Husqvarna 550xp repaired-ish

[Sawyer Rob]

How do you guys cut wood without eye protection........ everytime I try it I get sawdust in my eyes.

I don't, but some of the guys that help me just won't, so after telling them a time or two, I tell them, "you are on your own"!!

SR

 

[s219]

Didn't get a chance to use my Echo 501P today -- too darn cold -- but I did notice that that I bought it in late 2016, so it's been 2+ years of running it. That's long enough that I'd feel comfortable giving it a strong recommendation. Also saw I paid $469 with 20" bar/chain back then. I think the prices have gone up since.

 

[Oldpath05]

Cold?????? Virginia aint cold, single numbers is cold, I had 4 above yesterday 2 above today. So for the last two years would you say you've gone threw atleast 5-6 gal of gas on the 501p and still starts and idles good? You say you also have a 550xp, do you know if that chainsaw bar will fit on a Echo 501p? I have a $45.00 brand new 18" extra bar for my 550xp, I have to figure that into a new saw purchase equation.

How far away are you from Lynchburg? My Daughter is a reporter at a news station down there somewhere.

 

[bullbreaker]

I have had the 501-P on my radar . So far here is cheapest I have found it .
ECHO Chainsaws

 

[Jstpssng]

That's probably the best bet right now, but where is there a true blue Husqvarna dealer around Me that knows there ABCs and will cross the T's when checking over a saw, I'll have to spend some networking see if I can find one, hopefully there's one closer then the upper mid west.

I remember 40 years ago there was chainsaw shops all over the place, here there and everywhere, I think what happen is the paper market and lumber mills bottomed out and now there's less loggers to buy saws, which had a ripple affect on chainsaw dealers. Then Husqvarna said we need to sell more saws so lets get into the big box stores and cater to the urbanite lumber jacks and then we can make junk and they wont know the difference and or care, urbanite loggers just like to buy stuff and JD and everyone else sees that and now their all selling junk in big box stores

This is what happened to all of those small dealers that you are talking about... and I won't even pretend that I don't think it's a good thing.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Buying them off the internet isn't helping the small local dealer either...

SR

 

[tjkubota93]

The past couple weeks I've been looking into several chainsaw brands and where or how far away one is, Stihl and Echo are close by so I been looking for bad reviews on Echo, hard to find til I was sent a link from the ArboristSite, boy was that a bad one. It's mostly about Echo 5 year warranty= No warranty, but besides the bad review and a $230.00 repair bill on a $300.00 saw, a couple post turned my world up side down.

Echo CS-490 DEAD after 11.5 months?
p-1#7>> You didn稚 mention what ratio mix you were using, but tuned for a 50 to 1, and if you used let痴 say 32 to 1, saw will run hotter and leaner and can score a piston if not re tuned for the different mix. There are many other reasons too. When a saw starts acting up, it痴 best to stop using it and find out why before damage begins.

p-6#12>>While the oil in the fuel is needed, it is also an impurity as to how fuel burns and octane rating is concerned . The more oil, the more you lower your octane. Lower the octane the hotter the burn. That's why on most cans of ready use it says they "use" 92 or 93 octane fuel, not "it is" that.

These two comments to me dont make since>>> "32 to 1, saw will run hotter and leaner "<<<< how can less gas and more oil make a saw run hotter and leaner? to me that would be better for breaking in a new saw, I usually go 40-1.

"Lower the octane the hotter the burn." <<<And this dont make since, I always thought the higher the octane the the hotter the burn and combustion which equal more power.

I was giving Echo CS-501p a hard look but now after reading that thread I'm not so sure. Then my son tells me today while he was in town 22 mile away he saw a Husqvarna 550xp for $570.00 at the hardware store, said they had full line up of Husqvarna saws, do I dare go Husqvarna again, I didn't even get 6 years out of the one I have...........

