ChainsawRanker

The bigger M18 sibling of the M12 Hatchet that climbing arborists made famous — an 8" one-hand-capable pruning saw that Milwaukee rates faster-cutting than 25cc gas while weighing under 5 lbs bare. It comes arborist-ready out of the box: lanyard loop, climbing scabbard, full-house low-vibration chain, metal bucking spikes, and onboard scrench storage. Owner threads treat it as the tool that ended the pole-saw-and-handsaw shuffle for limbing, storm cleanup, and trail work, and the review consensus at retail is near-perfect. The honest caveats: at $499 for the kit with the XC6.0 pack it costs as much as a full-size 16" saw kit; a one-handed 8" chainsaw invites the same kickback and PPE responsibilities as any top-handle saw; the tiny bar means it's a limbing specialist, not a bucking saw; and the auto-oiler shares the M18 family habit of seeping bar oil between uses. Pros on a budget note the tool-only at $279 makes more sense if you already own HO batteries.

Ryobi's 40V HP 14-inch is the chainsaw for the enormous crowd that already charges Ryobi lawn batteries in the garage: brushless, genuinely capable in the 8-12 inch wood that suburban trees actually produce, and rated 4.8 stars across a couple hundred reviews on Ryobi's own site. Home Depot's ecosystem makes it the path of least resistance — tool-only around $149-189 if you own packs, or roughly $299 with a 4Ah battery and charger. Owners praise the instant starts and the HP brushless motor's refusal to bog in moderate cuts; the honest limits are the ones the class shares: the 14-inch bar and 40V platform top out around small-tree felling, the plastic-heavy build reads homeowner-grade because it is, and Ryobi's stock chains and bars are mediocre enough that enthusiasts upgrade both. Within its lane — cleanup, limbing, occasional small felling on a shared battery platform — it's hard to spend less and get more.

The long-running 80V kit that made battery chainsaws credible for cheap — an 18-inch bar, brushless motor Greenworks rates as 42cc-gas-equivalent, and a 2.0Ah battery with a genuinely quick 30-minute recharge. Lowe's buyers rate it 4.6 stars and repeatedly describe dropping and bucking 18-22 inch trees on a charge, and the price is the hook: it lists at $380 but routinely street-prices at $210-250, an absurd amount of saw for the money. The honest caveats from owner reviews: the 2.0Ah pack is good for roughly 110 cuts and fades fast in big hardwood, the chain works loose and derails more than it should (check tension often), it's thirsty on bar oil, and the saw bogs if you lean on it in oversized logs. Note that Greenworks now also sells a newer 2.5kW Gen III 80V 18-inch (CS80L417, ~$430 with 4Ah) with more power for considerably more money — this classic kit remains the value pick.

The Gen II 60V is Greenworks' volume seller — a 2.0 kW brushless saw the company claims out-torques a 42cc gas engine by 20%, sold as an 18-inch kit with a 4.0Ah battery and 40-minute charger for around $310-350 at Lowe's, Tractor Supply, and Greenworks direct. Its 383 Lowe's reviews average 4.6 stars, with owners consistently surprised that a box-store battery saw fells and bucks real trees — the no-prime, no-choke, instant-trigger start is the most-praised feature among gas converts. At 9.5 lbs bare it's manageable for limbing, and the 65.6 ft/s chain speed is respectable if not pro-fast. The complaint pattern in reviews: the chain can come off under hard use, it bogs in very large logs if you rush it, and the 4.0Ah pack is good for about 140 cuts — enough for an afternoon, not a full firewood day. The 60V battery line spans 75+ Greenworks tools, which is a more useful ecosystem than the 80V line for most homeowners.

America's default farm saw, full stop — the 455 Rancher has been the answer to "what chainsaw should I buy for firewood" at Lowe's for two decades, and its 4.6-star average across about 700 reviews there says the formula still works: 55.5cc, a 20-inch bar, and a chassis that shrugs off neglect. Owners love that it starts spring after spring and pulls a full 20 inches through oak without drama. The counterpoint lives on the forums, where the 455 is the perennial punching bag: at 13.2 pounds for the powerhead it's genuinely heavy for its power class, the vibration is noticeable next to a 550 XP, and the pro crowd sniffs at the consumer crankcase. Both camps are right. This is a saw built to survive ranch sheds, not win power-to-weight arguments — and the Stihl MS 271 and Echo CS-590 comparisons are the most-argued matchups in the category for a reason.

Ask any firewood forum for the best chainsaw value in America and the Timber Wolf comes up in the first three replies: 59.8cc of genuine 60-class grunt for about $449 at Home Depot, with a 5-year consumer warranty, and a 4.6-star aggregate across more than 1,600 reviews. Owners routinely run 24-inch bars on it and report it pulls them without complaint, and a decade of production means the failure modes are well mapped — which is to say, there mostly aren't any. The honest knocks: at 13.2 lbs for the powerhead it's a chunk heavier than modern 60cc pro saws, it takes a few more cold-start pulls than a comparable Husqvarna, and the factory semi-chisel chain goes dull fast enough that most owners swap to Oregon 72LPX full-chisel immediately. The carb ships with EPA limiter caps that leave the low-speed circuit lean, so the tinkerer ritual is caps off, retune, muffler mod — after which owners say it embarrasses saws costing $200 more. It lacks the magnesium crankcase and refinement of Echo's X-Series, but for felling and bucking firewood on a budget this is the default answer.

