Stihl MSA 220 C-B
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I had a good petrol Stihl chainsaw that broke down. I own a battery Stihl chainsaw on a pole, so the logic purchase was a Stihl MSA 220C. I couldn't be more unhappy with it. The adjustment of the tension of the chain is impossible. The wheel on outside to adjust the tension is a joke and not workable. So you have to take the cover off and adjust… Read more
the wheel underneath. The chain constantly comes off. Hence you tighten it more and then the chain doesn't move because of lack of power. The material is all flimsy. I jammed my chainsaw and to get it free I had to use another one. Hence the chainsaw dropped on the ground. My mistake, but same happened lots of time with my old saw. The plastic MSA 220C broke. I could remove the broken plastic and can still use it, but it shows how flimsy and bad the plastic is, including the power button. Definitely will be my last STIHL product.
The saw had great power and was really convenient but none of that matters when the brush less motor grenades itself 4 years later after minimal use. Replacement motor is half the cost of a new saw... Expected better from Stilh. I'll be moving away from the Stilh ecosystem.
Saw With No Torque – Started out ok but as time has gone on it has been getting more and more gutless. After a year and a half, it has no torque at all. Any sort of load while cutting and it just stops. A fully sharp chain makes little difference. While we are on that, the files are so thin they flex excessively while sharpening, making that a pain too. I can see why… Read more
they run a very small thin chain, if they put a real one on, this saw wouldn't cut at all once it's more than a few months old. For $1000 with battery and slow slow charger it is a very poor investment. Nice and quiet with no fumes of course, but that's no consolation when it just doesn't do the job. Would never buy another one.
Great saw but ours conked out after warranty – Loose magnets jammed in the motor issue... very expensive problem to fix.. so its not a very long lasting item for the price ! EDIT.. Repaired as a warrenty by supplier.. yay! Show details
its just ok – Used petrol chainsaws all my adult life, wife suggests go help the planet and get a battery one, bought the best i could find, used it once, then went to buy a second battery, big problem is the battery wont charge when its warm, so it has to cool down first, which then creates a problem, the second battery goes flat before the first battery is… Read more
charged, so NEED A THIRD BATTERY... at near $500 a battery.. I dont think so.. the chainsaw works great just what i need, but the technology isn't good enough..
Reviews Reviewed - the MSA 220 C-B – So, you’d like to own a shiny new sky screamers chainsaw and at the same time spend a heap $$$ on an expensive virtue signaling ‘Unicorn’ ($1257 with recommended battery and fast charger (1/23)) as Richard from greater gronk land proudly boasts. However, starting at the beginning reviews, we see [Name Removed] and Happy Home Owner discovering… Read more
what a bunch of unhelpful Neo Marxists Stihl head office AU truly are. Don’t expect any kind of customer service, support or warranty from those planet killing battery pushers.
As to the MSA 220 C-B, Stihl make it particularly difficult to uncover technical details on this small saw. At around 2kW that would make the battery saw equivalent to the gas MS 231 on paper at least. This is not the case in practice as the closest performer is probably the MS 170, which costs a fraction of the price ($269). Best saw reviews including the MSA 220 at ‘Project Farm’ – its neither the best nor best value, but it does perform better than many battery buzz saws.
[Name Removed] and [Name Removed] both from gronk land almost articulate the main issue with the MSA 220 and nearly every cheapy or small saw. It’s the chain size. The common small saw type is 3/8P and is classed as difficult to sharpen – even by the pros. Don't even mention the near impossible to sharpen 1/4 chains. Now gas saws hate dull chains and battery saws are worse still, affecting your physical effort, time on the job and battery life too. Cut dirty wood or touch the ground and the sharpness is gone. Add new chains to your ongoing costs, unless you are both patient and skilled at sharpening.
Some quick shade on the ‘B’ option - that silly easy chain tensioner is a crud magnet, becomes hard to use and is a pain to clean without pressure cans or compressed air. Ditch it and use a T handle.
Better electric options could be a mains power saw ($450), if you only process timber within the bounds of a residential block and you have genuine environmental concerns.
Rather than the 220 you could have any Stihl Landowner saw from MS 231-291 for the same money. Now if you were dumb enough to say something like, ‘I’m gonna do heaps with the 220’ and you buy the extra battery – then you could have the ferocious and yet magnificently nibble MS 261 pro saw instead. The important thing about those gas options is the .325 chains, which are absolute rippers compared to 3/8P. Proper saws also come with actual metal felling dogs unlike the adorable plastic bumps on the 220, which were apparently designed by Hello Kitty, who must have worked on the 220's soft handle too. Finally the prompt for this review was the completely unacceptable result that [Name Removed] from greater gronk land pictures. That amount of timber in 4 batteries, so anything from 80 mins to 3 hours - OMG!?! With real tools, about 25 min for a MS 231, 15 mins or less for a MS 261 and holding that ‘tree’ off the ground with a tractor and a MS 462/661 – 5 mins.
The Stihl MSA 220 C-B – I’m glad it’ll be your bad back and empty wallet - not mine.