Now a couple other thoughts on that thread, I see all the posters rag on Echo's no warranty but where was all or any post saying>>"Wellllllll I have a Husqvarna, Stihl, Jonsered, RedMax, ABCXWZ saws with scored pistons and they warranted mine. Oh I get it those saws dont break down, didn't know that. A scored piston some say is from a gas issue, maybe not mixed or mixed with motor oil, so how can one prove it's a bad saw, they said Echo saws are to lean from factory, that could go back and forth for 9 pages, but IMO Echo should've took the high road and warranted the saw, might of gained a sale, possibly from me.

Now according to the OP Echo said that his was from sawdust that got into the carburetor because it was fine sawdust and Echo said it got in there because the chain was not properly maintained or in other words dull chain.

I won't buy another echo. I had one (cs501p) that was new, the air filter didn't do a darn thing but block wood chips. The throat of the carb was full of dirt. I got rid of it because I called echo and the kid that answered the phone was a smarty pants jerk. All I did was ask if they could reccomend a better filter or a way to keep all the dirt out. Not going down that road........... sold it for $50 loss on Ebay. That's a design flaw.

 

[tjkubota93]

346xp

 

[Jstpssng]

I had an Echo CS520 which I bought when my 346xp lost the crank after just 3 years. It was a little heavier and slower than the Husky it replaced, but was a good saw for 6 years. The trouble is that I kept it for 8. It also had a 5 year warranty which the saw it replaced didn't.

 

[Oldpath05]

This is what happened to all of those small dealers that you are talking about... and I won't even pretend that I don't think it's a good thing.

Mechanical wood harvesting might have some play in the small saw shops shutting down, but in this state I think Bucksport, Rumford, Greatnorthern and a few other paper mills that I cant think of right now, that have shut down has a much bigger part in small saw shops shutting down, not to mention a dozen or so sawmills thats closed down in the past 30 years. Around me a lot of people use to cut 4' fir&spruce to have hauled to Bucksport, I also cut some years ago and have had it trucked there, made a nice weekend job.

In the past 50 yeas I have cut and yarded<<(Old time Maine term) wood in almost every way there is to do it, so in what little time I used a feller-buncher there's no way on Gods green earth would I'd want to run a chainsaw all day every day compared to operating mechanical wood harvesting equipment, I am a HUGE fan of making a machine do the work. I wont use horses either, I keep horse under the hood.

 

[Oldpath05]

Buying them off the internet isn't helping the small local dealer either...

SR

You could say that about anything you buy, just look what happen to the malls, in my mine that was a good thing, cant stand crowds, one big reason I like ordering offline. I wouldn't mine ordering a saw off internet through HD, that way if it wont start I can take it back to the nearest by HD store, but still prefer a local dealer if only a few bucks more, local as in 10-20 miles, more then that might's well go to HD............

 

[Oldpath05]

I had an Echo CS520 which I bought when my 346xp lost the crank after just 3 years. It was a little heavier and slower than the Husky it replaced, but was a good saw for 6 years. The trouble is that I kept it for 8. It also had a 5 year warranty which the saw it replaced didn't.

That's why I bought the 550xp 6 years ago, it replaced the 346 and I had that saw about 4 years, thought it was a good saw. My crank didn't give out, the whole saw was caught up in a cross fire when my shop burnt down 6 years ago.

 

[s219]

Cold?????? Virginia aint cold, single numbers is cold, I had 4 above yesterday 2 above today. So for the last two years would you say you've gone threw atleast 5-6 gal of gas on the 501p and still starts and idles good? You say you also have a 550xp, do you know if that chainsaw bar will fit on a Echo 501p? I have a $45.00 brand new 18" extra bar for my 550xp, I have to figure that into a new saw purchase equation.

How far away are you from Lynchburg? My Daughter is a reporter at a news station down there somewhere.

Heck, it was 12F the other morning -- cold for here. One of those days I would have had to thin my bar oil to do any serious cutting. But I know what you're talking about, my dad's from Maine and I've been up there plenty of times in winter.

I've probably put at least 5 gals through the 501P and it has run great the whole time. I don't think it starts cold as consistently as my other Echos (which are super predictable -- always know exactly how many pulls cold) but it's the same as my Stihls and Huskys.

