Ego Pole Saw Review

This is episode number 198 of the Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. Wow, Craig! Welcome to the Homeowner Show.

I am so excited about the information.

This is the Humunder Show, and we are live today.

Sounds like a dish from the local— I don't know what it is. I'm not going to say it because I've been called a racist once on the internet, and I'm not going to do it again. By golly.

Oh, my goodness. Well, look, if you don't know already, we don't do this in the day of light, right?

In the day of light?

Oh, I said it on purpose this time. We don't. It's always dark whenever we do this, and it's late. And we're lucky that we say anything natural on here at all. So anyway, how you doing, man?

I'm doing good, man. Is the Wi-Fi working good over there? You got it? Okay, there I am. Yeah, I see myself on the—

So far so good. Oh, I see it lagging a little bit.

Yeah, I see. Okay, I'm on the interwebs. Yeah, doing okay.

It's lagging a little bit, but cool.

Well, do you think you could muddle your way through some paying the bills?

I can. Yeah.

Okay.

I think so.

Do you want me to go first this time?

Sure. Okay. Go ahead.

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That's awesome, man. And, uh, I don't know if people noticed, but they've even given you a free hat.

Yeah, we got— I got some swag on. Yeah, yeah, nice TermiSafe swag. So yeah, if you need one of those, go to termisafe.com, fill out the form, and get started in the process of protecting your most valuable asset.

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I'm a big fan of more clients.

Yeah, man. Like, I mean, who wouldn't be? I guess people that just wanna be easy, comfortable, you know, Yeah, but I mean, who are those people? I don't know. You're not growing. I mean, look, you're gonna drop some clients too, right?

You're not gonna keep every client you ever had, mostly because, you know, let's face it, sometimes you can be a jerk.

That's true.

You know, I can be a jerk. Yeah, we're gonna lose some clients.

Sure.

We need a way to replace those clients.

That's right.

Who were probably jerks too.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So, well, uh, if you're watching live, you probably aren't because something happened and we're not live on Facebook anymore.

Seriously?

Yeah, I don't know what happened.

We're still recording, and so we're good, but Anyway, it's cool.

No, it's not very cool, but that's okay.

So, like, the network went down, apparently. That's about as cool as AIDS. Yeah.

Anyway, hmm.

So how very disappointing.

I know. But if you're listening to us on a podcast, yeah, totally fine.

It's audio. You're good.

No big deal. But I'll tell you this. Man, it's been crazy around my house.

Yeah?

Really crazy.

Not just because of you?

No, well, I probably— it's all because of me.

Yeah, but, um, spoon that stirs the drink.

Yes, something like that. Uh, but you know, we're— my mother-in-law is building a house on our property, right? And so we've been using Southern Lux, our friends over at Southern Lux, to, uh, to put this together. And, uh, there's a whole lot of stuff going on with all of that. We've been having contractors, you know, show up and work on some different things here and there. So it's, it's gonna get more interesting at this point to figure out what we're doing. I mean, we were even talking to a dirt work guy today and he was like, do you want us coming down your driveway? Because we can probably come around this way. You're gonna have to take out a couple of bushes

or something, but it would save your driveway. Yeah. You know, and I'm like, that's probably smart, um, but I don't really want to do it. Um, but the biggest thing that I've got to do starting tomorrow. And look, of all the things that I don't want to do in life, this is way up there at the top. And that is I'm going to begin the process of installing an above-ground pool. Oh, and we're going to probably wind up having a podcast about this alone because—

I mean, you're going to ask me to help?

Well, no, because you're probably unavailable tomorrow.

Absolutely I am.

You do have a business to run. So, um, but if you're not, swing on by because what I'm gonna be doing is, uh, basically like leveling the ground to put this pool on. So, I mean, I'm bringing in 6 yards of dirt and I'm gonna basically build a pad to put it on.

Mm-hmm.

But it's, it's huge, man. It's a 22 square, uh, 22-foot pool.

Okay. Is it square?

No, it's round.

Okay.

It's a— it's, you know, circular, 22 feet, uh, it's 52 inches deep. So— I really—

I love that you had to add circular when you said— after you said round.

Well, you know, I did the hand motion. I did a hand motion.

No one can see that.

Nobody can see it.

The video's down.

The video's down.

Yeah.

What are you gonna do? It is what it is. But look, I do not want to do this.

Yeah.

Like, and I'll just tell you what I'm doing, and we'll find out if this is the right thing to do. What I'm doing is I'm actually building a frame out of 2x4s that are basically a 24-foot square, and I'm gonna dump all the dirt in it and pack it down and level it that way. That way I know that the top of the 2x4s, that's gonna be level, you know what I mean?

Yeah.

Because otherwise, I mean, how do you know what level is? I, I'm not a— definitely not a dirt work guy. Um, just Just figuring it out. In fact, I went to, um—

So hang on, are we recording the video still so we can post it later?

We can post it later.

Okay, I was gonna say, I think, I think the internet's back up, but we'll post it later. Yeah, don't worry about it.

Okay. Yeah, so, um, I actually went to McCoy today, saw your father-in-law there.

Oh yeah?

