Thoughts On The 500i?

[toolmaker]

What's the verdict on the 500i?
Good saw? Junk?
Stay away from it?
I'm thinking about buying one.
What's the going price in PA. for one?

 

[PA Dan]

What's the verdict on the 500i?
Good saw? Junk?
Stay away from it?
I'm thinking about buying one.
What's the going price in PA. for one?

My dealer in Irwin PA was $1400 with 24" bar out the door. Now he has only had 6 in the last 8 months. Who knows when the next ones will be here.

 

[Thumper88]

I paid $1430 for mine with a 28" lighr bar 2 weeks ago in East Tennessee. Dealer had 2 of them on the shelf. Mine is my favorite saw after 2 weekends of tree work with it. Background info, I have or have had in the last 2 years, 390XPW, MS462, MMWS 880, MS261, 550 XP, 372 XP and a few others. The MS500 runs like a ported saw out of the box. Throttle response is insane, mine is 3 pulls cold and 1 pull hot so far. Pulls a 28" full comp with authority in oak and maple. Ive added WCS 3 point dogs and a bark box to mine, and plan to add their clutch cover, fallers suspension and a full wrap handle in the next couple weeks, but all that stuff is just customizing to my taste, the saw is fantastic out of the box.

 

[Warped5]

Everyone I know that has one loves it.

.... but it's very, very thirsty.

 

[Duce]

Except people working in very cold climates.

 

[PA Dan]

Except people working in very cold climates.

What are the cold climate issues?

 

[Duce]

They will not start or run. Guys on here are having problems with them in cold weather.

 

[thinair]

The last few months, been using a 500 in temps down to -20c with no issues at all

 

[Duce]

No skin in the game, would never own one just repeating what had been posted on site.
Need Help, 500i issues

 

[Cedarkerf]

Had mine for a year and a half favorite saw ever. I have or have owned a slinger ported 372xpw Stihl 064,066,044,460 ,661 so some experience, at 60 years old the power to weight ratio is appreciated. I have had no problems what so ever.

 

[Swanman62]

They will not start or run. Guys on here are having problems with them in cold weather.

I have only experienced the fail to start one time. I was on probably my third tank of gas in the saw and cutting a blowdown larch on a very wet snowy morning. Just below freezing. I snipped the log free of the root ball and limbed it up. I shut the saw off to rig up some cables and to drag the log to the road. The saw would not start for me after that. I fired up my MS361 and bucked up the log for firewood. The 500 started fine once it got warm and dry again. I think it must have iced up on the intake somewhere. I wish that I would have pulled off the filter to take a look. I have run the saw in similar conditions and not had any issues. It is a great saw. I just picked up a 32” Stihl light bar for it. So far it has done well with the 28” that I bought it with.

 

[Funky sawman]

I only have about 10 minutes running one, they seem awesome. I've rebuilt one that was straight gassed by a tree service company, then fixed another that got squished under a tree.
Big drawback for me in my professional opinion is the powerhead cost, and lack of available common used parts at the dealers. It took 2 months to receive a p+c, then 3 months for all the plastics, 3 weeks for a simple av mount!

 

[Swanman62]

That seems to be a problem for sure. Stihl is working hard to get these saws into the hands of excited customers, but the parts support is lagging behind. The other issue is that they are selling saws at less than full service dealers. At $1400+ to replace, I don’t want this to be a throw away saw.

 

[Funky sawman]

In a professional setting, I would have to buy 2 500i powerheads to justify switching over to a odd ball saw with proprietary parts that fit no other model. For a weekend warrior one saw would be fine.
A guy like me just don't have 3500 laying around to get two of these saws and if I did the money would be spent buying another new old stock ms660.