Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Time for a larger chainsaw

O.K. PB'ers. I just re-read the chainsaw debate from a year ago and have the contenders whittled down, plus there's a new one waiting ringside.

I try and use my fireplace insert for the main heat in the house, but I have a fully functional 90% efficiency natural gas forced air furnace in the house as well.

I'm burning thru 5+ cords (probably closer to 7 cords) of wood a year now, and have a good sized woods behind the house. The amount of trees that either break during storms, or die over the course of a year provide enough wood to heat the house for me. I cut wood 2 years ago, (for the winter of 2008/2009) and bought 5 cords of wood in the Spring of 2009. I'm not happy with the quality of the wood that I purchased, and have decided not to buy any more unless it's absolutely necessary.

A neighbor made me a great deal on his 27 ton two stage log splitter, so I'm set there.

I have a small echo arborist saw that takes up to a 16" bar, but I'm finding out that the saw is too small to cut many of the trees efficiently. I figure that I could get by with a saw with a 20" bar, but having the capability to put a bigger bar on the saw would be nice. There are trees that measure over 24" diameter (4.5' off the ground) that will need to be taken down in the next few years.

Dad has a Stihl 029 that is rougly 5 years older than my Echo, and with fresh chains and same size bars on each saw my echo will cut faster than his stihl. Faster chain speed maybe?

In any rate, the 3 old contenders are Stihl, Echo and Husky. The new contender is Dolmar. There are local dealers of all 4 saws. I expect to buy a saw this size once and never have to think about buying another saw. I know that the Dolmar is pricey, but a friend of a friend has one and he said that it puts the other saws to shame in it's cutting speed. On their website, they spec 13,500 rpm for the saw.

So, what's the consensus given the amount of wood that I need to cut and the size of the trees? Too bad there wasn't a way to put a poll on the forum.