And, um, I bought one thing. I bought was a tamp tool, you know what I'm talking about?

Yeah, yeah, it's got the square at the bottom, hole in the middle.

Yeah, 10-inch tamp.

Was he nice to you?

Uh, how did— yeah, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They were doing customer appreciation today.

Okay.

Which is really cool because they gave away.

So he was polite to you.

Well, yeah. They gave us.

He does not follow instructions well. Talk to him about that.

Well, they gave out free t-shirts and they had breakfast. Like, I had a breakfast taco that was phenomenal. Where is it from? I don't know. But I need to call him back and ask because it was really and it was thick.

Yeah.

Big old huge thing.

He did not tell me about customer appreciation day and he was polite to you.

Yeah. All the things. And he— they had chicken biscuits there from Chick-fil-A. And they had—

I did have chicken biscuits this morning. Somebody brought me like a full platter.

Oh yeah, that sounds fun. Anyway, so it— so that's going on. And, uh, I lost all the meat and, um, all the things in my freezer. Oh, you told me about that a couple days ago. Yeah, it was awesome. Uh, apparently the door got left open somehow. Yeah, which is weird because like these new freezers, like It's new. Our, our friend Megan from Renova helped me purchase this thing, and it, uh, like, they, they suck themselves closed.

Is it like a— is it like an upright with a door?

Yeah.

Okay. Yeah.

And, and whenever you close it, like, it literally— you can hear it, like, and it, like, closes itself back up. Um, so I don't know. I really don't know what happened. But, dude, we, we lost hundreds of dollars worth of worth of food in there. And then I noticed a smell. And I was like, man, did we miss something? Because we cleaned it out. We— I mean, we—

Maybe you got hit by one of these vegetarian terrorists.

A vegetarianist?

Vegetarianist. That's right. Vegetarianist roaming the streets of Montgomery County.

Yeah.

That's looking for freezers. That's what they do to free the meat.

Yeah. So anyway, but I, man, I like, I even mopped the area because I was like, is this like some drippings or something? What happened here? This is disgusting. So bad. And, um, like, at this point it's been like 2 days and I've been using a fan to just blow it out because it smells so bad. And I actually called you today and I was like, I think I got a dead animal. But I did get up into the attic space above the garage. Smells fine up there.

Okay.

Well, like an attic.

Like an attic. Smells like an attic.

This is heavenly.

Yeah, that's right.

But there— I mean, there's no insulation up there or anything, so Uh, because it's above an attic.

Okay.

I mean, above a garage. Um, it's got to be behind the wall, man. It's got to be behind the wall. But it is much better today than it was yesterday, so I'm hoping it was like a— it's probably like a mouse or a bird or something. Probably was a bird.

Yeah, if it's already better by today, it was probably a bird. Yeah, they, they decompose super quick.

Well, that's good.

So I'm gonna see those tiny holes.

Yeah, maybe it was a— maybe it was a tiny bird. I don't know.

Dude, I had a, I had a lady reach out to me this week and she's like, I need you at my house right now. There are massive wasp nests everywhere. I'm trying to sell this property. Get over here right now. And I said, well, send me, send me a picture of what's, what's going on. And, uh, so she, she sent me the pictures and I, I had to write her back. And so I'm sorry if she's listening. I'm not, I'm not going to share your name.

I don't want to embarrass you. Yeah.

But she— I wrote her back and I was like, ma'am, Um, I can come out there today if you want me to, but those are birds' nests.

Oh no.

What I said, I was— what I actually said, I was like, well, those are swallows.

Ah.

Because they build mud nests.

Yeah.

Like, which are very different from most birds.

Yeah.

I mean, like, so I, I understand why you may not know, like, what you're looking at.

But even then, a wasp nest looks different than that, right? Maybe a Maybe a dirt dauber.

Maybe a dirt dauber, but that would be that massive old dirt dauber nest. I mean, they can be— those nests are pretty big.

Sure.

And so when I wrote her back, I was like, those are swallows. And she goes, I tried Googling. What is that?

I was like, they're birds. They're birds. Doesn't know what a swallow is.

I was like, please don't Google swallow.

Yeah. Oh, wow. Careful. Careful what you Google. I mean, don't ask questions you don't want the answer to.

No, don't go searching. There's, there's bad searches.

There's— careful what you type because that stays with you.

Yeah, that—

those search history things. I'm so sorry. Why didn't you just tell her those are birds? Birds.

Well, you could just kind of read the message that's like she went down the wrong path. I tried Googling. What is this?

What is— oh, geez.

No good.

No good whatsoever. That's funny though.

Oh man.

Oh dude.

So anyway, we're, you know, 12 minutes into this thing. Are we gonna?

Yeah.

What are we talking about tonight?

Okay.

So besides the the comical hanging from the tree, which I am so looking forward to talking about.

Well, let's why why are you teasing people? They don't even know what that means.

No, that's why I want them to hang in there.

Yeah. Oh, it's a bad pun.

You got you got to titillate.

