Dropped $120 on a battery powered pole saw and it died halfway through my second job

Had a big pruning job last Tuesday, big old maple with some deadwood hanging over a driveway. Figured the pole saw would save me time vs lugging the ladder out from the truck for every cut. Nope. Battery gave out at like the 6th cut, maybe 30 minutes in (if that). Finished the job with a handsaw and a lot of swearing. Charged it overnight and tried again on a smaller job yesterday, same thing - barely got through 4 cuts before it crapped out. The reviews online said 45-60 minutes of runtime. Anyone else run into this with battery stuff or did I just get a lemon?

2 comments

2 Comments

grantadams1mo ago

30 minutes of runtime on a $120 saw? That's brutal, I'd be furious trying to explain that to a customer while finishing the job by hand. Six cuts before dying sounds like a straight up defective battery or a con job from the manufacturer. Did you check if the battery was actually getting hot or if it just stopped without warning?

jesse_fisher27d ago

My 18v Ryobi did the same thing with a 2ah battery brand new out of the box. It was the standard battery they sell with the drill/driver combo. I got maybe 8 cuts through some 2x4s and it just died. No warning, no slowdown. Just stopped. I checked the cells with a multimeter and three of them were at 3.2v but two were at 0.4v, totally dead. That battery pack was toast straight from the factory, a bad cell or a bad solder joint. Your saw's probably got the same issue, a dud battery from the start, not the saw itself being junk.