Skil 40V 18-Inch Brushless Chainsaw Kit Review: Battery Power Without the Gas Hassle

Introduction

Skil has been quietly rebuilding itself into a serious competitor in outdoor power equipment. Backed by Chervon, the same parent company behind EGO, Flex, and Skilsaw, the brand now offers more than 150 tools and keeps expanding. That kind of growth matters even if you have never owned a Skil tool, because competition keeps prices down across the market.

The latest addition is the Skil 40V 18-inch brushless chainsaw kit, aimed squarely at buyers who want battery convenience instead of gas. That means no pull cord, no fuel mixing, no stale gas sitting in a tank all spring. It also means competing directly with established names like Ryobi, and on paper Skil looks aggressive on both specs and price.

Who This Product Is For

This saw suits homeowners and property owners who handle limbing, felling, and general cleanup around the yard but do not want the maintenance routine of a gas saw. If you only use a chainsaw a few times a year, dealing with mixed fuel and hard starts every spring gets old fast, and battery power sidesteps all of it.

If you run a chainsaw professionally all day, a premium gas saw still makes sense. For everyone else doing property work, this kit is positioned as a convenient, capable middle ground.

Main Strengths

The spec sheet is genuinely competitive. You get an 18-inch bar and chain, a brushless motor that Skil compares to a 40cc gas engine, and a low-profile design weighing 8.7 pounds as a tool. That weight figure is notably lighter than the Ryobi kit it is compared against, which comes in around 11 pounds.

Chain tensioning is fully toolless. Rather than a built-in wrench and screw adjustment, you loosen a spindle mechanism, adjust the chain, and tighten it back down by hand. It is a small convenience that you will appreciate every time you need to re-tension mid-job.

Cutting performance is rated at up to 210 cuts through 4x4 pine on the included 40V 6Ah battery. Skil also rates the bar and chain for up to a 32-inch cut capacity for limbing and felling, and the saw carries aggressive front bucking spikes for better control. It needs standard bar and chain oil, which is normal for a saw of this size. The whole unit is IPX4 water resistant, so cutting in rain or snow is not a problem.

Battery charging is reasonable too: the 6Ah pack recharges from zero to full in about one hour using the included 320W charger.

Things to Consider Before Buying

The obvious trade-off with any battery saw is the missing engine note. A distant chainsaw on a spring morning tells you summer is coming, and you do not get that soundtrack here. More practically, runtime is finite, so very long cutting sessions mean swapping or recharging batteries.

Chain speed is listed as slightly slower than the direct competitor, though not by much, and the pitch and gauge specs are essentially the same. On the plus side, brushless instant torque means very little bogging down, since there is no combustion to manage.

Buying Advice

Price is where this kit makes its strongest case. At $299 you get the chainsaw, the 40V 6Ah battery, and the charger, a complete kit out of the box. The comparable Ryobi kit runs $369 and includes a smaller 5Ah battery, so Skil undercuts it by $70 while including more capacity.

Skil also backs the tool with a five-year warranty, which adds confidence for a brand still building its outdoor power equipment reputation.

Conclusion

The Skil 40V 18-inch brushless chainsaw kit delivers gas-equivalent cutting capability in a lighter, lower-maintenance package, with a kit price that undercuts its closest competitor. If you want convenient, always-ready cutting power around your property without fuel mixing and pull starts, it is an easy recommendation.