Tried & Tested: Bosch’s AKE 30 LI battery-powered chainsaw

While you need to always call within the experts to accommodate scaling down big trees or simply scaling down big branches, if the branches have already fallen you ought to be ready to safely clear them yourself.

You might need greater than a handsaw though, so if it’s the year you ultimately buy yourself a chainsaw first thing to make your mind up is whether or not you will want a petroleum-powered, electric or battery piece of apparatus.

There isn’t any doubt that petrol chainsaws are the foremost powerful, but when you simply want one in your garden you’re not prone to want a dearer professional-grade power tool.

They are mostly heavier than the electrical or battery-powered options, as a result of fuel tank, and in case you don’t have any suitable petrol at the day you’ll need it you’ll have to visit a petroleum station to shop for some – eating into the time you will have available for working within the garden.

You even have in an effort to store the fuel safely when you’re not using the machine.

Electric power tools are lighter and also you just must plug them in and go, but you ought to be extremely careful of the electrical lead.

If you accidentally cut throughout the electric lead you run the chance of an electrical shock – or worse. Equally, if a toddler, pet or another adult accidentally gets snarled inside the lead the results may be dire.

Rechargeable batteries solve these kinds of problems and, although they might make the chainsaw slightly heavier than an electrical model, they’re much lighter than petrol chainsaws and as safe as a chainsaw gets.

Of course, you do need to follow sensible safety rules whatever form of chainsaw you operate, and these include wearing safety goggles to offer protection to your eyes from wood chips.

Also essential are good-grip gloves and trousers fabricated from special material that’s difficult to chop through. Steel-toe boots also are a smart option just if you drop the saw, and helmets designed to give protection to you from kickback also are recommended, particularly people with ear defenders attached.

Of course, power tools nowadays have several security features, and the chains stop virtually instantly in case you take your hand off the catches, nevertheless it is vital to regard chainsaws with respect.

I can thoroughly recommend the rechargeable Bosch AKE 30 LI. It truly is lightweight but greater than powerful enough for gardening jobs, and is derived with a 36V lithium-ion battery that may be recharged in 90 minutes and lasts long enough to get most things done within the garden before the necessity for a cup of tea.

To coincide with the fall garden tidy up time, Bosch has issued a catalogue of safety recommendations which anybody deliberating dusting down their trusty chainsaw after a summer within the shed should test.

Here is a taste of a few of crucial Bosch recommendations for maintenance and use:
 
* Never run the tool without oil.
* Make sure the chain is tight, but not too tight – it will have between 5 to 10mm of stretch. Disconnect your machine from the mains whenever you would like to touch the chain.
* Refrain in any respect costs from allowing the chain to come back into contact with soil, nails or stones as this would blunt the chain, diminishing the cutting ability of your saw and the lifetime of its motor.
* You ought to also be sure that the chain is sharpened regularly – there are plenty of easy-to-use kits that you can buy to assist with this.
* It’s worth considering replacing the bar and chain on occasion with the intention that you get the foremost out of the motor.
* Never operate the tool if anyone is within a two-metre radius. You must also remember that within the impossible event of splitting the chain, the bits will run to front of the tool.
* In case you are cutting branches off a tree, undercut first, then overcut. Researching what you’re cutting is additionally advisable, as this will likely show you how to understand what kind of pruning is healthy for the kind of tree you’re working with.
*If felling a tree, always wear a helmet and make sure you’ve quite a lot of space round the tree before proceeding and not underestimate the load of it. If unsure, contact a pro.
* When finished, it’s necessary to clean your saw thoroughly.