Chainsaw recommendation

Hi, May be so but one of our church member owns a small engine shop who used to sell Echo. I asked why when he quit selling them. His answer, they keep changing things and stocking ever chagning parts is a hassle.

A budget saw of 25 years ago is 5 times the budget saw of today, if that. Frankly I doubt you'd get 5 years out of a Homelite, Poulan, or Mcculloch built today.

I'll second that. After I bought this place 4 years ago, I knew I'd need for the occasional broken branch and such, but couldn't mentally justify a 'real' chainsaw for 2/3 acre and a couple dozen trees. Tripped across a McCullough electric for 15 bucks at a garage sale, from an older guy who moved into a condo. Didn't have high expectations, but figured for 15 bucks, what the hell. Had several decent size branches down after a recent windstorm, up to about 6-8" diameter. Much to my surprise, the little electric worked great to chop them up into burn-pile sized pieces. I never measured the bar on it- probably 16" or so. I probably would not try to fell a large tree with it, but at this stage in life, I'd hire a big job out anyway. But for the little jobs, it meets my needs just fine.

-- aem sends...

I had a 25 year old Poulan, 14". It finally wore out. One thing I liked about it was that it was very well balanced and could be held with one hand. The only similar saw I was able to find was an Echo, everything else was heavier and unwieldy by comparison. One thing I discovered is that the newer saws now have a much narrower chain (and bar). This Echo cuts well be if the chain gets the slightest bit loose there is a good chance of it coming off the bar if it gets squished at all while I'm cutting with it.