Yeah, that's it. It's a bad pun, that's all. Uh, so here's the deal. When we bought our property, uh, one of the things we're really excited about is being able to put our camper on the property because we're paying $100 a month to store this place. It was a fairly nice place. I mean, for $100 a month, we were really getting our money's worth because it's covered, it had electricity. Yeah, it was great. But I mean, we, we did the math and we've had it there for, I mean, close to 5 years. And so—

Oh gosh.

You know, over 5 years, you've paid like $6,000.

Yeah.

Um, for just to park your trailer, you know. And so pretty excited to get that on there. And our—

Sent their son to one college class.

That's right, exactly. I'm like, come on, man, it's so, so expensive. And they, you know, at a junior college. And that's why you and I, we talked about buying a storage unit at one point, like, because I'm like, holy crap, man, you can make so much money at these places. And anyway, So, uh, but in order to get it on the property, like, there were definitely some limbs that had not been cut in a while that were hanging down. I was like, I don't want them to scratch up my trailer, um, and honestly, I don't want to damage the tree, uh, either. So I was like, okay, uh, the cool thing is that they, the owners, uh, before us left a pole saw.

Mm-hmm.

It was electric pole saw, but I'm like, that's fine. It'll work. Um, but it didn't work.

It didn't work.

It didn't work at all. Did not come on whenever you pulled the trigger.

Right.

Um, so pretty disappointed about that. And I was like, look, we gotta get this done.

Yeah. I mean, world's worst paperweight.

Yeah, exactly. I called you and you're like, well, you can borrow mine, but it's at the shop.

It's at the shop.

Which was—

Long ways.

Long way away. And, uh, I was like, ah, this is my opportunity to go buy a toy.

That's right.

It's something.

Toy time.

wanting anyway. And, um, I have been super impressed with my EGO trimmer.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, super impressed. I'm so excited to have that thing. And so I've always decided if I was ever gonna buy a chainsaw, I was gonna buy an EGO chainsaw. And this is something that, like, uh, my buddy Rod and I were talking about this not too long ago, uh, and I was like, man, if I ever buy a chainsaw, I'm gonna buy an electric one. And he was like, why? I mean, a gas one would be so much stronger. I was like, well, actually, no, they're not. And we've, we've done enough episodes here, and, and we can say it over and over and over, but the battery-powered stuff is actually more powerful.

It can be.

It can be, as long as it's, you know, geared up correctly. Um, it can be more powerful and more efficient because you don't have to— you don't have the maintenance on all the motor stuff and the carburetors, of all that stuff. So anyway, that being said, I decided I'm gonna go and buy a pole saw, an EGO pole saw. And I'll tell you, I— first of all, I'll— spoiler alert— I'm very glad I purchased it.

Mhm.

Um, I'll tell you why in a minute. But the, the thing that's interesting about the pole saw is it is part of their attachment series, their Power Plus attachment series.

Okay.

Which honestly, I kind of wish I would have gone with this, uh, setup before I bought my trimmer.

Oh.

Because they have a trimmer attachment for this system, and you just buy the attachment rather than buying the whole separate tool.

Okay.

Okay, so you buy basically the, the brains of the tool and then you just buy the attachments separately. Uh, the one thing that the attach— the string attachment, I mean the trimmer attachment doesn't have is the, the, the string loader, which is awesome. The string— I don't know if you remember, but like you press a button. The worst part of loading a trimmer is like winding the line, right?

Yeah.

Well, this one you literally just pull the— the one I've got, you pull the string through and you press a button and it winds it for you. Which is amazing. Uh, but the attachment doesn't do that. So, uh, maybe I'm not too sad because that's like—

That's like the whole reason you want that trimmer.

Absolutely. Yeah, reason enough right there.

I actually had a guy the other day, I was, I was walking through his garage and I was like, hey man, you got the EGO trimmer? And he goes, yeah, but I didn't get the one with the loader. And I was like, why? And he goes, well, because it came with a package with the blower and I really liked the blower and it was cheaper. And I was like— he was like I really wish I had that loader.

Yeah, man, that— like, I'm telling you, that's a game changer. Because honestly, almost every time— I feel like every time, every— probably every other time realistically that I'm weed eating, I have to reload because of, you know, I've got enough weed eating to do. And are you just buying crappy string?

No. Really?

No, I just have a lot, man. Like, a lot of what? A lot of stuff to trim.

A lot of stuff to trim.

And honestly, I'm like, I don't I don't like—

is it, is it round? No. Is it like the hex?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like, but like, I also don't like load it to its max, probably.

Yeah.

Um, maybe we just need to work on your technique. No, because here's the thing. No, I enjoy pressing the button.

Listen, Craig, I am the master trimmer. There's no way I could be doing anything wrong.

No, obviously not. I don't know why there was a question. I get to press the button and it loads it for me. Like, it's actually fun.

Yeah. It's not the worst part of trimming. Let me tell you something then. I, I am— I have not reloaded the string on my trimmer yet.

Really?

I am still on the original string.

You must not use it very much.

I use it every time.

Every time? But how much?

What do you mean how much?

Like, how, how long does it— like, how long are you actually using your trimmer?

Like about an hour.

Really?

Yeah.

That's amazing.

I don't have any chain link fence.

Yeah, that'll eat your string.

