You want a chainsaw review? A review of a Poulan chainsaw
So here's the deal. For over 20 years I had a Pioneer Farm Saw - a good sized chainsaw that was capable of doing serious work. I went through 2 bars, numerous chains and a bunch of tuneups over those years. But together we cut down 2 swamps of old Dutch Elm, numerous fence rows, and heated an old stone farmhouse with cookstove and furnace (heat being a relative term with an old stone house) This was a workhorse of a machine.
But three years ago, it died. Mind you, it ended its life on the job hacking down a tree doing its best to wreck a septic bed. I miss that saw.
But it's a different life now and I'm no longer heating with wood. I don't require a large saw but rather a smaller utility machine.
So I bought a Poulan saw from Home Depot. Three years ago. And in retrospect I should have known better.
Here's the deal. The saw is well out of warranty based on the length of time I've owned the machine. The original chain is still on the machine and it hasn't required sharpening yet so this tells you how little I've used it.
But this saw has a short pull rope (a fact I've chatted about with some other users) and if you have a normal length arm, you have to quickly learn not to pull normally to start it. You have to give it a quick, short jerking-yank rather than a pull. A serious pull will jam the starter mechanism at the extent of its range and the difference between the two is miniscule. I guess somebody figured out they could save a penny or two by shortening the cord to a useless length.
Hard starting with a short pull stroke, short jerk cycle or jam it. That pretty much sums up the machine. It jammed. I released it and the spring broke. The starter mechanism is plasticy-nylon - not steel or anything durable. Plastic-nylon "stuff" with no staying power and the spring is a light spring-steel thing that I would use in a clock, but never in a working chainsaw.
Fix it? Right. With labor being what it is, my guess is that it will almost cost what the machine cost to have somebody fix it. I can do it if I can find the right part (I have yet to start calling around the box stores for parts)
And that's the second part of the equation. I should have known better. I already know that big manufacturers produce a far cheaper product for sale in the big box stores. And that fixing them is an option they don't consider.
So without thinking, (that was the problem) I broke one of my main rules (always buy good tools) at one of the places I know I shouldn't (a big box store whose objective is low-cost).
This Poulan chain saw is a piece of junk. And won't be repaired (why send good money after bad? And if I did "fix it" - it's designed in a way to break again. You can bet I won't be replacing it with another Poulan.
You can fool me once with shoddy tools but I won't fool myself the second time.
So what are you going to buy to replace the Poulan?
I’m thinking Stihl (upper end) or Craftsman (mid-level) *electric* chainsaws. I no longer do bush cutting but rather trimming and working around the house/gardens so a half-way decent electric should do the job. The only potential concern is that Poulan makes some (if not all) of the Craftsman electric saws. I’m thinking Stih is the primary choice and the question is which price range do I go after.
Think again about Sears Craftsman. The reason I’m at this site is that I have replaced parts on a 4 year old Craftsman 3 times already. Now it won’t auto oil the chain. A new oil pump is only $10 online but shipping is also $10. I’ve also replaced the main sprocket (plastic) and a gasket which was part of the oiler system. I have a gas Stilhl that fires up readily every time and am on my 4th new chain. The others have worn out from extensive use. I bought the electric for ease of use next to the house. Good Luck.
Matt – that Craftsman is a Poulan chainsaw
Made by them and labeled for Craftsman. And wouldn’t you know it – a friend was moving and gave me his old chainsaw (yeah, another Poulan) but he told me somebody gave it to him and it runs so….. I run it till it dies than go buy myself a good one.
149$ Poulan use and thropugh out when its burned
a good saw will set you back 1000$
Electric chainsaws will be more expensive in parts and will need plenty of parts too.
best to use the poulan and buy another when it goes
149 $ is cheap for 4 yrs use
I cut firewood so 4 years of fire wood cutting per saw is decent
You can buy an expensive saw and buy blades and chains every year for 60$
or spend 149 $ and get a new poulan every 4 years
Electric saws have no serious use and not even worth buying you can use a circular saw ,jig saw hand saw to do what an electric will do.
I have a Poulan ‘Wood Shark’ model 1950 14″ bar, 36cc engine. It has
been one of the best saws I ever owned. I see that now their 14″ saw
only has a 33cc engine. Oh well.
@Hugh – and that’s the dumbing down of a brand in play for sure. You’re right, “oh well”.
