Stihl MSA120C Cordless Chainsaw

rayjay

Senior Member
I bought one of these yesterday after a lot of internet surfing to help with the decision. I charged up the batt and put some oil in it and used it for about 20 mins last night. I actually had to make myself stop looking for things to do because I still needed to cut the 'show grass' before dark.

I have about 1 acre that is about 5/8 wooded. Lots of trees. Lots of broken limbs, lots of sticks. Lots of saplings. Lots of live limbs to remove during the constant limbing up task. I keep most of the wooded area trimmed to "glades" with no limbs below 7' and some areas the trees are limbed up to 10'. The ground cover is either leaf litter or leaf litter that's had a push mower ran over it to chop it up fine.

Many of the limbs , dead or alive, are just too big for a lopper but too small to justify gassing and oiling up one of the gas saws for 10 minutes of cutting to burn barrel length.

This cordless saw is absolutely ideal for this. It's 8.5 lbs which is 2.5 lbs less than my Stihl 010. Low noise, no vibration, no smoke and stinky clothes. Much easier to make precise cuts like in a crotch where one branch is dead and the other alive. The tiny chain is a major part of the saw's success. You just are not removing much wood so less power is needed to make a smooth steady cut.

One of these would be super to have for camping.

Also, the typical homeowner could use this thing for a few hours every year and never have one lick of trouble out of it unlike the norm with a neglected gas saw. If you let this thing set in the garage unused for 2 or 3 years it would most likely not even need the batt charged before putting it back in action.

Obviously, I am pretty happy so far. I will give it a harder work out next week clearing a bunch of 2" to 8" saplings and heavily limbed trees on the other side of a privacy fence. The trees have grown up and now block the sun so it's impossible to grow grass in that area.
 

rayjay

Senior Member
I finally got to run most of a battery out. Trying to thin out some trees along the fence line so I can get more light on that side of the property and maybe grow grass instead of moss. The little saw eats this stuff up.
 

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mattech

Deranged Throat-Puncher
I've never been an electric motor person for stuff like this, but with the big improvement over new batteries and stronger motors this could be great for occasionally use.
 

mattech

Deranged Throat-Puncher
Do they only make it in this one size or can you get one bigger, also, whats the price on it?
 

rayjay

Senior Member
They have 2 professional sizes that are significantly more money. Probably $500 + out the door. They even have a concrete saw. The pro stuff is sold piece by piece. You pick out which saw you want, what batt, which charger etc. These saws are also about 2 lbs or more heavier than the one I got.

The homeowner saw I bought is $299 complete with batt, charger and a 10" bar and chain. The salesman gave me $15 off plus a free qt of bar oil for being a nice guy. I picked up a spare chain the other day and it was $18.

The Stihl stuff is 36V. Husky has a 40V line and "Echo" [ Home Depot actually, not sold or serviced at Echo gas line dealers ] has a 58V full line that has gotten good reviews and has a great 90 day money back deal and a 5 year warranty. The Stihl warranty is 3 years. The warranty on Stihl gas homeowner saws is 1 year.
 

rayjay

Senior Member
Another thing. If you have any brains you will NOT buy this stuff used or from a closeout dealer, etc. Having the full factory warranty is the only way to go. There is NO fixing this sort of stuff yourself other than throwing new parts at it [ which are probably horrendously expensive].

Brushless motors need electrical magic to work unlike brushed motors that just need some wires and a switch.
 

LTZ25

Senior Member
Just bought a new stihl 36 volt hand held blower for around the house , works great .
 
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