I don't have a Husky 550XP, I have a 562XP. The Echo 501 uses a .325 chain and the gauge is 0.050. I know the 550XP came with several pitch/gauge options so hard to know if your bars & chains will be interchangeable. I don't think the bars will swap but I can't say I have even compared them. Maybe you can go to the Oregon website and see if the part numbers cross match.

Here's a vid of the 501P idling:

Breaking into two more posts since I can only have one video per post.....

 

[s219]

Here's one of the 501P cutting a cookie in poplar:

 

[s219]

For comparison, here's my 562XP (60cc) cutting a cookie too:

I generally don't put a lot of stock in cookie videos since there are too many variables, but it gives you an idea how the saws run. I consider the 501P performance typical of a 50cc saw. Of course the 60cc Husky blows through the wood much better, but it also is bigger and weighs 4 lbs more (18 lbs versus 14 lbs for the 501P). Both saws had a recently sharpened full chisel chain on a 20" bar.

 

[Oldpath05]

Thanks for those videos, that husky clearly won with more cc and assuming 3/8 pitch chain, but almost think my 550xp cut faster than that 501p, I was inspecting that motor to whined up more. I run 18" bar, 325 pitch, 058 gauge full chisel chain, mayby 20" takes more power.

 

[s219]

As soon as I saw that video I knew I hadn't revved the 501P all the way up before going into the wood, but like I said, take cookie videos with a grain of salt because there are so many variables. When I used to do it more often I would see variation over 5-6 cuts. The 501P does cut slightly better with an 18" bar, but it handles so nice with the 20" I leave that on most of the time. Other 50cc saws I have owned would not balance well with a 20" bar so I always stuck with 18". Even my Stihl 261, which had a bulkier powerhead, would get too nose heavy with a 20" bar.

 

[Oldpath05]

You know if you want a do over and cut up again a bakers dozen of cookies with that 501p and since I like salt I'll be more than happy to watch. First the cold start, the warm up and last but not lest the rev up, be even better if you had a 550xp doing the same thing, even better if I could go to a saw shop and they'ed do that.

A guy I ride to work with told me today of a hardware store 25 mile away that sells both, Husqvarna and Echo, he knows the people fairly well and says they've been selling Echos to several loggers and the hardware dealer says some of the loggers prefer the Echos over Husqvarna, ouch that gotta to hurt the you know who's, so next week think I'll go there and get a closer look at both side by side. This guy I ride with has the Echo Timberwolve and loves it he also has Husky, Stihl but like the Echo the best, he also has his lawnmower work done there and he does tree trimming and lawn mowing in the summer for people.

I know bar length has an effect on balance and handling but I dont go by that, I go by where my comfort cut zone is without hitting the ground. On my bigger saw with 24" bar, I used it several time cutting limbs, and notice how hard it was for me to continual hold it up so wont run it into the ground. So I mostly use that big saw for cutting up sawmill slabs and or big trees where a longer bar is preferred, but for the average firewood and log cutting 18" bar fits my height just right.

 

[s219]

I had to stop by my Stihl dealer to get some files today and ogled the 261:



I had one of these a few years back (sold it to a member here) and it was a darn good saw. Stihl lightened the powerhead a couple years ago and the new version indeed has nicer balance than I remember. What I don't like is how they made the clutch cover smaller (which may be where some weight was saved). It just looks wrong. Although chip flow was one complaint I had about the old 261, and that has to be improved with the smaller cover. It also has M-tronic now. I'd love a chance to run this and test against the 501P so I'll have to keep an eye out for an opportunity.

I will say this about Stihl -- they sure put up a nice display. I can feel my wallet squirming to jump out of my pocket every time I go there for supplies and see that big spread of saws and equipment. I got out of there cheap at $19 for a few packs of files and some bar oil!

 

[s219]

Also, looking at the Stihl's flippy caps reminded me of one gripe about the Echo 501P -- the caps for oil and gas are hard to remove and always require some leverage from my scrench tool.