Doug, I feel your pain. I presently have two saws in disrepair. One is an electric Craftsman and the other a gas Poulan 2000. When I chose these saws I no longer did any big logging work and only needed small machines for taking out the occasional tree that tries to get its roots into our septic system or lopping of a limb that got too close to the house.
I should have known better than to get a cheap electric. All it took to strip that little plastic drive gear was one nail in a stump. As for the Poulan, I can’t seem to keep it running. The carb needs work every time I touch it. I’ll work on the carb and get the saw to run but the next day I end up with the same problem. I have already fixed the pull rope twice, but I haven’t broken the return spring.
I have decided I hate all these new fangled plasticy saws with all their safety junk on them. I miss my old Stihl. The only safety feature it had was the kickback bar. I ran that thing for over 15 years and only had to replace the chains when they broke, the bars when they wore out, and fill it with gas/oil and bar lube.
Now I have a larger than normal homeowner task on the horizon and I will be visiting our local Stihl dealer to see what he has. I need to clear ~ an acre of heavily treed hill and the electro-plastic Craftsman is trash and baby Poulan isn’t worth the time to continually fix it.
– Mark
I’VE GOT A POULAN I8″ AND IT SEEMS TO HAVE DONE PRETTY WELL FOR THE $150 IT COST. I CUT A HECK OF A LOT OF WOOD OVER THE PAST FOUR YEARS. UNFORTUNATELY THE OTHER DAY I WASN’T THINKING AND USED REGULAR GAS IN IT. IT RAN FOR ABOUT TEN MINUTES AND STOPPED. COULDNT START IT AGAIN. TOOK IT TO A REPAIR SHOP AND YES THEY WANTED $100 TO FIX IT. (estimate)
SAID IT NEEDED A NEW CYLINDER CAUSE IT WAS SCORED. I AM FAIRLY HANDY SO I THOUGHT SINCE IT WASN’T WORKING I’D DISASSEMBLE IT JUST TO SEE HOW MUCH DAMAGE WAS DONE.
I WAS FAIRLY SURPRISED WHEN I GOT THE CYLINDER OFF BECAUSE I COULD SEE NO DAMAGE. (scoring, etc.)
RIGHT NOW I’M TRYING TO GET HOLD OF A POULAN TECHNICIAN FOR INFO ON THE THING. I FEEL IT MAY ONLY NEED A NEW RING TO RUN AGAIN.
I’M VERY SATISFIED WITH THE SAW AND WOULD BUY A NEW ONE IF I EVER NEED ONE.
I’ve had a Poulan leaf blower for about a year now. Multiple problems. I looked up “Poulan” in the dictionary. It means “piece of crap”.
i have used my 16 in poulan chainsaw 4 times.
3 times the cord broke. what a piece of crap!
I SCREWED UP AGAIN!
AFTER DISASSEMBLING MY SAW I WANTED TO REMOVE THE PISTON ASSEMBLY. NEEDED TO REMOVE THE NUT HOLDING THE BRAKE ASSY. IN A HURRY, I JAMMED A HUNK OF WOOD UNDER THE PISTON TO KEEP IT FROM TURNING. DIDN’T NOTICE THAT THE OPEN END OF THE PISTON WAS HITTING THE CONNECTING ROD AND WHEN I APPLIED PRESSURE TO THE NUT I BUSTED A HUNK OUT OF THE PISTON. I WAS P—ED. I THEN WENT ON LINE TO SEE WHAT TYPE OF SAW I COULD FIND. FOUND SEVERAL UNITS. ONE WAS LISTED AS “FACTORY RESTORED” FOR A PRICE OF $117. I WAS A BIT HESITANT BECAUSE OF SOME OF THE POOR REVIEWS POULAN SAWS WERE GIVEN. DECIDED TO BUY THIS ONE ANYWAY.
I WAS PLEASENTLY SURPRISED WHEN I RECIEVED THE UNIT. IT WAS PACKAGED PROFESSIONALLY AND WAS IN PERFECT ORDER. THE SAW LOOKED AS IF IT HAD NEVER BEEN USED. I ASSEMBLED IT, PUT IN THE OIL AND GAS, FOLLOWED THE INSTRUCTIONS TO A TEE AND FIRED IT UP. WORKED PERFECTLY.I CUT UP A 60 FOOT TREE IN A NEIGHBORS YARD WITH NO PROBLEMS.
THESE GUYS THAT ARE COMPLAINING SHOULD FOLLOW THE GOLDEN RULE RE: ANY POWERED EQUIPMENT….WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!
