Features:

  • "Tool-less" blade and chain adjustments for convenient operation and easy maintenance
  • Rubberized grip handles are ergonomically designed for comfort
  • Large trigger switch with soft start for smooth start-ups
  • Built-in current limiter helps protect motor from burnout by reducing power to motor when saw is overloaded
  • Large oil reservoir with view window allows operator to check bar oil level
I came. I sawed. I loved it.

I got this puppy for Valentine's Day. I'm in love! Just don't ask me if my love is for my wife or this machine because I'll never tell. The chainsaw is a little more expensive than I'd prefer or think it should be, but it's working great and cutting up a lot of wood. I like in particular how quiet it is next to a gas powered unit and how it has an autostop if the chain gets pinched or stuck. The power is fair, not amazing but so long as you let the weight of the unit do its job with some modest pressure from you, it goes through plenty well. If it lasts as long as I think it'll last (I've cut up at least 4 chords already and it purrs like new), then I think it's money well spent. I've got another 12-15 chords to go and I feel confident this will last the whole way.

Well designed and built. Powerful cutting made for trimming, but able to handle big wood.

I was sorely disappointed by a Worx wg304.1 18" electric saw I bought at amazon. Amazon was great about the return, and I bit the bullet and bought this Makita. Three times the price, and 20 times the saw. What a difference! Truly best in class, and worth the $$. The makita is much, much better designed and manufactured, and well balanced. The Worx could barely power its way thorough trimming 2" diameter red tip (photina) hedge branches. Photina is exceptionally dense wood, but the Makita went through not only branches up to 4" dia, without at pause, but also the trunk base (just above the root stock graft) which was about 6" x 9" across. I also used it to cut some green Siberian Elm logs into pieces suitable for woodworking. The makita did a straightforward job both crosscutting logs up to 20" dia. (rolling the log to cut a 20" log with a 16" saw) and rip cutting the logs through the heart. I wouldn't want to cut a winter's worth of firewood this saw, but its great to know its up to handling big wood on occasion. Next time a large branch or even a tree comes down in a storm, I'm confident the makita will be ready right off my garage shelf to go to work (as long as the power is on of course). I did buy heavier extension cords (10 AWG) for this; I certainly wouldn't want to run it with only 16, or even 14, gauge cords.

Substantial alternative to a fuel saw, for heavy home-use or medium field work

Pleasantly surprised with this saw's power. I've had a Stihl for 17 years that parts are no longer available for to maintain (MS191T), so this is it's replacement. but they are two vastly different saws. The headaches of mixing fuel and Stihl's temperamental starting are refreshing not to have to deal with. This Makita is fairly compact (lower profile) and it's built very well. It's early-on, but I'm super satisfied with the Makita's performance. Initial work was cross-cutting 10x10" oak beams (air-dried, not green) with no issues. You may search for my YT video online: "Makita (Electric) Chainsaw UC4051A 10"x10" Red Oak Beam"... Green live oak pruning up to 8" was a breeze, and it could've handled more. COMPLAINTS: None, really, but the chain oil reservoir is low capacity, but the saw doesn't sling oil all over the place like my old Stihl, so maybe the delivery system is more efficient. This electric saw is a substantial alternative to a fuel saw, for heavy home-use or medium field work, so long as you have a heavy power cord (12/3 @ 100') and dedicated 15A power source.

This saw is great! I have had 2 stroke chain saws for ...

This saw is great! I have had 2 stroke chain saws for many years and they work great until they site a while. Draining the gas will prolong a gas saw but eventually even with gas stabilizer they will not run right and piss you off. My time is very limited and I don't have all day to fight with a saw that won't run. I watched several YouTube videos and was very worried about spending more on this saw than its gas competitors but after I used it for the first time I will never go back to a gas saw. The Makita is safer to use than a gas saw, you can make a cut set the saw down move some tree limbs, then pick the Makita back up, press the button and instantly cut more. On YouTube you will see a video of a performance comparison of this saw vs a top of the line Husqvarna, the Husqvarna will cut faster but what you don't see is the guy starting and warming up the saw. With this Makita there is no mixing gas, spilling gas, running out of gas, the Makita will start instantly, it won't burn you with hot exhaust, and if it sites for a year or several years it will start and perform it's job instantly.

