Efco Saws........just curious

[Vermonster]

Stopped buy a saw guy's shop the other day to pick up some stuff, and noticed he's now selling Efco saws along with his line of Jonsreds. Anyone know anything about these Italian made saws?
Just curious.
Search feature not working, so this is the only way I can gather info on this subject here.
Thanks much.

 

[7sleeper]

Top player like a lot of others!

7

 

[Franny K]

The top handle 132s and the ones 50cc and up are made in Italy. I think the dealer you went to mislead you as you seem to infer they all are made in Italy. I guess the pole saw is Italy made as well.

 

[middleagemutant]

Good durable saws.

 

[7sleeper]

Like a lot of other companies. The small el cheapo home owner models are often assembeld in east asia. The better ones are made in the companies home country.

7

 

[MechanicMatt]

Brother In-law has one in John Deere colors. Good saw, he beats the snot out of it and it keeps asking for more. Few flaws though, stop switch stopped working. And this year I had to put a fuel line in it. But he cuts 8 cord a year for the last 4 years with it, and he is happier than me at a bar with it.

 

[altair]

Had an the Oleo Mac (Efco) 952, 52cc. Was a high performing saw for its size, smooth as well. BUT...the little spikes it had were screwed into the plastic body with small screws, and subsequently came loose often, to the point where the spikes would be constantly flopping around.
Know it wasn't a big felling saw, but I found this really annoying..no room to put bigger screws etc either.

Maybe if they could be removed from new and reinstalled with some high tech glue etc it would be fine. Here in NZ they were a few hundred $ cheaper than the equivalent Stihl or Husky.

Other than that I felt they were the equal of the top brands. Just my 2c though.

 

[ncfarmboy]

I like em a lot!!! 152, 156, 162 are the best in the Efco line IMO. I down to 8 sold some, some got to stolen. 8200-181-7200-165-156/162-156-956WP. Outstanding value. Good dependable saws.
Shep

 

[spike60]

Efco's are good saws.

But it's not just how long your guy has been selling them, but how long he'll keep selling them. Most of these second tier brands have decent product, but the sales seldom gather enough steam for dealers to stick with them. Can't just build a saw that cuts; ya gotta have a saw that sells.

 

[Philbert]

You can still search A.S. for comments on Efco saws; you just gotta use Google to do it (as in 'Arboristsite Efco')

Here is one large thread that ran earlier this year. Many others.

http://www.arboristsite.com/chainsaw/213748.htm

Philbert

 

[Vermonster]

You can still search A.S. for comments on Efco saws; you just gotta use Google to do it (as in 'Arboristsite Efco')

Here is one large thread that ran earlier this year. Many others.

http://www.arboristsite.com/chainsaw/213748.htm

Philbert

Thanks for all the replies and links. Much appreciated assistance.

 

[eiklj]

I work at a saw shop part-time and we carry Echo, Stihl, Husqvarna, Dolmar & Jonsered.
The other day a guy brings in an Efco and wants us to fix it because we are an Echo dealer. John Q. Public doesn't know the difference between Echo & Efco.
This saw was a homeowner POS. My point is nobody knows these things (unless they are in John Deere green but then they think JD makes it).
We have no desire to carry this product. It offers no value to a shop already carrying the major players.
It's just one more item we would have to carry parts for.

 

[exSW]

You can still search A.S. for comments on Efco saws; you just gotta use Google to do it (as in 'Arboristsite Efco')

Here is one large thread that ran earlier this year. Many others.

http://www.arboristsite.com/chainsaw/213748.htm

Philbert

Wonder what ever happened to that thread and the guy that started it?

 

[Philbert]

Wonder what ever happened to that thread and the guy that started it?

There were a couple of other guys who joined in to represent Efco. Not sure what their official capacities were. If you posted in that thread, they would probably see it (once notifications get turned back on).

Philbert

 

[spike60]

I work at a saw shop part-time and we carry Echo, Stihl, Husqvarna, Dolmar & Jonsered.
The other day a guy brings in an Efco and wants us to fix it because we are an Echo dealer. John Q. Public doesn't know the difference between Echo & Efco.
This saw was a homeowner POS. My point is nobody knows these things (unless they are in John Deere green but then they think JD makes it).
We have no desire to carry this product. It offers no value to a shop already carrying the major players.
It's just one more item we would have to carry parts for.

Well said. I'm curious about how well your shop does with Jonsered, Dolmar and Echo vs the Huskys and Stihls.

Once a shop has either Husky and/or Stihl, it's hard to gain anything by adding any other line. About the only way it works is if a line already has a following in a particular area, as is the case with me having Jonsered. And with Husky and Jonsered, most of the parts are interchangable which makes it easy.

