The Best Cordless Lightweight Electric Chainsaws

Top Notch Cordless Lightweight Electric Chainsaws

Most cordless lightweight electric chainsaws are inexpensive and useful tools. Whether its for chopping firewood, or cleaning up after a storm, or just pruning some plants in the garden, a little electric saw will do the job admirably.

(Even smaller are cordless mini chainsaws but they don’t have the same capabilities as these battery driven lightweight chainsaws)

And if it has a brush-less electric motor and is battery driven then the convenience and power factor goes up even further!

Also, if you enjoy camping and hiking, then a small lightweight cordless chainsaw is a really useful addition to your packing list.

A Quick Clarification

What do we mean by “light”and “small” here?

For the purposes of this article we will (mainly) stick to chainsaws with the following characteristics.

– don’t weigh  more than 10- 12 pounds (4.5 – 5.5kg)

– have a bar equal to or shorter than 14 inches (35cm) in length.

This makes them easy to use, easy to cart around, and easy to store when not in use. The ultimate in convenience 🙂

Below are a selection of small cordless lightweight electric chainsaws.

They have all been tried and tested by a wide variety of ordinary people and given the thumbs up.

So lets look at some of the best selling cordless lightweight electric chainsaws on Amazon as voted by verified purchasers. This means that they have actually purchased the chainsaw and taken the time and trouble to write a review for you. They have identified both good and bad aspects according to their experience with the chainsaw.

It has been estimated that only one in every 10 to 100 purchasers bother to write any sort of review. So multiply the number of reviews you find for the saw by 10 and that will give you the absolute minimum number of people who have bought the item.

If a high percentage (say 75% and up) have rated the chainsaw either 4 or 5 stars, then that’s about as solid an independent vote of confidence as you could wish for.

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THE TOP CONTENDERS

This Dewalt 20V cordless lightweight electric chainsaw is an absolute gem of a small, lightweight chainsaw that will swiftly deal with 99% of what you will need a chainsaw to do for you short of cutting down whacking huge trees.

At the time of writing this was rated the number one best selling chainsaw across all classes (cordless/electric/gas powered/all bar lengths) which says it all! 🙂

Best of all, it has a brushless motor powering it which is a massive plus factor!

Here are some pertinent facts about the Dewaldt 20V chainsaw:

It is fitted with a 12″(30cm) Oregon Bar and chain and has tool free chain tensioning and Bar tightening and features an automatic oiler.

It also comes with a chain bar cover which is useful when storing or traveling with it.

Weighing in at only 8.8 lbs (4 kg) means it is very easy to wield. Add in the compact dimensions (25 x 9 x 9 inches or 64 x 23 x 23cm) and you have one powerful yet compact chainsaw!

This chainsaw is part of the 20V max system of Dewaldt tools.

This means it can use any of the Dewaldt 20v line of batteries although to get a decent amount of cutting time you will probably need at least the 5 Amp hour battery.

One factor that many users raise is that it seems to go through chain oil at an unusually high rate, but this is hardly a problem, more of an inconvenience and certainly not a feature restricted to this particular make and model of chainsaw.

Black & Decker LCS1240 Cordless Chainsaw

This 40 Volt 12 inch chainsaw has already been reviewed on this site and you can read more about it here.

However with well over 800 customer reviews of which 88% gave this chainsaw either a 4 or 5 star rating, you wont go far wrong if you decided to purchase the LCS1240!

Black & Decker LCS1020 Cordless Chainsaw

This 20 Volt 10 inch chainsaw has also been reviewed on this site.

As with the LCS1240, this smaller version has 82 % of nearly 1000 reviewers giving it a 4 or 5 star rating!

GreenWorks G-MAX Cordless Chain Saw Range

To fit in with our definition of small and light, this means the Greenworks 12 inch (30cm) 40V cordless chainsaw (6lbs or 2.7kg without battery – 8lbs or 3.6kg with battery) and the greenworks 14 inch chainsaw with brushless motor(9.8lbs)(4.5kg)
Both these saws score more than 4 out of 5 stars with in excess of 1000 customer reviews between them so one can safely say that there are a lot of happy users out there.

Some things to note for potential buyers.
1. These lightweight chainsaws only work with the Greenworks 40V G-Max batteries and not any other Greenworks 40V batteries! Likewise, you can’t use the 40V batteries of other brands (Dewalt, Earthwise etc) on these chainsaws. You CAN however use these 40V G-Max batteries on the other Greenworks tools designed to use the 40V G-Max battery.

2. You have the option of using either a G-Max 2.0 Ah battery (29462) or the G-Max 4.0 Ah battery (29472). Again you can use either of these 2 on the rest of the 40V G-MAX range.

