$400 FARMMAC F660 vs $1640 Stihl MS 661. Chainsaws compared for build quality, engine torque, cutting speed through manufactured log, and cutting speed through a 33-inch tree.
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➡ Products Tested In This Video (in no particular order):
FARMMAC:
Stihl MS-661: Available at Stihl Retailers
Videography Equipment:
Sony DSC-RX10 III Cyber-shot Digital Still Camera:
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I paid $1,600 for this saw which seems Like way too much so the question is can A $400 knockoff perform just as well in The first test we'll see which chainsaw Makes the most torque then we'll see Which chainsaw can cut through a test Log the fastest we'll see if Cousin Eddie can pull over this tree with the Farao finally we'll see which chainsaw Can make the quickest work of this large Log at a price of around $350 for just The power head or around $400 with the Bar and chain is this farmac brand the Farmac is made in China according to the Manufacturer all parts from this saw are Compatible with the steel ms660 having Reviewed several knockoff saws they Typically have a lower quality air Filter setup however the farmx is Actually pretty decent and the lever for Engaging the choke is extremely stiff And clunky there's a small amount of Assembly that's required including the Fing spikes as well as the handle the Farac claims to be a real Beast with a Maximum RPM of 13,300 and the quality of The Chainsaw cover is actually pretty Good it's made of cast aluminum Unfortunately the farmac did not come With assembly instructions however a Setup just like the steel saww used a Steel for reference just like this steel The farac comes with two felling spikes And one of the spikes mounts to the
Chainsaw cover and the other mount to The saw the manufacturer claims that the 36in bar with this chainsaw is 20% Lighter than the same alloy guide bar to Give the saws a fair review I went ahead And bought an extra steel bar and chain And the chainsaw bars look very close to The same and should be interchangeable And a farmac bar weighs 2284 G or just Over 5 lb and a steel bar is a little Bit heavier at 2,32 G or just over 5 lb The genuine steel and the farac chains Are the same at 38 in Pitch 0.63 gauge And 114 lengths the steel chain is on The bottom and the farac chain is on the Top the farac chain looks like like it's A full chisel and the steel looks a lot More rounded and appears to be a semi- Chisel and the genuine steel chain Weighs 566 G or 1.25 lb and a farmac Chain weighs exactly the same at 566 G Or 1.25 lb and a barn chain on the Farmac is ready for action and a farmac With the 36in barn chain weighs 24.72 lb I just filled the fuel tank with fuel so Let's see how easy it is to start the Saw for the first time with the choke And guge to started to come to life on The fourth pull the carburetor is now in The Run position and the farmx should be Getting plenty of of fuel and the farmac Is up and running after a total of nine Pulls on the starting Road at a price of
$1,640 is this steel Magnum ms661 the Steel chainsaw came pre-assembled just Like the pharmax saw the steel has a 91.1 cc engine the steel is R for just Over 7 horsepower the starting grip has A built-in shock absorber that helps Reduce effort when pulling the starter Cord the steel is made in Germany and a Steel with a 36in barn chain is a little Bit lighter at just over 23 lb the steel Definitely has a better air filter setup The filter element itself is going to Outperform the foam filter and it's a Better seal against the engine the Sprockets are the same size and the bar Mounting bolts look identical I'll try Using the steel Barn chain on the farmac Later in the video and I just fueled up The steel and it's ready for the first Start with the choking gaze the steel Isn't too motivated to fire up and the Steel is finally showing signs of life On the fifth attempt and it took a total Of six pulls on the starter rope to get The steel running let's see how much arm Strength is required to start both saws Using a pushpull meter both saws have a Compression release and I'll go ahead And release the compression for 91c saw The farik doesn't require too much arm Strength to fire up the saw and it's 15.5 kg or about 34.2 lb of peak Force I Released the compression on the steel And the steel saw definitely takes more
