It’s Time to Start Over When Your Chainsaw Starts Showing You Ads

I did it again. I bought another chainsaw.

Back in ’24, I got fed up with my saws because they were failing to start when I needed them, and I also thought my 20″ Echo CS-590 was too small for this farm. It’s a pretty powerful saw, but the bar was short for some of my work, and going to 24″ on that saw was a stretch.

I needed something big, powerful, and reliable. Reliability was the key goal. Not all that long ago, chainsaw mechanics were charging $25 per hour. Now, $125 is a low price. Ridiculous and unjustified. I’m all for capitalism, but a guy who does small engine work should not be making over $200,000 per year.

On top of the price, I had been unable to find anyone around here who knew what he was doing. Chainsaws sat at repair shops for months and then came back unfixed. And because I was not a professional tree surgeon, I was at the bottom of the list for customer service. If you’re an amateur, when you take your saw to be repaired, the shop puts it on a shelf and works on saws that belong to professionals. Your turn may come weeks later.

It was an interesting scenario. My most expensive saw cost $400, and I was paying $125 per hour for incompetent mechanics to work on my equipment, often unsuccessfully, and in the process, they kept my saws while trees and logs rotted on my property, in the way. I once lost the use of a saw for a whole summer.

It seemed strange to pay a huge fraction of a saw’s new cost for one hour of repair work.

I decided to buy a pro saw with a fancy electronic brain. I thought it would be easier to start and run, and pro saws are more powerful for the same displacement. Also, they come with full-chisel chains that cut faster than the safety chains all homeowner saws comes with.

Turned out I was overly optimistic. I bought a Husqvarna 562XP, which is a little bigger than the CS-590. It had something called “Autotune,” so it was supposed to run trouble-free all the time. It was more than adequate for a 24″ bar. Sadly, I later found out this was one of Husqvarna’s problem models. For one thing, it was known to overheat its fuel line and then refuse to start when warm.

I got what seemed like a great deal on it, but then I found out it was because they were clearing out the “Mark I” saws. The 562XP was such a pain to use, Husqvarna upgraded to a second version, the Mark II. If I had known, I would not have bought the Mark I. When I bought the saw, I thought the man who sold it to me was wonderful, but I now think he would have been more wonderful if he had said, “Look, this thing is a mess. Spend a little more and get the new one that works better.”

Because my saw was made late during the Mark I years, I got some upgrades Husqvarna had added to patch it, but it wasn’t the equal of a Mark II. It was hard to start warm. I began taking the Echo with me when I used it, so I could begin jobs with the 562 and finish them with a saw that actually started.

To get this saw, which was a disappointment, I had to give up user-serviceability. The computer has to be updated and fiddled with at an authorized service center. This means that if I have fuel and ignition problems, I am back to the $125/unpredictable-delay plan.

I should say that the guy who sold me the saw is also a mechanic, and while he is not cheap, he was able to do competent repairs for me in less than two weeks. Still not acceptable, but better than three months and failed repairs.

During this time, I learned a lot about keeping saws running, and I realized I could get by without computers. I bought a second pro saw: an Echo CS-501P with a 50cc engine and a short 16″ bar. I chose a short bar so the saw would be overpowered. I wasn’t planning to use it for big wood, and I wanted it to handle bucking with great ease.

Echo’s strategy is to sell very tough, simple saws without computers. That applies to the CS-501P. It doesn’t have as much crippling homeowner-coddling stuff as a comparable Echo 50cc amateur saw.

It has been a great saw. Cuts beautifully and starts every time. I opened up the muffler so it could actually breathe and release heat. I tuned it correctly instead of keeping the wimpy factory tune. It’s a joy to use. I will never have to take it to a mechanic unless it has a horrible, catastrophic problem. I can fix just about any problem it will ever have.

I have gotten better at humoring the Husky, so it has started for me the last few times I have used it, but it’s not the savior saw I thought it would be. And the CS-590 is a lot better than it once was. I advanced the timing, opened the muffler, put in a better carb, replaced the carb’s crippling main jet, put a full-chisel chain on it, and tuned it for a man. It cuts about as well as a 60cc saw can, short of having it ported and putting a weird saw-fanatic muffler on it.

The other day I used the Husky to take down a rotten oak, and I would guess that where I cut the stump close to the ground, I was dealing with 28″ of diameter. The Husky did not fly through it. I made it eventually, but the experience didn’t make me think, “Wow! This was totally worth $750!”

I have been trying to restrain my spending, so even though I started having thoughts about a next-level saw at least two years ago, I have been trying to resist upgrading. Cutting that stump got me thinking again, however.

For quite a while, I’ve been considering getting a bigger Echo: the CS-7310P. This is a 73cc job that will pull a 28″ bar pretty easily. Like the other Echos, it has no computer. Just a carburetor I can work on myself. Stihl and Husqvarna make saws that are a little faster through wood, but their saws have fancy-saw issues, and I would not be able to do all my own repairs. They’re also more expensive than Echo, although Echo has stupidly increased prices to the point where the difference is not worth much consideration.

I bought the CS-501P largely for fun. The CS-590 will do what it does, and more, just fine. I wanted the new saw mainly so I could enjoy modifying it and seeing what it could do. But when I bought it, a hurricane had just passed by, so people in Florida were snapping up saws and choking the supply.

The company I bought it from (Saw Suppliers) was great. They were excited about helping Floridians get saws for hurricane cleanup. They gave me a nice discount and then, without being asked, gave me free two-day shipping. I thought that was fantastic. I was very grateful. Because of that, I decided that I would buy my next saw from them, if I ever bought a new saw.

When I started looking at the 7310 again, I went to their site. Their price was not as good as Home Depot, but I didn’t care. I felt I should show some gratitude. Now my order is in.

I never thought I would spend this much money on a chainsaw. Even in 2026, I can still get three CS-590s for the same price. But tree services are very expensive, and life is too short to put up with frustrating tools.

I’m looking forward to using the new saw. My new go-to lineup will be three Echos (50-73cc and 16″-28″) plus an electric Makita. I don’t think I will ever want to use the Husky again. Time to sell it, maybe.

I’m already looking into modding the muffler and doing whatever else I can to void the warranty and improve performance. I really do not care about saw warranties. Given the cost of tree services and saw mechanics, along with the time it takes to get saws fixed, I consider warranties worthless.

I’m planning to start using a 40:1 fuel:oil ratio in all my saws. I have read a lot of mythology about oil ratios, and most of it clearly came from guys who had no idea what they were talking about, but now that AI is here, I have been able to do better research, and I have been told that more oil equals less heat and longer engine life. That’s good enough for me. The new higher ratios are intended to protect precious Mother Gaia, not saw engines. As I often tell my wife, the environment can drop dead. After all the trouble green policies have caused me, Mother Gaia owes me more than she can ever repay.

I case anyone out there is looking for a good saw fit for homeowner use, I would recommend a 16″-18″ electric saw and the CS-590, with the caveat that the CS-590 benefits from some simple mods. Open up the carb. Buy a new key that advances the timing. Get rid of the main jet and replace it with one that doesn’t have a second hole in it. Buy a real chain, not the sad semi-chisel that comes with the saw. Tune the saw properly. Use Biobor EB and Echo Red Armor in your fuel, and get zero-ethanol gas if you can. Avoid Sta-Bil. It does not work unless you use the blue version.

My Makita cordless is a wonderful tool. Requires almost no maintenance, always starts, and if you have a few batteries, it will get you through most homeowner jobs without a charging session.

I hope this helps other people who have problem trees.