Harbor Freight Battery Powered Chainsaw - Does It Work?

If you have read my blog posts before, you know I broke my Echo chainsaw a while back by dropping a tree on it. Yes, I already know I'm an idiot that should probably not be allowed to play with chainsaws. It won't stop me, but I know it. I'm going to replace my gas saw with another gas saw, but I was waiting because Echo was going to be having a 15% off sale and I wanted to save as much money as I could. In the meantime, I found a deal on a Harbor Freight Atlas battery saw. The deal was, if you bought a battery you would get a tool free. The list of tools was pretty extensive and I already have one of their string trimmers that I really like, so I figured a second battery isn't a bad idea and a "free" tool is even better. I decided on the 40V 16" chainsaw as my free tool. I had watched a couple of video reviews on the internet and all seemed pretty positive. Was it as good as a gas saw? No. Does it actually work pretty well for the price? Yep. The bare tool cost was only $100, so even if I didn't get the battery, it was still not terribly expensive. In most cases, the batteries are the expensive part of cordless tools.

When I was there, I also opted for a quick charger. Now that I have 2 batteries, I don't want to wait for 2 hrs for a battery to charge with the regular charger. The quick charger says it will charge the 2.5Ah/5.0Ah battery in around 45 minutes. These batteries are dual voltage. I can run either the 40V or 80V tools with them, which is nice. With my new toys in hand, I went home and put the new battery on the charger and unboxed the saw.

The build quality is only OK. The main body is pretty heavy and feels good. The handle is comfortable and it's weighted well. The top handle is plastic, which I think is a poor way to save costs, but we'll see how it holds up. The Atlas line is advertised as being their "commercial" line. I'm not sure any landscaping company worth their salt would gear up with Harbor Freight tools, but they might make for cheap backups in case the others fail in the field. Maybe commercial means something else in China, who knows. Anyway, back to the saw. It comes with a chain that is very sharp and the bar seems pretty well built as well. Replacement chains are available from reputable companies, so getting a new chain down the line won't be an issue. In the box is also a small bottle of bar oil as well as a scrench to tighten the bar and adjust the chain tension. In the hand, the saw feels good. It doesn't feel like a toy. I was pretty excited to try it out.

For my first cut, I brought it out to my Lilac hedge. A couple years ago, something got into my Lilac's and they started to die out. Not all of them, but quite a few, especially the larger ones. I cut a lot of the dead ones down but there are still some left. These are only 2-2.5 inches in diameter, hardly a heavy duty job for a chainsaw.

I inserted the freshly charged battery and as any self respecting chainsaw wielding male would do, I hit the go-button and gave it a few quick raps. I have to say, the startup was not as exciting as I would have thought. The motor doesn't spin at super high speed right off the bat. It seems to go to about 1/2 or 2/3 power with no load and stay there. However, when I put a load on it, the motor speeds up and you can tell there is more power being used. The motor doesn't slow down even if you push the saw into the wood. The current increases to the motor to maintain the chain speed. I will say, I was impressed with how well and quickly it cut thru the small stuff I fed it.

Next up, is some limbing and clean up at the Estate. I have a few trees I cut down last year and this spring that need to have the tops cut up. This saw will work great for that and it's light enough that my wife won't be intimidated by it. She's not against using a chainsaw but my gas saw was pretty heavy and of course, very loud. This is neither.

She wasn't exactly excited when I showed her the chainsaw (that I didn't tell her I bought), but she was willing to give it a try. There was a lot of fallen trees and big branches from a recent wind storm that needed to be taken care of and once I showed her how easy this saw was to use, she was all about it.

The saw did great for her. Most of what she was cutting was dead or nearly dead around 6-8" in diameter. This little saw buzzed right through it with ease. She used the saw on and off for a few hours and only went thru 2 bars on the battery. She wasn't cutting anything that was taxing the motor or battery, but I was still impressed. By the end of the day, she had quite a little pile of wood to show for her efforts. Like I said, it was on and off use. She wasn't constantly cutting for 3+ hrs. The fallen trees and branches were scattered around the Estate, so she had to make trips to get them. I think this saw will be getting a lot more use at the Estate now that my wife knows how to handle it.

As a final thought, would I recommend this saw to anyone looking for a battery powered saw? I'm not sure if I would. One of the main reasons I bought it was because I already had the battery ecosystem. I had another tool that used the same battery, and the battery is the really expensive part of any battery operated tool system. If someone already has a specific battery ecosystem, I would say stay with what you have. No reason to have to get new batteries, charger and tools when you already invested in the pricey part. Now, if you don't have anything, aren't going to be doing heavy cutting or expecting this saw to completely replace a gas saw, then yes, buy this saw. The chains are available, the battery is quite capable and the saw itself seems to be decent quality, especially for homeowner use. I'm sure I will quickly find the limits of the saw, but that's why I have a gas chainsaw. Time will tell how really good this saw is and if there are any issues, I will be sure to document them here. Otherwise, I will be putting the Atlas 40V battery powered saw to work around the Estate.