Stihl MS 180 C-BE

The cheapest way to get a real Stihl in your garage, and the saw dealers hand to first-time buyers who need to clean up storm limbs a few weekends a year. At 8.6 pounds for the powerhead it's genuinely easy to run all afternoon, and the 4,400+ Ace Hardware reviews averaging 4.5 stars back up the 'thousands of happy owners' vibe you see in forum threads. But owners are blunt about the ceiling: this is a light pruning and limbing saw, not a firewood saw, and it gets slow and sluggish once logs pass about 10-12 inches. The cost-cutting shows up close — a basic carburetor, minimal anti-vibration, and a bar-swap chain tensioner instead of the side-access adjuster on pricier models. Stihl has also started rolling out the updated MS 172 alongside it, so the 170 is a proven but aging design. For under $230 with a 16-inch bar, most homeowners decide the limitations are a fair trade.

A 25-year-old design that refuses to die because the math still works: 45.4cc pulling an 18-inch bar from a 10.1-pound powerhead, for under $450. Firewood cutters love the power-to-weight — it out-cuts every saw below it in the Stihl lineup by a wide margin and handles real firewood duty the 170/180 can't. The catch is that it's an old-school saw in every sense: no fuel primer, dated air filtration, and a reputation on OPE forums for being cold-blooded and hard-starting when the carb gets finicky, with more than one owner saying 'when it runs well it's a great saw' through gritted teeth. The anti-vibration system is also a generation behind, so your hands feel more buzz than on the spring-mounted farm saws. Its 4.0-star average across 2,600+ Ace reviews is the lowest of Stihl's homeowner line — starting complaints drive most of the one-star reviews — but the owners who learn its ritual keep them running for decades.

Stihl's entry-level in-tree saw, slotting under the MS 201 T at $509.99 list — and the forum verdict is blunt: "a budget climbing saw with a disappointing amount of torque." That's the climber's take; the flip side is a smooth 2-MIX engine, 7.3 lbs on the powerhead, and the 1/4-inch PM3 chain, which cuts glassy-smooth on pruning wood and is a genuine advantage for fine ornamental work. Owners who advance the timing and open the muffler report it "pretty well catches up to the MS 201 T," which tells you the potential is tuned out at the factory. As a Stihl it's dealer-only, so there's no retail review aggregate to cite, but resale value and dealer support are the usual Stihl strong suits. Watch-outs from owner threads: the automatic oiler has no manual backup, the 1/4-inch chain means you're buying loops from the dealer rather than any hardware store, and parts don't interchange with the older MS 192/193 T it replaced. Stihl labels it for professional in-tree use only and it isn't sold in California. Homeowner-arborists love it; production climbers pay up for the 201.