Fans of DeWalt cordless tools are getting another OPE choice with the DeWalt 20V Max XR Cordless Pole Saw. It’s part of a cordless system that includes more than 200 compatible tools.
Designed for lawn care and landscaping applications, DeWalt has storm damage cleanup, brush clearing, branch pruning, shrubbery trimming, and lot clearing in mind with the design.
Editor’s Note: Check out our best pole saws article to see our top picks.
DeWalt 20V Cordless Pole Saw Design
On the business end, DeWalt includes an auto-oiling 8″ bar and chain. You can swap that out for a 10″ bar and chain if you like. The stock setup is designed to produce lower kickback and fast cutting. Since it’s an 8″ bar, you can cut branches up to 16″ wide when you cut from both sides.
The head is angled and has the bar set to the left side to help give you a better line of sight.
There’s a metal bucking strip to help with your grip and a tree hook to grab any branches that hang in the tree after being cut. There’s also a rubberized grip that lets you hold the saw in a variety of grip angles.
Features
DeWalt includes a 4.0Ah battery in the kit and they tell us to expect the brushless motor to make up to 96 cuts in 4 x 4 PT pine on one charge.
The pole saw is 10 feet long in its standard length. It’s able to reach up to 15 feet when you add the extension. That’s based on a 6-foot tall person holding the saw at a 60º angle.
The DeWalt 20V Max XR Cordless Pole Saw weighs 8.44 pounds as a bare tool.
You can find it as a bare tool (DeWalt DCPS620B) for $149 or as a kit (DeWalt DCPS620M1) for $199. We’re seeing retail prices right at the MSRP for the bare tool, but we’ve seen the kit price as low as $179. The kit includes:
- Pole saw
- Extension pole
- Multi-tool (for bar access and tensioning)
- Bar sheath
- 4.0Ah battery
- Charger
The bare tool includes everything but the battery and charger.
Thoughts on the DeWalt 20V Max XR Cordless Pole Saw
DeWalt’s 20V Max line of lawn care equipment isn’t going to wow you with commercial-level power, but it is highly convenient if you’re already using those batteries for your power tools. That said, the Milwaukee Quik-Lok system and M18 Fuel Chainsaw are good examples of the potential that’s available in the 18V or 20V class.
One of the great things about a pole saw is that you don’t need 40cc gas power to get effective cutting performance. DeWalt’s XR brushless motor should be plenty capable of handling your pruning tasks. I certainly don’t want to be the guy that has to down 16″ oak branches with it, though.
The angled head design is appealing—it should help you cut more directly above the branch than in from an angle. I also like that they went with a metal bucking strip to help you stabilize the saw while you cut.
Pricing and Thoughts
One thing I find interesting is DeWalt’s choice to kit the saw with a 4.0Ah battery when their 5.0Ah pack is a more popular choice. It might be how they’re keeping the retail price under $200.
Overall, the design looks like a win. It’s going to be a good fit for homeowners that have occasional tree trimming or storm cleanup to do as well as for contractors that might need to clean up a property before getting more extensive work underway.
With a relatively small fuel tank in that 4.0Ah battery, don’t expect anything close to all-day runtime. This is going to do its best work as a supplementary tool rather than a primary tool for landscaping professionals.
