[rented_mule]

Not who you're replying to, but I also have a brushless 36V Makita chainsaw. I buck and split 2-3 full cords of firewood every year for myself. The biggest logs I've cut with it are ~30 inches in diameter. I only have a 16" bar, so that means coming at it from all around. The Makita is stunningly good for my use case, much better than the gas saw I used to have.

I have two sets of batteries, and they'll get me through more cutting than I want to do in a day. Occasionally weather will cause me to need to do more than I want in a day, and one set of batteries will charge in just enough time for me to get through the other set and take a little break, so I can go all day long. In my case, the only time I'm not cutting near grid power is when I'm clearing a log that fell across a trail I'm riding in my UTV, but I'm not going to keep riding down a trail that has enough downed trees to consume a set of batteries.

There's no place to rent chainsaws within an hour's drive of where I live (I live in a rural, forested area). There are certainly more powerful gas-powered saws, but I don't need the power. If I suddenly feel like getting some cutting done, I much prefer not having to worry about whether I have gas and premix (I still have to worry about bar/chain oil, but a gallon lasts me 2-3 years). The nearest gas station is a 30-40 minute round trip. I love not having to worry about disturbing my wife or the neighbor when their windows are open. It was fun last summer when my neighbor came out of his house to be surprised that I'd bucked 3 logs, each 30 feet long and 18" in diameter, while he slept with his windows open. Saying there are "much better gas powered" saws implies a single dimension of comparison. That's not the case - there are just different trade-offs.