Bought another Echo CS-620PW

[Cliff R]

I have and like the CS-370 but it's not really a home-run in the power to weight department. It does however have plenty of "grunt" for the cc's and very well built. I've got about a zillion hours on mine and aside from wearing out a bunch of chains and couple of bars it's been flawless. I have so much confidence in it she goes to Colorado every October with us as a camp saw, and runs flawlessly clear up at 10,000-12,000'.

I've had a couple of CS-490's and found them to be pretty "weak" for the cc's, but very well built with a lot of professional features. I even went into the upper end of the line-up and have owned two CS-670's, a CS-6700 and an 800. All of those I sent on down the road and was most disappointed by the 800. It had a "goofy" rubber plug to remove to access the mixture screws, oiled the chain all the time, and flat air filter instead of the excellent round automotive type Echo uses on a lot of their saws from that period. It was also a "turd" for power production no matter where I set the "H" speed screw. It seemed to want to be set rich and grunt in the cut, and was OK for mid-range power but nothing overly impressive. Attempts to go lean and get some RPM's out of it resulted in bogging down when you pushed it some. I could never get it to run where you'd find yourself reaching for the big/heavy saw so I sent it down the road.

The CS-670's weren't much better and wouldn't hold a candle to my 268XP so they went bye-bye too.

I jumped on the new (at that time) CS-590, then bought a CS-600P, then a CS-620PW. My brother ended up with my first CS-620 and I just got around to replacing it. Echo needs to put the 620 on steroids and build a 70-75cc saw on the same platform. It will fill in some gaps in their line-up......IMHO.......Cliff

 

[Kcdub1000]

Thank you for sharing your experience with these saws! I plan on staying away from any of there older models. I do have the 800p as you know. I got a good deal on a open box / display unit that had no box with it, on ebay. The Guy was closing down his echo retail store. And excepting offers on the saw. I cant say I would recomend this saw if you keep it stock. Of course it will cut but it's just not impressive stock. As you know I'm trying to get mine to cut with some power. I really hope with the recent mods it's going to wake this thing up. I can raise the exhaust port up a few degrees still, and i still have .008 left on the jug I can take off the base. But after that if it dont run, I give up.. the easy way would be to sell it and grab a used 395 xp. But what's the fun in that!?

There is a lot I am willing to put up with this 800p,
low on power, trying to fix this!
oils all the time
Old school McCulloch style air cleaner. But way more restricted air box. I fixed that!
Mile of slack in trigger before it starts to do any thing.
But the one thing that gets me is that stupid rubber plug. That has got to be one of the worst designs out there hands down. If a worse style exists I have not seen it! It's only a matter of time before that tiny rubber wire holding it there rips and you looses the plug. Rendering the saw unusable unless you have tape to cover the whole thing over.

If echo made A 70cc saw like the 620 or even redid the 800p like that I would definatly buy it. Especially if it could be made to run like or with the 372xp. I'm a big fan of manual/auto oiler systems. I would like to see that on more saws. It's nice being able to do a couple pumps here and there in a long cut..one thing the 800p dosnt have is a lack of oil problem.

 

[Cliff R]

I'd be all over a 70-75cc version of the CS-620PW. I hope they get something in the works before it will have to have an electronic or non-adjustable carb, or be battery powered!

Good luck with the 800P. I had mine around here for a couple of years and never found myself using it much. It was stone stock with a 24" bar. For some reason it stalled against the clutch all the time if you "pushed" it hard. I could never find a happy "H" speed screw setting for it. If I leaned it up and tried to get it to RPM it really lacked mid-range power. If I set it sort of "blubbering" rich it pulled pretty decent at lower RPM's in big wood until I spiked it in and put some real load on it....where it IMMEDIATELY stalled against the clutch and I'd have to pull it out of the wood and start all over again.

