Customer Reviews

Makita UC3530A Commercial Grade 14-Inch 15 amp Electric Chain Saw with Tool-Less Blade And Chain Adjustments

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have some experience with chain saws from thirteen years in logging in the Pacific Northwest. No longer in logging and no longer have need of a large professional gas saw. I looked at some less costly makes at local hardware stores but they were just to cheaply made. I went for this one and have no regrets. The soft start feature and overload protection make this saw worth the extra cost. Overall quality is great and balance is very good. This saw will certainly keep my residential property under control and will probably out last me. The first tree I took down was mature birch with an eighteen-inch trunk. Took about an hour to turn it into firewood and mulch and did it all on a weekend morning before the neighbors were up, they never heard a thing. If you are not trained or professionally experienced with the use of chain saws, please carefully read the entire operators manual and follow the instructions explicitly. I've seen many bad injuries with saws and they always happen in the blink of an eye. Safety first, always.

Ordered it 04-29-2010; arrived 04-30-2010.
Unkinking chain was longest part of the assembly.
Love the metal sprocket and gearing. And the
tension adjustment is superb - twisted a knob
inbetween cuts and the chain snugged right
up to the bar. No dismantelling or barked
knuckles from oily wrench slip.
Had to stub down a 30+ year old orange
tree in a hurry and had 8"+ diameter trunks
lying down for this Makita to deal with.
Absolutely no problem. Literally cut through
with just the weight of the bar and blade -
which with my Little old lady bad back was an unexpected
pleasure. Had three 12' trunk sections cut
to garbage can size in an hour and still had
enough back left to rake. Love the saw.
Just one piddly thing- have to turn it on it's
side to fill oil and the glass oil fill bubble is
rendered useless on it's side. So of course
oil flowed all over the saw and floor. But my
error, not the saws. Perhaps have the fill
cap on top not the side if they do a redesign.
Will for sure buy more blades as this saw is
a keeper. Oh- the tooless install is handy
once you get the hang of it. Five stars from
a 60 year old with bad back using a chainsaw.

Until I used this chainsaw I laughed at even the idea of an electric chain saw. I've been using gasoline chainsaws for over forty years. This little saw will amaze you. With a small Honda genset in the back of our Kawasaki Mule we run all over our place cutting firewood and taking out dead or dying trees. It will fall any tree of reasonable dimensions and will quickly clean it up. Keep it clean and filled with chain oil. We are pretty hard on ours and it shrugs if off so I'm guessing most users will never have a problem. And by the way, there is an enormous difference between this Makita electric and the electric chain saws you see for $[...]-$[...]. Don't waste your money on the cheap machines.

This chainsaw is the cat's pajamas. In other words, it tears through trees like there's no tomorrow. In other words, if you want a 14inch chainsaw that has ridiculous amounts of power; is well designed; starts "every time" by just pulling the trigger; will probably last for a long long time; and that you will never-ever, regret purchasing... then this is your saw!

Don't be lulled into buying one of the cheapy electric chainsaws because of their lower price. This is the saw you want. You could probably own this saw for 20 YEARS and your total cost for those twenty years would be 83 cents per month. Makita is known for making quality tools. This chainsaw is no exception. I ordered it from Amazon and with my Amazon Prime subscription it arrived the next day. Wonderful! The following day I used it to assist in dropping, and cutting up, a 70 foot oak tree which had fallen during a storm, in my backyard.

The tree had fallen diagonally, but got hung up in the high branches of another tree, and came to rest at a 45 degree angle with the ground. My brother in law came over with two friends to help me bring the tree to the ground and cut it up. They all had gas chainsaws with 16 to 18 inch bars. I had the MAKITA 14 inch ELECTRIC CHAINSAW. Within the first 15 minutes of cutting small branches near the ground, one of the gas chainsaws failed to start anymore. They had all seen me put the bar and chain onto the new Makita saw, and then plug it into the extension cord, and probably viewed this electric saw with some skepticism; but after it began cutting 14 inch sections of tree with the same or less effort than the gas saws we had on site, we all soon realized that the Makita electric chainsaw was a saw to be admired and respected.

During, and after, the first hour of using this saw, among it's cousin gas chainsaws, the requests just kept coming in... "Hey, hand me that electric saw"... "Hey, let me see that saw"... "I don't want to be using a gas chainsaw that high up"... etc. The Makita ELECTRIC Chainsaw really stole the show. It even surprised me a little! I would say that 75% of the cutting done on that 70 ft. tree was done with the Makita electric chainsaw (and this was because everyone "chose" to use the electric saw due to it's light weight, ease of use, and constant availability.

