1957hd5 wrote:I know I have mentioned here that I have several chainsaws, but I was in a farm store and saw a saw marked down from 520.00 to 239.00 and couldn't help myself.
It is brand new I haven't even started it yet. The last new saw I bought was a dolmar 5100 and it never ran right until I pulled the limit caps and gave it more fuel. I intend to do the same since I have read a lot about echo saws being way to lean from the factory and have a tendency to do a meltdown.
Pure myth - that's just people that like Stihl or Husky bashing the machine - I have yet to see *any* of the machines we sold - chainsaw or otherwise - melt down - saws are supposed to be serviced and set up before delivery to the customer - if your HD store did not do that, they are not following good practices. Very rarely do they need any tweaking when properly serviced and fueled to begin with - We have 3 case studies on that over 3 years - 2 professional users, one with 2 550's and one with 1 - The guy with the 2 550's buys "whatever is cheap" 2-cycle oil at the hardware store and cheapest gas they can find at gas station - some of that oil they were using was 6 years old Homelite 32:1 mix oil.. They had endless problems with their 2 saws they kept bringing them in to be 'readjusted" because they were too lean - 9 times out of 10 a new fuel filter, dumping out the old gas and fresh shop mix (89 octane, Echo Power Blend 2 stroke oil) resolved the problem.. for a few months.. then they'd be back again - In frustration I replaced the standard fuel filter with a bigger surface area Husky 503-443201 filter, and tweaked the carbs rich so they were about 10% off their proper power band - then things lasted them much longer.
The other guy - buys only Echo Power Blend mix oil from us, buys the *recommended* 89 octane gas, and runs his saw hard every day - and has never , EVER needed a re-adjustment of the carburetor - brings it in every year for a tune up (plug and filters, replace lines after 2 years) - and has never had a problem - in all 3 saws they are used daily, all day (firewood cutter and logger) - and even with them being "lean" , they never yet melted down
Also, the carb adjustment on these particular saws is *very* different from your ordinary run-of-the-mill carburetor - Got to set the mixture screws much different, MUST have an accurate tachometer, and be properly warmed up - they do need to run a few minutes before they warm up to develop full power, but tweaking them rich results in carbon problems at the exhaust ports.
I suppose that would void the five year warranty?
Absolutely.
And is that five warranty for real anyway?
Absolutely - In fact, we just replaced a customer's saw with a whole new one 2 1/2 years later - they overtightened the bar nuts and pulled the bar studs out of the crankcase housing - even though it was really sort of their fault, Echo approved the warranty anyway.
Not to mention, the ignition module is a LIFETIME warranty (and for trimmers/brushcutters, the drive shaft is as well lifetime warranty)
Following the procedures by the book, we have never had a warranty claim denied yet, so far have never yet seen a blown echo (but several huskys and stihls burned up meantime by the same owners.)
How poor are they who have not patience. What wound did ever heal, but by degrees? - Iago (Othello Act II, Scene 3)