What's the difference?

[samaritan]

Whats the difference between an oem cylinder (stihl) and a cheap one from e-bay or amazon?

 

[J D]

Everything... & the degree that everything varies depends on the tolerances & quality control of the aftermarket manufacturers. While there are some renound for being good (eg Meteor), most are hit & miss to varying degrees with things like plating, casting, finishing, port timing, material quality, etc

 

[NSEric]

If it's a valuable saw I'd put an oem top end kit on it.
If it's an old cheap saw go aftermarket and port the cylinder to get the timing numbers right. The cheap aftermarket parts are the only thing keeping some saws going. There's no point in spending a bunch of money on a saw as you can replace cheaply.

 

[Mad Professor]

Sort of like a sirloin compared to a burger from McDogballs

 

[thompsoncustom]

Aftermarket can up a toss up, Almost nothing could be different or almost everything could be.

 

[Dennisthemenace]

Plenty

 

[stihltech]

Quality. Period.

 

[cscltd]

Also price, Stihl really should look at their cylinder pricing, they are usually 1/3 to 1/2 the price of new complete unit. That is for 2 of the many main components of a saw?
Turns a lot of people to the aftermarket side- they are ebay and amazons biggest advertisers with their pricing structure.
And it seems Husqvarna is following their lead as their cylinder pricing has increased a fair bit in the last couple years it seems.

 

[Mad Professor]

Also price, Stihl really should look at their cylinder pricing, they are usually 1/3 to 1/2 the price of new complete unit. That is for 2 of the many main components of a saw?
Turns a lot of people to the aftermarket side- they are ebay and amazons biggest advertisers with their pricing structure.
And it seems Husqvarna is following their lead as their cylinder pricing has increased a fair bit in the last couple years it seems.

Only knock off stuff I'll use is stuff like plastic covers, and I'd rather have an old faded one of those than a new knock off.

 

[J D]

Also price, Stihl really should look at their cylinder pricing, they are usually 1/3 to 1/2 the price of new complete unit. That is for 2 of the many main components of a saw?
Turns a lot of people to the aftermarket side- they are ebay and amazons biggest advertisers with their pricing structure.
And it seems Husqvarna is following their lead as their cylinder pricing has increased a fair bit in the last couple years it seems.

Like most things these days, the manufacturers & their agents are only really interested in turning over new units.
There's a common train of thought that we should be replacing old stuff with newer "more environmentally friendly" stuff. In my opinion it's almost always more environmentally friendly to repair something than to replace it... & thats even if the old one goes to the recycler!

 

[Evan]

Whats the definition of a valuable saw?

My power Bill is about 1000 bucks cheaper for 4 months, but the saw cost 800, the fuel to run it and haul wood of the mtn cost idk how much, alot.

It may actually be cheaper if the saw blows up and I just pay to run my furnace for 4 months.

So my valuable saw actually is putting me in the negative hole being its so damn valuable.