Bosch PSA 18 LI Sabre Saw Review

Bosch Green (DIY) sent me their new 18v Sabre Saw to review

It can be purchased from Mitre10 (exclusive?)

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[cobberpete]

I use my Bosch 'Blue' quite often because I cut up Pallets, so find it quite useful. I went for 'Blue' because of the better quality.

[stevecollins]

Thanks for the honest review on that tool, Paul. I have a corded Makita that I purchased in 95. It's been through hell and back but still does a great job from I call on it.

[pktuite]

Thanks for the review Paul. I'm in the Green Bosch cordless range already with the drill, circular saw and jigsaw but was hestitant to go beyond that. Bosch Blue is out of my price range in Ireland (I usually buy via UK retailers) Keep up the great work!

[bluecurvedesign]

Honest review Paul - thanks for not feeling like you have please companies who send stuff in. I don't know why Bosch continue with the green range, I guess it sells, but I reckon it "cheapens" the strength of their brand. Should be sold under another brand name...

[Pete.G]

I never thought about using one of these for cutting pvc pipe, I either put up with the chips flying everywhere on the drop saw or use a thin kerf pull saw. I'll have to drag out the cordless next time I'm doing some plumbing!

[howardbecdove]

That was a very honest review, thanks.
I'm surprised that (in this case) the blue and green models are so closely priced. Makes one wonder why they didn't make this one much cheaper or just not make one at all.
BTW - not a criticism at all, you use what you have, but as a professional gardener I wouldn't consider using a saber saw for pruning. Two strokes with a good Japanese pruning saw and those palm fronds would be cut through. 😄

[skppy]

Thanks for the great review. I'd rather have the blue but already have the green battery and charger with the drill set so I will buy the green sabre because it will likely only be for minimal use with pruning and other occasional cutting jobs around home. Cheers.

[Dingbat]

Nice review, Thanks for that.

I've got a Bosch 18V LI driver and are trying to figure out of I should get matching Bosch green drivers and other tools or I should just bite the bullet and get the Bosch blue series with the larger batteries and faster chargers.

But yeah I agree that it's such a shame that the two battery systems are not compatible...

[jonathanmarshall]

Yup, I have the blue sabre and it is way better than the green one (which I've played with in the store). Far more robust. It's awesome for tree pruning as you mention, plus for doing a bunch of stuff on the house that other tools can't do (e.g. trimming studs in place when reno'ing). The one-handed blue one looks great as well - it wasn't available in NZ when I got mine, else I would have gone for it.

The die-grinder is tempting me at the moment - a few times recently I've been after a dremel-type tool and not had one...

[HifiCentret]

Where I live the green is significantly cheaper than the blue one. I do however agree it's not optimal they're using each their battery system. 2, 5 Ah isn't low tech. It's just they don't offer pack with more than 5 of 18650 cells. Over 2.5-3Ah you need to parallel them to in the typical 4 or 5 Ah pack there's 10 cells. Such packs do exists as third party packs but they don't fit all their tools like AdvanedOrbit if you want to use the filter etc.
Would be nice if they would make an adapter so that green tools could take the blue batteries. That way you could start out cheap tools but with blue batteries and chargers so that you collection could grow with time. For some reason where I live battery prices are much the same. There is a new version of the green charger that doesn't allow a drill to stand on the charger but it charges at 3 amps so it's a little faster than the version you have there. I got mine from the PSB 18 LI-2 Ergonomic drill and a hedge cutter. 3 batteries is more than enough. Even the power hungry hedge cutter shouldn't run out of juice then (still have to try it this spring ;D). Those chargers - AL1830 - will charge the 2.5 Ah batteries (all of my batteries are 2.5 Ah) in less than one hour and fill them to 80% in 40 minutes.
As said if you buy two tools with everything then you'll have two chargers. Since the green series is more of a prosumer tool I believe that is fine. You really have to push the machine and yourself to be able to empty them faster than you can fill them. For home use it's better to be a little more gentle on the batteries and have them last longer. Would be nice if there was a "slow mode" 2 or 3 amp setting on the pro charger. So that also pretty much sums up that there's a difference in the market segments. Not all design choices made for a pro tool is ideal for home/casual use. For a pro it's essential to have fast charge as time is money - lot of people using the same machines. While at home few use them and not faster than they can charge and for privates the expense of a new battery is significant where for a pro fast charging is of greater value than to have batteries last longer (calendar life).
If you haven't already you really should take a look at their PSB or PSR 18 LI-2 Ergonomic (yes confusing without "Ergonomic" are different machines!). PSR is without hammer and PSB is with hammer for drilling in bricks. For the price paid I'm very impressed with the PSB Ergonomic. Not so much for the design. Whether or not it's better I don't know - it's different - perhaps your like or perhaps you don't that's very induvidual. However the brushless motor, control, chuck, gearbox, general quality is just awesome and the power is amazing. Sure there's "better" machines in the blue range but they're also much more expensive (where I live) and in many ways larger (not always a plus). The soft torque is even higher than many of the smaller pro machines - the soft torque is what is most significant for drilling.

[NearbyCactus]

Nice review - great to see real objectivity! I've got a Ryobi, mainly because that's the battery system I've invested in. My assessment is the Ryobi is ok, but not great. Vibrates REALLY badly. In my mind if you are buying a cordless one, the only question is whether it will use the same batteries that I already have :-)

[SuperCheese]

For those of us states side the Kobalt 24V line at Lowes seems to be the better choice. I've fiddled with it a few times in store and seems WAY better than that thing.

[sumosprojects]

Always a mish mash between manufactures offerings & I'm very happy with Ryobi line of products, anyway I wish you & your family very happy seasons greetings mate & look forward to your videos in 2017, good onya for giving an Australian perspective on all things woodworking related 👍🇦🇺👍