Hey guys, looking at buying a chainsaw soon and I'm curious what brands you guys are running. I am pretty partial to stihl but have been advised by several friends to look at echo and husqavarna too. I'm looking at the ms250/251 size. Something between 40 and 50cc with a 16 to to 20 inch bar. Ideally 18 seems about right. So what's your preference? I even considered the ms170 they're on sell right now for 159.99. But its only a 30cc and seems kinda cheaply made. I'm not going to be logging with it but do have about an acre and a half I need to clear brush and thin some 10 to 12 inch oaks out with.

Thanks in advance,
Brandon



P.s. if you have one you'd like to sell used shoot me a PM with your best price.

Oh boy. This is like a .223 thread or a Ford vs Chevy thread. Haha!
I'll start because I cut wood almost everyday and make a partial living doing so. Buy an Echo and be done with it. Will always start, you can mod them a bit(carb and exhaust) if need a pinch more power out of them. I run 2 of the 450's An 18' and a 20" . The 400's are good but a 450 is better but harder to find. The 50 cc are good too if needed.
I got tired of dealing with Stihl not starting, unacceptable when trying to get a job done.

Poulin here. Love it.

https://www.husqvarna.com/us/products/chainsaws/445-ii-e-series/967651001/

I’ll be picking up one of these in their few weeks. I’m a long time Husqvarna user and my smaller one a mode 41 quit a couple of years ago. Since it was made in the 80s I decided to just get a new one. I’ve been using my 359 with a 24” bar since then. Getting older and tired of carrying that big bastard for every job so I’m going to go ahead with the 445.

Husqvarna makes more than one grade of saw. They bought Poulan several years ago and rebranded the Poulan Pro as the Husqvarna Rancher. Keep that in mind when purchasing a Husqvarna. They still make excellent saws.

Echo is lighter than the rest of them and user friendly. Good saws.

Stihl is top of the line and their only competition is the higher grade Husqvarnas as I linked above.

Husqvarna...…….

My 30 year old Poulin would not start. I took it to the shop in Rosenberg. The lady at the desk said, "We don't work on those no more," before I got fully through the front door. Same results at two more shops. I brought it back home planning to give it away. I sprayed some starter into the air intake and it started on the second pull.

Echo

I only us Amigos.......haven't failed me yet.

The people or the saw?

Northern Tool sells the refurbished models from time to time. Not exactly refurbished but repaired factory defects.

All Stihl here.

Husqvarna and buy a professional model if you want it work all day without issues.
Our newest is the 562 XP , great saw for cutting firewood and anything else.
I would look at the 543 or 550 XP.

Stihl is the only two stroke engine I will spend my money on.

Do your research, looking at power and weight. I did this for my last purchase, and ended up in the commercial line of Stihl, with an MS362. It is expensive, but I can justify it, with as much as I cut per year. The commercial line is a step above, but you may not need it. Power and weight are what to look at, bottom line.

Never, ever! Let it run ethanol. Ethanol is the devil, and will make a great machine run like crap, and give trouble starting. If you have ethanol free fuel available, use it. If not, spend the money on Tru-Fuel.

^^^^^^^^x2

Not sure what I will buy when my 35 year old Husqvarna Rancher 50 quits. Also still running a McCulloch Mini Mac 35 as my limb saw, so old it doesn't have a chain break, parts are getting hard to find for it though.

I have a ms170. It will be fine.
My problem is chains, giving out, not the machine.

When there’s a question, get a Stihl.

I have a stihl. Father in law has echos. The stihl is better imo. I got the ms180c. No primer bulb. Self priming. I'll never have to replace one of those stupid primer bulbs again!

I use the crap out my my Husky 55 Rancher and 460 Rancher, pretty happy with them.

x2. I have been running the same model with Ethanol free gas for 9 years, and have had zero issues.

That might be better on the front end but not sure about the back end. One of the last steps many folks recommend before putting away a two-cycle lawn equipment engine is to use the priming bulb to purge residual fuel out of the carburetor. Anyone who has ever worked on these engines knows full well the problems that can be created when fuel is left in them for months on end. And while fuel additives might help some, it doesn't seem to stop premature aging of fuel lines. Even my cheap Poulan equipment performs equal to my Stihl equipment when I purge the carb and fuel lines before putting them away.

Hadn't thought of that, but then again, mine doesn't really sit for months on end. So far it starts easy every time.

I have an 026-Pro that I picked up over 20 years ago....haven't been able to kill it yet....

No

My 359 has no primer bulb, 12-14 years old, and has only ever needed chains and a bar replacement. I never run the fuel out of it. Admittedly I do not use ethanol in it and it doesn’t sit long enough to go bad. If you’re only going to use a saw once or twice a year then buy a $150 Pullon (Poulan) and run the fuel out when your done. Buy another one every 3-4 years.