northernpotter
5 year old buck +
Dad is in the market for anew chainsaw. Narrowed to echo or sthil.Leaning toward sthil.Which one better, pro or con. thanks.
which chainsaw is best sthil ?
- Thread starter northernpotter
- Start date
4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
I just bought the MS-261 pro. It's been a great saw, but I only have about 5 tanks through it so far. I was also looking at Huskys, but no one near me sold the pro saws, just the box store home owner saws.
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yoderjac
5 year old buck +
I bought a new Stihl chainsaw about 7 years or so ago. It was stolen, a couple years later and I was almost glad. I could keep gas in my old stihl chain saws over the winter and they would start right up. With the new stihl, you pretty much have to run the thing dry each use. It does not like to keep gas in the system. Regular verses unleaded helps a bit, but it is still not like the old Stihls. A dealer told me they had to redesign it because of the pollution laws and that was the issue. I don't know if that is true or not, but it was his excuse for the issues. In the end, I bought a used 028 on Ebay. It runs like a dream!
Thanks,
Jack
Someday isle
5 year old buck +
I got a new Stihl wood boss last winter. All I can say is it's a great saw for my uses. I cut up downed trees and firewood with it. Anything too big for me I don't touch anyway so it's a perfect size for me and it works great. I'm thrilled with it. It beats my old worn out Poulan that's for sure.
Boll Weevil
5 year old buck +
I've got a 271, 310, and a 391. Extremely reliable so long as you take care of routine maintenance and for my money, wouldn't have anything else.
Natty Bumppo
5 year old buck +
After 16 years of hard use my Husqvarna 350 finally s*$t the brick this spring. I looked at the 450 which is the replacement for the 350 in that size class and did not like it. Did a bunch of research comparing different Stihl models in that class to Husky and generally opinions tipped in favor of Stihl. Ended up going with the 251 Wood Boss which is a bit smaller than my old 350. I like it so far. Powerful for its size. Light. I like the handy bar oil and gas caps that don't require a tool....not sure how long they'll last? Great for bucking smaller trees and delimbing. For the bigger jobs I go to my made in Germany Stihl 044. That thing rips!!!! So....Stihl for me over Echo.
northernpotter
5 year old buck +
Thanks guys,your advise is appreciated. It is going to be used for mostly cutting firewood and downed trees, maybe some trimming. what model and bar size would you recommend?
4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
I bought mine in an 18", but it will handle the 20" bar with ease. So I just bought the 20 " bar separately and I haven't needed it yet. I know I will, but the 18" gets me through almost everything I need it for.
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Boll Weevil
5 year old buck +
Anything between a 251 and 311 and an 18" bar will likely fit your needs. Bigger can definitely equate to faster work but it also = heavier, more expensive up front, and will cost more to maintain. Matching the machine to the anticipated work is key...a 70cc machine with a 24" bar for pruning will wear a man out in a hurry. So will a saw without adequate grunt for bucking logs.
Good luck to you!
Good luck to you!
Jim Timber
5 year old buck +
You know you can get a piston and cylinder for around $60 for the Husky, right?
Jim Timber
5 year old buck +
As others have said; felling, bucking, and trimming are often different size saw tasks. What are you doing most?
A couple weeks ago I took down a dead birch tree in my front yard. Trunk was about 11" DBH and it was already growing shrooms on the upper branches so I rented a bucket lift vs climbing it (I have spikes and all the fun stuff for climbing). Only had a Jonsered 2172 (Husky 372xp) with a 20" bar, which weighs in around 15#. Let me tell you, that was not fun hoisting that saw up out of the bucket to take down the limbs, nor was it fun holding it out over the bucket to section the trunk to where it could be dropped safely at the ground. Really wish I'd had my little Echo cs-352 (it's 10# wet).
Something in a 60cc would be a good choice for a general purpose firewood saw. Plenty powerful enough for felling, but still light enough to not wear you out limbing. My two-saw plan while dropping and bucking bigger oaks is a 71 and 88cc saw, but I'm not normal. :D Once you run a 88cc everything else seems slow.
Today I'm getting my third Echo, which will be a cs-355t arborist saw. It's about the same power/weight as my 352, but in a top handle configuration for canopy work. It also has the same amount of plastic as a Stihl 201T, but it's half the price (literally). My other Echo is a straight shaft brush cutter, SRM-410u. That's been a great tool for me as well, so I have no reservations about the next Echo added to the arsenal. Say what you will about clamshells (Husky and Stihl sell them too!), the Echo's have been good performers for a lot of people for a lot of years. Once you fix what the EPA regs have done to them (gotta remove the carb limiters and tune them properly), they're a good saw and solid value. They don't have the same resale value as a Husky/Stihl, but are you buying it as an investment or are you buying it to cut wood?
Also, don't overlook Dolmar/Makita's either. Very solid performers and light for their power. If Makita (they bought Dolmar in the 90's) had a top handle gas saw for sale in the US right now, I'd have given it a lot of consideration when choosing the Echo. The Husky T540's aren't all that reliable, so I'm going cheap and seeing how it works.
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Jim Timber
5 year old buck +
I'm going to guess you didn't run the first one on 50:1 ethanol mix leaned out to the bleeding edge.
