I cut and split about 3 cords of firewood to heat my house for the winter each year. I use a Husqvarna Rancher—I don’t remember the exact model–with a 24" bar. The only bad experience I’ve had with it was the first year I was using it; the stock chain was a full complement chain, and it cut slooooooooooow. It was absolutely awful. As soon as I swapped out the chain to a skip tooth, it cut beautifully. (For what it’s worth, skip tooth chains can be ‘grabby’, and are more likely to cause kickback. But they clear chips much more efficiently.)
It is a little underpowered; when I’m bucking logs more than 20" in diameter–which is about half the time–it tends to bog down. One of the larger Stihl saws would probably be better, but they’re more than I can reasonably spend when I still don’t have a log splitter.
I haven’t had any issues. And, TBH, I’m kind of abusive to it; the most maintenance I do is running it dry before putting it away for the year, and sharpening the chain regularly.
I cut and split about 3 cords of firewood to heat my house for the winter each year. I use a Husqvarna Rancher—I don’t remember the exact model–with a 24" bar. The only bad experience I’ve had with it was the first year I was using it; the stock chain was a full complement chain, and it cut slooooooooooow. It was absolutely awful. As soon as I swapped out the chain to a skip tooth, it cut beautifully. (For what it’s worth, skip tooth chains can be ‘grabby’, and are more likely to cause kickback. But they clear chips much more efficiently.)
It is a little underpowered; when I’m bucking logs more than 20" in diameter–which is about half the time–it tends to bog down. One of the larger Stihl saws would probably be better, but they’re more than I can reasonably spend when I still don’t have a log splitter.
Does it start easy? I’ve always struggled but never had a quality saw. My most effective is the corded one.
I haven’t had any issues. And, TBH, I’m kind of abusive to it; the most maintenance I do is running it dry before putting it away for the year, and sharpening the chain regularly.