Echo's full-size top-handle, and the budget counterpoint to the Stihl MS 201 T that every tree crew debates. The out-of-box comparison is real: multiple ArboristSite users say a stock 355T "smokes a 201T outta the box" thanks to Stihl's choked factory tune, though a broken-in, modded 201 pulls back ahead on torque. At around $499 — versus roughly $700+ for the Stihl — whole crews have switched, and one tree-service owner reported his climbers actually preferred the 355s after the changeover. It's also one of the few pro top-handles you can buy at Home Depot, where it holds a 4.6-star rating across nearly 500 reviews, with owners repeatedly noting years of daily starts without failure. The knocks: at 8.0 lbs it's nearly three pounds heavier than Echo's own CS-2511T, the ergonomics and balance feel less refined than the Stihl/Husqvarna benchmarks to picky climbers, and serious users still do a muffler mod and retune to wake it up. The palm rest is an Echo-exclusive touch climbers either love or ignore. For groundies, firewood work from a ladder-free position, and cost-conscious crews, it's the workhorse pick.

The cheapest way to get a real Stihl in your garage, and the saw dealers hand to first-time buyers who need to clean up storm limbs a few weekends a year. At 8.6 pounds for the powerhead it's genuinely easy to run all afternoon, and the 4,400+ Ace Hardware reviews averaging 4.5 stars back up the 'thousands of happy owners' vibe you see in forum threads. But owners are blunt about the ceiling: this is a light pruning and limbing saw, not a firewood saw, and it gets slow and sluggish once logs pass about 10-12 inches. The cost-cutting shows up close — a basic carburetor, minimal anti-vibration, and a bar-swap chain tensioner instead of the side-access adjuster on pricier models. Stihl has also started rolling out the updated MS 172 alongside it, so the 170 is a proven but aging design. For under $230 with a 16-inch bar, most homeowners decide the limitations are a fair trade.

The MS 170's more comfortable sibling — same compact class, but with the Easy2Start recoil system and a tool-free chain adjuster that make it the pick for owners who hate yanking pull cords and fishing for scrench wrenches. The Easy2Start spring assist genuinely works; reviewers note the cord pulls about two-thirds easier than a standard recoil, which is why this saw shows up so often in recommendations for older owners and smaller-framed users. The 31.8cc engine has a touch more grunt than the 170, and owners have cut plenty of firewood with it, though it's still happiest under 14-inch wood. The gripes cluster around the convenience features themselves: some old-school owners actively dislike the EZ tensioning wheel, and there are recurring reports of new chains stretching and derailing until you learn to re-tension obsessively during the first tanks. At $319.99 you're paying about $100 over the MS 170 purely for convenience — a trade the 1,300+ Ace reviewers largely endorse at 4.5 stars.

The Farm Boss is probably the most-recommended 'my first serious saw' in America, and its 4.5-star average over 2,850+ Ace reviews shows the formula works: 50.2cc, a 20-inch bar, modern spring anti-vibration that owners say leaves their hands fresh after a full day, and a fuel-efficient engine that runs 20% longer per tank than the MS 270 it replaced. There's a whole ArboristSite thread literally titled 'Why do so many guys bad mouth the MS 271' — the answer is that pros dismiss it as a heavy clamshell homeowner saw with mediocre power density (12.3 lbs for only 2.6 kW, about what a 10-pound pro 50cc saw makes). Both sides are right. It's slower than an MS 261 and not rebuildable the way a pro saw is, and OEM top-end parts are expensive with little aftermarket support. But for a landowner cutting a few cords a year, it's smooth, dependable, and roughly half the price of the pro alternative — which is exactly why dealers can't keep them on the wall.

EGO's volume-seller 16-incher and the saw r/egopowerplus keeps telling first-time battery buyers to get, because the 56V platform shares packs with the mowers and blowers half of them already own. EGO rates it as 40cc-gas-equivalent with a 20 m/s chain speed, and the included 4.0Ah pack is good for a claimed 220 cuts in 4x4 — realistic for storm cleanup and limbing, optimistic if you're bucking hardwood rounds all afternoon. Owners praise the instant torque and the tool-free dual-dial tensioner, but the recurring gripes are real: like most EGO saws it weeps bar oil in storage (store it on cardboard), the chain stretches and needs frequent re-tensioning when new, and the saw down-regulates power on smaller packs, so don't expect full grunt off a 2.5Ah. At $329 for the kit it undercuts the Milwaukee and Makita 16-inch kits by a wide margin, which is why the review counts at Ace and Lowe's run into the thousands.

The biggest saw EGO makes and the closest thing to a battery farm saw the 56V line offers — a 20" bar, a real 3/8"/.050 full-chisel chain, 25 m/s chain speed, and a claimed 55cc-gas equivalence that testers largely back up; Pro Tool Reviews said it went through seasoned oak 'like a hot knife through butter.' It's a genuine firewood saw: 135 claimed cuts on 6x6 with the included 6.0Ah pack, a digital display, and an LED work light. The honest tradeoffs: at 19.4 lbs with battery it's one of the heaviest saws in its class, gas or battery; top chain speed only unlocks with a 6.0Ah-or-larger pack; and owners report the familiar EGO habits — bar-oil seepage in storage and chains that need frequent tensioning. If you're cutting cords of hardwood a 20-minute-per-pack reality means buying a second $300+ battery, which quietly turns a $549 kit into an $850 setup.

The saw that proved an 18V platform could cut like gas — Milwaukee ships it with the giant HD12.0 pack (216 Wh) and claims 40cc-plus performance, and Pro Tool Reviews clocked it out-cutting a Husqvarna 460 Rancher in head-to-head bucking. For the legions already invested in M18 tools it's the obvious choice: 150 claimed cuts per charge, full throttle in under a second, and a proper 16" Oregon bar with metal bucking spikes. r/MilwaukeeTool threads are largely glowing about power but honest about the rest: it's 13.9 lbs with the battery (heavier than a 40cc gas powerhead), the automatic oiler is factory-set and owners report it runs wet — flinging and weeping bar oil in storage — and running any pack smaller than an HO 8.0 noticeably blunts performance. It's also a single-battery saw with no dual-charger in the kit, so sustained firewood days mean either a $250 spare HD12.0 or long charging breaks.

