Ryobi
Ryobi 18V ONE+ HP Whisper 12" Chainsaw
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.
Specifications
Highlights
Pros
- ✓Extremely light and maneuverable for trim work
- ✓Whisper Series is quiet enough for dense-neighborhood mornings
- ✓Runs on the ONE+ packs owners already have — bare tool is cheap
- ✓Brushless HP motor is surprisingly willing in soft wood
- ✓Zero maintenance beyond chain and bar oil
Cons
- ✗18V ceiling is real — hardwood over ~8 inches is a slog
- ✗Sustained cutting drains packs fast
- ✗12-inch bar limits it to pruning-class work
- ✗Small oil reservoir needs frequent topping
- ✗Kit price overlaps the far more capable 40V saw
Related chainsaws
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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 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.
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.