echo chain saws?

[philaphire]

There are the debates on this forum that will never end: Free stander vs. insert, radiant vs. convective, cat vs. non-cat, stihl vs. husky. So I ask, where does echo fit into all this? Their other power equipment is top of the line, why not the chain saws? Seems to me like no one ever talks about them and a search yielded litte. Just curious.... THANKS

 

[bfraymond]

There are the debates on this forum that will never end: Free stander vs. insert, radiant vs. convective, cat vs. non-cat, stihl vs. husky. So I ask, where does echo fit into all this? Their other power equipment is top of the line, why not the chain saws? Seems to me like no one ever talks about them and a search yielded litte. Just curious.... THANKS

I have an Echo. I don't use it to cut firewood, just odd jobs around the house, cutting limps, sapplings, chasing the neighbor kids off the lawn. It runs great, never had an issue with it. It runs just as good as the Echo weed eater that I have.

Brent

 

[Roospike]

I would say the Echo chainsaw is a good mid-range chainsaw. I would rate them above a Craftsman , Poulan , Homelite of todays chainsaws but under a Stihl & Husqvarna.

 

[Eric Johnson]

The main obstacle to keeping up with the big boys is being able to field test and otherwise do R&D on an ongoing and widespread basis under a wide variety of conditions. That gives the advantage to countries like Sweden and Germany, where there's still lots of manual logging going on, at the expense of a place like Japan, where there is relatively very little.

In short, the torture testing you get with a good base of professional loggers, pays off in better consumer models.

Of course, that begs the question why the United States, Canada, Finland, et al. don't produce top-of-the-line chainsaws. So it's obviously a more complex problem, but R&D is at the core, IMO.

 

[suematteva]

Agree with what is said above..

we too have echo weed wacker..great tool...have heard good things about the arborists saws..but I was told that there higher cc saws(over 60) were introduced to the market within the last 5-6 years..the saw around 80 cc maybe 3-4 years....may be off a couple..

It will take time to prove themselves with the Husky/Stihl crowd..Dolmar is now also getting their distribution up and performing and have a strong products to compete..

 

[SeanD]

I have an Echo CS300, their small 30cc arborist saw. I keep it behind the seat of my truck in case I stumble upon a limb down by the road. It is a very nice saw for what it is - a small saw. When I go cut firewood seriously I take a couple bigger Stihl saws. I've heard good things about Echo's bigger saws, but I don't think they are in the same league as Stihl.
The Echo also seems more susceptible to gumming up with old gasoline than the Stihl's.

 

[Sandor]

I have an Echo CS-346 I use for limbing and ladder work.

Damn thing is really light.... I call it a chick saw. But it works well and appears to be high quality. Going on the second year and no problems.

Wasn't cheap either.

 

[ourhouse]

We tried Echo climbing saws a few years ago and we had a couple of their bigger saws too. they didn't turn very high RPMs and I thought they were a pain in the ass to work on . Parts were not very easy to get .I think most of them ended up as chock blocks for trucks and skidders.
just my 2 cents, and i think my climbing saw "accidently fell" out of a tree one day.
John

 

[babalu87]

SHAME on the lot of you for not mentioning the OTHER Swedish saw (and a better one to boot)

Buy a Jonsered and be a happy woodsman
My dad still has the one he bought when I was 12
I am now 40 and my 2054 runs like a top.

 

[Roospike]

SHAME on the lot of you for not mentioning the OTHER Swedish saw (and a better one to boot)

Buy a Jonsered and be a happy woodsman
My dad still has the one he bought when I was 12
I am now 40 and my 2054 runs like a top.

We did mention Jonsered .......We said Husqvarna , We just didnt say clone . :lol:

 

[Eric Johnson]

I have a Jonsereds Model 90, which I bought years ago--used--to cut up delivered firewood lengths. What a saw.

 

[babalu87]

SHAME on the lot of you for not mentioning the OTHER Swedish saw (and a better one to boot)

Buy a Jonsered and be a happy woodsman
My dad still has the one he bought when I was 12
I am now 40 and my 2054 runs like a top.

We did mention Jonsered .......We said Husqvarna , We just didnt say clone . :lol:

From the Jonsered website:

In 1954, Jonsered produced the prototype for today's modern chain saw when the world's first light, one-man chain saw was presented. The brush cutter arrived the following year and the innovations have followed one after another ever since.

Jonsered is an old, traditional industrial community by the Säve river outside Gothenburg, Sweden. Jonsered's factories were established here in 1834. By the 1880's the manufacture of wood processing machinery had started, leading towards the products Jonsered manufacture today.


From the Husqvarna website
Of course, the chain saws of that time had very little in common with those of today, since they were large, cumbersome machines that required at least two people to operate. It was not until after the Second World War that the development of saws and saw chains made it possible to make chain saws that could be handled by one person. Husqvarna started making chain saws in 1959. So we can’t claim to have manufactured the first one.


In order to be a clone you have to be the SECOND one

 

[DavidV]

Don't they come from the same factory??