Pioneering another line on the other hand is just an uphill battle that a Husky or Stihl shop need not take on. We took on Dolmar in 2006. Had it for three years during which time we sold about 75 saws. (our Husky/Jonsered numbers are 300-400 a year) So, the 25 Dolmars is hardly impressive. And the truth is that except for a handful of guys buying 7900's, the rest were simply sales that would have been a Husky or Jonny anyway, so there is really nothing gained. And now you have to take care of them. And the large parts inventory we have to support our Husky/Jonny customers simply isn't going to exist for a junior brand that's only selling a few units a year. I'm sure everyone will agree that low unit sales doesn't justify a large parts investment. But what about the guy who bought the saw? Is that fair to him? A guy needing a Husky part is told "I've got it right here for you", and the Dolmar guy gets told, "I have to order that". Not good for the customer and not good for the shop's reputation either.

So, no knock against the saws, but we figured it was best to stop selling Dolmar.

 

[eiklj]

You are absolutely correct Spike, we don't sell much Dolmar and JRed but there are a few guys that want them and usually order what parts they need when they need them.
I think for us having all these brands advertised shows the customer we can get the parts they need. The same is true for the mowers we carry; mostly Toro, Hustler, and Grasshopper. But we do carry other brands and can get parts for most any brand of mower.
That brings people in the door which is the first battle.
It's a fine line to walk, not too much inventory but also fast turnaround on sales and service.
We place orders every week, sometimes more in the busy season.
Sorry a little off topic.

 

[MRCo.]

Efco 152 and 156 are great value, good performing saws in their category. Everyone who tries one is impressed. Homeowner stuff is just as good and bad as the homeowner stuff in any brand- but at least you get the 5 year warranty, in which I have had not one single problem dealing with Efco. While we mention warranty: I have made no more number of claims per number of units sold than I have any other brand- so Efco has initial quality as good as anyone else when it comes to warranty failures in my experience. Lets see how I feel in 10 years, though. :msp_thumbup:

As regards the 'dealership' conversation. We are a 30+ year Jonsered and 25+ year Redmax dealer. Took on Efco 4 years ago, Dolmar 3 years ago. My Jonsered sales are the weakest I have. THAT is the line I'd drop if any. I have just invested in the new pro saw line...if it sells I will keep them, if not I am looking to go parts and unit special order only. I don't sell homeowner Jreds- versus the Efco on price, features and warranty they got passed over every time. Dolmar is my top seller- for a metal body, pro level saw the prices are great. Efco sell to the homeowners from the warranty point of view. I agree, if you have one of the 'Big 3' names, taking on this smaller brands is nonsense. But for someone like us, primarily a rental store that has gotten in to retail more, they are a good start as they don't demand huge inventory buys and actually respond to the dealers very well (in my experience.) Your distributor matters too. Also, the smaller companies have lesser parts stock demand- by that I mean they have fewer units out there and fewer old models. So what I've done is buy the common spares for all the models I've sold in the brand. So for Efco and DOlmar I generally walk in the back and get it. Redmax have had the same (awesome) machines a long time so they have been easy to build a back inventory for. Jonsered has a ton of models so it's hard to tie up money in parts that may sit there for years...although now TSC have the homeowner models I will start to build parts stock for those ready for the inevitable failures.

/essay.

 

[eiklj]

Yeah I wasn't trying to knock Efco, I'm sure they make good stuff. Unfortunately, many of our customers don't understand what separates a pro saw from a homeowner saw. They only look at price. When your main competition is the big box stores, you have to play down to their level somewhat.
I can't count how many homeowner trimmers I worked on this summer. I hate working on them but they're a necessary evil.
I wish we only carried the pro stuff because it makes for easier parts inventory.

 

[ms310]

Yeah I wasn't trying to knock Efco, I'm sure they make good stuff. Unfortunately, many of our customers don't understand what separates a pro saw from a homeowner saw.

Ok so please tell me what I should do, the new stihls are pos and the customer support sucks!, husky has always been a pos, along with their cheaper twin Jred, I need to buy some new saws, what way would you guys go, I was going to go Efco just because the guys selling them did an awesome job for me servicing when they had Stihl but apparently the distributor out of Ohio thought it to be best to yank his Stihl dealership and give it to the John Deere stores who dont even know what skip tooth is and refuses to sell any mix over a pt in size. What saw should i buy, i picked up a little dolmar to try out not to impressed there either

 

[Mtthwvn]

There is a guy that is logging for my father in law that had An efco 181. He didn't have any complaints about how the saw ran or its performance. the only problem he had with it is he said it was really heavy. He ran it for about 6 months until one of his workers ran it over with the skidder....what was left of it didn't weigh that much.