Busy Life Edit

I bought this product myself and this review is based on my own experience.

Living on a smallholding means there are always trees, branches and general maintenance jobs that need doing.

A chainsaw is one of those tools we genuinely need, but I had one big problem with our petrol chainsaw:

I could not start it.

I’d consider myself a practical woman and I’m perfectly happy getting stuck into jobs, but no matter what I tried, I just didn’t seem to have the knack for starting the petrol chainsaw.

That meant I often had to wait for someone else to be around before I could get a job done.

Eventually, I got fed up with that.

So I started looking at cordless chainsaws.

In March, I bought the Einhell Professional Cordless Chainsaw 40cm (16-inch) for around £200.

I can honestly say it has changed the way I work around our smallholding.

Why I decided to try cordless

When I mentioned buying a battery-powered chainsaw, quite a few people told me I wouldn’t get the same performance as I would from petrol.

That did make me hesitate.

But I kept coming back to the same thought:

A powerful petrol chainsaw isn’t much use to me if I can’t start it.

If I didn’t try something different, I was always going to be dependent on someone else being available.

So I decided to give cordless a chance.

The biggest difference: I can just get on with the job

This is by far the biggest benefit for me.

I no longer have to plan chainsaw jobs around when my husband is home or wait for somebody else to start the machine.

If there’s a branch down or a job I want to get done, I can get the chainsaw out, put the batteries in and start.

That independence is probably more valuable to me than any specification on the box.

This is the Einhell Professional 40cm cordless chainsaw we use around our smallholding. For me, the biggest benefit is simply being able to pick it up and get on with a job without waiting for help.

It starts with ease

Compared with our petrol chainsaw, starting the Einhell is incredibly simple.

There’s no pulling a starter cord repeatedly.

No wondering whether I’ve flooded it.

No giving up and asking somebody else to start it.

It just starts.

If you struggle with pull-start machinery, that alone can make a huge difference.

It’s lighter than our petrol chainsaw

Another thing I noticed very quickly was the weight.

I find the cordless chainsaw lighter and easier to handle than our petrol one, which means I can use it for longer before getting tired.

For the kind of maintenance we do, that matters.

If I’m working through several branches or cutting timber, I want something I can manage comfortably rather than something that wears me out quickly.

But does a cordless chainsaw actually have enough power?

This was probably my biggest concern before buying it.

I’d been warned that cordless wouldn’t match petrol, so I expected there might be jobs where it struggled.

So far, I haven’t found anything I’ve needed it to cut that it hasn’t managed.

We’ve used it on trees and timber around our smallholding and I’ve been genuinely impressed with what it can handle.

For the jobs I need it for, I haven’t felt that I’m sacrificing the cutting ability I actually need.

Some of the timber I’ve cut with it. Despite being told a cordless chainsaw wouldn’t perform like petrol, I haven’t yet found a job around our smallholding that it couldn’t handle.

Battery life

In my experience, I get around an hour of continuous use from the batteries.

This is the one obvious area where petrol has an advantage.

With a petrol chainsaw, you can refill the tank and carry on.

With a cordless machine, eventually the batteries need charging.

My solution was simply to buy additional batteries.

That way I can have one set in the chainsaw while another set is charging.

For the way I use it, that has largely removed the battery-life issue.

I bought extra batteries so I can keep one set charging while I’m using another. It means battery runtime hasn’t really limited the jobs I can get done.

It’s cleaner to live with

I also find the cordless chainsaw much cleaner and easier to deal with.

I don’t have to fill it with petrol or deal with the same mess I associate with our petrol chainsaw.

I’ve also found it cleaner around storage and use, and it seems slightly quieter to me as well.

They might sound like small things individually, but together they make it much more convenient to grab for everyday jobs.

Is there anything I don’t like?

For me, genuinely, there haven’t been any significant negatives.

The main compromise is battery runtime compared with petrol.

But because I have spare batteries, that isn’t something that causes me much of a problem.

If you needed to run a chainsaw continuously all day, petrol might still make more sense.

For the type of tree and property maintenance I’m doing, though, cordless works extremely well.

Who I think it would suit

I think this would be particularly useful for:

• anyone who struggles to start a petrol chainsaw
• people who want something lighter and easier to handle
• garden and property maintenance
• smallholders
• people regularly cutting branches and timber
• anyone already using Einhell Power X-Change batteries
• people who want a chainsaw they can pick up and use without the fuss of petrol

For me, it’s particularly good if you don’t need a chainsaw running continuously all day but want something capable for regular jobs around a property.

Busy Life Edit Quick Verdict

Bought: March
Paid: Around £200
Best for: Smallholding, garden and property maintenance
Biggest plus: I can start it easily and use it independently
Performance: I haven’t yet found anything I need to cut that it can’t handle
Battery life: Around an hour of continuous use in my experience
Biggest compromise: Battery runtime compared with petrol
Would I buy it again? Absolutely

My verdict

This is one of those purchases that has made a genuine difference to my everyday life.

Yes, there may be petrol chainsaws that can run for longer.

But that wasn’t really my problem.

My problem was owning a chainsaw that I couldn’t reliably start on my own.

The Einhell solved that.

I can now tackle jobs when I want to tackle them rather than waiting for someone else to be available.

It’s lighter, easy to start, cleaner to use and, so far, has handled everything I’ve asked it to cut.

For me, going cordless hasn’t felt like a compromise.

It has given me independence.

Would I buy it again? Without hesitation.