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Looking for a DIY level chainsaw for work around the garden and firewood. Anyone got any experience around the £200 mark for what's decent and what to avoid? Are they all crap at that price? Looking at these at the moment.
Stihl 171 or 181
Husky 130 or 140
Currently have a DeWalt DCM565N cordless, it's just not man enough for continuous cutting, or at least not without £300 of additional batteries. Got a shed load of trees so anyone telling me to get a hand saw is welcome to come round and pitch in.
We’ve had a stihl ms181 for a fair years now, probably the most reliable petrol tool we’ve bought. Cut down a fair few trees and done a lot of log cutting for the fires. Never had any issues with it whatsoever. Light, easy to handle and start, money well spent.
Ours spends a lot of time on one of these for easy log chopping;
https://portek.co.uk/portfolio/logmaster-saw-horse/
It was because of the reliability of this saw that I spunked loads of extra cash on a stihl strimmer hoping for similar reliability.
we've had a Husky 135 for 6 or 7 years. Used for general woodland management, including felling some stuff up to about 18" diameter. It's been OK, still starts and runs well but the chain brake clamp has failed a couple of times and the starter spool also needed changing. Neither was an expensive or complex repair but you might see similar with the 130/140.
Check out Mitox for budget/infrequent use too.
When you said "budget" I winced - but now you're talking Stihl/Husky money just go to your local dealer and try both.
I ended up with a Stihl 181 that has the 'easy-start' option.
Really nice to use.
Cheers guys. Yep that's deifnitely an option there is a local dealer for both.
When you said “budget” I winced
Got to love those huge saws for £89 with PROFESIONALL written down the bar.
I saw 'budget' and was going to say "rent" one from Argos for the weekend and take it back broken on Monday. Repeat until you have cleared the trees.
If you want a chainsaw to keep then "What they said"
Yep those are decent saws. I had a ms180 for 6 years and cut the bulk of 65-70 m³ of firewood with it in that time. Only don't have it now as I saw a great deal on a bigger Makita. Have the Stihl a good clean/service and sold out on eBay.... It cost me less than £1 for each m³ of wood it cut up in the time I had it.