I made the post because of my experience with brand: plastic parts that break all the time; choke levers that are placed where they should not be - resulting in getting hit all the time; mufflers that blow exhaust at you instead of away from you; carbs that work themselves out of adjustment; shall I continue? Seriously, the slogan is "Ask any pro." But, no one does; if he/she did, the pro would tell him/her Echo would be fine for homeowner use, but does not stand up to the abuses of real commercial work. Let me think of all the Echo crap I have ran: blower, trimmer, chain saw, pole saw, and edger (all POS's). I still have the pole saw. Every time we cut with it, the plastic gear inside the pole would break, so we would have to take the whole thing apart and replace it; there is no better one - only cheap plastic. After the last time, I would not let it go back out. My plan was to sell it, but I felt too bad to sell such a POS to someone. But if someone here is stihl gung-ho "Echo rules!" I have a Great Echo pole saw to sell you dirt cheap... because it was built that way. Oh, and the choke lever is broke off because it was in the damndest place and continued to get hit all day long, usually choking the machine out when you had it extended out as far as possible and you were at the verge of being off-balance or uncomfortable; how often do you use a choke anyways? Yep, once a day, so, we broke off the lever, but it still can be used; it is an improvement really. Sorry to offend a few, but Stihl has proven very reliable and tough. I don't work for or promote any particular brand, but I am happy to give first-hand knowledge of my experience. We have used many brands over the many years, and Stihl stands out. The list of 2-cycle equipment includes: Stihl, Husqvarna, Red Max, Echo, Maruyama, Tanaka, Ryobi, Homelite, Mcculloch, Poulan, Weedeater, and probably some more. Some of it was real crap; some of it was okay; and some was outstanding. One more thing on Stihl: I went to a big event at an equipment dealer where all the different brands had dealer reps there with equipment and special pricing. It started raining. Everyone scrambled to move the equipment out of the rain... except the Stihl rep; he left his stuff in the rain. Many people apporached him with "Hey, you better get that equipment out of the rain," where he responded "Stihl equipment is not afraid to get wet. We make it where it can be used in the toughest of environments, so rain is not a big deal." He sold a lot of Stihl that day. My 2 cents. Take it or leave it.
I've have gone through a lot of the equipment, basically making a nice little hobby on the side fixing small 2-stroke equipment. I have to agree and disagree on some points.
Of the echo saws I do not like some of the features include the cs300-cs3400 series saws, the choke lever is in a bad spot, but the air filtration is better than the husky saws. The early mufflers were good, the late mufflers are awful. The muffler exhaust can be a problem if the muffler guard is not on, but why would the guard be missing? BUT, they a dead reliable, I'm not talking performance mind you... the part about carb screws backing out has most likely more to do with the user removing the epa caps and leaving them off. The caps need to be trimmed left on. You would have the same problem with just about every stihl carb that is made now, since that's a Zama carb as well. Why blame echo on the carb? It's a stihl/zama product, a good example, vw/audi had a voluntary recall on coils with there 4-cyl turbo cars. People assume vw made the coils when it was actually made by Beru. Maybe Stihl purposely cheapens the Zama carbs for their clients?? Which I seriously doubt, just having fun to prove a point. The new Echo arborist saws, sorry, good idea but bad execution, bigger more cumbersome saw, why? soft tach sucks, muffler sucks, they should have stuffed that cs360 engine into the tiny cs3400 case and they would have atleast beat the ms190 and scared the ms200t. I have a cs3400, 338xpt, and ms200t. Overall I like the husky the best, sort of, good engine, better ergonomics, mag side cover, the echo I loan out, but that damn stihl engine is flat out the best, open port cylinder and all. I try not to use it for fear of dropping it and breaking the tank or clutch cover, very "cheap". The stihl ms200t engine is still the king of arborist saws. I haven't tried a ms201t or whatever they call it yet. When you WANT to use a saw you know it's good.