Husqvarna's Lowe's-exclusive consumer battery saw, and one of the fastest-cutting saws in its class thanks to a boost mode that pulls 25% more power on demand. The kit is honest value: an 18-inch bar, a big 7.5Ah BLi30 pack, and charger for about $480, and testers measured it among the quietest saws in the category at 82 dB. Lowe's reviewers (4.4 stars across 300+ reviews) repeatedly describe dropping 18-22 inch hardwoods on a single charge and praise how light and balanced it feels under 14 lbs with battery. The 1-star tail is worth reading, though: recurring complaints about the tool-less chain tensioner losing tension, water intrusion killing saws stored outdoors, occasional battery failures, and frustrating Husqvarna warranty support. It's also a closed ecosystem play — the 40V Power Axe batteries don't cross over to Husqvarna's dealer-line pro tools. For yard trees and storm cleanup it punches well above its price; heavy firewood cutters will find its limits.

Makita's clever answer to not having a big OPE battery: run two 18V LXT packs in series for 36V, so the enormous LXT tool ecosystem doubles as a chainsaw fleet. The XCU04 is the quietest, smoothest-feeling saw in this class — 11.5 lbs with both 5.0Ah packs, tool-less chain adjustment, and an auto power-off that keeps idle saws from draining batteries. But Makita's own 32cc-equivalence claim tells the honest story: this is the least powerful 16" saw among the big brands, and owner reviews echo it — great for limbing, storm branches, and occasional cordwood, but it bogs in hard 12"+ wood and 'gobbles batteries' under sustained bucking. The X2 arrangement also means every outing requires two charged packs, and the saw stops when the weaker one taps out. As a yard saw for someone deep in the LXT platform it's genuinely pleasant; as a primary firewood saw it's outclassed by EGO and Milwaukee at the same money.

The saw Makita built after admitting two 18V packs weren't enough — the 40V XGT GCU05 (sold internationally as the UC016G) spins its chain at 5,020 FPM and carries a 42cc-gas-equivalence claim that puts it in a different league from the old XCU04. Build quality is classic Makita: XPT weather sealing, a proper inertia chain brake, tool-free tensioning, and a standard 91PX 3/8"LP/.050 chain you can buy at any hardware store. The catches are cost and runtime: at $629 the kit costs $100+ more than an EGO CS2005 with a bigger bar, XGT packs are among the priciest batteries in OPE, and Makita's own runtime claim — about 30 cuts in 12" cedar on the included 4.0Ah — means firewood days require multiple packs. Home Depot owner reviews (4.3 stars) praise the power and fit-and-finish while flagging exactly that: you'll want a second (or 5.0Ah) battery, and you'll pay dearly for it. For XGT-platform loyalists it's the best saw Makita has ever made; for everyone else the math is hard.

The CS-4920 replaced the CS-4910 in 2023 and inherited its mission: near-pro 50cc performance at a consumer price, roughly $429 at Home Depot when a comparable Stihl MS 271 or Husqvarna 450 Rancher runs meaningfully more with a fifth of the warranty. Echo claims it's the lightest saw in its class, and at 11.1 lbs for the powerhead owners agree it swings a 20-inch bar without the boat-anchor feel of older farm saws. Reviewers consistently call out three-or-four-pull cold starts, first-pull warm starts, and enough grunt to chew through 16-18 inch hardwood without drama. The recurring gripes are the factory chain — several owners say it dulled absurdly fast and swapped to Oregon full-chisel immediately — and a few units arriving with the carb adjusted so lean they wouldn't start until tweaked. The stratified two-stroke also trades a little throttle response for emissions compliance, which modders address with the usual muffler work. For a fence-line and firewood saw backed by a 5-year warranty, owner threads consider it the value pick of the 50cc class.

Echo's X-Series 60cc pro saw, and the recurring punchline on ArboristSite is some version of "I'd take a CS-620P over an MS 362 or 562XP every day, then spend the $200 I saved on my wife." The magnesium crankcase, 3.3 kW output, and torque curve that owners swear out-grunts every other 60cc saw make it a legitimate professional tool, and multiple users report it handles a 27-inch bar in green hardwood all day. Street price at Home Depot runs about $739 — still under the Stihl/Husqvarna equivalents — and unlike those brands it carries a 5-year consumer warranty. Its 4.2-star retail aggregate is dragged down by a real complaint: a subset of owners find it nearly impossible to cold-start after sitting, and the felt air filter arrangement gets called out as the one un-pro thing about the saw. It's also thirstier than the strato-charged competition. The mod crowd does a muffler mod, base-gasket delete, and retune and reports the saw becomes "flat out mean." If the CS-590 is the value pick, this is the same displacement grown up: lighter feel, harder pull, pro-grade guts.

This is the saw that replaced the much-loved CS-400 in 2023 — 13% more power, 0.7 lbs lighter, and the same 5-year consumer warranty, which is why it took over the CS-400's slot at Home Depot at about $349. At 9.4 lbs for a 41.6cc engine it has one of the better power-to-weight ratios in the homeowner aisle, and owners doing storm cleanup and light firewood duty praise how easily it swings an 18-inch bar through softwood. The 4.1-star Home Depot aggregate tells the honest story though: most reviewers love it, but a vocal minority report inconsistent starting, and several longtime Echo owners grumble that the new air filter design and overall build feel a step down from the old CS-400. The i-30 starter does make the rope pull noticeably easier than the outgoing model. Forum consensus is that a proper carb warm-up routine solves most of the starting complaints, and the 5-year warranty is the safety net if it doesn't. A solid do-it-all homeowner saw, just not quite the cult classic its predecessor was.