Fantastic tool. I had the most expensive and beloved ...

Fantastic tool. I had the most expensive and beloved Stihl Arborist climbing saw (MS 200T) for 5 years. When it ran, it was great. That was about 25% of the time. Most days I just fought with trying to get it to run at all, using best gas, etc. only to find out finally that they had put a carbuerator on it that simply was flawed, which ended up scoring the piston, losing pressure, hours of research, and they never notified their customers, nor did their dealer notify me on the many trips I made there about it. I don't climb anymore (and only ever did for my personal usage) so got this Makita. Wow was I surprised. The chain is a low kickback, that stays sharp much longer than full chisel designs and I cut 12-14" pines into pieces 15 inch lengths for about 6 hours the first Saturday, and it didn't even need sharpening, continuing throughout to send shreaded chips out, rather than the more dusty material all chains do when they become dull. If you have plenty of experience with Kickback - here's another great surprise.The Oregon chain 91VXL056G professional. You simply won't believe how aggressive this saw becomes, and it's a semi chisel chain design that stays sharp through a lot of lumber. (Only good for cross cuts, not planking) But you do need to go to youtube and study Kickback first, because you aren't going to get any kickback experience with the chain that comes with the saw. (Quite adequate for most work and safer.) Kickback can leave you bleeding to death, or knock you out of a tree, or off a ladder, so take this advice VERY seriously, and never put your head in the line of Kickback to "see better, or push the saw." But if you've STUDIED, are smart, and careful - with a lot of big trees to whittle down, this saw will do it and make you happy in every way. It's light, strong, and gas free. You can also run with a generator. Be smart with extension cords. They have to be REALLY GOOD ONES. (preferably #10 wire for 100ft and #12 for 50 ft but #10 is always better.) Interior design has a problem with oiling. The hole in the bar that fits right over the hole where the oil comes out gets clogged within cuttinging dust in minutes, so chain runs dry. (This is BAD.) You can help this problem a LOT by simply putting a piece of tape over the whole in the bar that allows the dust IN to the oil hole. (The oil can still run up through the slot in the bar to the chain.) The factory should only drill out ONE SIDE of the bar to fix this problem. Makita technical phone help is good, as is their turnaround (2 days) on fixing. The tube inside the oiler came off of mine, and oil was pouring out of bottom when running. I'd tried to make sure the oiler wasn't clogged by forcing compressed air in before I understood what the problem was and probably blew it off it's seat from backpressure. They paid for shipping anyway, and even gave me a new bar due to wear from running the chain too dry. Nothing is perfect, but this is a beautiful tool you'll come to love and depend on. It starts every time. If you push it too hard as chain is dulling - it shuts itself off, but restarts within seconds with the next pull of the trigger, and it's overall build quality is wonderful. Do yourself a big favor - skip the damn gas saws if you possibly can. The cord is no problem at all unless you're high in a tree. And if you use the more aggressive chains, remember when you're cutting a big horizontal log on the ground - when you release that last little bit and the cut end drops - it often falls back against the other side of the cut - which PINCHES the chain and shoves the saw back HARD against you.This can come as a very big surprise and easily knock you over, or send you down a ravine, or worse. When "Limbing" a fallen tree on the ground, cuttting with the TIP can send the saw back towards your face very rapidly so use this convenien Tip cutting with special attention and visibility. DON'T let the TIP touch a branch further INSIDE, or hit it quickly as another "bar" cut quickly passes through the limb. And NEVER have your head in the PATH of a vertical Kickback so you can SEE inside the cut as the saw works. YOU DON'T NEED TO SEE INSIDE THE CUT! Keep your head out of the way. Stay off of ladders if at all possible, or hand cut saws with extension poles for that. Enjoy, but be smart. These thing can kill you, and having been a paramedic in college - eveyone whose hurt always wants to tell you ... "I was just ...

