Echo makes some of the very best power equipment out there. One of my best friends works for the city and grass cutting the city properties and cemetery. After running Stihl string trimmers for several years and having nothing but problems with them I told him to try Echo. He had the city purchase a couple of them and now has switched to them entirely and retired all the Stihl units. Even the summer hired help can't kill the Echo's and to date all of them have been dead solid reliable.
Even with that said Echo has both "home-runs" and "turds" in their line-up, so for sure do your homework before taking the plunge into their line-up. The CS-620P/PW and CS-7301 are excellent. No one I've ever known to buy one has been disappointed with them. ALL of the reed valve small top handle units are turds even though they are pretty reliable. Echo obsoleted all those with recent entries to the top handle line which includes the CS-355T and the make a tiny little top handle as well but I can't remember the number on it but they are very popular in this area with tree removal companies.
Pound for pound and dollar for dollar you just can't beat the CS-590. I bought one over a decade ago and have been running the dog-living-piss out of it looking for a flaw someplace. Aside from wearing out the cheaper laminated bar they show up with it's been flawless and my go-to saw for most of the cutting we do here. I have bigger and faster saws, but since they are older Husky pro-models and limited parts availability I've shelved them and beating the Echo's to death instead.
Another BIG plus with the CS-590/600P, 620P/PW's are how easy they are go work on. You can remove the carb in less than 2 minutes. It often takes ten minutes to near the carb on some of these Husky and Stihl models and they leave you wondering why it's so complicated and difficult to get them off and even more of a PITA to get them bolted back in place.
I also like the Pro features of that family of Echo saws, inboard clutch, they only oil the chain when it's moving, excellent anti-vibe, ergonomics, and very good power to weight, plus built like a tank and dead solid reliable in long term service. You still have to be skilled enough to remove the limiter caps and a few need minor muffler mods to open them up just a tad. Failure to give them the fuel they need may result in P/C issues but that problem is simply to get past if you have enough skill sets to get the limiter caps off and correctly tune the carb.
Folks bad mouthing Echo's typically bought one of their models that just a wasn't all that great right to start with, and/or they don't know how to effectively tune and operate chainsaws and do daily maintenance, etc......IMHO. I'm not here "pushing" Echo anything, just pointing out that they make some very good products in a World full of cheap plastic junk much of which comes from offshore even though it may have a name brand label on it.
Since I work on carburetors, engines, transmissions, distributors and small power equipment for a living (well I did till retiring last month) I'm not posting this based on some sort of brand loyalty or get my panties all wadded up when folks don't have good results with Echo stuff. I see ALL of it here in the shop, and absolutely and for sure IF I were shopping for small power equipment, including chain saws I'd head down to the Echo dealer instead of Husky or Stihl as I can get a LOT more saw for a LOT less money and never have to even think about using the Warranty since I'm going to set them up correctly before they ever cut the first piece of wood........FWIW........Cliff
PS: this is what the CS-590 gets to do here, cross-cut HUGE logs into manageable size pieces to get them to the splitter. It REFUSES to clog and plenty of power for this sort of thing. Mine has never grumbled once and has about a zillion hours on it at this point!......
