We’ve used the DeWalt DCPS620 cordless pole saw for a full year—plenty of time to give you a solid durability review. Is it still performing? What are the annoyances? Here’s our real-world take after extended use.
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We’ve had success with our suite of DeWalt® cordless 20v XR battery-driven tools, so when it came time to look for a cordless pole saw, we purchased a DCPS620B Bare Tool with a promo pack with an extra chain and bar. It was cheaper than the bare tool, so that was a no-brainer.
We stand by our initial observation about tool balance with the powerhead being on one end and the control and battery pack being on the other. The tool feels a bit heavy on the cutting end, but this works to your advantage by allowing the weight of the head to assist with cutting limbs up high.
When the control section and the saw section are assembled, the saw is about 5’/1.5 m) long, allowing me to reach about 11 to 12’ (somewhere around 3.5m) up to cut. Adding the center section extends the reach to about 15’/4.5m). We don’t use the additional section, but probably will when I want to prune higher sections of our trees.
We still think that DeWalt® could have done a better job on the attachment points though. They aren’t very tight, and the joint flexes more than we’d like it to. The tool performs well, I just don’t like the feel of the tool flexing as I use it. It’s sloppy and distracting.
Chain adjustment is very easy by using the onboard tool attached to the safety scabbard. One end of the tool is a hex to allow the loosening and untightening of the bolts to hold the bar in position. The other end is a straight screwdriver to adjust the bar in and out to compensate for chain stretching or when a new chain is installed. I’m still using the original chain, and it is easy to sharpen using a 5/32” (4 mm) round file.
DeWalt® recommends you empty the bar and chain oil reservoir after each use. They don’t say why, but our experience is that oil in the reservoir will leak out and make a mess and waste the oil. If you set the pole saw upside down, the leakage is all but eliminated.
Battery run time continues to be good. The saw does tend to bind easily if even a slight twist is applied to the head as it is cutting. In field use quickly develops needed muscle memory to make quick adjustments while cutting to keep the blade moving.
The bottom line? Our initial impressions have been verified. The tool works well, is holding up, while the loose pole connection does indeed continue to be irritating, as well as the tendency of chain oil to drool all over the tool and wherever it is stored.
Would we buy it again? Yes, especially because it utilizes the battery and charger sets we have.
Hey, Dirt Farmer Jay here from dirt
farmerj.com. It's been a year since we
got this cordless pole saw from DeWalt.
Well, how's it held up? Is it doing what
we wanted to? And are there anything
that bug us? Stay tuned and I'll let you
in on the secrets.
[Music]
Hey, Der Farmer Jay here from
durmerj.com. It's been a year since we
bought this model which is called a DC
PS620
8 in pole chainsaw. We added to our
whole set of tools from DeWalt because
we're married to them through the
battery system. You know how that goes
whether you have DeWalt or another
brand. Uh but we decided to give this a
try. We gave you some initial uh
impressions back a year ago and let me
give you where we felt this has all
landed and what we like and what we
don't like about the saw. Well, first of
all, the saw does a pretty dog on good
job. It has a good run life. It's fairly
well balanced. It gives you a quite a
reach up. Uh from time to time it'll
bind a little bit, but that's going to
happen with any saw up high. Um, we
found that the head is a little bit
heavy compared down here to the control
end. However, that actually works in
your favor when you've got that up in
against a branch. The weight of the head
allows you to let the tool do more work
without you having to pull it into the
cut. You'll notice right here that this
is a little bit of a fulcrum that allows
you to be up in the tree and to protect
the front of the motor and the oil
reservoir and all that. Works really
well. The chain itself is pretty durable
and it's easy to adjust. I'll show you
that in just a few moments. But
something we really don't like about
this and it holds true on the DeWalt
chainsaw as well. If you see right there
is the lid for the bar and chain oil
that keeps this lubricated. Well, the
problem is that is a drip system. So,
this thing drools oil all the time. Now,
one of the things I did to really slow
that down is store it upside down and
that helps quite a bit putting it in a
pan or drip pan, some kind of catchment
for that. but it's still really messy.
