Gas vs Battery Chainsaws: The Honest Tradeoffs
The gas-versus-battery argument is mostly settled at the extremes — nobody fells big timber on batteries, and nobody who cuts twice a year enjoys carb maintenance — but the middle is where most buyers live. The honest answer turns on three things: how long you cut at a stretch, how often the saw sits unused, and whether you already own somebody's battery platform.
What battery saws genuinely do better
Every miserable part of gas chainsaw ownership disappears: no pull cord, no choke ritual, no stale fuel in spring, no carb rebuild because the saw sat for eight months, no ear-splitting idle between cuts. Press the trigger, cut, put it down. For the homeowner who cuts a dozen times a year, that reliability-when-grabbed is worth more than any spec — a battery saw is always ready, and a neglected gas saw frequently isn't.
They're also quiet enough to change what work is possible: storm cleanup at 7 a.m. without feuding with neighbors, no hearing damage during intermittent cutting (though you should still wear protection in the cut), and conversation between cuts. Modern 56-80V saws — EGO's 16- and 20-inch models are the reference points — cut as fast as a 40-45cc gas saw in wood up to their bar length. That's not marketing anymore; side-by-side tests keep confirming it.
The energy math nobody prints on the box
A gallon of gasoline holds about 33 kWh of energy; even at a small engine's terrible efficiency, the half-liter tank on a 50cc saw delivers roughly 30-45 minutes of hard, continuous cutting and refills in thirty seconds for pocket change. A big 5-6Ah 56V pack holds about 0.3 kWh, delivers maybe 20-40 minutes of intermittent cutting, and then needs 40-60 minutes on a charger — or a $150-$350 spare pack.
That's the entire gas case in one paragraph. For limbing and cleanup, where the saw idles in your hand more than it cuts, one battery covers a session and the math never bites. For bucking a truckload of firewood — sustained, full-load cutting — you'd need three or four packs to match one tank-and-a-jerry-can afternoon, and now the 'cheap' battery saw costs more than a pro gas saw.
Where gas still wins outright
Sustained heavy cutting: firewood by the cord, felling anything serious, land clearing, storm work that runs all day. Refueling is seconds, power doesn't taper as the tank empties, and a 50-60cc gas saw pulls a longer bar harder than any consumer battery saw. Above the 45cc-equivalent line, batteries currently have no answer at consumer prices.
Cold weather, remote work, and resale round out the list: lithium packs lose bite below freezing, a fuel can doesn't care, and there's no charger in the woods. A used Stihl or Husqvarna gas saw also holds value in a way battery saws — whose packs age — don't.
The platform question
If you already own Milwaukee M18, EGO, Ryobi 40V, or DeWalt 20V/60V lawn tools, the calculus shifts hard toward battery: a bare-tool chainsaw at $150-$250 sharing packs you already charge is often the cheapest competent saw you can buy. Starting from zero, compare kit prices honestly — the battery and charger are half the cost, and the marketing photo never shows the second pack you'll want.
The honest answer
Cut occasionally, near the house, mostly under 16 inches: battery, no hesitation — you'll actually use it, because it always starts. Cut firewood in volume, fell real trees, or work far from outlets: gas, and buy quality. In the middle, the two-saw answer is quietly becoming the standard: a battery saw for the ninety percent of jobs that are quick, and a 50cc gas saw for the weekends that aren't. If forced to one saw for real mixed work, gas still edges it — runtime is the tiebreaker.
Saws mentioned in this guide
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.
Milwaukee
Milwaukee M18 Fuel 16" Chainsaw Kit
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.
Stihl
Stihl MS 250
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.
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.