Cordless chain saw

Donald

Donald

Joined
Mar 21, 2004
Messages
29,626
Location
Near the beach in Delaware
I have had a Ryobi small cordless chain saw. When I use the saw almost constantly for 10 or 15 minutes the battery gets very warm. It finally stops. I assume it's a protective mechanism in the battery to protect itself from overheating.
Even the charger will not charge it.

I let it cool and then charge.

Anyone else notice this?
 
IMO: those are for light duty, such as limbing, if you need to use it for 10-15min its not the right saw.

also what size battery if its a 6ah its much less stress on it vs a 2 or 3ah
 
After Irma and before Maria, I went down to the Caribbean to help with relief. I brought a cordless chainsaw. It worked great. It was a Ryobi cordless.

I cut a LOT of 6" size trees and branches. The battery gets hot. It's smart to let it cool. But I never experienced severe heat with two large batteries on rotation, cutting for hours on end. Sometimes the charge would pause but they were not sufficiently hot to avoid touch. Best to not let Li-ion get above 65 C surface temp.
 
Is the saw indicating an overheated condition when it cuts out, or is it possible the battery is discharged?

As for the battery not charging when warm, that may be by design. I know the battery packs in the drone I fly are quite warm after a flight, and the manual states the batteries must cool to a specified temperature before the charger will attempt to charge them.
 
I have a cordless saw, I only have two issues, but they aren't major ones.

When its very cold ( below freezing) you need to let the saw warm up a bit before putting a heavy load on it or it will shut down for a minute or so.

It will also shut down if it's hot out and you push it too hard.

For limbing and cutting smaller stuff it's great, it's my go to saw unless I'm cutting larger stuff.

As I get older I don't mind having to pace myself, or stop when the battery dies.

If you needed one saw to just cut firewood it wouldn't be the best choice, but for other stuff its great.

When cutting firewood I normally have 3 saws with me.
 
Originally Posted by Donald
I have had a Ryobi small cordless chain saw. When I use the saw almost constantly for 10 or 15 minutes the battery gets very warm. It finally stops. I assume it's a protective mechanism in the battery to protect itself from overheating.
Even the charger will not charge it.

I let it cool and then charge.

Anyone else notice this?

That's they way it's supposed to work. Thermal cutouts for overheating in use, and also to prevent charging when overheated.
 
Best battery system, with lots of outdoor power tool options, is Makita's 18v li-ion.

I've got several tools, including leaf blower and string trimmer that run on the 18v. They're really great tools.

If you want a cordless saw, with good power and battery life, I would go Makita for the battery system.

Otherwise, Stihl or Husqvarna.
 
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One of the advantages of the 18v Makita is battery cooling. They can handle a heavy load. The charger has a built in cooling fan.

But back to your original question, yes, it shut down for overload/heat protection.
 
Wife bought me a brushless Ryobi 12" for Christmas to clean up some limbs that were down from winter. First time I used it I made 6 cuts on a 6" section. Battery cut out and waited for a couple minutes to get it to run again. even the battery test button would not work. I have other batteries for my tools and they did not do that and the saw ran fine on them. I took it back to the store and told them that the saw ran fine on my other batteries. They wanted me to call Ryobi to request a replacement battery and that division was closed. Took the whole thing back and got my money back with no problems. I may try another one later but for now I guess I will keep using my Husq and Stihl saws. Love my Home Depot though.
 
It also depends on the battery you use. Some of the newer Ryobi batteries like the P197 are the same as other 4amp hour batteries, but they give you double the current of their other 4 amp hour batteries.
 
It is a homeowner, arguably prosumer if brushless, grade tool. As such, it has to be kept in its zone, not pushed to its limit or if it is, accept that the thermal cutout saves it from excessive heat.

Some people might be surprised that their contractor grade saw can also be pushed to its limits and either fail or shutdown in a similar amount of time. It's impossible to just throw out more expensive brand names and suggest that they don't also succumb to physics and create heat during use, though it wouldn't surprise me if a more expensive tool runs longer if that's because it's brushless. At the same time, since you already have Ryobi, I'd simply have another battery pack handy and swap that in.

Any of their 10 cell packs will help keep battery temperature lower than the 5 cell packs, so if I'm up to date on Ryobi batteries, that'd be their 4Ah or higher capacity. I mean 5 vs 10 cell packs for their 18V saw, I suppose some people would call their 40V saw little too.
wink.gif
 
I have a 16" Craftsman 60v cordless. Have lots of trees and lots of large limbs fall (lately). Has easily cut everything thrown at it. I wouldn't go in the woods cutting down large trees with it but definitely more capable than just pruning. I have 3 batteries from other 60v tools (blower, lawnmower) but battery life is fine for home/yard use. Not sure how well a smaller blade or 20/40v saw would fair but I'm very pleased with it.
 
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The battery and chargers built that way.. Battery shuts down in an overheat situation and the chargers at least my ryobi monitors battery condition and will not charge until it cools. Pick up off amazon a 2 pk of high capacity batteries.. You'll be very happy sawing along. ryobi batteries
 
Battery saws are best for intermittent cut and drag operations like removing storm damage and downed limbs. Gas saws are best for the continuous logging of tree trunks.
 
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