The saw arrives in a nice cardboard box with the chain in a plastic bag, and the bar seperate from the saw, and it includes a bar cover. Being a man, I really wanted to install the bar to the saw without reading the instruction manual, but I was in a hurry, and I was unfamiliar with how to do it, so I broke down and opened the manual. The nice thing, I learned, is that you don't need any hand tools to remove or attach the bar/chain. Actually, you don't need hand tools to do anything to this saw. A very nice feature! There is a plastic tab which you rotate out from the side plate (the plastic tab is attached to a metal screw)... then press down on the plastic tab and turn it counterclockwise... within seconds the side plate of the saw is off, and you can now put the chain on the bar and put the bar assembly in place on the sprocket on the right side of the saw, then just line up the chain adjustment pin (located on the side plate) to it's receiving hole on the saw, and then turn the plastic tab (mentioned at the beginning of this process) back into it's respective hole to tighten the side plate. Don't tighten the side plate to the saw, completely, until you use the chain tension adjusting knob to tighten the chain so it only has 1/8th inch of play... then turn the plastic tab clockwise to tighten the side plate all the way against the saw, tight.

It has an automatic oiler, so you just turn the oil cap counter-clockwise and it removes and you add a SMALL amount of chain oil. Get a thin funnel to add the chain oil to the saw's reservoir. The reservoir does not hold much, so it is easy to overflow it... be careful or you'll have a big mess to clean up. You can view the chain oil level via the saw's clear holding tank. Check it frequently, because you will need to refill it several times during a cutting job.

All in all a great saw. You would never think an Electric Chainsaw could be the choice over gas saws, but this one was, AND IS. It's only deficit is the bar legnth, but don't get me wrong... a 14 bar is all you need for most cutting jobs (remember we cut 75% of a 70ft. oak tree {27 inch diameter trunk} with just the electric saw), and you can cut from both sides if you encounter tree diameters in excess of 14 inches. If you have ever experienced owning a gas chainsaw, and dealt with the inevitable problems (failed or dirty spark plug, bad fuel, water in the fuel, wrong fuel-oil mixture, air cleaner dirty, cracked fuel hose, carb needs adjusting, exhaust port clogged with carbon, etc.), that gas chainsaws can have, you know how frustrating and debilitating it can be. With a "good" electric saw, all those problems disappear... and I mean it "THEY JUST DISAPPEAR"... and you get to cut wood, instead of cursing and spending time/and/or money on parts, repairs, or just maintenance in general.

You will be advised to buy a 12 gauge extension cord to use with this saw. The saw is 15 amps. I bought a 100 foot 12/3 extension cord thru Amazon and it works great. (Expect to pay $60 to $70 for such an extension cord because they contain a lot of copper and copper is very expensive). If you use an extension cord with smaller wire, such as 14 gauge or 16 guage (which are popular sizes) you may burn out the Makita saw's motor, or overheat it. Just make sure you buy a 12/3 (or lower gauge size) extension cord if you need a 100 foot extension cord. You need the maximum amount of electricity to actually make it to the saw.

To summarize:

1. If you are a HomeOwner, and you will normally have access to electricity, from your house, or a generator, then buy this Makita electric saw before you buy a gas chainsaw. After you have this saw under your belt, then you should think about buying an 18 or 20 inch gas chainsaw. An electric saw should be your first priority because they never have starting problems. Reliability is everything!

2. This Makita Electric saw is a no compromise saw, except that it requires a source of electricity.

3. You have to use this saw to understand that this saw is overkill for most jobs. The saw shows no hesitation, even in cutting wood up to 14 inch diameter.

4. Makita is a quality brand. Their normal products are high quality. This saw is at that level, or above.

5. If you use a chainsaw periodically (once or twice a year), you will probably find this to be one of the best purchases you have ever made.

6. Another benefit of this saw is that you can store it inside your house, or car. It does not contain, or use, gasoline, or combustible oil... so you don't have to worry about the smell, or fire hazard, associated with gas chainsaws.

I really didn't want to spend this much for a chainsaw. I have a small suburban property and just a few trees.

All I needed from a chainsaw was to cut down limbs that are too thick to saw by hand. [Edit: It turns out that I have to cut down two trees that are dying and there's no way I'm going to hand cut 8" thick limbs so this chainsaw is working out perfectly]

I first bought a Homelite electric. The first one was defective (didn't auto oil) so I exchanged it for another. That too was defective for a different reason so I returned it. Then I doubled the price (from the local box store) and went with a Poulan. Incredibly enough, that too was defective and didn't auto oil. I gave up and returned it.

I resisted buying the Makita since I couldn't justify it -- I would only use it once or twice a year but I couldn't get a working cheap electric chainsaw. I've had gas chainsaws but they're too noisy and I don't want to deal with the gas/oil hassle anymore.

