Video of the Stihl MS500i in action

[Steve Bullman]

I was invited last month to attend a Stihl press day.  Most of the day was centred around the new battery powered range of tools Stihl are launching(I will write about these shortly), but the main thing I was hoping to see was the MS500i.  Not only did they have one over form Germany for the event, but I was delighted to find out we could have a go also.

 

Below is a very short video of myself using it to make a couple of cuts on some timber that had been supplied by Westonbirt arboreatum....a mere teaser unfortunately.

 

 

In addition to the MS500i there was also the brand new MS462 to try out.  As a massive fan of the MS461 I was keen to compare this saw too.  Again only 2 cuts unfortunately, but it certainly had everything that the MS461 has, and hopefully a bit more...time will tell.

So how did the MS500i compare?  Well pretty hard to gage it based on 2 cuts but you could certainly feel the difference in power the second you blipped the throttle.  Running the 2 saws side by side showed a clear difference when both saws were revved at the same time.

In my opinion Stihl have in their hands a real game changer with this saw.  I personally will look forward to getting it out for a proper test at some point!

[monkeybusiness]

Looks a great saw - I just hope they get it right from the start. Their early electronic carbs were terrible and they did nothing to acknowledge it - I definitely wouldn’t rush in to buy any new Stihl tech again unfortunately. 

[Steve Bullman]

Well as someone else pointed out in the other thread.  Stihl have had a fuel injected cut off saw on the market for a while now.  I guess its the same technology and has already been put through its paces to some extent

[Khriss]

I would say so too Monk' they best not get it wrong - spent too much on R&D on this to fail. K