And if you leave it like this full of
oil, you're gonna have a a pool of oil
under it. So, I think that could have
been better designed. Um, but I don't
know the economics of what it would take
to do some kind of punt system that
metered it out. Uh, I'm just saying that
I don't like the end results. It is
really messy. Um, that's one thing that
I don't like on it. the other uh and I
mentioned this in the first review and
it's turned out to be an irritant as
well. Not enough that I wouldn't do the
saw again, but I'd like the tool to feel
tight, well put together that it's not
wobbly. And this coupling that's right
here that is used to put the two halves
together
uh can be when you screw it back
together. It never quite Do you see that
flex? It it bends even though I've
tightened it all the way. There it is.
It still bends and flexes. Does the tool
work? Yeah. I just don't like how it
feels. It ought to feel tight and that
when you push on it, the top is not
giving like that. So, I think you could
do a much better job on this. Maybe some
kind of lever latch, maybe something
with a longer insert, something, but
this is not up to the standard uh that I
would expect for a tool like this. So,
that's a downer, but again, not enough
to disqualify. It's just more an
irritant than anything else. As far as
use of the tool itself, um, this works
ergonomically. It works really well.
When your hands sideways, you get pretty
used to very quickly the safety. That
right there will not let the trigger go
down unless you push that down. And this
really isn't the trigger. This is the
safety. If I lowered the safety and
pulled the trigger, then the saw would
run. If that's up, that trigger is not
going to go. So, that's a nice safety
feature because um you could do a lot of
damage with this end really quickly.
Now, as far as sharpening the saw
itself, this is really easy to put into
my standard bench vice and just kind of
count the teeth. And what this takes is
a 5/32 or 4mm round file. And I just get
mine at Tractor Supply. You can get them
for DeWalt, probably at your big box
store, but these are really handy. And I
do the same amount of strokes in line
with the way the pitch is on each
alternating tooth. Um, and you can
sharpen one of these saws probably in
under five minutes. So, uh, this is how
I do that. Now, something that's really
nice that they did include is an onboard
tool system. So, the saw comes with this
scabbard that goes right on here to keep
that protected out of the dirt, keep you
safe also. But you'll noticed right
there, there's an onboard tool, uh, hex
key that's on this end with a straight
blade on the other. So, when you pull
that, I'll bring it up. Now, you've got
this tool that you can use. Well, where
that tool fits is I'm going to spin this
around right there. that goes into those
two fasteners right there. And when you
loosen that, this loosens the blade. And
then at the end of the on the other
side, there's a adjustment right here
using the straight blade that you can
tighten or loosen this. So, as a
chainsaw is used, the links will start
to loosen up. And you don't want this
hanging loose on there. You don't want
it super tight either. But that's a
probably about good right there. You see
a little bit of flex there like that.
But you wouldn't want it hanging on
there. So that's how that's taken up.
Now, when the time finally comes for you
to replace this, you can't sharpen
anymore, perhaps you damaged it, ran it
too much in the dirt, maybe something
like that, uh hit a rock with it, and
it's time to replace them, then
replacement
kits like this are readily available.
Uh, you can buy them online. I'll put a
link down in the description below where
you get this and the price point at the
time that we publish this video. So,
overall, a year out, would I do it
again? Yes. There's a couple irritants.
Are they enough to disqualify the saw
and make me regret I bought it? No. I
think it does a good job around here,
and it really helps me to reach some
things that I otherwise could not reach,
to keep take care of higher branches.
and trimming jobs that would literally
beyond my reach if I did not have this
saw. So, thumbs up overall. While this
does a fantastic job for those bigger
diameter uh branches and higher up, if
you've got a lot of pruning down low for
mediumsiz branches, check out this
product that DeWalt put out that we did
an episode on. It's a cordless power
pruner and it is a workhorse. I'll walk
you through it. Take a look over there.
We think you'll like what you see. Until
the next time, this is Dur Farmer Jay
from derfarmerj.com.
