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Battery Powered Tools Get the Job Done

Ok this post is a bit out of character but lately I’ve been working outside, enjoying the weather and taking a brake from photography. My property in New Hampshire is 4.7 acres of formal gardens,vegetable gardens, woods, forest, swamp and everything in between.

We purchased the property from some British expats who did a few things. 1. They put in a lot of flower gardens. 2. The cleared some area for a vegetable garden and 3. Let everything go to seed right before we bought it.

There was a love for the tree house feel of the back deck but that also meant a lot of overgrown trees. Plus the ice storm from a few years back has left us with a lot of damaged trees. So you get the picture, there is always a lot of work to be done.

We used to live in rural Maine so I know my way around a chainsaw, tree felling and forested yard clean up. I’ve gone through several gas powered chainsaws in my time. I’ll tell you, between the noise, the gas mixing, the cord pulling and basically the rotting of small engines due to ethanol gas, I’m done with gas powered chainsaws.

That’s why I love my 40 volt battery powered Black and Decker chainsaw. You squeeze the trigger and its starts up. You unsqueeze and its off. No idling. No gas mixing. No fumes. Its great!

And this model has a great no-tool belt tightener. With my old gas powered chainsaw I’d have to keep track of a stupid tool every time I need to tighten the chain. Which is really dumb that in this day and age they couldn’t come up with a better system. But Black and Decker did. You don’t need a stupid tool. Just keep an eye on the chain and tighten with a few turns of the wrist as needed.

Now of course there are three trade offs with the battery powered saw. 1. Its not as fast as a gas powered one and 2. Its not as powerful. 3. You are limited to less usage time. But I’ve found that for small to medium type trees and branches the saw is plenty powerful and the chain cuts nice chunks out of the wood. And the time limitation is alright because it gives you a break. Cut for a half hour or so and then call it good. Or buy a second battery so you can flip them back and forth and go all day if you want. Oh yeah and this saw is much quieter than gas models.

I liked this chainsaw so much I’m getting the Black and Decker pole saw to reach up and take out some branches that are close to the house.