Echo "was" a good brand years ago....just not anymore. Only buy if you are handy with parts and have spare cash!
The 5-year warranty and success of the brand for a 15-year old trimmer that just wouldn't die was enough for me to buy the Echo BP500T backpack blower. Unfortunately, like many other reviews mention, these newer blowers go downhill in a hurry. I bought my first one at H.D. as their &#34;biggest and best&#34; backpack blower on the shelf at the time, used it for 1 1/2 years, then the issues started. It started, but wouldn't run at full throttle, and you had to play with the choke just to keep it going at all. Took it back and exchanged it for an identical model which they still carried. Another 1 1/2 years pass okay, but then the same issues started occurred again. Same throttle issues, but this time you had to pull the chain at least 10-20 just to get some life out of it. I followed all of the troubleshooting methods you can find online. All say about the same thing. &#34;They run good until they don't....then you have to replace the carburetor.&#34; What? New carburetor at 1 1/2 years? Took it back to H.D. to exchange again, only to find that they no longer actually exchange it on the spot. You had to send in the blower (which was a 3-week turn around time in off-season....but that's a different issue with HD) and wait to hear if the repairs were covered by warranty or not. I helped out the clerk by telling him I thought it was the carburetor based on what I was experiencing and all the online posts on the issue. The clerk helped me out by saying that carburetors aren't covered under the Echo 5-year warranty and it would cost at least $130 to get it repaired through HD. Needless to say, I didn't bother sending it out for 3-weeks for a part that costs $35 online and is relatively simple to change out myself. Considering that this Echo blower has very few parts, why one of the major parts isn't covered in the warranty, or why the exclusions aren't notably called out on the box, is beyond comprehension. There should be big disclaimer in stores like H.D. about stuff like this if they want to keep any semblance of a good reputation.
Rating: 2 stars