A 25-year-old design that refuses to die because the math still works: 45.4cc pulling an 18-inch bar from a 10.1-pound powerhead, for under $450. Firewood cutters love the power-to-weight — it out-cuts every saw below it in the Stihl lineup by a wide margin and handles real firewood duty the 170/180 can't. The catch is that it's an old-school saw in every sense: no fuel primer, dated air filtration, and a reputation on OPE forums for being cold-blooded and hard-starting when the carb gets finicky, with more than one owner saying 'when it runs well it's a great saw' through gritted teeth. The anti-vibration system is also a generation behind, so your hands feel more buzz than on the spring-mounted farm saws. Its 4.0-star average across 2,600+ Ace reviews is the lowest of Stihl's homeowner line — starting complaints drive most of the one-star reviews — but the owners who learn its ritual keep them running for decades.

The MS 291 is the Farm Boss's bigger brother — same 12.3-pound clamshell chassis, but bored out to 55.5cc and 2.8 kW, which buys you a quarter horsepower and noticeably better pull on a 20-inch bar in hardwood. ArboristSite regulars who like this class generally steer buyers here over the 271: it's essentially the same saw with more engine, and the fuel-sipping design and five-times-longer air filter life carry over. The criticisms carry over too. Pros still call it a heavy homeowner clamshell, OEM parts (especially the top end) are expensive, and there's essentially no aftermarket support — one owner grumbled his 291 spends too much time on the bench. The real debate is value: at $619.99 you're only $80 from where used MS 362s and other pro saws start appearing, which is exactly the 'new 291 vs used 362' thread that keeps recurring on the forums. If you're set on new with a warranty, though, it's the strongest saw in Stihl's farm line.

DeWalt's biggest saw — a 20" bar, up to 3,100W (DeWalt claims 50.2cc-gas-equivalent peak power), and a real 3/8"/.050 chain — aimed squarely at the EGO CS2005 and Milwaukee's M18 flagship. In testing it's legitimately fast, ripping through 16"+ hardwood, and the included hard carry case is a touch nobody else offers at this price. But this is the most polarizing saw in the group: the Ace Hardware aggregate sits at just 3.5 stars, with owners citing batteries that sag or shut down under sustained bucking, mixed durability, and the sheer 17.2 lb heft with the FlexVolt pack aboard. The kit's 4.0Ah (60V) battery is really a 12.0Ah 20V FlexVolt pack, which is great if you own other FlexVolt tools and expensive dead weight if you don't. Buy it if you're FlexVolt-committed and cut intermittently; look at EGO or gas if you're bucking cords every weekend.

The entry point to Stihl's real pro saws, and the model forum veterans call the ideal all-day firewood saw: a magnesium-case, fully rebuildable 59cc engine making 3.5 kW from the same 12.3-pound powerhead weight as the plastic farm saws below it. The M-Tronic engine management is the quiet hero — it self-tunes for altitude, temperature, fuel, and a dirtying filter, so there's no carb screwdriver ritual, and owners consistently describe it as easy-starting and smooth. The honest knock from ArboristSite is that it's no longer the power-to-weight king: bury a 20-inch bar in big oak and it works for it, and the 462 makes vastly more power for barely half a pound more, which is why 'just save up for the 462' is a stock reply in every 362 thread. Pricing has also crept past $1,100, roughly double a Farm Boss. It remains the sweet spot for cutters who want pro durability and serviceability in a mid-size package — just know the pros above it cast a long shadow.

The saw that made West Coast fallers trade in their 044s and 461s: 72.2cc and 4.4 kW in a 13.2-pound powerhead that Stihl bills as the lightest it has ever built in this class, and owners on ArboristSite describe with phrases like 'monster torque' and 'game changer'. The M-Tronic metering keeps it in perfect tune from sea level to mountain jobs, and users bucking hardwood with 25- and 28-inch bars report it never feels short of breath — several admit their 660-class saws now sit unused because the 462 does the work at two pounds less. Complaints are scarce and mostly economic: the price has marched steadily upward (Ace lists the 25-inch at $1,619.99), and weekend cutters frequently confess they love it but reach for it less than expected because it's simply more saw than most firewood requires. A few owners cross-shop the lighter MS 400 and wonder if 66cc would do. As a do-everything big saw for felling and heavy bucking, though, forum consensus is about as unanimous as chainsaw forums get: no buyer's remorse.

The first fuel-injected chainsaw ever sold, and the one saw that makes grown professionals gush: 79.2cc, 5.0 kW, and a 13.9-pound powerhead give it what Stihl claims is the best power-to-weight ratio on the market. The injection system replaces the carburetor entirely — it reads air pressure and temperature and meters fuel electronically, so it lights off in a couple of pulls hot or cold and owners report instant, hesitation-free throttle response that carbureted saws can't match. ArboristSite owner threads are full of people who sold their other big saws after buying one; more than one homeowner splurger calls it the best saw they've ever run. The gripes are specific and consistent: it drinks fuel hard, fine dust can sneak past where the plastic filter housing attaches, a handful of high-hour owners report warm-stall quirks, and the price has ballooned roughly $500 since launch to about $1,779.99 with a 25-inch bar. There's even a contrarian 'flagship saw disappointing' thread — but it's an island in a sea of five-star sentiment. If money were no object, this is the saw most of the forum says they'd grab.

