Thread: The Cost of Chainsaw Chains

Originally Posted by Willy Nelson

Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen

I need some new chains for my Stihl, MS660, 25 inch bar. The chain I normally use is a 3/8, 84 drivelinks. My local Stihl dealer will charge me $75 each.

Hmmmmm. Did a search and found Johno and Johno and rung them up. I can get 3 x Hurricane chains for $60. As a few of us are combing our order, we get free freight.

I guess the metal in the Stihl is superior quality, but is it 4 times better than the hurricane?????

I think not. Anyone used the hurricane chains before?

Sincerely
Willy

I haven't heard of Hurricane but the problem with cheap chain is they rapidly loses their cutter edge and places a greater load on saws than necessary so they have to be sharpened more often.
Maybe not so critical for cross cutting but when milling the last thing you want to do is pull the chainsaw out of a half cut log to sharpen.

The cheapest way to get quality chains (especially long ones) is to make your own.
I get roll of 25ft (500 drive links) of quality Carlton chain from Laurie (Sawchain) for ~ $120 including delivery
A chain maker / breaker costs about $50 and quickly repays itself plus it useful to fix damaged or broken chains.
If you asked nicely you could always borrow mine

Just based on the cost of the chain this works out the same as the price of the Hurricane but I know that Carlton is a reliable brand.

I too get my chains from forum member 'Sawchain' aka Laurie.Its nice to keep things 'in house', even better he is so much cheaper and on top of that, he is a great bloke

sounds like your stihl dealer is a bit overpriced, I think I paid about $55 for the last one I bought from my stihl dealer about 12 months ago. I have also bought chains from sawchain and will attest that he has the goods and knows what he is doing because he uses lots of chain. The problems I have seen with the cheap chain are a 2 fold thing they are not as well toughened so they are softer so they blunt quicker and they stretch quicker, and the more they get blunt the more they stretch then they cause excessive wear to sprockets etc and in one instance I saw one which had stretched that badly it had busted the guts out of a rim sprocket.

This said on a low power saw it would probably be less noticeable but on a 660 (which is a powerful saw) it will be pronounced badly and you will be tensioning your chain every 5 mins. I find that with stihl chain generally by the time it has cut a couple of tanks of fuel the chain stops stretching and settles (similar with oregon and carlton etc.)

Other things I have seen on the cheap chains include improperly chromed teeth (chrome flakes off or teeth completely missed), and lack of tempering after hardening causing the teeth to be brittle and shatter, this can also be caused by overheating when grinding the teeth sharp, and I have seen this too where the grinding wheel has left burn marks in the steel rendering a hard spot which kills files for the life of the chain.

Yes there are good chains out there that are a bit cheaper than some of the others but some of the really cheap stuff is just nasty. Laurie and a couple of other guys I deal with use and sell and trial chains for companies such as GB so they know first hand how the chains they will sell will perform, johno and johno are ebay merchants and last time I saw one of their ads they were selling bynorm chinese chain, which I would only run on a handyman saw not on my 660.

anyway thats my 2 cents worth as a saw doctor.

Travis

Originally Posted by Travis Edwards

. . . . . The problems I have seen with the cheap chain are a 2 fold thing they are not as well toughened so they are softer so they blunt quicker and they stretch quicker, and the more they get blunt the more they stretch then they cause excessive wear to sprockets etc and in one instance I saw one which had stretched that badly it had busted the guts out of a rim sprocket.

If they stretch too far they may jump the drive sprocket and that can stretch them so much that they won't ride properly through the sprocket afterwards and they have to be thrown away.

Originally Posted by BobL

If they stretch too far they may jump the drive sprocket and that can stretch them so much that they won't ride properly through the sprocket afterwards and they have to be thrown away.

exactly what had happened in the aforementioned case bob, but the owner had just kept tensioning the chain so much that the chain was forced into the sprocket until the sprocket innards were forced to give way I think I still have that sprocket somewhere if I can find it I will put up a pic.

Originally Posted by Willy Nelson

I need some new chains for my Stihl, MS660, 25 inch bar. The chain I normally use is a 3/8, 84 drivelinks. My local Stihl dealer will charge me $75 each.

Hi Willy

I picked up a new Stihl full chisel chain for my 066 25" which is also 3/8" 84 links a couple of days ago and it cost me $62.

Well Gents
I found the cheap chains started to stretch, and continue to do so. Luckily, I had some termite infested logs, so thought I would use the crap chains on them, and not waste my good Stihl chains. I also destroyed my bar. So, lesson learnt, no more cheap chains.
Willy

Sorry to hear that mate!!

but I'd be lookin elsewhere at almost $1 a drive link too mate!!! that is just nuts!!

Originally Posted by Sigidi

Sorry to hear that mate!!

but I'd be lookin elsewhere at almost $1 a drive link too mate!!! that is just nuts!!

Ha Ha Allan
You are spot on. When I was in my Stihl Dealer, he asked me my opinion of the high priced Stihl chains. I let him, let him know that I had started this thread and the responses I had recieved. He offered me trade rates on chains, but only if I bought three at a time. They now cost me $42 each!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's better, but it still annoys me
Willy
jarrahland

I'd be pretty annoyed too! That's a $33 price drop and you can bet he still makes money on trade rates, even if you buy 3 at a time!! That's a wicked price hike for the general user.....

Originally Posted by Willy Nelson

Well Gents
I found the cheap chains started to stretch, and continue to do so. Luckily, I had some termite infested logs, so thought I would use the crap chains on them, and not waste my good Stihl chains. I also destroyed my bar. So, lesson learnt, no more cheap chains.
Willy

Sorry willy hate to say it but... Told ya so...lol

Try looking up laurie aka sawchain on here he does good chains at good prices.

sincerely Travis

Originally Posted by Travis Edwards

Sorry willy hate to say it but... Told ya so...lol

Try looking up laurie aka sawchain on here he does good chains at good prices.

sincerely Travis

Hello Travis
Yes you did, as did others...... and now I am wiser. Allegedly. Thanks
However, once I realised they were crap, I used them exclusively for the termite logs, so a bit happier about wasting them instead of the the good Stihl chains. My bar is absolutely buggered as well, new bar, possibly new sprocket
Sincerely
Willy

Originally Posted by Willy Nelson

Hello Travis
Yes you did, as did others...... and now I am wiser. Allegedly. Thanks
However, once I realised they were crap, I used them exclusively for the termite logs, so a bit happier about wasting them instead of the the good Stihl chains. My bar is absolutely buggered as well, new bar, possibly new sprocket
Sincerely
Willy

Replace the sprocket anyway and just keep that one for your cheap chains, saves the possibility of them damaging the one your good chains run on and damaging your good chains on the sprocket they have run on.

Originally Posted by Travis Edwards

Replace the sprocket anyway and just keep that one for your cheap chains, saves the possibility of them damaging the one your good chains run on and damaging your good chains on the sprocket they have run on.

Yes, I shall
Willy