Return unused Echo and buy from a better dealer?

[EddieWalker]

Haha as for the guys that have opined on brand, come on. Im not going there. Ford vs chevy vs dodge vs toyoder. Everyone has their own experiences.

How many people support a brand that have only owned that one brand? Most people feel very strongly about the brand of tractor that they own, but what other brands have they owned? Same with chainsaws. Most buy the one that they like the best based on what others have said, or they just like the color of the paint. How many change brands and have owned multiple brands? How many of them will recomend their brand as the best, but have never tried the other brands?

I've owned McCullough, which were good, Poulon and Husqvarna, which where junk, Stihl, which does great, but all three are hard to start, and Echo, which is the easiest to start by far, costs less then Stihl for the same power, and cuts just as good as any other brand with the same quality of chain.

As for Ford vs Chevy vs Dodge vs Toyota, I can't comment on any of the because I always end up buying Ford based on price, bed length and appearance.

 

[Industrial Toys]

The best weed whipper I ever owned was a TORO I got from Habitat for Humanity (Home Depot Returns) Probably twenty or so bucks! Had to buy a reel. I know that thing will start in the spring.

I might as well throw my Stihl away. Pulled on it one too many times in this lifetime!

 

[ArlyA]

We use Stihl's and Echo's professionally and have so for many years. No husky's in our shed so no comments on them. But the Stihl's and Echo's are both good machines. No they are not perfect and we do break them but that doesn't make them less than darn good tools. In all those years, we may have had one Echo power unit that had its carburetor jet setting change from the factory setting and never a bar oil setting changed.

This weekend.

 

[Big Barn]

I might as well throw my Stihl away. Pulled on it one too many times in this lifetime!

Haha. How about the old pull start 1-2 cylinder Wisconsin’s in the days before recoil starting cords or electric start?

I don’t even want to think about the times I threw my shoulder, sprained a wrist or smacked myself in the face.

 

[murphy1244]

Haha. How about the old pull start 1-2 cylinder Wisconsin’s in the days before recoil starting cords or electric start?

I don’t even want to think about the times I threw my shoulder, sprained a wrist or smacked myself in the face.

had one on a Mang tiller. Hated that machine till it starts. Then its a beast

 

[Big Barn]

had one on a Mang tiller. Hated that machine till it starts. Then its a beast

Yeah. Hate it until you don’t. Been there done that.

 

[John_Mc]

How much of my arms and shoulders have been used up pulling on no-starting Stihl equipment? Better, yet, starts, dies and won't start again.

Sounds to me like a saw in need of a tune-up.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I lost faith in any repair shop to do anything other than charge me a lot of money, a long time ago.

 

[John_Mc]

I lost faith in any repair shop to do anything other than charge me a lot of money, a long time ago.

A tune up is a rather simple procedure. There are plenty of places in my area that can handle that. For real troubleshooting of more complex problems, I agree with you: a good repair shop can be tough to find. The old-timers that really knew their stuff are all retiring. It seems not many new people are getting into the business, at least not in any in-depth way. Fortunately, I can still find a couple of top-notch guys in my area for when my saws need more complex work - I just have to drive further to get to them these days. 15 years ago, there was a good saw guy in just about every little village around here.

It's not hard to check and adjust the tuning yourself. Really, the most difficult thing about it is defeating the limiters which prevent you from enriching the mixture beyond a certain point. That and maybe finding the special screwdrivers required to fit relatively modern saws, since none of them have ordinary heads on the mixture screws anymore. (The modern auto-tune saws are another story, but in theory, they should take care of that themselves.)

If you want to adjust the mixture yourself, try this page: Madsen's Chainsaw Maintenance and Repair . Click on the "Saw Tuning"link. The page contains some good description as well as a link to an audio file that shows you how to tune a saw by ear (once you develop an ear for it, tuning by ear works better than tuning with a tach.) You will need some good speakers or headphones to listen: the typical laptop speakers can make it difficult to properly hear what is going on.

 

[Industrial Toys]

My luck. Pay the money, saw runs great at the shop. Get back into the woods, and nadda!