Something that really annoys me personally about the Stihl saws is the filler caps - they seemed to have engineered a technical solution to a problem that didn't really exist. Husqvarna and Makita have taken a more traditional approach to filler caps. OK, so it's not the most exciting of subjects, and I may have been a little unfair on Stihl, but let's take a look after the jump...I should make it clear that the college where I work is a very heavy user of Stihl equipment, and boy does it take a battering out in the field with the students. There's no doubting the excellent build quality of the professional Stihl saws, but those filler caps...what were they thinking?!.
Stihl have manufactured a twist-on, twist-off cap that means that you don't need any tools to remove it and that's a big advantage over the traditional screw-on types. The screw-on caps tend to get tight during saw use and then become difficult to remove with just your fingers - with the Stihl caps, it's not an issue. On the downside, I've seen so many people think that they've fitted the cap (especially the oil cap) correctly, picked the saw up and then walked off to use the saw... en-route they stop, look down in disbelief as all the oil drains out of the tank as the cap was not on securely.
Makita (and Husqvarna) use screw-on caps - but the Makita version is actually really well thought out. It allows you to screw on the cap with your fingers, and undo it too - but if the cap is too tight, you can use the combi-spanner (screwdriver end) to loosen the cap. What you can't do is use the screwdriver to tighten the cap up (see the accompanying photo).It's the small things that make ownership of anything a happy experience, or not (and I'm not hinting that the Stihl caps make ownership of their saws an unhappy one!). The Makita filler caps are well designed and simple to use.
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