Worked fine until it didn't – I bought my chainsaw in 2020 and used it sparingly for small branches. It generally worked fine, but then the engine stopped after 2 years and 6 months. Being out of warranty, there was no offer of a replacement from the dealer and no response to an email I sent to Stihl. Hard to recommend a chainsaw that only lasts for two-and-a-half years! Show details
Going back to gas – Motor broke down with light use, part price for motor is over 215 us dollars, waste of money, that's without labor!
Saw works fine but that chain – I purchased this saw in 2019, mainly for camping and small jobs around the house. It doesn’t replace my big petrol saw. The saw works fine providing the chain is sharp. Herein lies my only issue. The pico chain is a pain to sharpen. I purchased the proper Stihl sharpeners but it is impossible to get right. To the point where I purchase a new chain… Read more
once it’s blunt, which is an expensive exercise. Would I buy this saw again? The answer is no. I’m invested in the Stihl battery range as I have a pole saw, blower and hedge trimmer. Happy with the others
Stihl 220c-b battery chainsaw review – The 220C-B is a solid performer, I cleaned up a fallen 350mm diameter semi-dry Redgum using 4 batteries and 3 bar oil refill’s. Chain must be kept sharp and let the saw do the work. Show details
Stihl a great little Chainsaw – Just tired of using fossil fuels and oils but will keep an old petrol driven with me for emergencies. The 220 C is designed to be easily handled and grips are great. Show details
Gamechanger. You won't look back – I'm coming at this as someone who had not owed a chainsaw prior to the Covid 19 lockdown. This is just my experience as someone new to chainsawing. With a lot more time on my hands, and a new wood fire heater installed, I wanted to get to work cutting up some fallen trees on my property. I had an 18V Ryobi battery already and so started with the… Read more
18V Ryobi chainsaw from Bunnings. It took just one session before I realised I was going nowhere fast with it.
So I borrowed my brother's 30 year old Stihl Echo petrol chainsaw and while I can't believe how well the thing still does the job for something that's that old (imagine a 30yr old computer or phone), the Ryobi had at least taught me how much easier things could be with battery power and not needing to mix the petrol and battle the chainsaw just to start it every time.
This drove me to searching for the perfect combination of petrol power with battery ease. I found that with the Stihl MSA 220, the most powerful battery powered chainsaw by Stihl. Just to be clear, it was around $1100 with the skin ($599), the badass AP300S battery ($299), the mid range charger ($139) and the sharpening kit ($41), so that perfect combination comes at a price. The Ryobi, for comparison was $170 for the skin. By this stage though, I didn't care. I wanted the unicorn. And now that I have it, I just don't understand how anyone could use any other chainsaw.
I haven't shut up about it to my mates and have them lining up to try it. It wasn't easy getting my hands on it, I had to call around to three Stihl dealers until I tried Hoogies in Yarra Glen who had it in stock.
The battery life will depend on what you're using it on. I have the flexibility of time on my side and so only got one battery and am happy to use it for the 30mins to an hour of cutting, put it to charge for an hour and a quarter while I split the wood, then keep going.
Once again, I'm only new to this, but I find it hard to imagine many scenarios where this wouldn't do the job for user like me, just looking to cut up trees on their property for their wood heater.
Light, powerful, easy to start, easy to use, easy to clean, Stihl quality. Unicorn.
Flawless! Can't fault it – I've been meaning to purchase a chainsaw for a number of years now and due to the smaller jobs I would be using it for and infrequent use, I didn't want a petrol chainsaw, having the hassle of mixing fuel and trying to start it after it had been sitting around unused for extended periods of time. So I started to look at the Stihl battery chainsaw… Read more
lineup and was initially going to purchase the MSA 200-C but happen to stumble across the MSA 220 C-A on an overseas website, which had not been release in Australia at the time.
The difference between the two may not seem a great deal but what I was impress with was the chain pitch of 3/8" on the 220 while all other Stihl battery chainsaws, including the 200, were 1/4". Also the bar length option of 14" or 16" for the 220 ($10 difference) compared to only 14" for the 200. The electric motors are different too with the 220 having more power than the 200 (most likely due to the 3/8" chain).
I'm running the 220 with the AP300S battery and overall weight would be around 4.7kg. A little bit heavier than a petrol equivalent Stihl MS 171 Mini Boss @ 4.3kg but comparing power output, the MS 171 is 1.3 kW, the MSA 220 is 2.1 kW. The 220 feels really well balanced and cuts through wood with ease with essentially zero kickback, minimal vibration and low noise. Another feature I like is that the chain tension can be adjusted with no tools just by rotating the tensioner thumbwheel. Cutting time was about 30 minutes before requiring a recharge (it wasn't dead flat and I may have got a few more cuts out if it) but I was running it pretty hard with minimal pauses between cuts.
As the title says, I really can't fault it. It's a great, convenient chainsaw ready to go at anytime. Only requires the battery to be charged and the bar oil reservoir topped up and you're good to go.
The initial cost maybe a deterrent; the 16" 220 RRP is $599. Add the extra cost of between $300 to $500 depending of the combination of charger and battery type you elect to go for. If you have other Stihl battery products that use the same battery type them this may not be as big of an issue. Also depending on if you have solar, you may need to factor into the charging cost of the battery compared to that of purchasing petrol/oil.
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