But I really don't have anything.

Do you ever use it around concrete or—

Yeah, because I use it around the rocks around the fire pit, and that'll eat it every once in a while. And then I have some concrete around that I use, but other than that, it's just like wood. But still, I've had that thing for well over a year. And I still haven't changed the string out.

That's crazy.

It didn't have that much string in it.

That's nuts, man. We need to know what kind of string that is. That's what I'm saying. Kind of like, like carbon steel, inner, inner carbon steel.

I do want to try like the blade.

Oh yeah, I do too.

But like, I'm afraid like it'll like— I'll hit like a plant I don't want to or something and just like—

Gone. Yeah, yeah, it's gone. Yeah, so anyway, all that to be said, um, So I bought the pole saw, got it home. It was really pretty simple to put together. The one thing that I was glad about is I— it came with another 2.5 amp-hour battery. So now I've got 2 2.5 amp-hour batteries for it. And they're like— one of the things to know about the EGO system is they're 56-volt batteries, man. Like, they're not— they're not playing around. This isn't a 20-volt system. It's not even like a 40-volt system that Ryobi has. Um, it's a 56-volt battery.

And So you got, you got a whole new battery for this one too?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, because I bought the whole— you had to buy the whole tool, not just the attachment. Um, it, it comes with a charger and with the actual battery as well. So, okay, so now I've got 2 chargers, 2 batteries. Um, which I'd already been thinking, man, like that 2.5 amp-hour battery probably is not going to last me across 3 acres, you know.

So with, with— I'm looking at a picture of what the, um, uh, the, the other heads for this system. So it looks like there's a trimmer and then like an edger.

Yeah, but they've got a whole bunch.

Oh, there's more than that?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they got— they've got the trimmer, uh, the edger, they've got a, uh, a hedge trimmer, like long, you know, like the saw blade.

Yeah.

Yep. Um, then they've got the, the pole saw, They've also got a cultivator, so like a—

Oh, a tiller. Oh, okay, I see a bigger picture now. There's like a sweeper, an edger, a tiller, um, and a brush tool.

Uh, it's a brush attachment, like a bristle attachment.

It looks like a water brush is what they have.

Uh, yes, there's, there's one with like—

there's one that looks like a, like a sweeper for like dirt, and there's one that looks like a sweeper for like water.

Yeah, exactly. Those are— well, but one of them is actually, it's a like a rubber broom Right, like water. Yeah. And then one that's like a bristle attachment for like, right, rocks or, uh, debris.

Yep, hedge trimmer. And then it looks like there's like an even like an extension rod.

Yeah, which honestly, um, I needed that. Mhm. I, I really needed that. In fact, I'm—

How much is the extension rod, do you know?

Um, I don't know. I'm probably—

I'll look it up. Keep talking.

So I, I actually need the extension, and, and here's why. I, I wished that I could get just a little bit higher with my pole saw.

Uh-huh.

Um, it would be really good for like a hedge trimmer too if you had some really, you know, large hedges that you need to get to the back of. Um, that would be really helpful for probably. Um, but so I got it home, put it together, and you just fill up— there's like a little tank that, that fills up with oil so it self-lubricates itself. Um, And, and I went to town.

Like chain oil?

Yeah, yeah, chain oil. I, I mean, I went to town on this thing, and I'll tell you, there is not a single limb that I tried to get through that this thing didn't just absolutely tear to pieces. I mean, I, I've had, I've had multiple chainsaws, uh, in my life, and this was every bit as good as any chain. Now, of course, brand new chain, right?

Right.

Yeah, so it's sharp out of the box, but it just absolutely tore up the limbs that I needed to take down.

Um, the extension rod looks like it's $64.

That's a no-brainer for me. I mean, because how long does it say it is?

31-inch.

Yeah, like almost another 3 feet.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's— I need to get that, um, because I've got some more stuff that I need to trim up, but Anyway, uh, I will, I will tell you. So I was, uh, uh, so here comes the story. You ready for the story?

I'm ready.

All right, so here's the thing. Like, some of these limbs were, were hanging down pretty low because they had a lot of foliage on them, but in order to trim them where they needed to be trimmed, they were like, they were up pretty high, right? Right. So, um, I borrowed a 12-foot, uh, A-frame ladder, which I know you would love to be on top of. Um, and like, those things are, those things are tall. Yeah, they're tall.

Um, like, you start setting that thing up and it's like, it's still going up there.

Yeah, exactly. And yeah, it's really hard to kind of like walk it up, you know. Um, and then like, it takes up a huge footprint, you know, on the ground. Um, so I'm at, I'm at the top of this, and this is really where I needed that, that attachment.

Yeah.

Uh, because I had one that was so tall that I was, I was like, man, I gotta get that one. And I'm not going up to like the last, the last step I was willing to get on while holding a pole saw was the second one from the top. I wasn't going up to the first one from the top.

Are you talking about like the tippy top or like the, the actual step at the top?

The actual, yeah.

Yeah, so there's the one that says don't step on this because it's not a step.

Yes.

Like, so you were at the one, 2 down from that?

Yeah, 2 down from the, like, the cap, the very, very top.

Okay.

