Makita XCU04PT1 36V (18V X2) LXT® Brushless 16" Chain Saw Kit with 4 Batteries (5.0Ah)

This is a thin kerf, light duty chainsaw, it's not going to replace my Husky 16 inch gas but with that being said, it's actually a pretty capable lightweight little saw. The thin kerf I feel is Makita's way of getting the most out of the motor and it has a lot of torque for what it is. This isn't your aunt's plug in Black n Decker. It comes with an Oregon chain and you have to assemble it out of the box. Not maybe my only gripe is the novel bar tightener, it's a hub that uses the pull out handle to tighten down the bar, I do wonder how long the handle will last as you need to crank down fairly hard to hold the bar in place, but if that part can be replaced i am not to concerned. I popped the chain a couple of times before I found the sweet spot on how hard to crank it down and after that I had no issues. The tensioner is actually pretty cool, it;s a paddle wheel that is easy to use and better than the ones on gas saws. You loosen the hold down dial, turn the paddle wheel and re tighten the dial, easy. The drive sprocket could theoretically accommodate a thicker kerf chain and the bar looks like the same dimensions as an echo bar. Just a thought. The best part is that the system requires no tools at all.Now the saw feels kinda long compared to a 16 inch gas but it's also lighter so that allows me to hold it further out to do finer cuts. It has a good balance too. It;s trippy getting used to the fact that the chain stops so quick after you let go of the trigger not like my gas chains.The battery life is surprisingly long which i did not expect, I own 30 5 amp batteries so I personally don't care but having a second pair charged and ready is a good idea if you plant to use this all day.Oh and the oil system is awesome, not as goopy and messy as all of my gas saws.Probably the coolest part of this saw is how quiet it is compared to a gas saw, I mean, it's really quiet. I fired it up at 9 in the morning and couldn't imagine anyone complaining about it.In closing, I like this saw for what it is, a light duty little torque monster that can work it's way though wood around the size of your upper leg but I'm not trying to fell trees with it. Good for bucking and surprisingly nimble in the hands for finer pruning cuts.Edit: so I changed out the bar with an Echo 14inch bar and the thicker kerf chain and tackled a toppled 40 ft tree. Went through two pairs of batteries and the saw did fine. Still not quite as much torque as my echo cs 310 but still did fine. It's a lot quieter and no mixed gas

I love Makita tools I think they are the best! This chainsaw is easy to operate. I like the unique chain tighteners function easy to use without having to use a tool.

Makita, always a quality product. No issues so far, to be honest it will be decades before I may post that this failed, that is how good Makita products are. My dad started buying Makitas in the 1980s when they were super expensive and his fellow construction workers made fun of him, now everyone uses them. I still have my dads 1980's 7.2 volt Makitas lying around in the garage and they stlil work but the batteries are crap.

I used this saw for about three hours this morning for the first time. I was intermittently hauling limbs then cutting more limbs or logs. The batteries lasted the entire time. It is so nice to be able to put down the saw and it not be running as a gas saw would. The largest oak limb I cut was about 8 inches in diameter and it was no problem to cut. It used about a quarter of the bar oil. The chain jumped off the bar once when I hit a vine and the chain catcher worked perfectly. The saw is light and easy to maneuver between limbs and branches. For my home use this saw is exactly what I need. Highly recommended.

I was more than a little skeptical that a battery powered chain saw would be useful for anything more than light pruning, but this Makita really surprised me. I've had Makita LXT powered tools for a long time, long enough that some of the batteries would no longer take a charge. About that time, a friend purchased one of these chainsaws and mentioned the two free battery offer he used. This saw uses two batteries, so it made sense to have four on hand so a pair could be recharging while the other pair were in the saw. And the included charger takes two batteries at a time, another good idea that saves time. There are a lot of trees here, mostly oak and manzanita, a lot of them standing dead wood left by a wildfire that swept through a few years ago. I've been using gas powered chainsaws to clean up the mess, which have been working well, but you still have to deal with mixing gas and oil, cleaning air filters, and fooling around adjusting the chains. Then there's the problem with flooding and fouled plugs, and other issues that make a gas saw somewhat less than reliable. All of that goes away with this Makita. When the batteries wear down, just pop them out and drop in another pair. Put the old pair in the charger, and they'll be ready to go again in about 45 minutes. The way I've been using the saw, for limbing wood diameters of a few inches, 45 minutes is about how long a battery charge lasts. But I've also tackled a few trunks in the 12" to 16" range, and as long as I didn't try to really load the saw down, it worked fine. BTW, my gas saw has an 18" bar on it, so I picked up an 18" bar from Oregon and now both those saws use the same chains. But it's rare that I reach for the gas saw anymore. Another thing I like is I'm able to adjust chain tension without tools. That saves a lot of time right there. Less time fiddling with the saw and looking for the tool, more time running it. Now if Makita would only make a bigger version that runs on a pair of the new 40V batteries, I could put my other gas saw out to pasture, too.