Arm strength to get going and it's 19.5 Kg are about 43 lb for the steel if you Have to run these saws any period of Time a lot of vibration can really cause Some problems with the vibration sensor On the front handle the farmac is Shaking and baking at around 62 to 65 Mm/s square and there's a lot less Vibration with the steel at around 39 to 46 mm/s Square it's a pretty noticeable Difference let's compare the sprocket Speed for each saw at wide open throttle The pharmac is around 9,850 RPM at wide Open throttle the steel is a lot more Motivated and topped out at just over 13,400 RPM let's go and compare the Noise level of each saw if you're Running the farmac it's definitely a Good idea to use some hearing protection 117 DB is pretty loud and the steel is Even louder than the Farmac 1206 DB wow that's a lot of noise So both saws claim to make 7 horsepower Let's put them to the test cutting Through a test log that's made of 9 4x4s And a farmac is running like a saw that Has about four horsepower and is bogging Down way too easily unfortunately I Stalled the saw twice on the first pass The chain seems to be grabbing the wood More than it's cutting and the farac can Definitely do a lot better than 15.17 Seconds so let's try this again and a Farmac is making a lot faster progress
This time I'm trying to push the saw as Hard as I can without stalling it and a Farac is a lot faster this time at 11.61 Seconds I'll see if I can make even Faster time on a third cut and the farag Just seems to be really underpowered for A 91c saw and it's really struggling and A farmac is making very good progress This time but unfortunately I pushed the Saw a little too hard and 13.77 seconds Is the second fastest cut and the steel Is all fired up and ready to go and I Pushed the steel a little too hard on The first cut and it stalled the saw However 6.81 seconds is very impressive And I found a sweet spot with the steel And I made the second cut without Stalling the saw in 5.98 seconds very Impressive and I pushed the saw a little Harder on the third and final cut and The Saw made the fastest time of the Three and 5.88 seconds very impressive I Just installed a brand new steel Barn Chain on the farmac it's the same Barn Chain that's on the steel saw and the Farmac is definitely running way too Rich and bogs down way too easily However it is the factory tune and the Farac made the first cut in 13.36% the saw a little bit harder on The third attempt and the farmac just Seems to be really underpowered for a 91c saw and it's really struggling Unfortunately I did push the saw a
Little too hard installed the saw and a Farac made the third cut in 12.44 Seconds let's see how fast my favorite Chainsaw can make the cut and the ms250 Has an engine that's about half the size Of the larger two saws and the steel Ms250 is almost as fast as the pharmac On the first attempt at 11.2 seconds I'll go and push the ms250 a little Harder this time for a small saw it Packs a powerful punch and the the Little ms250 makes an incredible amount Of torque and chain speed for a small Saw 10.42 seconds very impressive I'll Make one more attempt to see if I can Get the steel to cut just as fast as the Farmac unfortunately I pushed the little Saw a little too hard and it stalled out Just before finishing the cut and it's 11.61 seconds on the third and final Attempt I leaned out the carburetor on The farmac just a little but it's still Rich enough to avoid causing engine Damage and the carburetor adjustment Really woke up the saw and the farmac Just finished the first cut in 6.24 Seconds very impressive And I pushed the farmac a little harder On the second cut but it didn't help 6.39 seconds is still very good and I Pushed the farmac just a little too hard And I stalled the saw on the third Attempt and it's 8.05 seconds which is Still pretty good considering the chain
Did come to a stop during the test so Just taking the fastest cut for each saw The Steel's fastest cut was 5.88 seconds However after adjusting the carburetor And installing a steel bar and chain the Farmac is almost as fast at 6.24 seconds Before we saw down a really large tree Let's first compare the saws on a Chainsaw Dyno that I put together the Ste plate weighs 10 lb and a chainsaw Dyno is showing right at 10 lb the saws Are fully warmed up and ready to go and It takes 60 lb of downward Force to Stall the farm the saw did even better On the second attempt at 63 lb and the Third and final attempt is the best of The three for the farmac at 65 lb and The steel definitely seems to make more Torque but that's pretty subjective and It's 70 lb or 5 lbs more than the Pharmac on the first attempt and a steel Did even better on the second attempt at 71 lb and the third attempt is by far The best of the three at 77 lb very Impressive so just looking at the best Of three for each brand the still took About 12 lbs more downward Force to Stall this all compared to the pharmac a Few weeks ago cousin Eddy got the PHA Bagel stuck in the pond and now he's Wanting to redeem himself by showing me That an off-road recovery rope is a Proper way of taking down a tree the Recovery rope is attached to the back of