This is the 90cc benchmark — the saw West Coast fallers and Alaskan-mill users on ArboristSite treat as the default answer for big wood. The M-Tronic computer handles tuning at any altitude or on any fuel, and owners consistently report it pulls a 28-32 inch bar buried in fir or oak without complaint while weighing 16.4 lbs, genuinely good power-to-weight for the class. The recurring debate in owner threads is whether you actually need it: MS 462 owners argue their saw does 90% of the work at 3 lbs less, and most firewood cutters concede the 661 only earns its keep in timber over 30 inches or on a mill. Real gripes: the price has climbed to roughly $1,850, it drinks fuel fast in long cuts, and Stihl's gas-saw warranty is a stingy 1 year consumer / 3 months commercial. Dealer-only distribution means no retailer review aggregates exist, but forum consensus over a decade is about as unanimous as chainsaw opinions get.

The biggest production chainsaw you can buy new — 121.6cc and 8.6 hp — and owner threads are honest that almost nobody needs one. The people who do (slabbing-mill operators, storm crews facing 4-foot trunks, big-timber fallers) describe torque that simply doesn't stall: it pulls .404 chain on a 36-41 inch bar through hardwood at a steady, unhurried pace. Milling forums treat it as the safe choice over the 661 for 36-inch-plus slabs because it stays out of the RPM range where smaller saws cook themselves. The gripes are what you'd expect: 21.4 lbs before you add a 3-foot bar, a cold-start flooding ritual owners learn the hard way, an old-school carburetor (IntelliCarb, not M-Tronic) that may need seasonal retuning, and a price around $2,680 that makes used MS 880s tempting. Chain speed is modest, so it feels slow limbing — this is a torque instrument, not a firewood saw.

Stihl's strongest AP-system saw short of the pro MSA 300, and the one dealers steer serious property owners toward. With the 281 Wh AP 300 S pack it runs a 16-inch bar at a genuinely quick 78 ft/s chain speed, and Pro Tool Reviews clocked up to 48 minutes of trigger time (Stihl claims 40). Owners like the tool-less quick tensioner and that the battery drops into Stihl's blowers, trimmers, and pole saws. The catch is the math: the saw is $450 bare, but the AP 300 S battery is another $320 and the AL 301 charger about $120, so a real kit lands near $890 — roughly double a comparable Greenworks or Echo kit. Owner gripes beyond price: runtime drops fast bucking hardwood over 12 inches, the fine-kerf Picco chain dulls quickly in dirty wood, and a minority of threads report stingy or clogged oilers. If you're already invested in AP batteries it's an easy call; if not, the system buy-in is the whole conversation.

Stihl's flagship battery saw and the first one working crews describe as an honest gas replacement — Stihl rates it at 2.5 kW, comparable to its 50cc MS 271, and it runs a full-house .325 pro chain rather than a homeowner profile. It has real professional touches: three power modes with an LED display, an oil-flow sensor that warns you before you cook a bar, magnesium housing, and an IPX4 weather rating. The sticker shock is the story in every owner thread: $860 for the bare saw, and the 337 Wh AP 500 S battery plus AL 500 charger push a working kit to about $1,555 — gas MS 261 money with change left over. Owners also note the roughly 44-minute max runtime means commercial crews need two or three $400+ batteries to work a full day, and at 14 lbs with pack it's no lighter than the gas saw it replaces. For noise-restricted municipal work and emission-free fleets it has no real Stihl alternative; for everyone else the math is hard.

Husqvarna's professional battery rear-handle, rated equivalent to a 40cc pro gas saw, and the one utility and trail crews reach for because it's genuinely light — 6.4 lbs bare, around 10.6 with the high-capacity 40-B330X (BLi300-class, 9.4Ah) pack. The narrow .325 mini / .043 X-Cut chain and 79 ft/s top chain speed produce clean, fast cuts, and owners report about 40 minutes to an hour of intermittent work per charge with savE mode. ArboristSite feedback is candid about the ceiling: it excels brushing and felling small trees, but pushed into 6-10 inch firs at full slash pace it will stall or flounder — this is a 40cc saw, not a 50cc one. Reliability reports are mostly good, with exceptions worth knowing: at least one documented melted main control board (a $200 repair) and a charger owners describe as fragile. Husqvarna typically sells the saw, battery, and charger separately in the US; complete 16-inch dealer kits run about $1,100, which is the honest number to compare against gas.

Echo's 56V eFORCE rear-handle is the value shock of the battery-saw market: an 18-inch saw with a 252 Wh 5.0Ah battery and charger for a $349.99 MSRP — less than half of what an equivalent Stihl AP setup costs. Independent testing backs the value story; Echo placed near the front for cutting speed in Project Farm's battery-chainsaw head-to-head, and Lawn Care Forum and ToolBoxBuzz reviewers describe a year of near-weekly use with zero maintenance beyond chain sharpening. Echo rates it for up to 200 cuts per charge, and the 5-year consumer tool warranty is the longest in this class. The honest knocks: at 14.6 lbs with pack it's heavier than most rivals, the included standard charger is slow (75-150 minutes — budget for the rapid charger), and there are scattered owner reports of bar-oiler failures out of the box, including a documented warranty return on ArboristSite. Home Depot carries it everywhere, though its review aggregate couldn't be independently verified at research time.

Husqvarna's answer to the Stihl MS 170 fight at the bottom of the gas market, now in its third generation: 38.2cc, a hair over 10 pounds, and a $219 price at Lowe's that gets a real Husqvarna badge into suburban garages. Owners like the X-Torq engine's fuel sipping and the light, neutral balance for limbing and storm cleanup, and the Mark III now carries bars up to 18 inches. The gripes are consistent and worth knowing: cold starts take more pulls than the ritual printed on the recoil housing suggests, the plastic construction reads budget next to the 400-series, and the tool-required chain tensioning annoys people coming from big-box battery saws. It's built in the same value tier as the Poulan hardware it shares DNA with — the badge buys you Husqvarna's dealer network and parts availability, which is exactly what the no-name saws at this price lack.

