the 372 is one of the most popular saws around , tons of parts , they make , jugs , pistons , complete rebuild kits , that would be the first saw for ease of working on and parts availability.

my 2166 shares a bunch of parts with 372/365 the 2166 is a 365 in red 70.7 cc but with the same restrictor plate as the 365 you can delete the air restriction and have a 372

I have run a ported 372xp side by side and it is a touch faster than my 2166 but it is a few seconds in a big log

you can probably run that till it has a carb issue and still sell it for decent money

Actually I am. I bought a echo 7310 and my brother in law and father in law both bought the stihl pro series of the same size. (Forget number)
One was EFI , one is carbonated. (One year older)
Both stihls had a heap of trouble. Neither of them ran right ever, the carborated one spent 6 months in the shop waiting on a new carb after 2 hours use, just a factory defect. The EFI one, unless you have a diagnostic computer you basically can't fix them yourself, his was proof of that, wouldn't run cold at all, never was able to get it quite right.
My echo however, which is a pro series, ate them both alive. And not an issue to this day.
New stihls are Chinese garbage . They're not the saws that built the brand. Sorry it's just the was it is.

Iv'e had the Echo 590 timberwolf for four years now. Very satisfied, cuts like a charm. They put out a good one with this.
I heat strictly with wood.

Thanks for all the feed back I think I'm just going to stick with the echo hearing good things about them an my old one treated me good ...that Timberwolf looks good for the money .

I have run several all Husky now. 372XP is my favorite currently.

I run chainsaws daily for a living. Would recommend a pro series Stihl or Husky. We run thinning projects with stihl 261cm and husky 550xp, each guy on the crew has their own preference, but those are the two we stick to. The huskys seem to last about 3000hrs, stihls 4000, before starting to lose compression. We rarely have breakdowns with either one. Personally, I would say a stihl362 would serve most firewood cutters a couple decades with the right amount of power

I also prefer the pro Husky saws I've also had a 064 Stihl which was a temperamental bugger when falling timber during the cold winter months I like the husky saws because they don't make my hands hurt as much as the Stihl did .

I'd also suggest running full skip chain over regular saw chain less to sharpen and way faster wear some saw chaps and protective gear .

Everyone says make sure a dealer is close. How close?, 3 miles, 5 miles, 10 miles? What are you guys driving, a stagecoach? There has to be a dealer within 30 miles of most anyone nowadays. How often do you guys go to the saw shop, every 3 days? I was pretty hard on saws and never worried where the dealer was because I was serious and had 3-4 of the same model and always finished the day out. Take another saw with you, even if its a Homelite XL12 just so you can finish the day out.

X2

Echo. All of my chain saws, brush cutter, weed eaters, edger, blowers, etc are Echo. It makes it easier to work on them myself.

And, Echo starts easy and runs well.

I'll probably get laughed at when I tell y'all what I'm running now but I don't care. When my old 350 gave up the ghost I was hearing some bad reports about the newer husks and I saw an ad for a 99.99 Poland Black Friday special. I thought what the heck. It wasn't a speedster for sure but it did what I needed to do around the farm. Sadly it was lost when I had to abandon it when a tree decided it wanted to fall a different direction than it was supposed to. So when the next Black Friday came around I picked up another for the same price. I don't think I've seen that deal for a couple years now though.

No stagecoach here, upgraded to a tractor.
Do have couple xl 12s though.

Worked on a couple Pintos, junk. Does this mean all Fords are junk?

Got an eager beaver saw that has NEVER been wrenched on by me.
Does this mean all eager beavers are great? No. it means I've never tried to start it.

Just contributing some similar content lol.

For that low of budget new saw, I think you are barking up the right tree with Echo.
Unless you work on them yourself, I suggest a dealer.

Not knowing plastic case homo models from pro,
is what muddies the water for many on this topic.
There's a guy on one the saw forums with a pro model list.

I have the Husky 455 and I like it good power.

.

South Dakota guy I knew said Husqvarna

For the budget you want , you aren't going to get a quality saw. Sorry to break it to you. But thats the reality of it. Remember when you have yanked that starting short for the 200th time what little money you paid and what a great deal it was. I know, its probably not easy to do that what the sweat is running down yer crack and there is wood that needs cutting. But those sort of happy thoughts are a good way to stay sane.

I had owned several different saws. You can't go very wrong if you buy a Husqvarna, Jonsered, or Stihl. Right now, I have a 026 and a 260 Stihls. I've owned one Husqvarna and two Jonsereds. They were all reliable saws.

there is a Stihl dealer who is 1 mile but they have a guy who comes in once a week to work on saws , write out what is wrong on tag with name and phone number and leave it there
if you need a part they will toss the big Stihl catalog on the counter and let you find what you need , you will pay exactly what the MSRP says it is which is higher than it should be. they don't calculate their cost and their cut , just always what the book says. you should get your part in a week.

the Jonsered dealer used to be 2 miles he moved and is now 1/2 mile and he is open 6 days a week and sometimes will catch up on Sunday. so your down time is much less and he has a yard with a few big logs in it all the time so you can actually test. you talk to the guy who fixes the saw and he keeps a lot of parts in stock.

there is another Stihl dealer 7 miles away , they will check your saw in and 2x a week they drive all the saws 30 miles to where their saw guy is and he works on them and sends them back , if you get lucky you drop your saw off on Monday it goes to the other shop Tuesday , Thursday it comes back and you can pick it up Friday. if they are busy hurry up and wait.

or you can drive 37 miles which if you had a good dealer who serviced saws and had a personality better than a angry junk yard dog you would be fine driving 45 minutes each way.

a good dealer is better than a close dealer, but if you can have a close good dealer ,buy whatever brand they sell and service.

I have 2 saws and yes can finish out with the other , not everyone has 2 saws and even if you do , down time on your big saw or your little saw can be inconvenient.

spares are good

nothing breaks when it is convenient. murphy's law of breaking stuff.

I would have one of these guys trap you some Beaver!!!