I wonder what the cost of operation is for the battery version including battery replacement versus the cost of gasoline, filters, oil and regular maintenance, both over the life of the equipment?
The tools that I have are all two stroke versions so regular maintenance isn't costly. As long as I add good oil and a fuel stabilizer I don't seem to have any issues at all. Maybe a spark plug every now and then and to clean the air filter but that's it for me. The maintenance comes into play when you leave gas in the tank to go bad, but this is where the fuel stabilizer comes into play. The tools all have pretty small tanks and run for quite a while on a tank of gas. So a few gallons of gas a year vs batteries for every tool that'll probably last two to three years whether I use them a lot or only a small amount. I do know that the batteries are expensive as they can approach the couple hundred dollar mark for replacement batteries for some of the tools. I'm not using them for a business though so I'm probably going through a few gallons or gas a year or less if even that much and they'll likely last me just about forever. I would think in my case the gas option would be cheaper for me but this might not be the case for everyone. The major advantage that I would see is that the motor noise is reduced significantly with the battery powered versions. If that's not an issue then it would probably depend on your use as to which option would be better.