Everything is making the move to battery power these days, including trail-building and clearing tools like chainsaws. They’re also handy for cutting up firewood and clearing logs off the road. Litheli has a great range of 3 battery powered chainsaws. We got to test the 14″ Cordless Chainsaw from Litheli with it’s 40V, 2.5 amp-hour battery.
First a note on safety. You can clearly really hurt yourself or others with chainsaws. Read the manual carefully and pay attention to what your doing. Don’t do anything stupid. Get some help if you are new to chainsaws.
Pros
- easy to set up
- good instructions
- common brand chain and bar
- tool-less access to the bar and chain
Cons
- large charger
Specs
- 14″ bar
- 40V, 2.5 amp-hour battery
- 6000 rpm brushless motor
- 36 ft/s max chain speed
- auto chain oiler
- 180ml oiler
- tool-less tensioning
- .1 second chain stop
- 11 pounds
- 199.99 USD
Set up
Set up with the Litheli is easy. The instructions are very good and it’s just a couple thumbscrews to put the bar on with the chain and tighten things down.
It doesn’t come with any bar oil. To get started, you’ll need to buy your own. Going to the store for a bit of bar oil isn’t a big deal but it’s an extra step. It would be nice if Litheli included a little bit to get started.
Cutting
Using the Litheli is very straightforward.
- Confirm there’s bar oil by checking the see-through gauge
- Insert the battery
- Push the chain brake into the back/disengaged position
- Hold the Lockout Switch
- Pull the Trigger
No more to it than that. No choke, no gas to fill up, no throwing out your back trying pull start it.
I have very little experience with chainsaws and it was easy to use. The manual gives a good little primer on cutting best practices. There are lots of good videos online show what to do and not.
The new chain cut through any wood quickly. Small branches less than 6 inches didn’t feel like anything. I didn’t even need to push down.
Larger branches and logs over 12 inches took a little bit longer and needed a bit more patience. Applying too much pressure would jam the chain and I had to let the pressure of. When I let it do it’s thing, it chewed through stuff up to 15 inches no problem. Litheli says it can handle up to 24″ logs.
Cleaning
The drive cover is removed with the one large thumb screw. No tools required. The bar and chain are attached right under the cover and can be removed and cleaned without any special tools.
Charging
The 40V, 2.5 amp-hour battery has 4 lights and a button on it to easily check how much charge is left. Each light is 25% of a charge. 1 blinking green light means charge it.
The battery charger is quite large. I’d love to see a smaller charger but it does have a fan inside so that makes it larger. It can get quite hot while it’s charging, so make sure it’s not covered with anything.
Alternatives
Litheli have 2 other battery-powered chainsaws that are slightly smaller and different batteries. There are lots of other tools from Litheli that use the 20V and 40V batteries so check if you are going to get more batteries for other tools before committing to one.
Other brands have battery-powered chainsaws as well. I haven’t used any of these.
Is the Litheli 14″ Chainsaw worth buying?
Yes.
So far it’s been easy to set up, easy to cut and a joy to use. When the price is half of some of the other battery-powered chainsaws out there, it’s an even better deal.
