DeWalt
DeWalt 20V Max XR 12" Chainsaw Kit
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.
Specifications
Highlights
Pros
- ✓Cheapest way into a name-brand battery saw if you already own 20V Max packs — bare tool often dips under $150
- ✓9 lbs with battery and compact enough for one-hand-assisted limbing (with care)
- ✓Tool-free tensioning knob makes chain adjustments genuinely painless
- ✓Quiet enough for neighborhood use and campground-legal where gas saws draw glares
- ✓Low-kickback 12" Oregon bar/chain suits nervous first-time chainsaw owners
- ✓3-year warranty with DeWalt's huge service network behind it
Cons
- ✗Chronic bar-oil leakage — the oil cap seal is the single most repeated gripe in years of retailer reviews
- ✗20V motor bogs in hardwood much past 8" — this is a limbing saw, not a bucking saw
- ✗Sustained cutting flattens the 5.0Ah pack in 15-20 minutes of trigger time
- ✗No chain brake lever — it relies on a low-kickback chain instead, which serious users consider a real omission
- ✗Newer DCCS621/DCCS623 models are lighter, leaving the 620 feeling dated at full price
Related chainsaws
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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.
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.
Greenworks
Greenworks Pro 80V 18" Chainsaw
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.