Echo CS 4910

While I am generally using battery saws now for firewood, I have come up on situations where I wish I had something with more power.  A decent size Stihl is out of my price range.  The best I can come up with is the MS 250 which runs over $450.   The Echo is $100 less with more displacement.  While I am a Stihl fan, I had an Echo brush cutter back in the 80s I was impressed with, so I am open to their products.  Has anyone had more recent experience with Echo?

We replaced our Stihl pole chainsaw with a new Echo last week and I am not impressed. It lacks power and is heavy, the trigger is hard to work and the dealer did not have spare parts for it.

We needed something right then so it works, just not well.

My dad bought an Echo chainsaw and it did not last but a few months.

Echo is not the company it was in 1980.

I can't speak to power because I've never run a Stihl, but I have two modern Echos, one of them being a 4910 that I've been using for three years. I'm not a lumberjack by any means, but I have 4 acres of woods and use them quite a bit, they're reliable is all I can say. I haven't had issues.  For me the real value has been that the local hardware store carries parts, if I had a Stihl I'd have to drive 45 minutes to get parts if I'm in a pinch instead of 15.

I'll be moving to electric for some of the smaller jobs soon, though.

Make sure you have good Echo support in your area. It would suck to not be able to get parts, or God forbid, warranty repair.

I have a little baby echo saw that someone gave me. It's only a 35cc so it's gutless but it has never failed to start. Or leak bar oil.

I would say also check out the Husqvarna 450 rancher saws. I have one and it really is impressive for the cost. Light and powerful, easy to start. Also, I put a Oregon narrow kerf bar on it (cuts less wood per cut) and it cut even better.

I don’t have a large echo but I have their polesaw and the small (very) cs2511t. It is the most awesome saw I’ve ever used pound for pound. The polesaw is pretty good but as mentioned before very heavy and the trigger does suck.

I used stihl my whole life growing up in a professional capacity for my dad. As things go out I’m switching to echo for gas and then a lot battery thing like blowers etc.

Hope that helps but my big saw is stihl and will last many years because I don’t use it much. So no direct comparison other than I like the products that I’ve gotten.

Hi Steve and Juan,

Actually, for me to get any saw will be a 30 mile trip one way. I am looking for something for occasional work on something heavier. I have quite a few oak and hickory measuring 20 inches and more.  The 80v battery is pretty well had after 2 to 4 cuts on the larger trees, but is can handle 12” pretty well.   So, I doubt if the  saw will be fired up more than a couple of times a month …if that.  What really has my attention is that I have some large oaks in my yard….maybe 6.   The largest is better than 36” across.  If one goes down in a storm, it will be well beyond what any battery saw I own can handle. Worse yet, three trees are situated where they could block my driveway. So, I had better have something on hand now.   Money is an issue. I had a Stihl MS270 for about 20 years. I get the same message from 3 different shops…..it will cost more to repair it than to replace it.  The problem is that the replacement is a few hundred more than I want to spend. No matter what, I am looking at a compromise.

Now that I think one thing infuriated me about them. Both saw have a 12” bar but the polesaw had one extra tooth on the change so I had to buy a bar so they both use same chain

Hey Joe… you sound like me but no more logging anymore since retiring from homesteading.

I had the Stihl 461 and liked it, light but powerful at 72 ccs

It was doing great until I ran over it with a skidder, so in need I bought a Husqvarna 62 cc saw. I have never ran over that one, but boy I need too. really underpowered and the dealer even told me it was a “disposable” saw. He said run it for a year, trade it in and buy another. As I said I needed it so I bought it at only $750 instead of $1200 but the Stihl 461 ( upgraded to 462 now) is the better saw.

My personal opinion is that buying any saw other than a Stihl is a false economy.

As far as electric chainsaws, I have no idea why no one can seem to make one that doesn't leak all the chain oil out between every use.  Maybe Stihl's electric saw is better, but I can't justify that much money for an electric when I already have two gas and two electric saws.

My old john deere 55ev is just a rebranded echo 550.
I don't think john deere would put their name on it if it wasn't good.
I have been able to find parts for it, on the internet.
It's old reliable for me. The big saw that always runs.

craig howard wrote:My old john deere 55ev is just a rebranded echo 550.
I don't think john deere would put their name on it if it wasn't good.
I have been able to find parts for it, on the internet.
It's old reliable for me. The big saw that always runs.

It probably was a rebranded Echo.

Back then, much like today, John Deere does not make a lot of its own stuff, it uses other companies to build their products and hopes their name recognition will get them sales. When sales drops whether it be for quality issues other prices they don't like, they move on. It's not a bad thing, just how they do business. For a short time I worked at a fabrication shop where we built snowplows and some of them were of the John Deere brand.

John Deere NEVER made their own chainsaws. Sometime in the 1980's they decided that having their own brand was not netting them enough sales, so they contracted to be a Stihl a dealership, which was brilliant on their part. Today not all, but many John Deere tractor dealership's sell Stihl and is where I buy my chainsaws.

The reason we went with an Echo Pole Saw instead of Stihl however was with the parts guy at Stihl. We tried to get a new bar and chains for our old Stihl Pole Saw and he gave us them, but the chains did not match the bar, and the bar did not fit on the pole saw. We should have known better, when we asked for files he did not even though where the files were used, he thought it was to file the bar not the chain! Yeah, it was that bad, so we went to the Cub Cadet dealership that sold Echo saws.

As I said in my OP I am a Stihl fan.  I know this sounds like magical thinking, but I have stumbled on major breaks before.   I will set a deadline for one year from today to pull the trigger. Hopefully, I will come across a significant break on a Stihl  271 or better.l

John, I'd put my money on the Stihl. I've had one of their Forest service grade, brush saws for over 10 years and never had a problem. Also had one of their small tree service saws, worked great till the oiler went out!
For chainsaws, I'm still using old Jonsereds two and three digit models, they're pretty much bomb proof and you can do all your repairs yourself. Just a thought.

I am going to save a little more and go with the MS 271.