More Power for Half the Price – Better than the 500i?
stihl 500i vs neo tech 660. stihl vs clone saw
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Hey it's Brock here from Rock Hill Farms And I've got my friend Joe from the Oki Woodsman and he's been good enough to Bring me a chainsaw to compare to the Steel 500i I've raved about how much I love This saw it's been perfect for me it's Got so much power it's lightweight but There's at least one thing I don't love About it and that's the price now I got This saw for around $1,100 a couple Years ago but I think today it's more Like 1,400 16 actually yeah I every time I go look that saws went up another $100 And that's just the economy but at the End of the day you're talking about a Saw that is 79 CC's for $1500 $1,600 and for someone like myself who Enjoys cutting trees does firewood but I'm not a professional I'm not running a Saw eight hours a day it's hard to Justify that much money for a chainsaw So what we've got here is an alternative That's going to be dramatically cheaper And maybe better just what we're going To try to find out so I'll let you tell Them what the saw is that we're looking At today this is a clone of a steel 660 okay so it's 100% aftermarket parts Of a steel 660 this saw can be had stock For around $400 $50 to your door with a Bar and chain this however has been Ported because my goal was I wanted it
To perform close to this 500i and I Don't know what it's going to do yet but This saw ported less than $900 to your Door so you're talking about onethird of The price for just the saw this saw is a Clone of the 660 like you said which is A saw that's been around from steel for So long that my understanding is those Patents are worn off and anyone can make The similar version of this now the Question is how well do they hold up how Well do they cut we've told you what the Saw is now let's talk about what's been Done to modify it this saw was built by A man named Aaron a Lynch on YouTube he Has done Port work on it meaning that The port timing has changed uh he's Basically modified the intake and Exhaust ports so that way it can run Optimally he has also machined the base Gasket to increase Impression and tuned this thing to run Incredibly well I told him specifically When I got this saw from him I wanted it To compete with a 500 eye we'll see how It does and there's a lot of companies And people individuals out there who are Taking these saws and ramping up their Their capabilities like that I did a Very minor modification on mine this This 500i has a bark box right here Which basically just bypasses is the Exhaust it's like a $100 do-it-yourself Add-on initially I did not add that bark
Box cuz I wanted more power I wanted to Let the heat out quicker to prolong the Saw life but what I've noticed Anecdotally is I think it cuts faster so We're going to do two different cut Tests today the first is a small log That kind of measures cutting speed and It's practical to what you're going to Do with the saw every day the second Test is really a better measure of a big Saw and that is burying the saw deep Into a big piece of wood and that Measures the torque more than the speed We just finished recording another video With some 60cc saws cutting this same Log so we'll be able to do a Time Comparison with those less expensive Saws too and I'll put a link to that Video at the end of this video if you're Interested in some of those more budget [Music] Saws [Music] [Music] M As you see me making a cut just to try The saw out I realized that I forgot to Mention what saw we're running this is a Neotech 660 I'll put a link in the description Where you can order this [Music] Chainsaw so the test we did earlier Today was with three different brands of
60cc saws this is 90cc it's a totally Different class range But this cut that in about 34 seconds I'll double check the time when I watch The footage but our fastest on those Other saws was 56 seconds so almost half The cut time now you can really feel the Weight of this saw it's a lot heavier Than the 500i and that extra $1,000 You're spending is for a lightweight saw That's going to at least cut in the same Same range I've already done a Comparison between my steel 500i and the Steel 6 61 but that 661 was a stock saw With a seven pin sprocket now the Clone We're using is an eight pin and it's Ported it's modified for more power and Performance there was a surprising Result with the 500i versus the 661 and That is that in two separate tests done Two different ways my 500 with the Bark Box matched the power of the 661 I'm interested to see the difference Today Okay we took the bar and chain off of The 660 clone put it on the 500 I always Talk about the 500 assuming everyone Knows what this saw is but for those of You who aren't familiar with it this is The first commonly available fuel Injected chainsaw from steel which gives It a power to weight ratio that you Won't find anywhere else this saw weighs 13.4 lb for the power head only Which is
Less than two of the 60c saws that we Compared it to it's 79c whereas this clone saw is 90 but Being fuel injected it does not have a Choke on it all it has is a primer bulb And a stop button pretty pretty simple It's been reliable for me but it's it Doesn't have the raw power of the [Music] 660 [Music] Oh As far as that time I'm not going to say It's an official time till I check the Time but I came up with 36 seconds on The first saw and 34 on this one wow Same result I've gotten every time is That the 500 Cuts faster than a 661 or 660 but the problem with that is I've seen other people cut big wood and Have the 660 blow it away so we're going To cut some big wood and see what Happens I just want to jump in here with The the correction after watching that Footage back and checking the time Stamps it looks like it was about a Second faster on the 660 clone than it Was with the 500i so this is the biggest log I have Setting around on the property it's the Same log that I tested the 661 against The 500 on we're going to see if we can Get a better test and maybe uh finally Find something that out cuts the 500
That's that's the goal but I haven't Made it happen yet I really appreciate The Oki Woodsman coming down and Recording these videos with me so make Sure that if you have any interest in Chainsaws or or firewood or anything Like that go check out his channel he Does a lot of the same stuff I do he Just does it [Music] Better [Music] [Music] M [Music] [Music] Once again I'm giving you my times here But they weren't quite accurate both of Those cuts took about 28 seconds with The steel 500i with a bark box now let's Try it with the Clone saw which should Do better on this [Music] [Music] Test [Music] [Music] Oh [Music] [Music] Even though we're testing the two bigger Saws today we had two 60 C saws setting There ready to go so we decided to make The same cut with both of the smaller
Saws just for a Bas line of comparison This saw cutting right now is an echo CS 620p that's been ported and [Music] Modified The saw you see right now is a husk Varna 562 XP it is also a 60cc Saw and these two saws are closer in Price to the Clone saw than the 500i and they cut this log in just under 40 seconds whereas the two bigger saws Were at 27 seconds and 28 Seconds [Music] So we did two cuts with each saw we also Did the same Cuts with the 60cc saws That you brought for our other Comparison and those saws were about 40 Seconds to cut this and for the fourth Different time that I've tried to Compare a bigger saw to the 500 I find It cuts about the same our fastest cut With the 500 was 28 seconds by my Stopwatch in my phone it was about 27 Seconds with the other saw so what You're getting here is the same Performance between those two saws but Like we said earlier you can save over $1,000 buying the saw you brought MH and Then you can have that ported and still Save $550 absolutely absolutely for for the Person that needs a saw periodically to
Cut a piece of wood this size something Like that might make sense and that's my Case cuz I don't do a lot of cutting I'm Not a I'm not I don't have a tree Service and so every so often when I'm Cutting that saw helps me out until I Can get a 500 eye it's a interesting way Of thinking about it if you've got money And you don't care mhm buy whatever you Want yeah but if you're expecting the Saw to pay for itself it's a lot of wood Cutting to pay for an ex Th000 yeah yeah the most interesting Thing to me is that a lot of people will Tell you and tell you and tell you that The 500i won't cut with the 660 661 that's not the case that I'm finding Anyway I appreciate you taking time to Watch this video put links on the screen To a couple more of our videos and I'll See you next time