I don't talk about the 800P much. Mine was pretty much a "turd" and I don't know why? Some folks seemed to be pretty happy with theirs and I hope you get yours all sorted out........Cliff

 

[Kcdub1000]

Yeah I think unless you are willing to do some serious mods to the 800 you are going to be a little disapointed and the mods required are alot more complicated than a muffler mod and tune. So the mods will be out of reach for most. Un less willing to pay some one to mod for them. But then that adds cost to the saw.

I am just lucky to have access to the tools. And thanks to this forum and others like it and all the people that share there knowlage of these saws. i actually knew very little about chain saw engines 6 months ago. And here I am now porting my own saws. Still have alot to learn though.

I'll be watching for that 60cc shoot out.

I got to say the look on a couple friends and family faces when I tell them I run a echo. All have since been impressed with the 590. Seems like some guys are like, if it ain't a husky or a sthil it isn't worth the time. I happen to enjoy power saws in General. Every thing from mac's to echos.

 

[Cliff R]

The CS-590 is so impressive that I've purchased and set up half a dozen or so for local customers here. When I say "impressive" I'm not talking in terms of power, it just being able to get that much saw for under $350 delivered to your door. One of my customers in particular uses his as a "ground saw" for his tree removal business. The ground crew hasn't been able to kill it and it's been in service now at least three years. He's brought it back a couple of times to have me check it over, clean it up and tune if/as needed. So despite being the lower end of Echo's 60cc series it's fine for commercial use....IMHO.

I may get the opportunity this weekend if it doesn't heat up to much here to do the testing. I'm not trying to use the heat as an excuse, it bothers me not in the least, but for the saws it just makes more sense to run them in weather more suited for cutting firewood, not when it's over 90 degrees out and humidity is off the scale.......Cliff

 

[Cliff R]

"Do you have Any time with a 352?"

Haven't had a 352 in here to date.

I've had half a dozen 490's in here, the are nice saws with professional features but a tad "weak" for power production. They would probably do pretty good as a limbing and light firewood saw with a 16" .325" set-up or even LP on them......Cliff

 

[Cliff R]

I purchased a 20" Archer bar for the testing. I'm going to use the same bar/chain on all three saws. Was getting everything ready last week and noticed the chain had quite a bit of side-play. So I measured the groove in the new Archer bar and it's clear up at .062". I contacted the seller and it has the right part number on it, but obviously it's for .058" chain, so I'm waiting on a replacement. Things are cooling off some here, so will be doing some testing as soon as the bar shows up.

The delay has actually been a good thing as I've put some time on the CS-620 and it's well seated in at this point. Was running it yesterday out of the boiler cutting up some HUGE odd-shaped stuff to make them smaller, lighter and easier to handle. I can tell it's stronger than the CS-590 even with the longer 24" bar on it. The stopwatch will tell us by how much........Cliff

 

[Cliff R]

A apologize for the long delay on the Echo 590/600/620PW testing. Had a few set-backs here so got de-railed a bit.

Just getting back to setting the saws up for the test runs.

I purchased a couple of new chains for the testing, and going to run two different bar lengths, 20 and 24", and semi and full chisel chain.

Thought that would make it interesting and throw a few variables into the equation. The saws are ready to go, all three cleaned up, tested and carbs set for best power in the cut. Plans are weather permitting to start the testing later this week....stay tuned....Cliff

 

[holeycow]

 

[Cliff R]

Well, first test completed.

The results are not what I was expecting so I'm going to have to do some further testing.

First problem was the log, not big enough. The only decent size straight log I have close to the shop at the moment is a down Ash tree. The straight section I picked out measured 18" in diameter and it was in good shape, not soft or rotten.

I started out with the CS-590, making 5 cuts with a stop watch. It was a little tough to do the cutting and timing my myself but I did my best and repeated the timing and cutting procedure as closely as I could for each test session.

I made 5 cuts with each saw using the same 20" bar and 3/8" semi-chisel Oregon chain. The chain was new right out of the box and all I did was very gently run a file across it so it was sharp for each test.

Each saw got three test sessions and I averaged the numbers. I also used the same basic cutting technique every time I did a test. I also made sure the chain was about the same tension on each saw so no additional drag, etc.

