I may change my mind

a while back there was some talk about who likes / dislikes flippy caps ,i said i like them and never had a problem with them ,well yesterday i had a problem maybe im being punished for not wearing gloves,chaps or boots ,it was one quick cut i needed to make ,i opened the oil cap saw oil closed it crossed the driveway and was in the process of starting the saw , and noticed my leg was wet,shoe was wet then looked back at my trail ,what a mess,i called my dealer and he will give me a new cap i notice this one has some movement that others dont in the center ,lesson learned double check the caps ,of course it may well be operator error,i was quite angry yesterday,today im laughing a little.

 

Just another day in the life of a wood cutter.

 

Husky flippy caps are the boss and well thought out. Stihl flippy caps are so over engineered and just plain suck. JMO

 

I've got the flippy caps on My Stihl. Not the biggest fan. I've lost one in the woods before. I also noticed mine has a tendency to leak a little overnight. I'm happier with the old technology.

 

X2 !

 

I never had a problem with the flippies. The old stihl kind I actually had come off and all at once blow out. I guess I had it cross threaded not all the way and ruined cap but enough where it felt tight. One limb cut later and it came off and all the oil at once. Refilled the oil and screwed cap in right that time and ended up with oily chaps and a soaked shoe. Was the tank out of the 650 so it was a good bit of oil.

 

I hate those stupid things. The other day the oil cap on one of my stihls blew into 4 pieces when I opened it. Husky got it right. Flip up tab to get a good grip with a place for the flat blade of your scrench and a regular thread. No time ever have I thought 'wow, those 3 turns to tighten the gas cap took a really long time'.

 

This topic has obviously been beaten to death on chainsaw forums . . .

That said, it seems to me it just really boils down to your experience and preference. For years I've been using flippy-cap-equipped Stihl equipment (string trimmers, hedge trimmer, blowers, chainsaws) and have never had a problem with any of them. I did get the one on my string trimmer replaced via recall, but the original one never gave me any problems. Given that they're easy to use and I've never had a leak I have to say that I like them. Yep, that just happened . . . I admitted that I'm a flippy cap fan!

Now, I have a few saws with the original screw-in caps and I've had to replace one cap as well as two o-rings. Of course the major difference there is that all of those saws were used when I got them, so I don't know how they were treated in their early years.

 

Granted this is an old topic, but Stihl refuses to rectify the problem too. Everything now days in manufacturing is about cutting costs. I can't imagine replacing a threaded cap with an O ring with a cap with several moving parts that can and do break. But then they can sell more expensive parts.

Anyway, I digress as I often do.

Just because one has not experienced problems with the caps on their Stihl product, a conclusion should not be drawn as to whether flippy caps are good or not because some are substantially more awful than others. My neighbor has an early model pole saw that is just about impossible to get the caps to seat and seal. I dread even filling the thing up. And of course one day a cap did fall apart in my hands. Some flippy caps are usable, others not so much.

BTW, I have written to Stihl and they will not respond.

 

Can you retrofit a flippy cap on a non flippy cap 20 year old saw? Of course if it's a Husky.

 

Or lack thereof!! ME TOO!
My little MS 200t's oil tank gives mehell. I gotta "hold my mouth just right", slightly lift one foot off the ground, and face north west for it to work

The fuel tank has never given me trouble on this saw or on my 044 fuel tank. Huh??

I think I have observed that while unscrewing it, to keep pressing it down (towards the tank) and be sure to "unscrew" it until it stops. I think this keeps the "timing" correct for it to have the detents in the proper position when you flip the top down when closing.

 

What ya tryin' to say MM?
A lot of folks just use Mink Oil on their boots, I find that bar oil works just fine!

 

Yep, never a problem with the larger fuel tank. It always the oil I fumble with.
I always seem to have a problem if I overfill the oil a bit. Almost like the hydraulic pressure will not allow the cap deep enough into the tank to engage correctly. The tighter location may have something to do with it also.

Haven't used this saw in three years, just got it running again. A couple fills went just fine and on the third I spent probably five oily messy minutes getting that cap back on. Haven't had a problem since either but it brought back the old memories.
Oil tank seems a little weepy occasionally. I store the saw on its side now.

 

Havent had a problem.

 

Yeah well that looks like the old technology that even I can use.

 

Yeah, we know. Don't have to say it.

 

Sure, the flippy caps aren't perfect but no human endeavor is. But lets give respect to the engineers for solving the huge problem of the old screw-in caps. Whatever that problem was.

 

One of my brilliant coworkers managed to over clock a flippy cap on our stihl backback blower. I fiddled around with it for a while and could not figure out how they managed to screw it up?

I don't have a problem with them personally - my complaint is the recess they require to sit nearly flush, always have to be careful of dust and dirt in the recess getting in during refills