There aren’t many instances where I find myself wishing I had one of the best chainsaws. I live in a single-family home not quite in the suburbs, with only a few trees to call my own. However, we recently had two extremely high-wind storms that took out several trees in our neighborhood, including some quite large, 60-year-old oak and pine trees. Thankfully, I had the STIHL MSA 300 C battery-powered chainsaw handy to help me clean up the mess.
The MSA 300 C is a battery-powered chainsaw from legendary chainsaw company STIHL. They’ve been making chainsaws that both professionals and homeowners have come to rely on for almost 100 years. The MSA 300 C is the most powerful battery-powered chainsaw the company makes and is designed to help homeowners and landowners with any tree-management projects they need.
I appreciated having many of the benefits of a battery-powered chainsaw such as no pull cord to deal with or gassy fumes to smell. And the addition of features like a variable speed switch and a low-oil indicator light are quite useful. However, the performance is a bit weaker than I was expecting so you’ll have to be the one to decide if the MSA 300 C will meet your needs.
STIHL MSA 300 Cordless Chainsaw: Price & availability
Ever since STIHL began selling their products in the United States back in 1974, they have exclusively relied on local dealers to get them in the hands of customers. And while you won’t find them at larger retailers such as Lowe’s or Home Depot, there are still some online stores where you can buy their products.
Acme Tools is an authorized online retailer for STIHL and you can currently find the 18” MSA 300 C on their website for $809.99. The 20” blade model is twenty dollars more at $819.99. Keep in mind that does not include the recommended battery, the AP 500 S. That battery is listed for $379.99 at Acme Tools right now and the standard AL 101 charger is another $59.99.
Overall, you’ll be paying well over $1,000 to use the MSA 300 C. In the UK, STIHL has the MSA 300 C listed for £744 (battery not included) and they’ll help you find a local authorized dealer.
Score: 4 out of 5
STIHL MSA 300 Cordless Chainsaw: First Impressions
As with all the other STIHL products I reviewed recently, the MSA 300 C was delivered to me fully assembled by a local STIHL representative. Unfortunately, that means I did not get to unbox the chainsaw and set it up as I normally would when reviewing a product.
I was told by the representative that all tools in the professional lineup of tools (like the MSA 300 C) would be assembled by the local dealer when you arrive to pick it up. If you end up purchasing a tool in the consumer line, I expect your local dealer would be more than happy to assemble it for you.
However, based on other unboxing and setup videos and reviews I found, it appears the only setup required is to attach the chain and the bar. The chain simply slides around the bar which then attaches to the chainsaw body with two nuts. A tool is included to help you tighten the nuts onto the chainsaw.
Picking up and using the MSA 300 C for the first time left quite an impression. It’s certainly not as heavy as gas-powered chainsaws, but there’s still some weight to it. It feels very well built, as all STIHL products do, and from the beginning, I had no worries that it could get the job done.
STIHL MSA 300 Cordless Chainsaw: Design
One of the best things about the MSA 300 C is how easy it is to use. The handle houses the trigger and the palm safety release as well as the power button on the left side (an unfortunate placement for lefties) of the grip. Just above the handle is the indicator display which shows you if the saw is on, what cutting speed is currently selected and if the chain brake is on or off.
There’s also a low oil indicator and heat indicator on the display to notify you if you need to stop cutting or fill the oil reservoir.
Just above the handle is where the AP 500 S battery slots in. The grip handle is just in front of that with the chain break lever just above that. At the front of the motor housing, right where the blade attaches to the body is a bumper spike which is there to hold the log steady as you cut and to help prevent the log from jumping back into the saw while you’re cutting.
There’s also a chain catcher at the base of the blade to protect you in case the chain breaks or comes off the bar.
You can get the MSA 300 C with either an 18 inch or 20 inch chain. With the AP 500 S battery, the 18 inch model weighs in at 14.1 pounds so it’s not unwieldy, and certainly lighter than gas-powered machines.