Right, so I'm not stepping on that, that last step. That's out there.

Well, because I mean, there's nothing to hang on to.

There's nothing to hang on to. And like, if you're on that second step, you can still kind of brace yourself with your legs. Yeah, if you get up there like You're in no man's land. There's nothing.

Yeah.

And so the problem is it's so high up there that I'm, I'm using that pole saw above my head.

Uh-huh.

Okay. And it doesn't matter what pole saw you're using, they're heavy on the back end. Like, this one had a 2.5 amp-hour battery on it, and those things are not lightweight. But like, if you had a, a gas one, it's heavy too because you got the gas tank, right? So, so they're heavy. So I'm above my head, right? And like, you've trimmed trees before, right?

Sure.

So really the way you're supposed to do it, do it, is like you're supposed to start from the bottom of the limb and cut about halfway up and then come back to the top and like cut in an angle down. And so it, it falls, breaks off. Well, I don't know what I did. But I did the bottom piece and I came up to the top, and I think it was the angle that I was at, uh, I got almost through and it hung. The, the blade wouldn't keep going. And like, one of the things I think with a gas trimmer that you don't get with an electric trimmer is I think it'll keep trying. Yeah, but with the electric stuff, like, if it gets hung up, to save

itself, it, it just won't try, right? Even. And so I— my mother-in-law's below, you know, kind of watching, you know, helping me, you know, pull limbs off once I, once I get them. And, uh, she goes, what's the problem? I said, I'm hung. Okay, this was like the 3rd branch I was working on too.

Yeah.

I was like, I'm hung. She's like, what do you mean? I was like, it it won't go. And she said, okay. And I said, and it's stuck. Like the blade is stuck. I can't, I can't get it out.

Yeah.

And she goes, what are you gonna do? I was like, I don't know. But, um, you're— I need you. I'm gonna have to have your help. Like we're gonna have to go get— we also had a 10-foot ladder with us.

Uh-huh.

I was like, you're gonna have to go get the 10-foot ladder and I think we're gonna have to do some maneuvering here. And so, um, She goes, okay, I'll go get it. Well, it was on the other side of the house, and I mean, my mother-in-law's 71 years old.

Yeah.

So she was like, I'll go get it, the 10-foot ladder all by myself. And they're not lightweight, even the fiberglass ones are not lightweight. And, uh, so she goes and gets it. This whole time I'm holding the pole saw above my head because here's the thing, I just bought this pole saw. If I let go of it it will probably hang there, but there's no chance it doesn't bend that head.

Yeah.

The, the— what is it called?

The blade.

The blade. It's, it's just gonna bend it. And I'm like, I just bought this thing, I'm not gonna do that. So I'm holding it, and— or worse, something does give way and it breaks and it falls at this point like 14 feet.

Yeah.

It ain't gonna work very well after that, probably. So we do a couple— I was like, I've got to move. I said, I think what I've got to do is I've got to move the, uh, the ladder. It's in a, it's in a bad position at this point. I've got to move it. So, so she gets up there and she's like, what do you want me to do? I was like, I need you to come up and hold the saw. And she was like, okay, I'll see what I can do. So she gets at the very top of this 10-foot ladder and she's holding it. And I was like, here it is. I handed it to her and I get—

I rushed down, move the ladder. take it back from her. And she's like, I don't have much strength up here, you're gonna have to hurry. So I do. And dude, I'm, I'm not kidding, we probably messed with it for 40 minutes. 40 minutes that I'm holding this thing above my head.

It's 38 minutes longer than I need to be on any ladder. Yeah.

And, and so that's the other thing is like, like I'm trying to like, I'm like pulling on it a little bit and the whole limb's just kind of you know, swinging. And, um, and she was like, what if I can grab the limb? I was like, you can try. So she gets on the 10-foot ladder over there and she like grabs the limb and like tries to pull it toward her. Nothing's working. And, um, thankfully at one point people were not in the way.

Mm-hmm.

I was still up, obviously still up on the ladder, and I pulled it just the right amount, apparently over amount of time. And that limb gave way and it— dude, it was a big limb.

Yeah.

And it came down with a thud and I'm on top of this ladder and the pole saw just comes down and I'm like, oh my goodness. I— and I literally, I literally had it, um, by, by the handle and it swung down to my side and I'm like, I'm glad I'm on a 12-foot ladder because it's got such a nice footprint on it, you know. that it— they're pretty stable. Yeah, they really, really are, even though you're a long way up there. Um, dude, I, I thought I was— I didn't know what was gonna happen. Yeah, I, I was like, okay.

Sounds like a good opportunity to like Tarzan off a limb, man.

She actually said— she was like, do you, do you think that like someone could come and like do what you just said?

Yeah.

And I was like, maybe. But like, here's the thing, if I call Craig right now, if he's home, It's 15 minutes for him to get over here, and it's already been like 30, right? And I'm like, I don't know. I, I don't know what's gonna happen here. But, anyway, I, who knows? She was like, could, could we get someone with a pickup and put the, put a ladder in the back of the pickup? Could we do it then? I was like, yeah, probably.

But that doesn't work.

