Stihl Battery Equipment- Is it Good Enough for the Lawn Care or Landscaping Pro?!? Blower, Chainsaw

Stan: When I was asked to do a review of the Stihl battery-powered equipment, I said, "Let me think about it." And I didn't get back to them right away, but last year at about this time, I was loading chainsaws and blowers and gear up into one of my employee's brand new Jeep. It's brand spanking new. He just pulled it off the lot, drove it out to the job site and the gas spilt all over.

Stan: I mean, it soaked the back-end of his Jeep, and it was just the worst thing ever. Then, I remembered that Stihl has been asking me to do a review of their equipment, and I thought, "Well, what the heck? It can't be worse than dumping gasoline all over the back of a brand new Jeep." I figured I'd give it a review, and get back to you guys and let you guys know what I think of it. 

Stan: But, it's not just what I think of it. I've actually put it into the hands of the guys that have to work with it every single day, and I got their opinion as well. Let's see how this turns out. 

Stan: It all started right here. We were loading tools in the back of Blaine's Jeep. I popped open his back tailgate, I threw in a chainsaw, we threw in gas, we threw in a big tote full of tools and it knocked the gas right over. His whole back end of his truck was covered in gasoline, so it was after that point that we changed over to battery-powered tools. Let's see what Blaine has to say about it. These happen to be his set.

Stan: What do you think of this, now that you've went out and bought your own set, 'cause I'm too cheap to go buy it for you after I spill gasoline all over. Do you like these?

Blaine: I do. I like it a lot. 

Stan: What is this dial for?

Blaine: You can dial the speed, which I like. 

Stan: What?

Blaine: You dial the speed, and then you can just pull the trigger for fast and slower. That way you're not cutting up your edging, or you're not-

Stan: Let me see the battery on that one. 

Blaine: I have it low, so where it cuts the grass where it won't mar the mailbox or the siding, or the edging. 

Stan: You got it on low-speed. All right, now are you saying that it'll smoke that box if I turn it on high?

Blaine: Yeah. 

Stan: Okay, it'll smoke that box on high. Wow, that's actually pretty cool. Do you use this much?

Blaine: Yeah. I love that little thing. 

Stan: That's zippy. Hey, can I take this back home with me?

Blaine: Yeah. 

Stan: I got a pile of wood. I'm gonna take your trimmer and I'm gonna take your-

Blaine: You gotta check it out on the white board.

Stan: The one thing I like about these battery-powered tools, put 'em in the back of your truck, go down the road and you don't got to worry about fumes. Okay guys, so I'm gonna try out Blaine's Stihl BGA 85. I think I missed a spot when I did my fall cleanup, and then again when I did my spring cleanup, and then when I did the next fall cleanup, and then the spring after that. 

Stan: This has been sitting here for years like that. This is heavy, wet stuff. It picked it up pretty good. Oh, I want to show you something here real quick. What it was moving through, sticks. This is what it was pushing, sticks. Wet. Look at this, this is wet. That's not dry leaves, this is kind of wet and nasty, moldy. Somebody should take care of this property better. 

Stan: All right, so let's see if this can handle this. That's soaking wet wood, so that's not going to cut anywhere nearly as well as dry wood. This is soaked. I'm going to cut up once. I want to see how it does. Wow. No power hesitation on any of these cuts whatsoever. That's actually a pretty nice chainsaw. For a battery-powered chainsaw.

Jake: Little impressive?

Stan: Little impressive, yeah. If you were a home owner, or weekend warrior, or you want to bring a saw up to the cabin, absolutely. Boy that was some conveniently placed grass, wasn't it?

Jake: We probably just did someone else's job for them. 

Stan: That's pretty cool. These Stihl blowers, for battery-powered, actually got some pretty damn good juice to 'em, don't they?

Jake: Mm-hmm (affirmative). 

Stan: Yeah, I'd say. You want to try it?

Jake: Sure. 

Stan: Let me know what you think of it. 

Jake: It's not that heavy. 

Stan: No. 

Jake: For how big it looks. 

Stan: All right, thoughts?

Jake: I actually like the weight of it, where the battery is. It just angles it down when you just hold it, like right about where you want it. It's got good power, really good power, and it's just overall a really good unit. 

Stan: All right, we were just driving randomly back to our job site. We had grass all the way down that hill, all the way. You come over here and you can see a set of headlights coming at you, all the way. This entire street was filled with this heavy, wet grass. Let me show you what it was filled with. This stuff, not light stuff. We just did their entire job for them using this, because I wanted to see how the battery life is on this thing. 

Stan: After clearing all the stuff we did earlier, this entire street, what do we got? Does that show three out of four bars still? Three out of four bars, so everybody keeps claiming that it's got good battery life. Well, tell me what you guys think? We just put that to the test. That's what I think. 

Stan: Yeah, on the way home, somebody cut an entire street of heavy grass, and it was all in the street. We took your blower down the whole street, and used it. I mean, we did the whole thing didn't we?

Jake: Yeah. 

Stan: And we only used one battery out of four, so yeah. I guess you weren't lying to me. 

Blaine: And the charger-

Stan: Yeah. 

Blaine: Charged in 35 minutes.

Stan: It'll charge the whole battery in 35 minutes?

Blaine: Yeah. When you asked me what I used to clean these tools with ...

Stan: Yeah. 

Blaine: My new Stihl power washer.

Stan: Oh, is that battery too?

Blaine: RB 400, the Dirt Boss. 

Stan: Somebody's a fanboy. Yeah, no the chainsaw. Pretty slick. 

Jake: It's still got full battery. 

Blaine: That's supposed to go through 300 4-inch logs per battery. 