Overall, it’s well designed with all the basics you’d expect, plus some extra features that are quite useful.
Score: 5 out of 5
STIHL MSA 300 Cordless Chainsaw: Key specs
STIHL MSA 300 Cordless Chainsaw: Performance
I live in Houston, TX and you might have heard we had a couple of rough storms blow through a couple months ago. While it certainly was not fun to live through them (especially without power for a week each time), fortunately for the purpose of this review, it left quite a few large branches on our lawn. It even knocked down one of our smaller trees that I needed to cut up and clear away.
The first branch I used the saw on was about a foot in diameter at its thickest point. By default, the chainsaw turns on in the first speed setting, but I left it on the second setting for most of my cuts. Thankfully the saw remembers which setting you left it on when it powers off, so you don’t have to hit the button every time. As a safety measure, the saw powers off automatically after only a few seconds of not using it so you also don’t have to remember to turn it off every time.
I honestly don’t think I had to use the highest setting at all to clear away those branches and the tree that fell.
A couple weeks after the storm, I used the saw to cut down a tree in our backyard that had been damaged by the storm, and that we were planning on removing it anyway. This tree was about 8-10 inches in diameter, but it was still standing so it was much greener than the ones that had fallen.
For this cut, the saw actually did get bogged down towards the end of the cut and I had to turn it up to the highest setting. I was also cutting at an angle so that no doubt contributed to the stoppage as well, but once I turned up the speed, the saw finished the cut with no problem.
STIHL claims up to 44 minutes of run time with the AP 500 S, but my experience was a bit shorter than that. I probably only got about 30-35 minutes of actual cutting time before the battery ran out on me. Luckily, I had an AP 300 S battery I was able to use, but with that battery I was not able to turn up the power level higher than eco mode.
Not so luckily, the AP 500 S battery takes over three hours to charge using the standard AL 101 charger. STIHL does have a fast charger, the AL 301 that will charge in about an hour and a half, but it also costs $109. There’s also a super-fast charger, the AL 501 ($179), that can supposedly fully charge an AP 500 S in about 45 minutes, but I did not receive that one to test.
The noise level of the MSA 300 C was also noticeably lower than a gas-powered chainsaw. Most gas saws are between 100-115dB where as the MSA 300 C clocked in at about 95dB which is about equivalent to walking a long a busy street.
Score: 4.5 out of 5
Should you buy the STIHL MSA 300 Cordless Chainsaw?
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
How does the STIHL MSA 300 Cordless Chainsaw compare?
The Husqvarna Power Axe 350i is our number 1 of chainsaw you can buy this year, and for good reason. It has a boost mode for thicker cuts, it’s lightweight, and it’s less than half the price of the MSA 300 C. I tried it out and, I must say, that I was quite impressed with its ease of use and plethora of safety features.
If you don’t need to do a lot of cutting and don’t want to spend a lot for a top-of-the-line chainsaw, the Sun Joe 24V-X2-CS16 is a great choice. It has a visible oil level, so you always know when it’s time to top up and our tester appreciated how light and easy to use it was. However, it lacks some more advanced features and is probably not powerful enough for felling trees.
If you really need the extra power of a gas chainsaw, check out the Echo CS-310-14 as reviewed by J.D. Chadwick. It’s more than powerful enough for almost any cutting you’ll need to do and it’s lightweight enough to not get uncomfortable during long periods of use. However, the bar is a bit shorter at 14 in. and it requires more maintenance than a battery chainsaw.
How the STIHL MSA 300 C Chainsaw was tested for this review
For my testing, I cut up several large branches and a small tree that had fallen in our yard during a big storm. The largest branches were about 12 inches in diameter, and I ran the saw for about an hour of cutting time. I also felled and cleared a small eight-to-ten-inch diameter tree in my backyard. For the most part, I used a STIHL AP 500 S battery but swapped in an AP 300 S battery when the 500 S died before I had finished clearing the branches.
Learn more about how we test.
First reviewed: August 2024