I, like, I don't— I tried that. You did?

Well, then when I had a swarm of bees up a tree one time, and I was just pissed off at them, I was going up there to, like, throw a rock at them.

That didn't work out?

No.

For, for you or the bees?

Either one of us.

Okay. Could you get the— could you actually get the ladder on in the back of the truck?

Uh, no. Oh, it's, it's too— the most pickup trucks are— they're too— they're not long enough.

They're not long enough. Yeah, for the ladder that tall. Look, I don't know. I don't know what we would have had to done.

Plus my wife said I was an idiot.

Well, was that before or after you got up on the ladder?

It was during.

Oh, okay. Anyway, so I'll tell you, man, like, I was, uh, after that she was like, do you want to keep going? I was like, yeah, I got all these limbs to do. Like, I've just started. And I'll tell you, we got— I, I can't tell you how many limbs we took down. I, I probably took down 30 limbs that day. Um, and it was getting nighttime, like It wasn't supposed to take that long, but I wasted 45 minutes on top of a ladder. And, uh, so the, the battery lasted, um, about halfway through.

Okay.

So I probably, I probably got 15, between 15 and 20 decent-sized limbs down before it stopped on me. Um, I don't know how, how much runtime that was. I'm not sure. Um, but then I just popped the other one in and I was able to easily finish.

From your trimmer?

Yeah, from the trimmer. And if you had like a 4 amp-hour battery, you, you probably could have gone quite a bit longer. Um, but I mean, that's also going to weigh down that—

Sure, it's going to be heavier.

It's going to be heavier.

So you better have a bunch of little ones.

Yeah, exactly. So, you know, I, I, uh, at this point I'm still— all the limbs are still at the back of my property. Um, and I need to cut them up and burn them, but I've— I was like, man, I probably need to just go buy an actual chainsaw at this point and to cut all those up. Then I was like, it's just little limbs, I'll probably just use the pole saw to finish cutting them up. Um, but I'll tell you, I was amazingly impressed with how powerful it was.

Yeah.

Uh, I mean, it's super quiet. I mean, it doesn't— because right here Yeah, yeah, it did. It— I mean, it doesn't— it's not loud at all. Um, but it did a, it did a phenomenal job. Um, so does, does it have any features on it other than—

I mean, like, and it's not to say that it needs them, I'm asking just because I want to know. Does it have any features other than just pull trigger, cut, cut wood?

Uh, well, yeah, I mean, it's got a, uh, what is it, what is it called? Um, It's got that little teeth thing at the bottom of it, so where you, you know, supposedly you put it up against a, up against a limb and it keeps it steady as you're coming through.

Gives you a little bit of leverage.

A little bit of leverage. I don't know what that thing's called.

I don't know, who knows.

But, uh, who knows. But it's got a— so it's a 10-inch bar.

Okay.

And that's, uh, you know, pretty standard for, for a decent-sized pole saw.

Yeah.

Um, so 10-inch bar, um, it's It's, uh, you know, it's got that automatic lubricating system. You just pour the— like, you don't have to do anything special. You just pour the, the chain oil into the, the thing. And honestly, like, it looked like I'd used none of it after that entire time.

That's good.

Yeah, so it'll, it'll last a long time as long as it's taken care of. Um, so, uh, the thing— it is water resistant, so, you know, that's probably good for a lot of different reasons. I mean, a lot, especially if you're cutting any live trees, like, yeah, you can get into some wet stuff.

You know, but I mean, the good, the good thing about having an electric saw like this, and like, you know, I think when these initially came out, when even when they had like the electric ones that were running off of, uh, uh, just, I don't—

Like a, like a plug?

Yeah, like a plug. Yeah, like those sucked.

Oh yeah.

Um, but you know, having, having an electric one that's actually powerful, the downside to a gas one is you rarely start it.

Right.

And so like when you do go to use it those, you know, maybe 2 times a year.

Yes.

You're gonna be— you just, you have to put into your plan that I'm gonna spend 20 minutes just getting this thing to turn over.

Yep.

Because it's all gummed up or whatever. Like, you know, because I didn't put it away right last time or whatever. Or even if you did, it still sat there for 6 months not being started.

Right.

And that, that matters.

Yes, it does.

Um, and so, but with an electric one, if it has the same amount of power, man, you slap the battery in, pull the trigger, and off you go.

Yeah. And, and that's really all there is to it. I mean, there's no maintenance that you're gonna have to do on this thing except maybe sharpen the blade or get a new blade or—

Get a new blade and then put that, you know, make sure and put bar oil in that, in that reservoir. Exactly.

And one of the things that's actually kind of cool, so it's got the, um, it's got the, the attachment and all that kind of stuff. So, so you got to use a hex key for the, for the chain, for the bar, for, for all that kind of stuff, which you would do with any pole saw, right? That's just the way it is with any of them. But one of the things it has on it, it's got a place to store that hex key on the attachment.

Okay.

Yeah, so it's like a little clip that, that holds that hex key. So—

Sort of like on a circular saw.

Yeah.

Circular saws do that too.

