Photo: Echo
What We Like
- A high-performance 59.8cc engine
- Long 20-inch heavy-duty bar
- Durable build quality
- Easy-maintenance air filter
- Reliable lubrication system
- Generous 5-year warranty
What We Don’t Like
- No automatic chain tensioning
- Potentially bulky at 13.2 pounds
Bottom Line
A top-of-the-range 59.8cc engine, intelligent design, and simplified maintenance make the Echo CS-590 and easy favorite for users who demand commercial-grade performance.
Introduction
When it comes to high-performance chainsaws, the CS-590 model is a potential game changer.
Packing a 59.8cc 2-stroke engine and a heavy-duty 20-inch bar and chain, the CS-590 has made a name for itself as a reliable, easy to use, and low-maintenance professional-grade chainsaw.
For established landowners, loggers, ranchers, and farmers, this chainsaw delivers with consistency and reliability while keeping maintenance costs low.
Echo CS-590 Review
Photo: Echo
Performance & Handling: Professional-Grade Engine
While 20-inch-and-above bars easily make any chainsaw stand out, it is the high-performance engine on the Echo CS-590 that really sets it apart from the competition, in the professional-grade tools category.
Powering the CS-590 is a high-performance 59.8cc 2-stroke engine, which is in a league of its own when it comes to cutting performance. If you’re a large landowner, farmer, rancher, or professional woodcutter who demands a consistent and reliable chainsaw, this is the model for you. It cuts through large and mid-sized logs like butter.
This tool adopts an elaborate digital ignition system to optimize engine performance and extend longevity. The system is designed to adjust engine timing such that the highest thermo-efficiency is attained. When the engine’s valves open and close at the proper times, you get heightened fuel efficiency and reduced wear.
To simplify the starting process and make it more responsive, the engine is fitted with a decompression valve. This valve aims to reduce the force required to pull the start cord, a hit-or-miss issue that is common across most gas-powered chainsaws. You’ll especially appreciate the valve’s role during cold start, in winter, for instance when starting your chainsaw can become a total nightmare.
Design & Construction: Rugged Durable Build
The Echo CS-590 is, without a doubt, built for durability and reliability. Many of its core components have been molded out of magnesium, which not only helps reduce the tool’s overall weight but also makes it mechanically strong.
It features a magnesium crankcase and a magnesium sprocket cover. The housing and most of the other attachments on this chainsaw are made of hard plastic, enabling the tool to thrive in harsh operating environments.
To make the cutting experience even easier for you, the chainsaw’s front comes fitted with bumper spikes, which enhance tool handling and control by allowing it to grip firmly on the wood being cut. Also, these spikes are replaceable, so you can always get a fresh set for better performance.
Finally, and this is a feature most come to appreciate in the long-term, the chainsaw’s fuel tank is translucent, to help with monitoring of fuel levels, especially as the tool operates. A simple glance at the tank will help you figure how much gas is left and for how long the tool can run before a re-fill is needed.
Cutting Equipment: High-Capacity Bar and Chain
Heavy-duty is the best term to describe CS-590’s cutting equipment, which combines a long 20-inch bar and a high-performance steel chain. The bar is a Pro-Lite type, made with ProAm material, while the chain you get is a professional-grade 72LPX. Also note that while this chainsaw comes with a 20-inch bar, it can accept 18-inch and 24-inch versions, which is a lot of cutting versatility from 1 tool.
The actual cutting performance of this equipment is undisputed. With the 20-inch bar, you can cut wood with diameters of up to 40 inches. If you’re out to the woods to fell large trees, this should be your go-to saw. There are no performance bottlenecks when working with the CS-590, and this model easily qualifies as Echo’s best professional chainsaw.
You’ll be surprised at the cutting smoothness of the chainsaw even in demanding tasks such as tree stump removal. Even when you want to remove tree stumps, this chainsaw will cut them down without hesitation or any kickback whatsoever from the bar and chain. It does, however, miss out on tool-less chain tensioning, but it’s not a deal-breaking inconvenience.
A reliable anti-vibration system has been implemented on the cutting equipment to ensure efficiency. In fact, if you take off the bar, perhaps during chain maintenance, you’ll notice that the plates designed to act as chain stays for oil direction and vibration reduction are metallic, and not the conventional plastic ones, which are prone to wear and reduced reliability. These ones will last much longer and keep vibration at a constant low.
