I've been using an echo hand held blower for 10 years now and it has been a fantastic tool. It gets more use than any other ope I have. I stopped counting somewhere north of 40 gallons of mix ran through it. That was a couple years ago. Thats 42-45 minutes a tank and 8 tanks per gallon. It's first 5 years were ran on ethanol fuel, as there was no option for ethanol free from the pump. In all this time its only needed a carb kit, lines and tank grommet, because of said ethanol. Anyway, my hands can no longer tolerate the vibration from a hard mount blower or saw, so I purchased these irritating, thick anti vibration gloves. They work but they are not ideal and, because they are so thick, they tire your hands out quickly. I have been looking at new blowers and wanted another echo because of my past experience with the brand, and they have the highest blowing performance. That said, they are still hard mount and I'm sure they will bother my hands. That left the stihl BG86 or a Chinese made Husqvarna. I was going to buy a new Stihl then this presented itself... My nephew bought this from the original owner because it wouldn't rev up. $50. They had already purchased a new one. I fixed it in front of him and offered him $100. He said yes. Clogged exhaust screen was all. I did a muffler mod on it today. No numb hands from this unit with it's spring suspension. The only downside is it has a straight tube and it is always trying to twist right under power. The echo has a curve in the tube and it doesn’t twist at all. I have a spare echo tube I'm going to try and marry to the attachment end the stihl tube.
Piston is mint. Just a bit of varnish from what smells like oil that had some castor in it. The mix was blue and smells like mild bean oil. They had dirt bikes and quads at the place he bought it. They were probably using one mix for both the blower and off-road toys.