The phabo and he says the old phabo has More than enough Gusto for the job no Need to attach the Rope towards the top Of the tree has plenty of torque he's Attached two ropes together to double His distance for the tree cetti has the Phabo fired up and ready for action Straight pipes and dual exhaust the Phabo sounds fantastic And the farago just didn't gain enough Speed on the first attempt so we give The farao a little more distance to gain Speed on the second Attempt and a farago has a lot more Momentum on the second run and the tree Isn't budging Cousin Eddie says to cut About halfway through the tree trunk and Give it another try the Rope has been Moved up the tree to gain some leverage And cousin EDD is going to remove the Slack from the rope and he'll apply some Load on the Rope to keep the tree from Falling Towards me or the fence during The cut and a steel chainsaw is making Very quick work of cutting through the Tree I've cut about halfway through the Tree trunk and I don't know how rotten The tree trunk is so I'll go ahead and See if I can pull the tree on over and The farma begel gave it a really strong Pull but the tree trunk is still pretty Strong however a very large Branch did Fall out of the tree I'll go ahead and Cut a little bit more and we'll attempt
To pull it over with the farao once Again and the Rope has some tension on It to keep the tree from Falling Towards Me or the fence unfortunately I cut a Little too far and the tree came down Without giving the Pharma B a chance to Pull a tree on over the tree has a Diameter of around 33 in or so let's go Ahead and see how quickly each of the Saws can cut through the large diameter Log I'll use the farmac first and I'll Cut a little bit higher up on the trunk To find a more uniform part of the tree And the farmac made the first cut in 42.3 seconds which is actually a pretty Impressive cutting speed when you Consider the size of the log let's go Ahead and make the next cut with the Steel Saw and the steel saw seems to hold a Higher chain speed under load and also Seems to have more torque and the steel Chainsaw is even faster than the farac At 35.9 seconds very impressive that's Almost 18% faster than the farac let's Go and test the farac once Again and a farac is once again making Very quick work of the log I can Definitely say that there's more Vibration with the farac compared to the Steel chainsaw however it's really not All that bad considering the size of the Saw and a farmac just finished the Second cut in 41.7 N seconds or about a
Half a second faster this time let's go And make another cut with the Steel and the steel is noticed ly faster Than the pharmac once again and a Massive amount of wood chips are just Spraying out of the underside of the Chainsaw and a steel is finished in 35.9 Seconds this time compared to 35.9 Seconds last time can't get much closer Than that and the third and final cut For the farmac is once again going very Well and I pushed the saw a little too Hard and the chain came to a stop twice During the cut and that really slowed The chainsaw down quite a bit 47.6 Seconds is the slowest cut of the three And it's the third and final cut for the Steel chainsaw just like the farmac I Tried pushing the steel a little bit Harder than the previous cuts in the Chain came to a stop during the cut and 38.9 5 Seconds is the slowest cut of the Three so taking the average of three Cuts the steel cut through the log in 36.9 seconds and the farmac needed 43.7 So on average the steel was about 18% Faster unfortunately Cousin Eddie did Not get to pull the tree over however he Is looking for a good siiz log for his Campfire and he thinks this log is a Perfect size and this log weighs as much As a small car and the phao is really Working hard to drag the log as it's Plowing a
Path [Music] And the log has finally stopped the Phabo but Cousin Eddie is not finished With a little bit of a running start the Log is moving once Again so is the farmac as good as a Steel absolutely not however when you Get to the price of $400 to $500 and a Performance it's a tremendous value and I would not hesitate to buy the saw all The videos in this channel include this One viewers suggested so if you have a Video idea I hope you'll take time to Leave a comment thanks so much for Watching please take care and I look Forward to next time