The 130 is the 120's slightly stronger sibling — same 38.2cc bones with a two-horsepower tune and a 16-inch bar as standard for $259. That extra bit of chain speed matters more than the spec sheet suggests: owners report it holds RPM through 10-12 inch rounds where the 120 starts asking for patience. It shares the 120's honest limitations too — a budget airbox, tool-required tensioning, and a cold-start routine you'll memorize — and the forum consensus is blunt about the tier: this is a homeowner saw for occasional duty, not a firewood machine. The interesting cross-shop isn't Stihl; it's Husqvarna's own 435 II, which for about $120 more buys a genuinely nicer saw. But as a step up from the 120 that keeps the price under $300, the 130 hits a spot the competition mostly ignores.

The 435 II is where Husqvarna's homeowner line stops feeling built to a price: a 40.9cc X-Torq engine in a 9.8-pound powerhead, which makes it one of the lightest real gas saws you can buy. Owners consistently praise exactly that combination — enough grunt for a 16-inch bar and small felling, in a package light enough that limbing all afternoon doesn't wreck your forearms. The .325 chain cuts smoother than the 3/8 mini on the 1-series, the air filtration is a genuine step up, and LowVib makes it far more pleasant than its price peers. The honest knocks: it's carbureted and fussy about stale fuel like every small two-stroke (spring no-start posts are a forum staple), the auto-oiler runs conservative from the factory, and at $379 it overlaps Echo's CS-4010, which brings a 5-year warranty to the same fight. Still the pick for weight-sensitive buyers.

The current evolution of the 450 Rancher II, and quietly the smart buy in Husqvarna's Rancher lineup: 50.2cc making 3.2 horsepower in an 11-pound powerhead — over two pounds lighter than the 455 that everyone defaults to. Owners who cross-shop the two keep landing on the same math: the 450-class gives up a little displacement but swings all day, and the .325 chain keeps it smooth in the 12-16 inch hardwood that makes up most real firewood work. Street prices at dealers run $470-500. The knocks are familiar Rancher-line stuff: it's a consumer-grade crankcase built for weekends rather than pro duty, the factory chain is unimpressive, and Husqvarna's model churn (450, 450e, 450 Rancher II, now 450S) makes parts lookup mildly annoying. If your firewood pile doesn't demand the 455's extra cc, this is less money and less fatigue for the same cords.

The 460 Rancher is the 455 with a bigger bore — same 13.2-pound chassis, same ranch-tough intent, but 60.3cc and the factory 24-inch bar that sells it: this is the Rancher for people with genuinely big wood. Owners who bought it for storm-downed oaks and large-lot clearing say it does exactly what the 455 can't quite, holding chain speed through 20-plus-inch rounds. The tradeoffs are the 455's, unchanged: the weight is real, the vibration is real, and with only a tenth of a kilowatt more than its smaller sibling, what you're buying is torque and bar capacity rather than speed. Forum wisdom cuts two ways — some call it the best value in big consumer saws, others point out that the Echo CS-590 gives up nothing meaningful for $200 less. If a 20-inch bar covers your wood, buy the 455 or the Echo; if it doesn't, the 460 is the cheapest credible 24-inch saw from a major brand.

The 550 XP Mark II is what happens when a manufacturer actually fixes a saw: the original 550 XP's air-leak and AutoTune teething drama is gone, and what's left is arguably the best 50cc saw money buys — four horsepower at 11.7 pounds, an X-Cut chain from the factory, and handling that arborists describe as telepathic in the limbs. Dealer pricing runs $660-760, and the pro crowd that was burned by the Mark I now recommends the Mark II without caveats, which is its own kind of endorsement. AutoTune means no carb screwdriver, ever — it compensates for altitude, fuel, and filter condition automatically. The honest asterisks: it wants to rev and rewards full-throttle technique (lug it and it feels flat), dealer-only distribution means no big-box convenience, and casual cutters are paying a $250 premium over a Rancher for refinement they may never use. For daily-use limbing and firewood at speed, nothing in the class touches it.

Husqvarna's 70cc flagship and one half of the great modern felling-saw rivalry — every 572 XP thread eventually becomes a Stihl MS 462 thread, and the fact that neither side wins is the point: both are spectacular. The 572's case is 5.8 horsepower with AutoTune, cooling and filtration designed for all-day timber work, and vibration numbers that let pros run it for full shifts. Owners praise how it pulls long bars — 24 inches is its sweet spot and 28 is genuinely workable — and how the X-Torq engine keeps torque flat deep into the cut instead of falling on its face. The knocks are few and honest: at 14.5 pounds it gives up half a pound to the MS 462, early-production cylinder issues (since resolved) still echo around ArboristSite, and the $1,349 list price plus dealer-only service makes it a professional's purchase. For felling and bucking serious timber, this and the 462 are the two right answers.

Echo's cheapest gas saw, and the one owners keep recommending over box-store Poulans because it pairs a real two-stroke with a 5-year consumer warranty for around $219 at Home Depot. At 8.8 lbs for the powerhead it's genuinely easy to run one-handed on a sawhorse, and the i-30 starter means most owners report two-to-three-pull starts once they learn the choke routine. The gripes in owner threads are consistent rather than dramatic: the chain stretches and loosens noticeably in the first few tanks, it can be cranky to start in cold weather, and like most clutch-driven-oiler saws it will seep bar oil if stored with a full tank. Reviewers also agree the 16-inch version overtaxes the 30.5cc engine — stick with the 14-inch bar and it stays in its happy zone. This is a limbing and storm-cleanup saw, not a firewood producer; owners who ask it to buck 16-inch hardwood all day come away disappointed. For occasional use, the long warranty and dealer network make it an easy keep.