Getting back to the original question. Popular mechanics did a comparison a couple years ago

(broken link removed to http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/gardening/1273816.html?page=4)

took me a while to find it. Pretty much rated them as mentioned here. Above homelite and craftsman/poulan but below stihl and Husqvarna

 

[philaphire]

Great link - thanks DavidV! - and thank everyone else for your comments!

 

[zinfit]

I bought a ECHO with a 37 cc engine. So far I have been quite impressed. Easy to start ,easy to handle, very light, easy to make adjustments and much more power then I expected.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

There are the debates on this forum that will never end: Free stander vs. insert, radiant vs. convective, cat vs. non-cat, stihl vs. husky. So I ask, where does echo fit into all this? Their other power equipment is top of the line, why not the chain saws? Seems to me like no one ever talks about them and a search yielded litte. Just curious.... THANKS

Actually, all of those were settled long ago: free standing, convective, non-cat, Stihl.

As for Echo saws, I wonder the same thing. My theory is that there is room for only one janky off brand on this board, and Dolmer has that spot. My old man has an Echo 360 top handle - it's a great saw and it was substantially less than the equivalent Husqvarna or Stihl.

 

[oilstinks]

Dont know if echo will use thier technology but it is rumored that echo bought shindiawa and i have had good luck with them

 

[gpcollen1]

Here is the results from that link. It really attests to the fact the the Stihl and Husky saws are the ones to get...

First place goes to the Stihl. Although the testers were divided on the first-place finisher, there's no question that the Stihl exhibits excellent industrial design features and simplicity. In our experi-ence with everything from table saws to lawnmowers, products that exhibit these two attributes hold up best over the long haul. It's our hunch that the saw's tough cold-starting could be worked out with more experience and after a break-in period. Also, we should note that the Stihl would start with a single pull after it had a couple of minutes to warm up. In all other respects, this is an excellent saw. The Husqvarna ranked next. As one tester put it: "I want the Husqvarna's power, smoothness of operation and cut quality paired with the Stihl's simplicity and ability to be field serviced." You decide which qualities are more important. There was no debate among the testers that with the hardwoods we cut (birch, maple, cherry and oak), the Husqvarna was certainly fast. (The company also makes an industrial high-speed version of this saw, the 346 XP, that's even faster. We did use it in this test, but didn't rank it. Its price tag is more than $400, and that's well outside what most nonprofessionals will pay for a saw.) The 345 was easier to start than the Stihl. The same can be said for the Jonsered.

Next comes the easy-starting and nimble Solo. We frequently turned to this saw when we had to do small clean-up work with branches and related chores. That speaks very well for it.

One tester put the Echo right next to the Solo, the others ranked it a notch below. Either way, it's a great saw that's easy to start, powerful and simple. Well below the saws already mentioned ranks the Homelite, an excellent homeowner saw or a capable backup.

Bringing up the rear is the Poulan. Not a bad saw, but it needs additional work to improve its balance and its chain-tightening mechanism. Don't worry about its ability to cut. It seemed to do just fine in that regard.

 

[wendell]

Holy digging up an old thread, Batman.

 

[smokinj]

Holy digging up an old thread, Batman.

grudge maybe?

 

[foche911]

Popular Mechanics? I just saw this...not exactly saw experts...better ask Consumer Reports....Truth is, Turbo airclean and other new developments are to Jonsereds credit. The problem is, as has been said on this forum, Tilton doesn't do a good job as distributor. That is an understatenent. Some of the older saws thought to be identical by most, the Jonsered had some higher tech inside. Husky is the little sister.

 

[carbon neutral]

SHAME on the lot of you for not mentioning the OTHER Swedish saw (and a better one to boot)

Buy a Jonsered and be a happy woodsman
My dad still has the one he bought when I was 12
I am now 40 and my 2054 runs like a top.

We did mention Jonsered .......We said Husqvarna , We just didnt say clone . :lol:

From the Jonsered website:

In 1954, Jonsered produced the prototype for today's modern chain saw when the world's first light, one-man chain saw was presented. The brush cutter arrived the following year and the innovations have followed one after another ever since.

Jonsered is an old, traditional industrial community by the Säve river outside Gothenburg, Sweden. Jonsered's factories were established here in 1834. By the 1880's the manufacture of wood processing machinery had started, leading towards the products Jonsered manufacture today.



From the Husqvarna website
Of course, the chain saws of that time had very little in common with those of today, since they were large, cumbersome machines that required at least two people to operate. It was not until after the Second World War that the development of saws and saw chains made it possible to make chain saws that could be handled by one person. Husqvarna started making chain saws in 1959. So we can’t claim to have manufactured the first one.


In order to be a clone you have to be the SECOND one

So every chainsaw was cloned from DOLMAR! After all they were the first manufacturer of GAS powered chainsaws.

 

[foche911]

Everything I ever saw tells me Dolmar led the way. No argument from here.

 

[joemeintzer]

You might want to consider as I did when I bought my cs520- the five year warranty, not that it's the only factor, but that's alot of piece of mind and a long time to run a saw

 

[shawng111]

About 6 months ago I purchased an Echo cs400. Its a really good saw, lightyears ahead of my old wildthing. Easy to operate and to work on, its just a pleasure to use.