Yeah, exactly. Which is great because like, I mean, how often are you like, I gotta chain— take your— the chain comes off or the chain— Find the right one. Yeah, then you gotta— yeah, exactly. And you're searching through your toolbox, all that kind of stuff. Nah, you don't have to worry about that. So that's really good. Here's the other thing that I was really, really impressed with. Um, most power tools, whatever it is, come with what type of warranty in your opinion?

Like 2-year, 3-year?

Yeah, if, if you're lucky. A lot of them are maybe even 1 year, that type of thing. Um, you know, Ryobi has a really good warranty. Most of the time you can just replace it, but this thing out of the box has a 5-year warranty on it.

Oh, nice.

Yeah.

So is that full replacement?

Yeah, I was actually, um, looking at that question.

Where are they?

Is that—

are they at Lowe's now?

Yeah, they're at Lowe's, they're at Ace. Um, you can get them on Amazon too. Yeah, which is really, really great. But, um, what it says on the warranty— go ahead.

Oh, I was just gonna say, uh, Tractor Supply, not EGO, but they're carrying Greenworks.

Yeah, Greenworks is good, which—

that's, that's a new one that they're carrying.

Yeah, Greenworks is great too. Um, I know that our, our, uh, friend Eric loves— he loves Greenworks stuff. Um, so it's a 5-year limited warranty, uh, as long as you purchased it from an authorized retailer. Yeah. Um, it's 3-year limited warranty on any battery packs and chargers. Um, and then you can— let's see. Yeah, other than that, it doesn't say a whole lot other than—

Ryobi recently bumped theirs up to 3. It used to just be 2.

2.

Yeah.

Now it's 3. Right.

I don't know why.

I don't either, but I, I mean, Ryobi is doing a lot of really, really great things. And, and honestly, they've got a pole saw, you've got one.

Yep.

And you've had good luck with it. Um, and, and again, you know, it kind of, kind of depends on what kind of ecosystem you want to get into. So if you've already got the 40-volt Ryobi stuff, stay in that system.

They've got some good stuff.

They do. I, I would not encourage anyone— if you've got a 40-volt Ryobi system, I would not encourage you to go get the EGO, right? Even though it's a great product and I'm super happy with it and I would highly recommend it to anyone, it doesn't make sense to jump ecosystems just because you think one might be a little bit better than the other one. I would go after the ecosystem that you've got, but for me, I already had the trimmer, I knew I liked it.

Yeah.

And so I've already— yeah, I've already got the ecosystem, so Did you get a blower for it? I didn't, man. Like, well, I've already got a backpack blower, Husqvarna backpack blower.

It's a gas-powered one?

Yeah. And I really don't— I mean, that thing is, it's a beast.

Yeah.

So I really don't need something else. So no, I, I haven't done it. Although, man, like, the thing that beyond all the, the things that you and I would say about how great battery-powered stuff is, like, honestly, one of the biggest things is they're quiet.

Mhmm.

You know? I mean, they, they're not hard on your ears, which is a big deal.

For sure.

It really is a big deal.

Or, I mean, like, just, like, you can listen to a podcast while you're weed eating.

Absolutely.

Like, that's a big deal.

It's a huge deal. And you can talk to people on the phone.

Yeah.

Whenever you're— yeah. You can get work done. So multitask. I will tell you this. So I've mentioned this on the podcast before, but the homeowner left a lot of stuff at the house. Like, She didn't leave junk. She left good stuff. One of the things she left was, um, did, did you know that Kobalt has a 40-volt system as well?

I did not.

Yeah, I, I didn't either. Um, but she left a, a Kobalt 40-volt hedge trimmer.

What?

Yeah, it's really nice. Like, I've got a Ryobi one, like an old school. It's blue, right? It's really old school, but works on their 18-volt system, and it works, it works really, really well. This one's a lot better than that one.

Um, it's probably about 10 years younger too.

Oh yeah. Oh, if not more, because like I said, mine's blue.

Yeah.

So, you know, I got a lot of blue Ryobi stuff. It still works. Um, but so when I went to Lowe's to get the, uh, the trimmer— I mean, the, uh, the pole saw— they had the Cobalt system there, and I started looking at them, they've got a pretty impressive line. I had no idea.

Yeah, they— and they've really come out like, I mean, like they didn't really have a whole lot of power tools before that either, and they've got a bunch of them now.

Yep.

So I mean, they're in the game. Cobalt makes a good tool. I mean, like they've always been like a good hand tool.

Yes.

Um, and but like I, I actually haven't— I mean, other than like what you're saying about their, their head trimmer, I haven't tried out any of their power tools.

No, I— well, I, I hadn't either except for that. And so What's interesting is now that I have it, uh-huh, I would— there are certain tools that I might be inclined to buy because I don't have the Ryobi 40-volt system, right? I went with EGO. I've got the 18-volt system from Ryobi. So, but like, for example, if there was a fan that I wanted or a, I don't know, a flashlight or something, and it wound up being you know, you can get this one from Cobalt and it's, you know, $100, and the one from EGO is $140, I might be inclined to buy that Cobalt just because, you know, I already got it.

I've already got it.

Yeah. So that'd be weird, a 40-volt flashlight. Well, but no, they've got like— they've got like—

Who, who would, who would not believe that you're out like hunting deer?

