Black+Decker CS1518 vs Black+Decker CS1216
Tinted cells mark the better figure on that row alone: more engine, longer bar, lighter, cheaper. A lighter weight is only a win on the same basis.
What owners like and complain about
Black+Decker CS1518
- Longest bar in the sub-$100 corded class
- Standard 3/8 LP / .050 chain — any shop has the loop, unlike the .043 chains on B+D's battery saws
- Automatic oiler and tool-free tensioning, both unusual at this price
- Nothing to winterize, no fuel to stale, no battery to degrade
- Sold direct by B+D, so warranty service does not route through a third-party retailer
- 15.7 lb listed is the heaviest of the three big 15A corded saws, and B+D does not say what the number includes
- 18 inches of bar on a 15A motor is reach, not capacity — it bogs in anything much over a foot
- All-plastic housing and bar studs; the repair path is replacement
- Corded range is whatever your 12-gauge extension cord allows
- B+D publishes no chain pitch or gauge on the product page — the spec above comes from the OEM loop
Black+Decker CS1216
- 13.2 lb listed makes it the lighter of B+D's two big corded saws
- Cheapest 16-inch saw still in production here — only a discontinued Greenworks corded undercuts it
- Automatic oiler and tool-free chain tensioning
- No fuel, no battery, no seasonal maintenance at all
- 2-year warranty handled directly by B+D
- .043-gauge, 56-link chain is the narrow-kerf loop most stores do not stock — the pricier CS1518 uses the common .050
- 12 amps is the least motor of any 16-inch saw here; it stalls in dense hardwood
- B+D publishes neither pitch nor gauge on the product page
- Plastic throughout, with no serviceable path past the chain and bar
- Still tethered to a 12-gauge extension cord