Great choice on your power equipment. I do landscape/ maintenance and all is stihl. My best friend is the echo guy. he tried to convert me but I am a creature of habit. The saw great pick, can not say the 171 is bad but my last 3 ms 170's had master control switch problems, the ms180 easy tension is worse than useless as outlined earlier. The hs 46 hedge trimmer isnt bad but loop size on the bar is small, I have 2. I had hs 85 but someone stole them, they were heavy but ran great for hours and good size loops, since your chainsaw is light, it can double as your big hedge trimmers, your hedge trimmers very comparable, might be tad bit lighter too. bg 56 blowers are great value for hand held blowers and are cheapest priced as all bgs as I recall are all same cc, your blower is just as comparable, good little machine. For string trimmers my favourites were my fs 85 used to buy 5 at a time, I have had 15 of them, excellent power,but heavy and hard on fuel Tap and go heads on most. My last batches of string trimmers was 2 fs 100 4 fs110 4 mix. Qiuet burned a little less fuel, smoother than 85's but no way was my echo buddy going to convert me on echo string trimmers. the echo is 1/3 smaller cc, 1/2 the weight easier to feed string through(I bought one to try it, really nice unit, my 11 yr old son uses it, like I said light, powerful, even a split shaft with a blower attachment, was cheaper than I stihl straight shaft). as I said I am a creature of habit, I ammassed many heads blades other attachments and if they break I have parts if I am stranded to rob from paul to pay peter, from old machines. the string trimmer is the single most used piece of equipment I use. my weed trimmers deserve metals for what i put them through,literally beat them soo hard that steam comes from them when they stopp running. echos seem too light for my liking despite they excell in almost every aspect, I still like my bigger cc heavier stihl trimmers, even if they consume more gas. I will never change my weed trimmers. Just my opinion, cuase I am a creature of habit. Sounds like you are too, becuase you want one brand, echos are good, but always stay in the loop. Try different things, too. p.s stihl has bigger grass guards than echos for weed trimmers, that is my only knock against echo trimmers. husky lovers feel free to chime in, same with other brand lovers, give your two cents. lastly, echo by far makes the best pole saw, period. Bar none! That is a no brAiner
