Evening all,

Hopefully the knowledge base that is STW will be able to clarify the information I received today whilst hiring a petrol cut-off saw from Travis Perkins.

The chap serving me asked if I had any 2-stroke oil for the fuel, to which I said, yes thanks, got loads of it. Is it Husqvarna oil? Was his response, to which I said no, it’s possibly Stihl branded.

He then said that the Husky 2-strokes will only work with their own oil, there is a chip inside which can detect non Husky oil additive and will put the machine into a limp type mode.

I did ask if the Husky oil therefore contained metal, otherwise how would a chip in the fuel delivery system be able to taste or smell or sense which brand of diluted oil at 50:1 was being mixed with the petrol? It just does was his reply.

I’m pretty familiar with the internal combustion engine in both 2 & 4-stroke forms and I’m intrigued!

Bullshit or not?

Ermmm! It’s bullshit.

My husky chainsaw runs fine with whatever 2 stroke oil and doesn’t object to Stihl chain oil.

Monumental bollocks

Did they sell said oil at a vastly-inflated “bargain” price by any chance?

Sounds like upselling to me.

Surprised you didn’t burst out laughing when he told you that crock of shit

Bullshit +1

Probably referring to that 2 stroke Husky Snake Oil…

That’s a good one for sure! However I think it’s husky oil I’m using at the moment and the only reason it’s good is because it really does turn the two stroke mix a real brown colour so it’s to make sure you’re using the right juice.

Lovely jubbly, thank you all.

This is the strange thing, they didn’t try to sell me any oil, rather they gave me 100ml of it and said if I didn’t use it, to return it with the saw.

If you got a Husqvarna, from bitter experience use their oil, they do have a version of the saw with a grey surround to the on /off switch denoting ok to use normal 2 stroke oil. the blue surround is for Husqvarna snake oil. not worth the aggro of wrong oil. when I hire saws now either go with stihl or bend over and use husky oil 😯 HTH

Did he also try to sell you 5 liters of tartan paint whilst you were in the store?

I use either Stihl or Makita oil but mostly Stihl as i buy 5 litres at a time. Very accurate measuring to exactly 5l of petrol i never have any problems although i avoid any other make of oil eg Tesco two stripe or morrison white label

Bought a petrol strimmer recently and was mighty tempted to use up an old bottle of TTS, but the strimmer instructions said not to use pre-mix for water cooled motors. Gutted – love the smell. 🙁

A quick google suggests he was telling the truth.

The Oil Guard system uses an optical sensor to check the colour of the fuel mix to make sure that you’re using genuine Husqvarna oil.

http://www.husqvarna.com/za/construction/products/power-cutters-product-range/k-760-with-oilguard/

Do people still get taken in by this type of bollocks..

All decent 2 stroke oil is made to the JASO standards.

The likes of Rock oil, putoline, ipone add “stuff” that in theory makes it better? Most of which is questionable and subject to “pub” theory.

A quick google suggests he was telling the truth.

It clearly doesn’t.

Well, I suppose there’s one way to find out. I still have the machine on hire ( which, incidentally is the second one as the first saw I collected wouldn’t even start), so perhaps I could refuel it with another branded oil? I have a choice between Stihl, which is red in colour, Mitox, also red in colour, or Quicksilver ( an outboard/marine oil) which is blue and possibly one other that I can’t remember what brand or colour. Oh, and the freebie Husky oil.

Maybe this is why the first machine wouldn’t start?

Either way, votes please, although I’ll be actually working and not anywhere near the Internet, but vote anyway if you feel like it’ll make a difference, but won’t in reality. Just like real voting is in our farcical democratic system. But that’s another story.

P.S. Using iPad, and I have no text function or link function buttons, or emoticons on display. Which is certainly another story.

Seems like a good idea, especially (as mentioned in the link) for the rental market. Slows down the engine if there’s not the correct amount of oil. Less of a good idea if the sensor is tuned to Husky oil, but that sounds like an idea from the marketing dept.

I’m sure my husky has a different ratio on the bottle that comes with it for their own oil to third party oils.

Sadly it does not get used as much as it used to. Sharpening a chain is my second favourite therapeutic task after building bike wheels.

convert – Member
I’m sure my husky has a different ratio on the bottle that comes with it for their own oil to third party oils.

Sadly it does not get used as much as it used to. Sharpening a chain is my second favourite therapeutic task after building bike wheels.

Stihl’s instructions say that too. 1:50 for their jungle juice, 1:40 for everyone else’s. Presumably to try and account for variations in quality.

From their own site linked above:

Oilguard

The unique optical detection system prevents engine damage caused by wrong fuel-oil mix or oil type.

You can use standard two-stroke oil by deactivating the OilGuard function, simply pull out the OilGuard button by the rear handle.