First thing you need to do with a modern saw that doesn't have auto-tune is to pull the carb limiter caps and tune it properly. They'll run for a good while if you don't, but the bottom end will be trashed before it's time.
Never run ethanol in a small engine.
Bill
Administrator
I'm so glad there is gas station in the town near my farm that sells marine gas. 0 ethanol.
I hate corn Subsidies!
Jim Timber
5 year old buck +
Has nothing to do with the DFL farmer bribes. Ethanol has been proven to be the death of anything with a carburetor, and virtually every OPE manufacturer has come around to the same determination that it has no business in any of their products. Look at the owners manuals that are being printed now and you'll find the warning against it in the first couple pages.
Left corn chit gas in my genset = needed to be deep cleaned to remove the varnish and the gaskets boiled so they'd shrink back to normal size so I could re-assemble the thing.
Left non-oxy fuel mix in my chainsaws for over a year = they start 4th pull like they were sipping on fresh squeezed.
Stabil doesn't cut it. Skip the corn and be happy.
I've had the opposite experience with fuel injection. I can run the lowest grade ethanol garbage in my atv and it just burns more. My Tahoe has year old fuel in it too, and it doesn't care (I don't drive it more than 1/4 mile every couple months).
I'll stick with whiskey and vodka for my alcohol quota.
Left corn chit gas in my genset = needed to be deep cleaned to remove the varnish and the gaskets boiled so they'd shrink back to normal size so I could re-assemble the thing.
Left non-oxy fuel mix in my chainsaws for over a year = they start 4th pull like they were sipping on fresh squeezed.
Stabil doesn't cut it. Skip the corn and be happy.
I've had the opposite experience with fuel injection. I can run the lowest grade ethanol garbage in my atv and it just burns more. My Tahoe has year old fuel in it too, and it doesn't care (I don't drive it more than 1/4 mile every couple months).
I'll stick with whiskey and vodka for my alcohol quota.
Bill
Administrator
.
Sorry for the chainsaw derail. But ethanol sucks. Timing......check. Mixture......check. When you have ignition and fuel correct, things should hum. The secondary bowl was a bit "tiny bit" low. Shouldn't have starved her for fuel. But we got rubber in first with cold slicks, went into second like a dream and continued to ruin tires. Then fell flat and stalled. Started right back up and went down the road under normal conditions fine.
I'm blaming the fuel for now. But maybe the mechanical fuel pump can't keep up. If it does this with an electronic pump it has to be fuel. Time will tell.
But here's the fail.
Jim Timber
5 year old buck +
Know anyone with a portable tailpipe O2 sniffer? You can find out real quick if it's going rich or lean (which is about all they're good for lol ).
4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
Being I know a little bit about gas engines, I would like to add my $.02.
The problems with burning alcohol in engines is it doesn't last as long before it breaks down. So if you aren't going to use up the fuel in less then a couple months, use non oxy.
Older engines, and cheap Chinese crap didn't use rubber hoses, or orings, and gaskets that can be used with alcohol, and they break down.
Carb vehicles and non computer controlled systems that can't control fuel control will run leaner with ethanol, and over time it will cause engine damage over time.
Ethanol also doesn't provide any lubricating benefits, like gasoline does. So injectors, and internal engine components can wear sooner.
With that said, ethanol is a really good cleaning agent, and in most modern engines from 1990 and forward can handle a mixture of 10-20% with no problems as long as it doesn't sit in the tank to break down.
Ethanol added to a low grade gasoline can raise the octane rating and make it burn good in engines. So for this, refineries don't have to spend as much to make good quality fuel, so it is cheaper to make, which can be arguable whether those saving get passed to us.
I guess ethanol isn't going anywhere, so there isn't anything any company is going to do about it, other then try to make their product work with it.
What I do is if I am not going to use it in a couple months, I use non oxy. If the engine doesn't have electronic fuel control, I use non oxy. All others, I use it with no worries at all.
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The problems with burning alcohol in engines is it doesn't last as long before it breaks down. So if you aren't going to use up the fuel in less then a couple months, use non oxy.
Older engines, and cheap Chinese crap didn't use rubber hoses, or orings, and gaskets that can be used with alcohol, and they break down.
Carb vehicles and non computer controlled systems that can't control fuel control will run leaner with ethanol, and over time it will cause engine damage over time.
Ethanol also doesn't provide any lubricating benefits, like gasoline does. So injectors, and internal engine components can wear sooner.
With that said, ethanol is a really good cleaning agent, and in most modern engines from 1990 and forward can handle a mixture of 10-20% with no problems as long as it doesn't sit in the tank to break down.
Ethanol added to a low grade gasoline can raise the octane rating and make it burn good in engines. So for this, refineries don't have to spend as much to make good quality fuel, so it is cheaper to make, which can be arguable whether those saving get passed to us.
I guess ethanol isn't going anywhere, so there isn't anything any company is going to do about it, other then try to make their product work with it.
What I do is if I am not going to use it in a couple months, I use non oxy. If the engine doesn't have electronic fuel control, I use non oxy. All others, I use it with no worries at all.
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