The controls on an Echo 5000 and 670 are very solid. You can't beat a simple toggle switch, the switch btw is metal. Most of the choke levers are metal rods with plastic pull tabs. Most stihl and husky choke levers are 100% plastic. I don't know how that is considered cheap. THe saws are very solid in general, think about about when was the last time stihl or husqvarna sold a saw with a magnesium fuel tank?? If it was switched around you would say how cheap echo is by using a plastic tank, so to me that proves echo uses the best material for the that particular part. How many members out here have broken a 066/046 fuel tank?? Stihl and husky could learn a thing from echo and install a mag tank on there big pro saws. What about filters, stihl filters on there older saws are terrible, echo are easily better, with husky being the best. What about fasteners? Echo still uses machine screws and lock washers, where as husky and stihl are using coarse threaded screws and bolts...what sounds cheaper? Husky has used coarse threaded bolts for cylinders going into a mag case??? Why? You always want a fine thread to properly torque down a gasket, just look at ARP fasteners. Personally, I think Solo does the best job in choosing the best fasteners for the job. Nice product, expensive though.
I find the echo pole saws, the fiberglass poles, to be more robust than the stihl versions. I've have yet to see an echo gear strip out. A friend of mine who is retired from the tree service business has an echo pole saw that is so old it has a manaul oiler and it still works great, choke lever and all. If you are stripping gears on a regular basis I would venture to say that the bar and chain is getting pinched quite often, operator error or complete disregard for the equipment. I love the Stihl Ht75 pole saws great product, or should I say great engines, but the oiler screens are a joke and eventually the oil pumps stop working because of this and those flippy caps..I just shake my head. btw a recall on them, I don't remember seeing a recall on echo fuel and oil caps?
When it comes to echo and stihl blowers, I've had a few, not a lot, and I found them to be about equal and judging by how equally split they are among landscapers in use I say they are about equal. I will say Stihl incorporating the fuel tank with the blower housing is a mistake. It gets dropped and you have a very expensive repair. The echo and stihl hand held blowers I find to be equal, the stihl hand held blower with the anti-vibe is genius and has become one of my personal tools. Not a fan of the strato engine but not having my hands all tingly after I'm done using it is more important. It seems Redmax is the dominant blower in this area. I like the kawasaki blowers with the big echo or stihl tubes swapped in. The last kawasakit I had it looked like it had a redmax engine or atleast a redmax designed/licensed engine does anyone know if they are rebadged redmax engines?
Trimmers, again the echo stuff is solid, not the lightest or most powerful, the older stihl 2-stroke trimmers I found to be better than echo. The 4-mix stuff, I've had pole saws, HT131, Ht 101, and FS90R, FS110R trimmers, they run great (when they run) and I love the engine design seeing the cam and pushrods etc. very cool. But the coils are absolute JUNK, every one I have had, at least one coil per tool has gone bad. They get stuck in advance mode? Make spark but don't run. Those coils should all be recalled, this is not an abuse issue there has to be a design defect in that coil. Stihl should have just put a cat on there 2-stroke stuff. I had a FS86, that was a great product. The 4-mix, I've got rid of every one. I'll never keep a 4-mix product, buy it only to flip. Btw, the cam gear on the 4-mix is "cheap" plastic and they definitely need more maintenance than an echo or husky just be sheer design. I have bought and repaired 4-mix stuff. Most of the time they needed either coils or valve adjustments. Reliability wise, the Stihl 4-mix equipment is definitely the worse out of the major brands. The husky closed port trimmers are flat out awesome, great power, and on the average about two pounds lighter than competition. A light muffler mode makes them even run better.
In conclusion, to call echo products across the board POS is wrong. Especially considering some of there new products, like the cs520, cs600p. Those are really nice products. I own both and I'm keeping them for a while. There other products are designed in my opinion with a heavy emphasis on reliability over sheer performance. But to say they are cheaply made? I don't think so.
My 455 i have had for many years and it's been used a lot. I keep it it the 4x4 all the time if trees are down when driving to or from home on our road. I like the 455 a lot but i could not believe the amount of plastic in this saw the first time i pulled it apart to fix a few things on it. :jawdrop: It might have to give up it's place in the 4x4 to the new Echo!