The lightest gas chainsaw sold in North America at 5.2 lbs, and the saw that made working climbers take Echo seriously — when it launched, ArboristSite threads were full of "can't get one, they're back-ordered everywhere." Climbers love that after a full day aloft they aren't wrecked the way they are with a Stihl MS 201 T or Husqvarna T540 that weighs two-plus pounds more, and the 25cc X-Series engine punches above its 1.1 kW rating on small wood. It is a specialist though: reviewers note it slogs through anything much over 10 inches, and this is a pruning-and-tips saw, not a chunking saw. The documented gripes are specific: the tiny air filter clogs quickly and can let fines past (climbers add an O-ring fix), some units have had the oiler passage clog and stop feeding the bar until torn down and cleaned, and a few owners report heat-soak complaints after an hour of continuous running. Echo backs even this pro tool with its 5-year consumer warranty, and at roughly $599 it undercuts the T540 XP Mark III by over $100. Among lightweight top-handles, this is the class benchmark.

Stihl's entry-level in-tree saw, slotting under the MS 201 T at $509.99 list — and the forum verdict is blunt: "a budget climbing saw with a disappointing amount of torque." That's the climber's take; the flip side is a smooth 2-MIX engine, 7.3 lbs on the powerhead, and the 1/4-inch PM3 chain, which cuts glassy-smooth on pruning wood and is a genuine advantage for fine ornamental work. Owners who advance the timing and open the muffler report it "pretty well catches up to the MS 201 T," which tells you the potential is tuned out at the factory. As a Stihl it's dealer-only, so there's no retail review aggregate to cite, but resale value and dealer support are the usual Stihl strong suits. Watch-outs from owner threads: the automatic oiler has no manual backup, the 1/4-inch chain means you're buying loops from the dealer rather than any hardware store, and parts don't interchange with the older MS 192/193 T it replaced. Stihl labels it for professional in-tree use only and it isn't sold in California. Homeowner-arborists love it; production climbers pay up for the 201.

Husqvarna's budget top-handle has quietly outlived several rumored replacements — it's still sold new in the US at around $429 (12-inch bar) while the flagship T540 XP Mark III runs $719. ArboristSite is candid about where it sits: "you won't find much love around here for a T435, but it's fine for the occasional-use homeowner type," though at least one commercial outfit ran three of them and kept buying because they were half the price of the old 338 XPT. The 35.2cc X-Torq engine is fuel-efficient and the 7.5 lb powerhead balances nicely in hand — several owners say it feels better than the spec sheet reads. The wear points show up under commercial abuse: stiff chain brakes, kill-switch failures, carb rebuilds, a torn intake boot on hard-used units, and an idle that wanders as the saw ages. Buy-once-cry-once voices push climbers to the T540 XP instead, and that's fair — this is the pruning saw for orchards, storm cleanup, and part-time climbing, not production takedowns. As a dealer-channel saw with no verifiable retail review aggregate, its reputation lives in forums, where the consensus is: honest little saw, know its lane.

DeWalt's little 12-incher is the chainsaw for people who own DeWalt drills — a 9 lb (with battery) camp-and-cleanup saw that runs on the same 20V Max packs as the rest of the yellow fleet. ToolGuyd's reviewer famously came in skeptical and left converted: for limbs, small trees, and construction demo cuts it's genuinely handy, with a claimed 90 cuts in 4x4 PT lumber from the included 5.0Ah pack. The recurring complaint in dated Home Depot reviews is the oil system: the cap shipped without a proper O-ring seal for years and the saw weeps bar oil when stored flat — some owners report leaks onto the trigger electronics — so it lives best hung up with the tank near-empty. It's no firewood saw: sustained cutting drains the 5.0Ah pack quickly and the 20V motor bogs in hardwood past ~8". As a grab-it-weekly property saw on a platform you already own, though, it's cheap, quiet, and always ready.

The budget path to a big-bar battery saw — $379 at Home Depot buys an 18" bar, a 6.0Ah pack, a rapid charger, and Ryobi's claim of more power than a 40cc gas saw with over 90 cuts per charge. It replaced the well-liked RY40580, and for the homeowner who clears a couple of storm-downed limbs a year and wants zero maintenance, dated Home Depot reviews are full of converts from cranky gas saws. The gripes in those same reviews are consistent and worth knowing: the chain derails and needs frequent re-tensioning more than any other saw in this class, the bar-retention knob works loose mid-session, and sustained cutting heats the 6.0Ah pack enough that it needs a cool-down before the charger will accept it — a real bottleneck if you only own one battery. Power is honest mid-pack: fine for 12" softwood bucking, laboring in big hardwood. You're trading refinement for price, and at $120-250 less than the comparable EGO, Milwaukee, and DeWalt kits, plenty of owners consider that a fair trade.

The PR5020 is the saw people buy when they want 50cc and a 20-inch bar for the least money on the shelf — and mostly, it delivers exactly that bargain and nothing more. Under the purple plastic sits Husqvarna-group OEM hardware (Poulan Pro is Husqvarna's value brand), so the bones are more legitimate than the price suggests, and owners who feed it fresh premix report years of adequate weekend service. The gripes are the value-tier classics: the carb is famously intolerant of stale fuel, starting when cold is a wrestling match, at 17 pounds ready-to-cut it's heavier than saws costing three times more, and when something breaks, the repair quote frequently exceeds the saw's value. Pricing swings wildly — Lowe's lists it around $360 and then runs clearances under $100 — so what it's 'worth' depends entirely on the week you catch it. At a deep-discount price it's a genuinely defensible firewood starter; at list, an Echo CS-4920 is a far better saw.