It's not like, it's not like a little handheld, it's like a Like, I've seen them. They're like—

I know what you— it's like, it's like a work light.

Although, did you know that EGO now has a, has a, uh, a massive fan that runs off their 56-volt?

Really?

It's like, like this big. It's like a— it's bigger than a box fan, and it's got misters on it.

That's cool.

And so you literally— oh, and it's got a, it's got a pump on it. So you just put a hose down in a 5-gallon bucket, and it's a misting fan.

Wait, Ryobi has that? They do, on the 18-volt line. Yeah.

Okay.

It's— it— and like, it literally, it sits on a 5-gallon bucket. It's got a little tube that goes down there, and the mister's on the side.

Yeah, but this But this one's big.

Well, yeah, theirs is not big.

No, I've got one. It's not Ryobi. It's electric, but I've got one that sits on top of a 5-gallon bucket, does the very same thing. They're really great.

I've always wanted to try it, but put ice water in the— especially right now.

Yes.

And just to see how much would that cool you off?

I never told you about the air conditioner. that I built out of a, uh, 5-gallon, uh, cooler. You know, like the water coolers? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I built an air conditioner out of it.

Oh, that's cool.

So what I did, I, I left it at the previous place that I worked, um, but what I did was I, I took 3, uh, like 2-inch PVC pipes and I cut holes in the side of this, uh, this thing and put like glued the, them into it. So it's got ports, right? And then I took the lid and I cut a hole in the top of the lid and I found, um, I had 2 old air hockey table, uh, fans.

Okay.

And I put those like I, I built those into the, the lid of the cooler.

Yeah.

And so it was blowing air and you just freeze a gallon of water, put it down in that cooler, and the fan blows and gets the— hits the ice and blows it out. Yeah, and it's like an air conditioner. You just need a little bit of electricity. It actually worked pretty well.

I mean, it sounds pretty much like how a swamp cooler works. I mean, yeah, just run cold water through the filter and—

Exactly. Yeah, that's all it was.

So what were you using it for?

Uh, we were at a campsite, like where there's a cabin or something. Yep, it was hot, so we just used it for that.

Smart.

So speaking of, we didn't finish a conversation from earlier where I told you I had bought a mini split and I put it in my storage shed. You thought I had put it in my shop, right? But I bought a massive swamp cooler to put in the shop. Oh, you did?

Okay.

It'll— it'll— it says it'll cover It's like the HiSensor? Yep.

Okay.

Yep. I think it's the same one that you've got, only I've got the, the bigger model, bigger version. It says it'll cover almost— I think it's like 960 square feet or something.

Okay.

So, so yeah, it'll— I basically, my, my thought was the, the other place was sealed up and the shop isn't, so swamp cooler ought to do a pretty good job. It's not like it would do in Arizona or West Texas.

Oh no, it does, it does a good job.

But it will do a fine job for what I need.

Oh, for sure. Yeah. I mean, it'll drop it by 10 degrees.

That's easy. And, and just having the cool air, like, having cool air blowing a little bit is a huge thing around here. So—

Oh yeah, like, and it works better when the fan's a little— like the one on mine, like, the fan's not crazy powerful. Yeah, but it's, it's really just like pushing cool moist air through. Yep, through the area.

Yep. Um, so anyway, but yeah, I— look, I, I would buy I would tell anybody, go buy— if you're looking for a pole saw and you're— you don't have an ecosystem already, the EGO brand, I'm— I am just continually impressed with them. They're— they're expanding their line all the time. I mean, they got a zero-turn.

Yeah.

Uh, which a lot of them do now. Ryobi has one. Um, even like—

even like the gas-powered brands have— yeah, have like Cub Cadet has an electric one now, right? So—

Yep. I mean, and they'll They'll tell you like it'll do 3 acres.

Yeah.

You know, which is the size of my place.

It just so happens.

It so happens to be.

We can test that theory.

Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, EGO, if you would like to have us review your zero turn.

That's what we should have. We should have a battle of the electrics.

Oh yeah.

That's what we need. We need like one of each and see which one actually like stands the test of time.

Yeah. I mean, because both of us have about 3 acres to mow. Yeah, exactly. And, um, yeah, that would be—

find out if that's actually true.

I, I'm down. You just contact us at info@homownershow.com and, uh, you will be able to get our quick reply.

That's right.

To be able to test one of your, uh, amazing mowers.

Yeah, exactly.

So anyway, any other questions? Any other thoughts about this?

None for me, man. I mean, it's a saw.

Yeah, that's the thing. We could talk about it for a long time, but at the end of the day, it cuts things.

Did it cut it?

Yeah, really cut it.

I'm in.

Yeah, exactly. So anyway, all right, well, sorry you didn't hear us on Facebook.

You have to listen to the audio.

You have to hear it on the replay. But all you listeners out there, thanks for hanging with us. Thanks for downloading today's episode and giving us your time for today, go ahead and click the like button, the share— the subscribe button, the share button, all those things. And leave us a 5-star rating and review, that'd be fantastic. But until next time, we'll see you later. See ya!