Stan: What? 300?

Blaine: 300 4-inch.

Stan: Really?

Blaine: Yeah.

Stan: I noticed it's sharp.

Blaine: Yeah, I just put a new paint on it. 

Stan: Yeah. It didn't stay sharp after I ran it into the ground, 'cause it doesn't cut rocks worth a damn.

Blaine: No, I know. 

Stan: I'm-

Stan: One of the reasons why we have the lawnmower set up like this is because I wouldn't trust putting a gas power blower, and you couldn't fit one in there, but that Stihl fits perfectly in there. 

Jake: It does, I mean that's snug.

Stan: When you're driving by something and you need to grab and you just need to go that's perfect. 

Jake: You don't gotta run back to the truck to grab a blower, you just thunk and go on. 

Stan: Nothing wrong with thunk and keep going, right?

Jake: Yeah. 

Stan: I wanted to share that with you guys, 'cause some of you guys may be doing something similar to that, which is awesome. I want to hear from you in the comments down below. Do you guys do anything like this? If you have and you've had great experiences, let me know. But, more importantly, if you've done something like this and it hasn't worked out for you, let us know that in the comments down below too. What's happened? I mean, share good and bad. 

Stan: All right, Jake. You actually do all of my commercial mowing.

Jake: Yeah. 

Stan: All of my big accounts, so when I handed you this I was more than skeptical or hesitant to even put this in your hands. 

Jake: Yep. 

Stan: 'Cause, I ain't know Jake, and if it doesn't have gas, it doesn't go on his truck, right?

Jake: Yep. 

Stan: Now that you've actually had a chance to use it what do you think of it?

Jake: It's nice for this little, non-commercial stuff. I mean, it works awesome. 

Stan: Yeah. 

Jake: Awesome. 

Stan: I wanna show these guys one of my favorite things about this, is not only does it deliver good power, but look how small this thing is. Look at this, guys. Is your arm gonna get tired using this all day long? This thing is so light and nimble. It's just ... The more I use it, the more I actually like this thing. This is one of those tools that the more you use it, I think, the more you like it. What do you think? You tell me Jake? What do-

Jake: I agree. 100%. When I first grabbed it, I was like, "Eh. It's just another one of these battery-powered things."

Stan: Yep. 

Jake: Then, we brought it here and I mean, it's ... Give it a little poof and it's all gone. 

Stan: Yeah, it's perfect. 

Jake: It really is. 

Stan: It's perfect for what we do on these sites. 

Jake: Full battery still, and we've been using it for what? A half-hour or so?

Stan: Full battery, that's actually kind of surprising. I would've never guessed that that battery'd still have full charge. 

Jake: Yeah. 

Stan: Let me see that again? Yeah, that's full battery. Who would've guessed?

Jake: Yeah, that's pretty good battery life on it. 

Stan: All right, well we got more lawns to do. 

Jake: We do. 

Stan: All right, let's do 'em. Holy crap, Jake. This was not sped up. It's just that fast. Hey, you do realize we pay you by the hour, right? I'm telling you, you're working like you're getting paid by the job, not by the hour. I love it. Not complaining. 

Jake: I don't come to work to stand around.

Stan: Hey, so what do you think of that? Now that you've used it for a while?

Jake: It's actually pretty nice. I mean, it's really, really, really light. I mean, like three times lighter than a gas-powered one. I could hold this thing all day long. 

Stan: That's wild that they got so much power and it's so light. 

Jake: Yeah. 

Stan: Wow, that is really light. That's like ... feels like nothing. 

Jake: Finally figured it out. I was like, "What is this button for?"

Stan: What? No way. 

Jake: This extends it.

Stan: Dude. 

Jake: For them eight foot tall people.

Stan: All right, so now you've been running these things. What do you think of 'em?

Jake: They're awesome.

Stan: Yeah?

Jake: They really are. I mean, that stuff over there, I would have never expected any of it to get through it and it whipped it up like it was a gas-powered machine. 

Stan: I'm shocked and surprised at just how much power that actually delivers; that unit. Way better built. Way more power. Not only the performance of the trimmer was surprising, but the performance of the leaf blower as well. I like the balance, I like how small and compact it is, but both of these units, I found, that both of these are lighter than other battery-powered units. For Jake and I, I'd say this is definitely a winner.

Jake: Agreed. 

Stan: Yeah, these are definitely for the two of us. We like 'em. 

Jake: I mean, this is my favorite battery-powered weed whip we've ever used. 

Stan: Really? 

Jake: Yeah. 

Stan: Dude, we've used them all. Well, I know which one you're going to be taking out with you more often now. 

Jake: Yep. 

Stan: When my Stihl is gone, I'll just know that it's out on the mowing crew. It's like my Cub Cadet. 

Jake: Yeah, yeah. 

Stan: Yeah. Yeah, my little Cub Cadet personal lawn mower, gone. Gone. Entire season, where is it? It's with the mowing crew. Stihl equipment, gone. Gone, I'll never see that again. Is the microphone on? I'm guilty of recording lots of really cool things. My finest words of wisdom have all been recorded when I forget to turn that dang microphone on, so what you're getting is the second-hand reject stuff that I really didn't know what to say, but you know whatever. But, we tested out the Stihl battery-powered equipment today.

Stan: We took it out on different job sites, we did actually work with it that you guys would do either your personal homes or maybe actually we did more than what I would typically put this stuff up against, and everybody that put their hands on it was shocked and was pleasantly surprised by the outcomes of the results. I know I was, Jake was, we got Fanboy over here. You guys let me know if you guys have ran it before. In the comments down below, tell me what you think just in general. God bless. Go get 'em.