So I doubled down again and bought the Makita. With one minor exception, I'm very pleased so far.

* Soft start is a nice feature -- doesn't jerk when you start the chain saw.
* Auto braking. The Homelite does not have a brake. The chain keeps running until friction stops the chain.
* Has a kick back bar.
* The electric motor is much less annoying than the cheaper electric chain saws -- the Makita doesn't have an irritating high-pitched whine.
* It's tool-less.
* Auto oiling which keeps the chain generously oiled but not dripping.
* Assembly is not difficult. Just make sure you install the chain in the correct direction and add oil. The Makita does *not* come with any oil at all.
* The electric plug is on a cord with a fastener. This makes attaching an extension cord much easier.

IMPORTANT ====================================
The only part of the Makita electric chain saw that concerns me is the THIN PLASTIC chain saw tightener pin. I just can't see how that's going to last. For a 'Commercial Grade' chain saw, you'd think that the pin would have been made out of metal or something more durable. Even the fifty dollar Homelite has a metal pin. I'd love to know if these chain saws built years ago has metal pins.
IMPORTANT ====================================

Make sure that you tighten the chain every few minutes when you start using the new chain since the chain rapidly stretches.

Where I live, disposing of trees limbs is very difficult. You just can't put a whole bunch of limbs on the street. The compost garbage men won't pick it up. Limbs must be no longer than 4 feet and tied together (but not too many and not too heavy) or put into small plastic cans. So I need to use the chain-saw to whittle down limbs to bite-size pieces. It's such a hassle that most people hire tree work out and the trees are run through a shredder. Far more expensive than two-hundred bucks.

You should be aware that the Makita electric chain saw is much heavier than the cheaper brands. The Makita feels like a 'real' chain saw. If you have problems with your arms or hands, this chain saw may be too heavy for you.

Did I need a chain saw of this price and quality? No -- I don't frequently cut down big trees. But I wanted one that works when I need it. The cheapo electric chain saws are disposable aggravations. I like this chain saw.

Aside from supporting what has already been said about this saw, there is little I can add to the reviews already given. I relied on them to make my decision to purchase it and I'm pleased to say it was not a "too good to be true" situation.

This is a well built saw. That fact became evident the time I first picked it up, when I noted it weighs, probably, twice what any of my previous three electric saws weighed. It appears to be built with the same standards Makita and the other big name companies apply in the construction of their heavy duty, commercial worm drive circular saws.

Installing and removing the bar, or adjusting the chain during use, is, as others noted, simple and requires no tools. I was leery of the "no tool" approach to chain tensioning; however, it works well on my high end [barrel handle] jig saw, so, I made the plunge and spent the extra nickles. Again, I'm not disappointed.

I have a couple cords of apple firewood to tackle each year and, from the little I've used it so far, I feel confident this saw is up to the task.

We use electric chain saws in our indoor facility to cut process scraps into pieces small enough to efficiently feed the grinder and puck maker. After spending a pile of money on multiple "handyman" quality machines by every other name in chain saws only to have them die quick and ugly deaths, I finally found a source for this "commercial quality" saw.
What a difference! This saw has plenty of torque, good balance, and runs very smoothly. Having used it for hours nearly every day in the month since I bought it, it continues to eat like a greedy 'gator.
I hope (and expect) it will give us long service.

I'm not a rich man, and the price of the Makita chainsaw had me at a standstill. After "Burning Up" approx. 5 $40 to $90 chainsaws over the years I decided to take the plung.That was the best thing I've ever done. The "slow start" Is the opition I like the best as It does not try to "jerk" I'ts way out of your hands with gloves on. I think this is an OUTSTANDING SAW.

I recently bought this saw due to a cheap Remington that kept giving me problems. I could not complain it lasted and did well for the years I used it.

This saw is a winner. Yes, it is expensive compared to the cheaper saws. The soft start is definitely a plus, it doesn't jump when started, it oils the chain and bar well and has enough power for the size it is. They should name it "Eager Beaver" because it goes on wood like one. I will tell you that it weighs a little more than the cheaper ones. Normally, anything that is well built will weigh more...that is a plus in durability and a minus on the muscles. I recommend this if you can afford it.

I needed to save some money on tree removal and I have a real fear of chainsaws. I bought this saw because I trust the brand and electric saws somehow seem less intimidating. That was a good decision. The saw is absolutely perfect for the size of trees I am cutting (3" to 10" thick). It is also incredibly quiet. I was going to leave some of the bigger trees to the arborist but now I will just cut the trees I want and leave the chipping and stumping to the professionals for about a 1000$US savings after buying the saw.