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⚡ACHTUNG!⚡ Chainsaws

Juggs

Juggs

Moderator
Tomahawk Aficianado
I'm in the market for a new chainsaw. Obviously Stihl's are solid, although expensive and harder to find. Ace is the only local place that sells them. Per reviews, Husqvarna (Lowes) has gone downhill. Cheap plastic housing, plastic clips prone to breaking, and a new chain type that comes off constantly. Echo (Home Depot) has a lot of people saying it's hit or miss on whether or not it even starts.

Anyone have any recent personal experience? Reviews on such items are sketchy. Oh it didn't start or stopped working after 2 uses? Do they know how to operate it? Do they not use pre-mixed gas/oil or fuck up the 50:1 doing it themselves? Did they oil it? So many things can go wrong on a chainsaw, it's easy to wonder if the bad reviews are simply user error.

I'd just go for the Stihl, but I've spent $4,500 on the tree guys and plumber this week....I really wanted to finance it and Ace has the worst options. I may still bite the bullet and get the Stihl if anyone has some strong opinions on the other 2. Unfortunately I have to go expensive, the smaller 40cc just starts to slog in a lot of heavy use. I need something with more ass behind it.
 
Irish Mike said:
I went cheap and got a craftsman for mine 250 bucks. Been using it 3 years and it starts everytime
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I have a Craftsman as well, but just a 40cc 16"....Agree it starts every time, never been an issue. But it's underpowered (and I need a bigger bar)....40cc going through large oak repeatedly means I have to stop and sharpen the blade way more than I should and I'm sick of doing that. Those tree guys take their stihl and go through multiple trees without stopping. I can't get through half a tree without it dulling and barely cutting.
 
Juggs said:
I have a Craftsman as well, but just a 40cc 16"....Agree it starts every time, never been an issue. But it's underpowered (and I need a bigger bar)....40cc going through large oak repeatedly means I have to stop and sharpen the blade way more than I should and I'm sick of doing that. Those tree guys take their stihl and go through multiple trees without stopping. I can't get through half a tree without it dulling and barely cutting.
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Makes sense. I was only dropping and chopping pines.
 
If everything is plastic, eliminating Hus leaves me with a couple 20" options. Echo has a 60cc for $450 with mixed reviews. I'd never even heard of Echo until I started looking. Fuck I hate that there's a brand exclusivity with Home Depot vs. Lowes. The Stihl is only 50cc at $550, but Stilh's reputation speaks for itself...except these cheaper (cheaper for Stihl) models have complaints of not being reliable also. The one thing these saws with bad reviews have in common is that they don't have a primer bulb.

WTF. I've never seen a saw without one. Aren't those critical to help save the carb? It prevents engine flooding and removes air. How can you make a $500 saw without one? Whatever new technology they claim to have, it seems they're just making cheap shit that has to be replaced sooner.
 
I have a Stihl chainsaw. It's pretty awesome but they don't make this model anymore. It's probably 20 years old and as long as I empty the fuel tank, when I store it, it works every time. Had to have a new carb a few years ago.

Echo... I have their leaf blower and their weed trimmer. They crank every time. 3 pulls or less. The weed trimmer has a circular saw blade attachment that is fucking awesome. Makes clearing deer blind areas a breeze.

One thing I have changed is using pre-mixed fuel. Tru-fuel 50:1 seems to be the perfect blend. Not a lot of smoke and has a 2 year shelf life. It's expensive but the cool thing about my wife working at a mower/tractor dealer, she gets it at cost.
 
Tru-Fuel is what I use for my current saw and I've had no issues with it. I think you touched on a key point....store it with an empty tank. I think a lot of these reviews saying it won't work is storing it for months at a time (as they said) but leaving gas in the tank. I learned that one the hard way years ago when I ruined the carb on my lawnmower when I forgot to empty the tank.

I have a husq weed trimmer with a 6" chainsaw attachment....that too is awesome. We used it for clearing tree stand areas before my parents moved and dad gave it to me when he left. I've used it a couple times for trimming dying limbs out of reach here.

narrowed it down, but still torn. It's possible the Stihl 18" 45.2cc (400ish) would be sufficient. But for $150 more, it's hard not to go with a 20" 50.2cc Stihl or Echo X Series, the Stihl actually being a few bucks cheaper. Doh. 18" will get the job done for what I have right now....in the future, who knows.
 
Just watch yourself with that saw. Friend of mine was cutting up a tree and hit a huge spike, that had apparently been driven in years ago. Chainsaw kicked back so hard it swung him around and dug into 2 spots in his leg. Damn near died on the way to the hospital.

coryleg.webp
 
Which saw? I assume one of the 50 s?

I mean, bad kick back with any saw with a little power is going to happen in that situation. But fuck, that's a hell of a gash. I bet that smarted.
 
Juggs said:
Which saw? I assume one of the 50 s?

I mean, bad kick back with any saw with a little power is going to happen in that situation. But fuck, that's a hell of a gash. I bet that smarted.
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Some Echo saw. He's the owner of the shop where my wife works. He now has chaps for cutting trees.
 
ufgators68 said:
Some Echo saw. He's the owner of the shop where my wife works. He now has chaps for cutting trees.
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I'd wear full body armor if that shit happened to me, if I ever touched one again :lol:

But hitting a spike in a tree, I don't reckon the saw brand had much to do with the reaction. I've gotten lazy/tired while doing a lot of cutting and just had one hand on the saw, letting the weight do the work......yeah, any kickback would have fucked me
 
Juggs said:
I'd wear full body armor if that shit happened to me, if I ever touched one again :icon-lol:

But hitting a spike in a tree, I don't reckon the saw brand had much to do with the reaction. I've gotten lazy/tired while doing a lot of cutting and just had one hand on the saw, letting the weight do the work......yeah, any kickback would have fucked me
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Pretty sure that's what happened to him. Got careless after a long day of cutting down trees on a fenceline.

He's a big boy. It's good he had a yard full of folks helping because his wife wouldn't have been able to move him and an ambulance would have been too late.
 
The saw I want....just over 16 lbs. That shit will get heavy. Nope.

$550 for a 50cc 20" - and only 10 lbs. More than I wanted to spend, but meh. This model echo has better reviews by every small engine shop/channel on Youtube I can find than a Stihl or husky.
 
Got my saw out, after 2-ish years, and after adding fuel it fired right up. Apparently I remembered to empty the fuel but I sure as hell forgot to empty the bar oil. Shit was everywhere.
 
Oh yeah, I always forget the bar oil and have a mess. I have a shallow plastic bin I put it in now for that reason :lol: Never had an issue with starting up this small Craftsman either. I wonder how many of the "doesn't start" reviews are from people who just don't know how to start it and flood it.

One day I'll get a case for the new one.
 
A few tanks of gas through the Echo 501p x series. I love this thing. My chainsaw experience is limited to Husky's and Craftsman and this kills them both. A breeze going through this 18" oak, not a single start issue, and no leaking oil at all. No regrets at all going with the Echo, especially after reading any consumer Stihl (sub $1k, non-Pro version) wasn't particularly good.
 
Guess I spoke too soon. Now my craftsman is giving me shit. Been using it the past 3 weekends just fine. Today it keeps stalling. Cleaned out the spark arrestor, cleaned out the carb as best I can without taking the whole cunt apart, and put in a new spark plug.

Gonna go back to my battery saw. Lol
 
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