Best cordless tools for storm cleanup

Storm cleanup is the one job where the platform argument stops being theoretical. Three tools, one battery family, and a set of packs rotating through a charger: that is the difference between clearing the drive on Sunday and waiting for someone with a trailer.

The energy budget for a cleanup day

The surprise in that arithmetic is which tool is expensive. Sawing is cheap — the motor is only loaded for the seconds it is in the wood. Blowing on turbo costs twenty times as much per minute as cutting does. If the packs are running low, stay off turbo and keep sawing.

The kit, in the order you will use it

1. EGO CS1804: the saw for everything that is down

An 18-inch bar, a common 3/8 inch pitch and 0.050 inch gauge chain, 11,000 RPM and a published 300 cuts through a 4x4 on one 5.0Ah pack. At 14.5 lb with the battery fitted it is a planted, two-handed tool, and the published work figure means you can size packs against the job rather than guessing.

What it is not: a felling saw for mature trunks, or the right tool for anything under tension. Those are professional jobs and no spec sheet changes that. How to read the rest of the specs is on the chainsaw buying guide.

#ad Check the EGO CS1804 price on Amazon — how we're funded.

2. EGO PSA1000: for the branches still up there

A 10-inch bar with a published 10-inch maximum cut diameter, 70 published cuts on a 2.5Ah pack, automatic bar lubrication and 4.17 lb of attachment on a 38-inch pole. The point of it is that it keeps you on the ground: a hanging limb reached from a ladder with a chainsaw is the single worst idea in domestic yard work.

It is an attachment, not a tool — it needs an EGO PH1400 or PH1420 power head, which is also what drives the trimmer and the edger. That is either excellent value or an extra purchase, depending on what is already in your garage.

#ad Check the EGO PSA1000 price on Amazon — how we're funded.

3. EGO LB7650: the debris, fast

765 CFM and 200 MPH, the highest published figures of any handheld we have specs for, at 4.6 lb bare. After a storm the debris is wet and stuck down, and air speed is what lifts it — this is the tool on this site with the most of it. It publishes 15 minutes of turbo and 150 on low, so you can see exactly what the aggressive setting costs.

#ad Check the EGO LB7650 price on Amazon — how we're funded.

4. EGO LB6000: if the cleanup is measured in hours

The backpack: 600 CFM, a published 180 minutes on low from a 7.5Ah pack, and 12.5 lb carried on a harness rather than your wrist. For a property with mature trees, where post-storm clearing is a half-day job, the harness is the difference between finishing and giving up.

#ad Check the EGO LB6000 backpack price on Amazon — how we're funded.

Why one platform matters more here than anywhere else

In a cleanup you are cycling packs through a charger all day. Every pack that fits every tool is a pack in play; every pack that fits one tool is a pack sitting idle while another tool waits. All four tools on this page take the same EGO 56V ARC Lithium packs, which is the entire argument.

It is also the argument for buying the saw bare rather than as a kit, if you are already on the platform. The compatibility rules, and which brands share packs across which tools, are on the compatibility page. If you are choosing a platform from scratch, EGO vs Ryobi is where that decision gets made.

Where cordless stops being the answer

• Extended outages. Packs need a charger. If the power is out for days and you have no generator, a cordless kit becomes a set of tools with a finite number of cuts left in them.
• Trunk work. An 18-inch bar on a consumer saw is not a felling outfit. Call someone.
• Anything under tension. Bent, pinned or leaning timber releases unpredictably. This is a professional job irrespective of the tool.
• Height. If the pole saw cannot reach it from the ground, the answer is not a ladder.

Working the site in the right order

A cleanup done in the wrong order is the same work twice: debris blown onto ground you have not cut yet, limbs dropped onto a drive you already cleared. The order below follows from what each tool does rather than from how keen you are to use it.

1. Walk the site first and look up. Hanging limbs and anything under tension are what change a cleanup into an incident. If it is bigger than your saw or above your pole, that is the professional's list, not yours.
2. Clear the access route. Cut what blocks the drive and the path before anything else, so you are not carrying material over obstacles for the rest of the day.
3. Take the hanging material down from the ground. Pole saw, both feet on the ground, nothing overhead that can drop on you.
4. Cut what is down into carryable pieces. This is the bulk of the saw work and where the published 300-cuts-per-pack figure applies.
5. Blow the debris last, on the lowest setting that moves it. Wet leaf litter and grit need air speed rather than volume, and turbo costs ten times the energy per minute.

A pack plan for the day

If you take one thing from that table: the second pack matters more than a bigger one. Cleanup is stop-start work, and a pack on the charger while you use the other is what keeps the day moving. The same logic applied to mowing is on the battery count guide.

What we cannot tell you

• Cuts per charge on storm timber. The published figure is for a 4x4. Wet hardwood is a different job and nobody publishes it.
• Real cleanup durations. Our day budget is arithmetic on published per-cut and per-minute figures with stated assumptions about how many cuts you make.
• Noise. Not published for the saws.