g'day guys adam here from get camping today we're reviewing the 18 volt brushless chainsaw from
Ryobi we've had it for about 12 months now we're going to be talking about what i like and what
i don't like about it and how it fits in with our camping and our four wheel driving so stick around
all right so what do i like i think the number one thing i like about the Ryobi chainsaw is that it
uses the same battery as my cordless drill my hedge trimmer all my other variety tools that
i have so i think that's definitely a plus and i think that's also a consideration that you
should think about if you have some Ryobi tools there's plenty of other chainsaws on the market
however they don't all they're not all compatible with that same sort of battery so
that's definitely a plus in my opinion i like that it's nice and light so this is 3.2 kilos
without the battery add the battery in an oil it's about 4.2 kilos so it's relatively light
it's nice and balanced so you can see here that it sits there nice and balanced one thing i probably
will upgrade to is probably the 9 amp hour battery they say you can get around 40 cuts out of the 5
amp hour battery i'm yet to achieve 40 40 cuts now i think it depends on the type of timber
that you're using and also how you're using the saw the biggest thing with these chainsaws is
that you've actually got to let the chain work if you start pushing it and actually you know loading
that motor up that's when you're actually going to start you know consuming your your battery much
quicker so just letting the chainsaw work and obviously the key is having a nice sharp chain
so it features a 12 inch bar or 300 millimeters in length and is good for cuts up to 250 mil so the
oil tank capacity on this chainsaw is 210 mil i'm just using the valvoline power armor chainsaw lube
that i purchased from Bunnings to adjust the chain simply undo the chain tensioner knob then move the
chain adjustment ring to either tighten or loosen then simply tighten the knob so the other thing
i really love about this battery-operated chainsaw is that i don't need to carry fuel
that was always one of my pet hates about going camping was actually taking fuel for the chainsaw
there was times when i actually used to buy firewood because i couldn't be bothered taking
the chainsaw because of the the considerations that i needed to take i hated putting fuel in the
back of the four wheel drive it stinks the canopy out i'd never put fuel in there in the caravan
so that was just something else to consider now i don't need to worry about it i can just throw
this in the back of the four drive i can throw it in the caravan without any issue at all the other
thing i really love about these battery operator chainsaws is that they're really quiet they're not
as loud as the old two strokes where you can hear them from miles off in the distance you can hear
someone chain throwing away or they don't produce any smoke so you don't get that smoky smell
all right so what do you get when you actually purchase one of these well you get the main unit
itself and it's fully assembled you don't need to do anything to it you get the chain guard and you
also get an instruction manual now just keep in mind if you haven't got a battery for this i'm
assuming you do if you're looking at purchasing one but if you don't you're going to have to
factor in the cost of a battery to put to the purchase so a 5 amp hour battery is going to set
you back another $149 dollars so add that under the price of the saw you're looking about a $400
saw so just keep that in mind all right so let's talk about the things that i don't like about the
chainsaw first thing is is that it doesn't have the same power as my old two-stroke chainsaw
now maybe the higher voltage chainsaws from the other brands may be comparable but this doesn't
now you need to take that into consideration if you're thinking about buying one of these it does
the job for what i needed to do is go around when we out four wheel driving or out camping we can
cut some small branches up some some logs for the fire that's what we needed to do and that's
why we bought it however if you're looking to do something a bit more than that then it's probably
not going to cut your mustard and you're probably going to have to look for a slightly bigger saw
the second thing i don't like about it is that you've got to have a lot of batteries so
you're going around cutting some firewood all of a sudden you run out of out of battery power if
you've only got the one battery well guess what you're back in your car and you're driving back
to camp to charge it up whereas if you've got fuel you can just simply you run out of fuel you
just simply top it up it's pretty simple so you know battery technology i think will come along
and get better as as time goes on however that's that's something that i don't like about it the
third thing is that i don't like is that people are a little bit complacent around the chainsaw
now it's quite an operation compared to my old two-stroke chainsaw for example my old two-stroke
chainsaw used to start it up my kids used to run off because they used to hate the noise
now when i get this thing out they run towards me so you just need to be take that sort of take that
into consideration in the sort of areas and the people that you operate in the chainsaw around
all right so we're ready to start chain throwing what do we need to do we need to stick some oil in
which i've already done it takes about 210 mils of bar oil we then click the battery in now this is
a 5 amp hour battery that's fully charged we need to take the chainsaw cover off and now to operate
it's simply pull down with the thumb and then squeeze the trigger but you'll notice that
nothing's actually happened just yet that's because the brake's engaged the brake's a
safety mechanism to stop the chainsaw from kicking back when in operation so to engage to disengage
the brake simply squeeze forward and then pull down with your thumb and then squeeze the trigger
so you can see it's nice and quiet there's no smell there's nothing so let's go start
chainsawing so i've got a fairly decent tree we're going to cut through here
and see how good this little battery chainsaw is
well there you have it it's cut through this solid bit of gum which is pretty good
it would have done that far better if that chain was sharp like it was a new chain so
but look i probably wouldn't go any any bigger than that
i think that's probably about its extent so the beauty about this saw is that it's
it is light enough that if you've got something above sort of shoulder height you can easily
cut
Alright guys my final thoughts on the chainsaw now would i buy it again? yeah absolutely i'd
buy it again i think it represents good value for money and especially if you've already got the
Ryobi brand of tools already in your garage you can just use the existing batteries you've got
plug it straight in and away you go now i'd still even recommend it even if you didn't
have any Ryobi tools because that'll get you into buying the Ryobi tools you know there's
heaps of tools on the market i think there's about 80 plus and they're so versatile and
you'll find that you'll probably you'll use it more than what you actually think you do
so like for example when we're out four wheel driving and we've got a low overhanging branch
or a tree that's fallen across the track it's so easy to whip that chainsaw out stick the battery
in cut the tree move it out the way and then keep going you don't have to worry about fuel
you don't have to worry about smell it's so much better than the old two-stroke sure the
old two-stroke had its benefits but the the the benefits of this outweigh that two-stroke chainsaw
anyway guys i hope you really enjoyed the review it's my honest opinion
and if you haven't already please like and subscribe and we'll catch you on the next one!