2cents from a guy who has run most brands... We are in the middle of 12.5acres of forest with the house and so something always needs trimmed back or under cut, or need a polesaw for thorny locust. I have fixed and lightly modded quite a few for friends and then tried them out for several hours each cutting/ trimming and limbing.
Stihl's
the HT 101 and 131 were the top end for saws since they had bigger displacement and good reliability. That being said I haven't run the new series yet. I own a Kombi Style with interchangeable tools (same motor as 101/131) and the saw doesn't reach far enough without the extension shaft (or two), and they get really heavy at that point. It's good for people that want one engine with lots of tools for fine grooming yards and a small reach needed (but that's not me). Also all the seperate connections can rob power and create more failure points. Cheap aftermarket parts are available and seem to work quite well from my experience (carbs, gear boxes, etc) on the 4mix engines. Aftermarket might be caught up on some parts by the time you need them if you buy a new one. The 4mix engines are all 90% the same so having a spare carb or fuel line around is nice. Keeping valve lash tensioned correctly and the valves de-carboned is key on these engines. Very reliable as far as the old style is concerned (there are some NOS units still at dealers).
Echo's...
UGH... good warranty but don't count on power to pull over a 6-8" cut. I haven't modified one so there might be gains to be had like the husky i'll mention later... I was using the 28cc larger echo and it took a while to spool up and would jam and stop the chain quite a bit. The blower and weed eaters perform better from what I've seen. Also parts are dealership or online only so you end up paying for the parts from dealer no matter what breaks.
Husqvarna
All of the new poles saws from Husky use the same 25.4cc engine and have the same power. You are just paying for the extra reach as the price goes up. Had a friend come in with the longest 13ft polesaw Husky makes and it was a pooch to say the least. It had terrible acceleration and felt like little to no power even after 1-2hrs of limbing to get the catalytic element in the muffler hot, and a good carb tune. I think we all know where I went with this thing. Unroll the crimp and split the 2 halfs and do as you see fit, and don't forget to retune the carb. Completely different animal after everything was breathing properly with good solid carb adjustment
... Polesaws are a little trickier to tune vs chainsaws. I made the mistake of tuning without running in some wood. I tuned by ear and reading the plug to make sure i wasnt too lean or too rich (originally i had it way too rich). Friend came back the exhaust wet and black and said it was still sluggish and after leaning out the high side quite a bit the plug was reading good and we were buzzing through 10-12" cuts without a problem. The echo could be the same way and do great after some mods...
I will caution to make sure you get a polesaw with fully adjustable carb if you plan or even think you might modify it (H-L-LA). I made the mistake of modding my brothers echo leaf blower and it accelerated great once opened up but it had a fixed jet carb so I could do nothing to lean up the motor and make it hold a higher RPM. The nice thing about the husky blowers and polesaws are that they had a fully adjustable carbs and a spare muffs were $20-$25 in case it ever needed to return under warranty.
I didn't expect any warranty issues to arise and after several long seasons worth of acreage use on it, nothing has went wrong. Also pay attention to the plastic cover over the muffler, if you decide on a mod for it you wont want to burn up the shinny new covers right away.
Last but not least... LOOK at the CHAIN! I am seeing that the new Stihls are going back to 1/4 pitch chain. it works but a nice 3/8LP/Picco safety chain works MUCH better!
That might be 20 cents worth so I'm done for now...
