How to choose a chainsaw

The chainsaw is an indispensable tool on your garden plot. Mobility, ease of use, safety, durability – all this fully applies to such a tool as a modern chainsaw. In our article we will teach you how to choose the right chainsaw and use it effectively, and most importantly, safely in your daily purposes..

The modern tool market is saturated with a wide variety of products. Unfortunately, the quality of many products is poor. Chinese manufacturers throw their products on the market en masse at extremely low prices, which allows them to quickly find their customers. But do not forget that a gasoline tool (in this case, a chainsaw) is a source of increased danger. It does not matter if such a product breaks down during operation, it is much worse when a person suffers as a result of such a breakdown. We will not consider options for chainsaws of the lower price segment in the hope that the consumer himself understands that the cost of such a tool as a chainsaw cannot be equal to the cost of several kilograms of smoked sausage.

Such brands as STIHL, SOLO, HUSQVARNA, DOLMAR, MAKITA, SHINDAIWA, ZENOAH, HITACHI, JONSERED, OLEO MAC and others are very popular among amateurs and professionals. The leading positions in this list rightfully belong to the brands STIHL and HUSQVARNA and JONSERED (a division of HUSQVARNA, which produces more expensive, professional saws). These companies have extensive experience in the production of high quality gasoline-powered tools, and a manufacturer such as STIHL is the inventor of the world’s first gasoline-powered hand chain saw..

The founder of STIHL is German engineer Andreas Stihl. It was he who, in 1929, first created the first two-handed gasoline saw with a 6 hp engine. and a product weighing 46 kg. The product was in great demand. Since then, the company has introduced a huge number of its developments, which are still widely used in production to this day. This is a chain for a saw, an automatic lubrication system for the saw part, a special centrifugal clutch (clutch).

The closest competitor of STIHL is the Swedish manufacturer of gas powered tools HUSQVARNA. In the arsenal of this manufacturer there are many products, including a wide range of gas powered tools. Many do not even realize that the HUSQVARNA company was founded back in 1689 and was at one time a major weapons manufacturer. Nowadays, many professionals prefer HUSQVARNA products. It is also worth remembering the JONSERED trade mark (Sweden), which has been producing high-quality gas powered tools for more than 50 years. And although their products bear the HUSQVARNA brand, JONSERED is one of the leaders among manufacturers of gasoline equipment.

The Japanese company SHINDAIWA is little known in our market. However, the products of this company are well-deserved respect among professionals. Despite the fact that SHINDAIWA began producing saws relatively recently (from the mid-70s of the last century), their products are confidently conquering new sales markets due to their quality, reliability, practicality and durability..

Usually the consumer is lost at the sight of such a variety of technology. Neither the information read earlier nor the advice of friends helps him. Modern supermarkets have one significant drawback – a potential buyer is, as a rule, left alone with the equipment and, apart from praise, often hears nothing else. The shelves are full of advertising posters, booklets that praise the technique. But how to make a choice?

Choosing a gasoline chain saw

Let’s step aside from specific brands in our choice and look specifically at the advantages and practicality of the products. Agree, choosing products of a rather high price category, we can afford this..

First of all, it is worth deciding how often we plan to use the chainsaw and how much work needs to be done. This is extremely important, since “cutting firewood for a bathhouse” is not at all the same as “preparing firewood for heating in winter”. Despite the fact that you can harvest firewood with the help of small chainsaws, you should not speak badly about the manufacturer later – the resource of such chainsaws is limited, and they are intended for performing either auxiliary work or for small jobs in a private house. Let’s say that we have to choose a small saw for the household, which we will not use for a long time (3-4 times a month) – harvesting firewood for a bath, pruning branches in the garden, other work.

Take a closer look at the offered assortment of saws, be sure to hold the product in your hands. Very often people buy a product by believing the manufacturer’s advertising. This is not the right approach. Have you heard such an expression as “she fell into the hand”? This fully applies to chainsaws. Despite the fact that the standards that the products (chainsaws) meet are the same, the ergonomics of each product is completely different. One person will be comfortable with a wide throttle control button, while another, on the contrary, it is preferable to have a small throttle lever but a more pronounced throttle lock lever (fuse). Everyone’s hands are different and the instrument must be selected based on the anatomical structure, and not just looking at the manufacturer’s name. Next, you should pay attention to such a detail as the handle of the chain inertial brake.

This is a very important part of the saw. It is the inertial chain brake that allows you to maximally avoid injuries and other damage that in an “emergency” situation can cause the operator of the chainsaw. The inertial brake allows you to almost instantly stop the movement of the chain, regardless of the engine speed of the chainsaw. The location of the chain inertial brake lever is the same for all chainsaws without exception – it is located in front of the front handle. But the shape, size, the force of the brake operation is different for all saws. A chainsaw is an individual tool, so choose a saw for yourself that will fully match your build, arm length, and hand size. The quality of work, speed most often depends not on the tool itself, but on how much it is correctly selected and tuned. At the same time, do not forget that such a tool is safer in everyday work..

So we chose a few copies that not only meet our requirements, but we just liked the quality of workmanship and convenience. These are STIHL MS180С, ZENOAH GZ400 and JONSERED С S 2137 chainsaws.

