is a joke, and the vacuum device they sell doesn’t seal, making it worthless.

Staged my tail

dirtywater wrote:

Holy smokes. What amp hour battery do you use and how is the life on it? Impressive.

Go for it. If you already have Ryobi batteries then it’s just a question of packing a few extra batteries along depending on how much cutting you need to do.

I would think for trail maintenance it would be almost perfect. That’s going to involve mainly cutting branches and occasionally clearing a larger dead fall. That’s more than within the capability of an 18 volt electric saw.

For limb and branch work an electric chainsaw can go a long time. I have the Milwaukee 18 volt pole saw. On trimming jobs it will last about until my arms fall off with one 6 amp battery.

The biggest thing with electric chainsaws is to keep them extremely sharp. The same rule applies as with a gas chainsaw. The saw should be throwing confetti size wood chips. It should not be throwing sawdust like a circular saw. As soon as you see dust start to fly stop and either sharpen or change chains.

Little update. I ended up getting a 12” 18v Ryobi. Bought the tool only because I have two 4ah batteries.

I was a little disappointed to be honest. It handled stuff 8” and smaller with ease, but on larger stuff that required multiple cuts the battery would overheat and shut down. Disconnect and reconnect the battery, it’d start right back up. With a little patience I was able to take care of a 17” oak, just had to use shorter bursts with breaks instead of just laying into it. I figured it was probably my older batteries and once I grabbed a new one I wouldn’t have that issue.

I never got that far. The chain seemed a little loose so went to tension it and nothing seemed to happen. Popped the cover off and the tension mechanism was clearly toast. I had to one day.

I took it back for a full refund and am rethinking my options now. I have my eye on the Echo 18” 56v. The only thing that’s giving me pause is that the spare batteries are like $230!

dirtywater wrote:

Little update. I ended up getting a 12” 18v Ryobi. Bought the tool only because I have two 4ah batteries.

I was a little disappointed to be honest. It handled stuff 8” and smaller with ease, but on larger stuff that required multiple cuts the battery would overheat and shut down. Disconnect and reconnect the battery, it’d start right back up. With a little patience I was able to take care of a 17” oak, just had to use shorter bursts with breaks instead of just laying into it. I figured it was probably my older batteries and once I grabbed a new one I wouldn’t have that issue.

I never got that far. The chain seemed a little loose so went to tension it and nothing seemed to happen. Popped the cover off and the tension mechanism was clearly toast. I had to one day.

I took it back for a full refund and am rethinking my options now. I have my eye on the Echo 18” 56v. The only thing that’s giving me pause is that the spare batteries are like $230!

shop around for the batteries, or for the best deal buy the Tool + Battery & Charger combo pack. My Echo56v chainsaw came with a 5AH battery and then the Echo56v leaf blower I got came with a 2.5AH battery, between those 2 I can get anything done I need to… the 2.5AH battery is nice because it’s so light, I use that one the majority of the time, but the big 5.0 AH has its moments, especially when chainsawing…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>dirtywater wrote:</div>
Little update. I ended up getting a 12” 18v Ryobi. Bought the tool only because I have two 4ah batteries.

I was a little disappointed to be honest. It handled stuff 8” and smaller with ease, but on larger stuff that required multiple cuts the battery would overheat and shut down. Disconnect and reconnect the battery, it’d start right back up. With a little patience I was able to take care of a 17” oak, just had to use shorter bursts with breaks instead of just laying into it. I figured it was probably my older batteries and once I grabbed a new one I wouldn’t have that issue.

I never got that far. The chain seemed a little loose so went to tension it and nothing seemed to happen. Popped the cover off and the tension mechanism was clearly toast. I had to one day.

I took it back for a full refund and am rethinking my options now. I have my eye on the Echo 18” 56v. The only thing that’s giving me pause is that the spare batteries are like $230!

shop around for the batteries, or for the best deal buy the Tool + Battery & Charger combo pack. My Echo56v chainsaw came with a 5AH battery and then the Echo56v leaf blower I got came with a 2.5AH battery, between those 2 I can get anything done I need to… the 2.5AH battery is nice because it’s so light, I use that one the majority of the time, but the big 5.0 AH has its moments, especially when chainsawing…

Yeah, the 56v 18” echo I’m looking at comes with a 5ah battery and charger for $330. That seems like a great price, but I noticed a replacement battery was $230 which threw me for a loop.

The other thing I noticed was that the echo 5ah is a TANK. I do have some concerns since I’ll be walking trails with a good amount of elevation change.

The other one I was looking at was a dewalt 60v 16” but that’s more expensive than the echo and only comes with a 2ah battery. Although carrying multiple 2ah packs may be the way to go.

Important to plan what other type of cordless outdoor/indoor tools you would buy so you can keep with the same type of batteries and not have a one off tool that requires its own battery. I have the Ego leaf blower and their snowblower and both are well made IMO. The batteries in those are a beast/heavy too. I have the Milwaukee cordless chainsaw and works well, but it needs to be kept sharp, but then any chainsaw you can say the same thing. I can’t see where a 2ah battery for the chainsaw would work, unless you had like 10 of them. Like others have said buy the combo packs with battery & charger. Much cheaper way to go.

Tlazer wrote:

I can’t see where a 2ah battery for the chainsaw would work

I’m just talking about IF you have both battery sizes, MOST of the time you’re not going to be cutting anything major with these electric chainsaws, so why carry the added weight of the 5AH battery when the 2.5AH can get the small job done, worst case scenario, you swap it for the 5AH if it gets used up…The flexibility is nice to have…

I recently picked up the Toro 60v Chainsaw, and it made short work of a 16″ apple wood tree trunk. To my surprise it handled it with just the 2.5 ah battery it came with, so my arms will tire out long before the battery if I use the 7.5 ah (snowblower) or 6 ah (lawnmower) battery I also have.