Noise Level: Loud, but Within Acceptable Levels
As with any other gasoline chainsaw, expect the CS-590 to be loud, especially when transmitting all its power to the wood being cut. Certainly, this loudness is expected especially as the tool’s engine dances around the 60cc mark.
Don’t wait for the tool to get uncomfortably loud for you to intervene. It’s always recommended that you wear some sound protection such as earmuffs, which will help suppress the tool’s loudness from the word go. This step is especially important given that in most cases, you will be taking out your CS-590 for those intensive and extensive cutting projects, most of which require the tool to run almost continuously.
Safety Features: Advanced Chain Brake
The highlight of the CS-590’s safety features is its dual-post chain brake. This brake is optimized to react instantly when applied. Applying the brake can be achieved in 2 main ways: by using your hand, or through tool inertia. Because the brake system is directly in front of the main handle, it has been designed to be activated through the hand’s natural motion.
And to make the brake more reliable, the inertia system is also used. This type of braking is activated when the saw’s kickback force is very strong, which would indicate the chain may have hit an obstacle and requires instant stopping for your safety and that of the chainsaw.
Also, the beauty of the CS-590’s brake is that it is integrated into the main hand guard, which is primarily designed to protect your hand from being injured by flying loose debris such as tree branches, which are common during the cutting process.
Maintenance: Simplified and Time-Saving
The CS-590 was designed to support fast and easy maintenance so that you never have to pause your projects for more than a few minutes during regular or on-demand maintenance. This chainsaw is fitted by Echo’s G-Force Engine Air Pre-Cleaner™, which lower the demand for filter maintenance, ensuring your chainsaw runs for long with the same air filter.
Not only does the engine adopt a heavy-duty 2-piece air filter, which offers an increased surface area for maximum air cleaning, but accessing this component is incredibly easy. You simply need to unscrew a single nut on the tool’s back, and that’s it; you can take off the filter, clean it, or replace it. The nut is also affixed to prevent it from getting lost especially if you’re in a busy working environment.
You CS-590’s bar and chain are constantly lubricated by an oiling system to decrease friction and wear. To reduce the consumption of bar and chain oil, the CS-590’s oiling system is adjustable and clutch driven. Although it is an automatic system, the fact that it is adjustable means you can control the amount of oil being fed onto the bar and chain at any given time, which reduces wastage and saves you money.
Price: Competitive and Worth It
For a professional-grade chainsaw that packs a monster 59.8cc engine, the CS-590’s price tag is justifiable, and a good bargain, especially because the other brands and models which rival this performance, are very expensive.
A high-performance engine, a long bar, and reduced maintenance demands translate to immense value from a single tool. This chainsaw’s closest rival, Husqvarna 24 Inch 460 Rancher, costs more and offers pretty much the same value you will get from the CS-590.
You also get a generous 5-year consumer warranty with your purchase of the CS-590, a commendable offer for such a power tool.
Verdict
A professional-grade chainsaw that supports robust and heavy-duty cutting applications for large landowners, homeowners, farmers, and ranchers.
The Echo CS-590’s engine is undoubtedly powerful and is well-complemented by the long and heavy-duty 20-inch bar, which cuts a variety of large wood with relatively easy. And when you consider the ease of maintaining this chainsaw, it becomes the ultimate landowner power tool.
Find Other Options: The Best Echo Chainsaws
Specs
- Product Name: Echo CS-590
- Product Brand: Echo
- Product Dimensions: 20 x 13 x 11 inches
- Power: 59.8 cm3
- Power Source: Gasoline
- Bar Length: 20 inches
- Chain Brake: Yes
- Fuel Capacity: 21.8 fluid ounces
- Oil Capacity: 10.2 fluid ounces
- Tool Weight (Excl. Cutting Equipment): 13.2 pounds
- Warranty: 5 years (Consumer)
Key Features
- A 59.8cc professional-grade engine for superior performance
- G-Force Engine Air Pre-Cleaner™ reduces filter maintenance demands
- Adjustable and automatic clutch-driven oiler optimizes oil utilization
- Heavy-duty 20-inch bar and chain for intensive cutting
- The decompression valve support easy starting
- Easy-access air filter for fast and simplified cleaning
- The translucent fuel tank supports easy level monitoring