All saws belong to the “same weight category”, only the ZENOAH chainsaw has a tire several centimeters longer than the competition. We will consider the technical characteristics of the saws a little later. Let’s try among these saws to choose the most convenient one in our opinion. It is worth noting that this is precisely our choice, which is purely individual. In this example, you can independently make the choice of a chainsaw for yourself.

All chainsaws presented are lightweight, the saws are very well balanced. This can be determined immediately by simply lifting the saw by the front handle. This weight distribution will make your work less tiring and more productive. All saws are designed to discharge combustion gases in such a way that the operator does not get into the exhaust stream. Naturally, when working with a saw, you have to take into account the direction of the wind so that the exhaust gases do not affect you. The design of the ZENOAH GZ400 chainsaw muffler is somewhat different from the STIHL and JONSERED chainsaw mufflers – the exhaust outlet is additionally protected by a mesh, which, on the one hand, allows you to extinguish possible sparks that are formed during the combustion of the fuel mixture, on the other hand, prevents strangers from entering the muffler items.

STIHL and JONSERED are just as good at fighting sparks, but theoretically foreign objects can get caught in the muffler, which can cause serious damage to the chainsaw. In practice, such breakdowns are extremely rare, but they are not excluded if you handle chainsaws carelessly..

The points for refueling the chainsaw with fuels and lubricants are located on the side of the manual starter and have special markings. Near the fuel mixture tank there is a drawing of a gas station and oil droplets, near the oil tank, which lubricates the chain – an image of a chain and oil droplets.

This is very convenient for everyday use, since sometimes even professionals in some cases can confuse the filling points. This is unacceptable as it could damage the tool. On STIHL and JONSERED chainsaws, the refueling points are located in the same way – near the rear handle there is a fuel tank cap, near the front handle a chain oil tank cap. In addition, the STIHL MS180C chainsaw has special windows that allow you to visually monitor the oil level for lubricating the chain and the fuel mixture, which is very convenient during work. On the ZENOAH chainsaw, the fueling points are located nearby, in the area of ​​the rear handle. And although they are marked accordingly, differ in size and color, the average user can still confuse them..

Do not forget that you need not only to properly refuel the chainsaw, but also to properly prepare the fuel mixture for it. It is the fuel mixture, since the chainsaw cannot independently mix 2-stroke oil with gasoline, as it happens, for example, in modern mopeds.

Another factor that influences the choice of a chainsaw is the ease of maintenance of the tool after work. The fact is that not all saws are convenient for daily maintenance. All saw parts are so arranged in a small case that sometimes you need to apply a lot of effort and ingenuity in order to remove shavings, residues of fuels and lubricants. Let’s see how the manufacturer disposed of the “engine compartment” space, what the “heart” of a chainsaw looks like.

In order to remove the upper protective cover and the STIHL MS180C chainsaw, you have to first squeeze the gas button and lower the carburetor throttle control lever to the lowest position.

Failure to do this can damage the parts of the chainsaw. After that, it remains only to turn the special lock and the cover can be easily removed, while freeing up enough space for servicing the chainsaw units after work.

The operator gains access to key saw parts such as the carburetor and spark plug. In this chainsaw, you can dismantle the carburetor without disassembling the entire saw body. This is very convenient, as it allows you to service the saw as soon as possible and without the use of complex, specialized tools.

The ZENOAH GZ400 chainsaw also allows you to remove the top protective cover without the use of auxiliary tools. You just need to unscrew the special screw that is mounted in the cover.

After that, you need to carefully remove the air filter and only then can you start servicing the saw. In this saw, you need to carefully dismantle the air filter in order to avoid foreign particles entering the carburetor of the chainsaw. Access to the spark plug is somewhat limited by the front of the body, but this practically does not interfere with quickly changing the plug if necessary.

You can dismantle the carburetor from the ZENOAH GZ400 saw quite quickly, having only the tool that comes with the delivery.

The upper cover of the JONSERED CS 2137 chainsaw can be removed only with a special key that is supplied with this saw. The fact is that these saws are very popular in North America, and local standards require that access to parts of such tools be limited. Agree, it will be difficult later to prove that you accidentally unscrewed three screws and then removed the cover. In fact, these screws are unscrewed very easily and the process of accessing the units of the JONSERED CS 2137 chainsaw will take you exactly as much time as we spent on disassembling the tools described above..

After dismantling the top cover of the JONSERED CS 2137 chainsaw, we get free access to all the main tool assemblies. Moreover, we are able to clean the cooling fins of the cylinder smoothly, which is extremely important for the normal cooling of the saw during operation..

We’ve covered the main points to look out for when choosing a small chainsaw. We hope that these recommendations will expand your understanding of such a tool as a chainsaw and allow you to make a more informed choice. One could recall such elements as a chain tensioner, a smooth start of the saw. We deliberately did not mention these options, as they significantly increase the cost of the product, but practically do not affect the quality of work. In the future, we will talk about the rules for working with a chainsaw, how to replace a tire, chain, drive sprocket on different types of saws.