It took four hours to charge it yesterday*, which since the 2 a/h battery takes two hours, was exactly what I predicted. What I wanted to know is, will it last long enough in a reciprocating saw, cutting pallets apart**, to even work up a sweat?
And the answer is yes it will! I wanted four pallets for the chop saw, assuming that’s what I need to fill in the last gap in the woodshed. I got that, and then kept cutting until the saw quit. And I was more than halfway through the sixth pallet before it happened. This is surprising, given that in several attempts last month I never made it through two pallets before the battery went flat.
So it’s twice as big – and twice as heavy – but it appears to do more than twice the work. I don’t know how that works, but I’ll take it. 🙂
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*CORRECTION: It took four hours the first time, because apparently they didn’t ship it fully discharged. It took at least six hours Sunday, I don’t know, I went to bed and it still wasn’t done.
**This is just cutting the pallets apart at the nails, not cutting up the lumber which is of course much harder on the saw. That’s best done with a chop saw as long as you can avoid the embedded nails.
Still, it looks like it would take at least three of those batteries and 12 hours of charging time to fill your trailer. I guess the trick will be to never get too far behind on your pallet cutting.
It would take SEVERAL of those to completely fill the trailer – and I have to fill the trailer 3-4 times to fill the woodshed. But it’s still handy for where I’ve got my spare pallets stashed – which is not handy to electricity.
Last winter I didn’t have as much wood cut and stored as I do now, and I finished with a tier and a half left. This time I’m filling it to the brim, just in case. Other winters I’ve cut wood much more just-in-time and that mostly works too, but you have to keep ahead of the weather. This thing with the pallets won’t last forever – I estimate I’ve got one full winter’s worth left, and I’ve pretty much cleaned out all the handy neighbors. So at some point I may be back to cutting juniper for heat. I can’t get through a whole winter on one woodshed full of that.
My brother purchased a GreenWorks battery powered pole saw last week for cutting high limbs along ‘berechas’ (bulldozed paths through brush) and couldn’t be happier. We used it for around a total of 45 minutes, and used only one bar of the provided 4. Same battery can be used in chain saw – he is definitely interested in that, as chain saw use is intermittent and fuel goes bad quicker than that.
I’m glad that the sawsall is working well for you – hope it continues to impress.
Charge time varries on the system, but in mine the big 4ah batteries take 2 hours on the “Fast” charger and 3 hours on the “Rapid” charger. Since I have a pile of the 4ah batteries I have three of the “Rapid” chargers on the wall in my garage.
The one “Fast” charger I have sits in the tool bag incase I need to charge up on the go.
Glad it worked for you
https://www.amazon.com/BLACK-DECKER-L2ACF-OPE-Lithium-Charger/dp/B009NOCWY6
The fast charger for the B&D system seems available as well, people claim less than 2 hours to charge the 4ah batteries.
Doing my part to fill your wishlist with greedy toys 😀