Best Electric Chainsaw You Can Buy

The chainsaw is great. Powerful. I own 2 other electric chainsaws (and 2 cordless) - none of them have the heft and power of the Makita. I prefer a gas chainsaw with respect to power but there are so many drawbacks: Needs fresh gas, mixing the 2 cycle oil and the always present chance the damn thing won't start. Spend a little extra and get a quality tool that will last forever. Only one small problem which I'm adjusting to: The chain tightening mechanism isn't as effective as I'd like but this is a problem inherent in every chainsaw I've ever owned.

The best corded electric chainsaw, hands-down. My old gas saw is now just gathering dust in the garage.

Great! Yes, it is corded, and that does cut down a little on how freely you can swing it around, but - once you have replaced the stock chain with a really good one (the chain that comes with it is, presumably for the safety of beginners, a step back from razor-sharp) this thing will tear through wood almost as well as a similarly sized gas-powered saw. But the real, massive advantage is that after three months of not being used, this thing still starts up instantly - whereas with my old gas saw it could take me a good half hour of emptying out the old fuel, finding a safe place to dispose of it, mixing a new batch, and then yanking the starter cord 20+ times before it finally sputtered to life. All you gas-powered owners who use your saw only three or fours times a year know EXACTLY what I am talking about. This electric saw's ease of maintenance is game-changing, and if that means maybe 5% less total power - taking two seconds longer to make a 6" cut - I will make that trade-off in a second. Another huge advantage is when you are high up in a tree, not having to challenge your potentially precarious balance by needing to pull the starter cord multiple times. And re: the question of corded-electric vs. battery-powered saws: yes, not having to run an extension cord 100' to where you are working is probably nice. But all else being equal, you will get a good bit more power from a corded saw, and you'll never have to stop working for an hour in the middle of a chore to recharge your battery. Plus battery-powered saws are significantly heavier. Finally, there are cheaper corded electric saws out there, but I shopped around a lot, and read a ton of reviews. Anyone who knows tools will tell you, you get what you pay for. In the long term going for quality always pays off.

Metal blade attachment!

If you are looking for an electric saw, this is the one you want. If you're debating between this and another certain red 18" electric -- get this one. I initially tried that one and had nothing but trouble. Has a milled metal attachment guide for the blade, the oil rate is adjustable, and it's all around a great tool. Yes the tensioning system is a bit goofy, and you need to turn the saw on its side to refill oil. The first time using this tool you'll notice it's oddly slim for a chainsaw. They put the motor along the length of the saw, rather than protruding out the side. I find it's great for what I need, which is chopping down logs into usable size, so I can feed them into the splitter for firewood. The slimness allows for greater variability into where I make the cuts in odd size logs. I'm also never far away from power so the cord is a non-issue. Would buy again.

Expensive but well worth it

I had a 35 ft pine tree come down in my backyard during a wind storm. This saw had enough power, together with a longer 18" bar, to reduce the tree into about 4500 lbs of manageable blocks to take to the dumps. Runs as new after the job ! Only problem I had was really from my fault in letting chain oil tank run empty, the chain tightened up stopped. Exercise due caution though. Do not let bar tip contact anything. Do not stand in its path IF it does kick back at you.

This Makita is an excellent quality saw

This Makita is an excellent quality saw. I have used Stihl gas saws for 25 years and since I am now in my 60's, I needed a lighter, more user friendly saw to handle my wooded lot. It was not quite as powerful as my Stihl MS 251, but it gave her a run for the money. It ate up the oak, hickory and dogwoods like crazy. It was light, comfortable, quiet, easy to clean and I didn't have to wear hearing protection or stop to gas it. You do have to keep an eye on the bar oil through the oil level sight, but that was cake! I used the US Wire 12/3 100 foot wire that was recommended and had no power issues at all. I am very satisfied with my Makita 16" electric chain saw and highly recommend it.

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