The S205 is the best-kept secret of the value gas tier: a 46cc full-crank engine with a 20-inch bar that Walmart routinely sells in the $130-170 range, built by MTD on proven bones and reviewed surprisingly kindly by the tool press. Pro Tool Reviews' take matches the owner consensus — for storm prep, cleanup, and occasional firewood, it balances power and price better than anything near it. The Easy Start system genuinely reduces pull effort, and the full-crank design runs smoother than the half-crank engines common at this price. The honest ceiling: it's an occasional-use machine with a low-kickback safety chain that cuts slowly until swapped, the anti-vibe is rudimentary next to anything premium, and Craftsman's service network is a returns desk rather than a dealer bench. Buy it on sale, put a real chain on it, keep the fuel fresh, and it embarrasses its price bracket.

The Whisper Series 12-inch is the chainsaw distilled to its most convenient form: an 18V ONE+ tool light enough to feel like a big pruner, quiet enough that Ryobi built the marketing around it, and compatible with the batteries half of American garages already own. At $249 for the kit — much less as a bare tool — it exists for pruning, storm-limb cleanup, and breaking down small logs, and owners consistently describe it as the saw that actually gets grabbed because there's zero ceremony: click a pack in and cut. The physics are the honest limit: 18 volts through a 12-inch bar is a light-duty proposition, sustained cuts in hardwood drain packs quickly, and anything beyond ~8-inch wood belongs to its 40V sibling. As a second saw for trim work, or a first saw for a small yard, the convenience-per-dollar is unmatched; as an only saw for real firewood, it's the wrong tool and doesn't pretend otherwise.

The CS-303T is Echo's lighter, smaller answer to its own CS-2511T — a 30.1cc top-handle at 7.7 pounds dry, built for climbing arborists doing production pruning where every ounce overhead matters. Echo's professional-grade positioning is earned: magnesium where it counts, a G-Force air pre-cleaner that stretches filter intervals, and the same 5-year consumer warranty that embarrasses the industry. Working climbers describe it as a dependable, easy-starting saw that gives up a little top-end snort to the 2511T in exchange for a gentler price and Echo's legendary longevity. The same disclaimer applies as to every top-handle: this is an in-tree tool for roped-in professionals — on the ground its short frame gives you less kickback leverage, not more, and OSHA and Echo both say so explicitly. For ground work at this displacement, a rear-handle saw is safer and cheaper.

The CS1500 has one party trick no other chainsaw offers, and it's a good one: pull a lever while the saw runs and the built-in PowerSharp stone touches up the chain in three seconds — no files, no guides, no trip to the shop. That feature, bolted to a legitimate 15-amp motor pulling an 18-inch bar, is why this $139 saw from the company that makes half the world's chains has such a devoted following among people who hate maintenance. Owners report it cutting genuinely large stacked firewood as long as the extension cord cooperates (12-gauge, and mind the 100-foot ceiling). The tradeoffs: the PowerSharp chain system is proprietary (replacement chains and stones cost more than commodity loops), sharpening this way eats chain life faster than filing, it's on the heavy side for a corded saw, and — the corded constant — the wall socket decides your range. For woodpile duty near the house, it's the definition of fit for purpose.

The WG304.1 has been the internet's default 'just get the cheap electric one' answer for over a decade: 15 amps, an 18-inch bar, tool-free auto-tensioning, and a street price that hovers around $99 at Walmart and Lowe's. Consumer Reports has tested it, a decade of owners has validated it, and the formula hasn't changed because it doesn't need to — plug it in, pull the trigger, and it cuts wood far above its price grade. The auto-tension system is the love-hate feature: brilliant for beginners who'd otherwise run chains loose, but the oversized knob can over-tighten if cranked carelessly, and experienced users prefer a manual setup. Beyond that the caveats are the category's: oiler output is generous to a fault (buy bar oil in bulk), the plastic build is honest about its price, and the cord decides where you cut. As a first saw or a woodpile saw, it's the value benchmark everything else gets measured against.

The UC4051A is what happens when a professional tool company builds a corded chainsaw and refuses to build it to a price: a 14.5-amp motor with real torque, a metal spike bar, tool-less blade-and-chain adjustment, and build quality that makes the $99 corded crowd feel like toys — priced, at around $279, like it knows it. The buyers are specific and satisfied: shop users cutting stock, urban tree services doing ground bucking near power, and homeowners who simply refuse plastic tools. Owners praise the smooth, quiet power delivery, the effective rubberized vibration damping (rare in corded saws), and current-limiter protection that keeps the motor alive under abuse. The honest question is the price: at nearly three Worx-es, you're paying for durability and refinement in a category most people treat as disposable. For daily or weekly corded use it's the only serious choice; for four weekends a year, it's overqualified.

Greenworks' 12-amp corded is the floor of the credible chainsaw market — usually $70-90, light, simple, and exactly adequate for the pruning, storm-limb, and small-log work that most suburban saws actually see. The 16-inch bar is honest about the 12-amp motor behind it: this is a saw for wood under a foot, cut patiently, and owners who treat it that way report years of service from a tool that costs less than a nice dinner. Tool-less tensioning, an auto-oiler with a view window, and Greenworks' 4-year warranty round out a package that undercuts even the Worx on price. The compromises are proportional: the 12A motor bogs where 15A saws push through, the oiler can be inconsistent enough that owners check it religiously, and the build is unapologetically light-duty. As a storm-kit saw that lives in the garage until needed, or a first saw for a small lot, the price makes the argument by itself.