I purchase all my echo gear through a private retailer. A small shop. I have had zero problems other than the occasional recoil starter cord breaking from normal wear and tear. My units generally start in one pull for pas and whackers and two for blowers. Dead cold starts on my pas units, no prime one easy yank and im good. So i have a disagreement here. My two cycle is $1.88 per quart havoline 2 cycle oil......no prOblems there either. I rip my guards off and run my line long.....echo has been good to me, grey and orange models. I dont adjust the carbs or mod my units at all. They get pushed hard......and run
Now my agreement, i have 2 cs 400 chainsaws, both have a ton of hours on them, no issues, i also run two cs 341ts....again no issues. My dealer rarely gets stuff he sells in for repair. Yet for some reason the cs400s from the depot end up in for repair all the time. Him and i both swear there is a "b model" at the depot. Maybe thr tolerances are off.....his are 60 bucks more when bought new.....who know what the depot is paying. A homeowner i know used a few gallons of my two cycle mix in a depot echo trimmer and it killed the unit.
Note: a shindawa hedge trimmers is the only unit i had that died and he couldnt get to run ever again. 30+ years of repair work.....no go. Replaced the whole unit, motor and all....that Sob wouldnt ever fire up again. It got so personal he sunk 300 bucks into it trying to prove he could make it run.