Mini Chainsaws with an Automatic Oiler

Mini Chainsaws With An Oiling System

Finding A Mini chainsaw with an automatic oiler is not that straight forward.

Many 4-inch, 6-inch and 8-inch bar (see picture left as an example) chainsaws that you can operate with only one hand don’t have a whole lot of design room available to incorporate an oil system.

But the benefits of having an inbuilt oiler are so obvious that more and more small chainsaw brands are producing models with oiling systems.

NB By “automatic oiler” we mean the mini chainsaw has an inbuilt chain and bar oiling mechanism. However, you will have to fill the tank with oil and might have to manually push a button to get the oil flowing to the bar and chain.

One Hand Mini Chainsaws with Oil Systems

6 -inch mini chainsaws with an automatic oiler

So now we start getting into a category of mini chainsaws where automatic oilers are sometimes incorporated into the tool.

But lets be clear. These are still pretty small, lightweight tools and the addition of this feature sometimes doesn’t work out too well. In other words, a good idea……but not always!

So be careful what you opt for as operating a mini chainsaw with a mostly leaking or non functional oil delivery system is far worse than having to apply oil your self manually.

Here are a few tips to swing the chainsaw oil gods in your favor when applied to these 6 inch mini chainsaws with an inbuilt oiling

system!

• Don’t fill the oil tank up to the brim. It will almost certainly start leaking oil somewhere in the delivery system as soon as you start working with the saw at various angles. So in this case, less is more! Rather stop and add oil regularly than stop and have to clean up a mess!
• Before you use the tool the first time, check that there isn’t a small, often see through plastic disc covering the outlet pipe of the tank. Some manufacturers will put it there to prevent the (very small) pipe from being blocked by “stuff” when being transported/stored before first time use.
• NB! Be prepared that a mini chainsaw that incorporates an oiling system very often will arrive without any of the required oil. So make sure to buy some chain and blade oil before you want to use it. DO NOT use it without lubricating the chain/bar interface – that’s a recipe for sabotaging your chainsaw’s efficiency and longevity.
• And lastly, even if it comes without any lubricant, it might come with a little oil bottle designed mainly to be thrown away as they are mostly non functional. You might get the exception….but probably not. So be prepared.

Here are a few examples of 6-inch mini chainsaws that feature an automatic oiler:

Imoumlive 6-inch mini chainsaw with automatic oiler AND a brushless motor….big plus!!

Seesii cordless 6 inch saw with oil delivery system

The Oicgoo, which also has a brushless motor

Prodcyc 6 inch mini saw with oil system

HAJACK 6 inch mini chainsaw with oiler

The 6-inch bar length is the most popular mini chainsaw size on the market but you do get some 8 inch ones as well.

8-inch mini chainsaws with self oiling systems

While the 8-inch bar class of mini chainsaw is seemingly not as popular as the 6-inch bar size, they do offer some advantages.

Chief amongst these include the fact that many (most?) come equipped with brushless motors and being slightly bigger, everything that makes up the oil delivery system can be slightly bigger and more robust.

The question remains though. Go big one-handed (one and a half?) chainsaw or small two-handed chainsaw? The latter become the norm when the bar length hits 10 inches.

Here are 3 examples you might consider in this category:

• The Hychika
• Seesii 8 inch which is the big brother of the 6 inch version above.
• The Kebtek which actually has the facility for a handle for your second hand, so not strictly a one hand only tool!

The good news is the 3 above ALL feature brushless motors!

4-inch bar mini chainsaws with automatic oiler

At the time of writing, 4-inch bar mini chainsaws with an automatic oiler are like hen’s teeth……extremely rare or non existent! They seem to be deemed just too small overall to include that sort of feature.

However, while these  4-inch bar mini saws,  lack an automatic oiler, that doesn’t mean that their chains don’t need oiling! You just need to do it yourself.

Buy some Chain & Bar oil and apply the lubricant to the chain and bar using something like a small spray bottle or oil can. Keeping the chain and bar oiled and as friction free as possible increases the life expectancy of both the bar and chain.

No doubt the time will come when one can easily find a 4 inch mini chainsaw with an automatic oiler. But not just at the moment!

 

Conclusion

How important are automatic oil systems in the mini chainsaw segment?

If you can operate the saw with one hand then it does beg the question above as you have a spare hand that can apply the oil as and when needed without having to interrupt the work flow too much.

So at the moment its probably a nice to have as long as the system does what it should do.

And of course, as technology improves, so will these oil delivery systems.