3.Both these saws have automatic oilers and tool-less chain tensioning systems which makes operating them a whole lot less fiddly.

The price difference between these 2 is only about $30 so I would definitely consider getting the 14 inch saw for the brushless motor alone. This is because brushless motors are more efficient – more powerful and longer lasting than a conventional electric engine.

In fact Greenworks claim that their brushless motor delivers 30% more torque with 70% less vibration than an equivalent conventional electric motor – that’s certainly worth thirty odd dollars even if you only use your chainsaw a few times a year.

The 10 inch 24V Greenworks cordless chainsaw

If you only need a very small chainsaw then you could consider the very small but talented 10 inch (25cm) 24V Greenworks cordless chainsaw (7.8lbs or 3.5kg))

This small chainsaw also forms part of the Greenworks 24V Lithium Ion battery range, which boasts over 20 different types of tools – all running off the same battery pack.These tools have a generous 4 year guarantee while the lithium ion batteries are backed by a 2 year guarantee.

Makita Lithium-Ion Chainsaws

Makita have a great range of cordless lightweight electrical chainsaws that vary in length from a 10 inch bar to a 16 inch bar

They have 2 major advantages over most other brands of cordless electric chainsaws.

Awesome chain speed that rivals many gas powered chainsaws.

And a battery system that is shared amongst a whopping 300 plus other battery powered tools!

Other neat little additions that peg it above most of the competition include:

– Ergonomically designed rubberized handles and extreme protection technology which protects the working bits against dust and moisture/water.
– Fancy electronics that protect against over-heating and over-discharging as well as optimizing battery life.
– A range of batteries from 2.0 Ah all the way to 5.0 Ah, and all of them compatible with other tools based on the 18V LXT platform

The list continues but you get the picture – a thoroughly competent and durable little chainsaw.

Worx WG322 20V Cordless Chainsaw

This 10 inch (25cm) bar length chainsaw usually comes with the 20V Battery and charger included.

An added bonus is that you can use the same battery on a wide variety of other WORX tools within the 20V power share platform.
It’s overall dimensions are 25 x 7.5 x 9.5 in (63 x 19 x 24 cm) and it weighs in at 6.19 lbs (2.8kg) making it really small and versatile.

You can read more about the Worx 20V WG322 here

 

These are chainsaws that may not have had a huge number of reviews (yet) or are slightly outside our definition of “small”but we feel there is enough going for them that you should at least look at them and consider what they have to offer.

EGO Power+ 14-Inch 56-Volt Lithium-Ion

This EGO Power chainsaw has seriously impressed buyers with 88% of reviewers on Amazon giving a 4 or 5 star rating. One irritation that popped up was that the automatic chain oiler wasn’t working due to it having been assembled with the feeder tube twisted 360 degrees which stopped the oil getting through. The simple fix was to undo the mounting screws for the tank, rotate so as to undo the kink and re-attach. Hopefully by now that assembly issue has been sorted.

Other than that just be aware of what is being offered when you buy – just the bare tool OR with battery included!
The tale of the tape:

14 inch (35cm) Oregon bar and chain
Weather-resistant construction
30.1 x 9.4 x 9.8 inches (76 x 24 x 24cm)
8.3 pounds (3.75 kg)

VonHaus 14 Inch 40V Max Cordless Chainsaw

A few snippets regarding the VonHaus:
-The central plus feature of this chainsaw is the brushless electric motor that drives this tool.
-82% of reviewers (remember these are verified purchasers) have given it either a 4 or 5 star rating (but <100 reviews)
-The 4.0Ah Lithium-Ion battery is interchangeable with other VonHaus power tools in their 40V max range.

Maybe slightly heavy at 13 lbs or 5.9kg (for our definition of light) but still very user friendly in that department.
You can get more information about the VonHaus here

Ryobi 14 inch Brushless Chainsaw

This Ryobi has a 14 inch bar and 85% of buyers have given it a  4 or 5 star rating (<100 reviews)
It measures 27.56 x 11.81 x 8.66 inches and weighs in at 8.4 lbs
One reviewer couldn’t believe how powerful this little saw was because it was so quiet! – Definitely worth a look,

 

To Conclude

The electric chainsaw market is booming for a number of reasons:
– Electric chainsaws are quieter and more environmentally friendly than gas powered chainsaws.
– No starting issues.
– improved chain speeds and better battery life mean they are more powerful and efficient.
– more and more brands are using brushless electric motors

As the market grows, so the range of cordless lightweight electric chainsaws available becomes bigger. The bigger the range, the more complex and potentially confusing choosing the right one for you becomes – Good Luck!