So here are the results:

CS-590 averaged 68 seconds for 5 cuts.

CS-600P averaged 65.66 seconds for 5 cuts.

CS-620PW averaged 63.00 seconds for 5 cuts.

Really not much of a spread and I think most of that is to simply not being able to work the saws hard enough. All three glide right thru an 18" log so fast I found myself spending a lot of time recovering and getting into the next cut. The results are still what they are, although next time I'm going to have some assistance so I don't have to do the cutting and running the stopwatch.......Cliff

 

[holeycow]

I hope the 620 redeems itself in bigger wood. It could have been much worse, say if the 620's time was slower than the others..phew!

Interesting test.

Thanks for doing that! Waiting for the next one..

 

[Cliff R]

I learned a few things on this round of testing.

Going to select a bigger log next time, and harder material like Oak or hard Maple. It needs to be elevated a little higher so I don't have to let up right at the end of the cuts to keep the bar out of the dirt, and I'll get someone else to run the stopwatch. I guess when you look at it in the big scheme of things all three of these saws are close in power and very capable firewood saws, plus they run a 20" bar with good authority. 6 cuts in 59-65 seconds for most of the cuts in an 18" diameter log it wouldn't take too long to get a big pile of wood ready for the splitter........Cliff

 

[champion221elite]

I'd be interested if Echo ever made a 70-80 cc saw that was just a larger version of the 620p. Just a simple saw without any of the electronic carb gizmo's. Give it fairly high compression, throw in some pro features and sell it at a fair price. I've been watching for an 80cc class saw, but the 800p is a dog out of the box. Sure, it can be modded but some of the necessary steps are beyond what I'm capable of doing in my garage. I've heard there "should" be a new 70 cc class Echo in the works. Hope there is something around 80cc's or at least close to get my attention. I have some large Maples that are nearly dead and are ready to fall into my creek. I will have to cut them up soon and have nothing in my arsenal that's even close to big enough.

 

[Cliff R]

They simply need to take the CS-620PW and put another 10-15cc in it.

I had an 800 and it wasn't here long, pretty much a "turd" for that much saw and I hated the "goofy" remove the rubber plug to make carb adjustments and flat style air filter. Plus it oiled the chain all the time like a lower end saw. When I say "turd" it had decent power, but nothing overly impressive anyplace, and when you leaned it up and tried to get some RPM's out of it the darned thing kept stalling against the clutch when you pushed it hard in big wood.

It had plenty of "grunt", if that's what one is looking for, but I'm more into saws with more emphasis on upper mid-range and top end power, fast chain speed, and broad power curve. The 590/600/620's fit that bill nicely, and they have professional features, inboard clutch, only oils the chain when it's moving, compression release, excellent anti-vibe, ergonomics and very easy to work on.

When Echo comes up with a 70-75cc version of them I'll be all over it.......Cliff

 

[Red97]

Added 13 cc to my cs600/620. Sure is a dandy saw to run while doing firewood.

 

[pavel408]

When Echo comes up with a 70-75cc version of them I'll be all over it...

Watch for Echo CS-7310SX

 

[champion221elite]

I just Googled Echo CS-7310 SX and came up with absolutely nothing. Must be hush-hush still.

 

[brent denny]

Cliff you should throw 268xp in the mix just for good meaaure.

 

[Cliff R]

Good idea and I thought about that. I'll probably run back to back tests against the CS-620PW at some point. I'm not overly happy with the first round of testing and learned a few things that I'll apply to the next testing to make it easier and more accurate. Right to start with 18" dead Ash isn't making it, it's just soft enough these saw glide thru it like hot butter. I'll be in Oak or other similar hard wood for the next test......Cliff

 

[mountainlake]

Finally got around to some timed cuts between my well broken in CS500p again my older CS520 which would run with any 50cc saw. Dead even.. Yes the CS490 500 and 501 saws are rather doggy brand new but gain a lot with break in. Steve