I’D BUY ANOTHER POULAN IF EVER NEEDED IN AN INSTANT!
@Jerry – one tree does not a saw make. I stand by my review.
wonder why it was REmanufactuerd? oh yea had to be built twice to work good once!!
Here’s my cautionary tale . . . I did not make the cheap chainsaw mistake, I DO heat with wood, about 10 cords worth each winter and I got a Stihl 340 about 6 years ago (700 bucks). Bought it from the local dealer, NOT a box store. The saw has given me no trouble at all (once I learned how to sharpen the chain properly – hint: buy a good jig.)
I have felled trees, blocked mucho firewood, cleared fence lines etc etc. I use the saw weekly in the fall and winter and at least monthly during the summer.
However . . . I really messed up when my old Troy-Built Horse tiller kicked the bucket. Could no longer get parts, and Troy-Built isn’t really Troy-Built anymore (the heck with GM, how about a bailout for a good domestic roto-tiller manufacturer?)
So since I needed a tiller NOW (I have a 1-acre market garden) I bought a $1000 ‘cheapie’ that I could get same day. In a week or so I COULD have got a good used, newer model Troy-Built for $2,000 but I started thinking about the money ($1000 equals about 40 cases of Labatt’s Blue . . . almost a summer’s worth )
I paid the price for the rest of the summer; that cheap piece of tin WOULD NOT chop up and bury ‘trash’ in the field; I had to stop regularly and clear the the tines. And it just didn’t have the weight for serious sod-busting.
Pretty sure beer consumption went up drastically, too . . .
Good tools is good sense, buy the best and save your sanity (and your liver)
@Scott – you’re right of course and that seems to be the message that’s coming through loud and clear on this one.
I talked to a local Sears rep this last week and asked if the difference in price between a Husqvarna and Craftsman chain saw was warranted.
He said that Husqvarna makes Craftsman and that there is practically no difference.
Anyone any comments on that?
I wonder if there is a difference in the warranty between the Husqvarna and the similar Craftsman model? Sears used to provide a pretty good warranty on their Craftsman line of tools, I don’t know if this is still true.
btw when I chose my saw I asked around to my neighbors to find a brand/model and a good dealer; having a good local dealer might be just as important as the particular brand. Mine is great, and was especially good at explaining ‘chainsaw 101′ to a rookie.
I was mostly wondering about the validity of the rep’s statement.
Btw, our local store is selling the Poulan “Wild Thing” for $115 (40cc 18″ bar). I’m wondering if I should pick one up. I’d be mostly cutting firewood 1 1/2-2 cords / year.
I had a McCulloch-14 for ten years. Great machine. I finally broke the pull cord mechanism. Someone told me the company went out of business and that parts were not available, so I threw the saw away. Now I see that Husqvarna has bought McCulloch. My local repairman says he can get McCulloch parts again.
In the meantime I bought a Poulan 14-inch. It was the most difficult machine to start that I have ever imagined. I am an old man, and sometimes I pulled on the rope for so many minutes that I tired myself out and had to stop to lie down and rest without ever getting the saw running.
I used the Poulan about three hours total in half a dozen sawing sessions over four years. It began making a funny noise and wouldn’t start. I had to pay $80 to my local repairman to replace the coil which had come loose and had begun rattling around inside.
Then I started it successfully and ran it for about ten minutes until it stopped dead. I cannot pull the cord at all now.
I agree with the man above who labeled the Poulan a piece of crap.
I only have five acres, and I can get full power (50 amps at full voltage) to any spot on my property. I am looking to buy an electric chainsaw when the weather warms (It is New Years Eve day now). I can buy a new electric for less than what it cost me to repair the Poulan.
Yes, the Poulan is a piece of crap.
Because they was cheap at purchas We have two Poulan saws with less than 10 hours on each of them. one will not oil the chain and bar it needs a pump had to replace the chain because it streatched out not wore out and the other leaks all the oil out the bottom before you can start cutting. so if you fill it just to cut a fallen branch the rest you will clean off of the work bench after it sits. I SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT A STIHL OR ECHO twice the cost but well worth the extra to have a good machine.
I’ve had a Stihl 025 for 14 years. Yes, it has required some maintenance now and then. What machine doesn’t? But I’ve never had a serious problem with it. Replaced the chain twice, plug once, sprocket once. I cut about a cord and a half of firewood a year for my woodstove and do a lot of other maintenance on my place (93 acres). Right now, it has a starting problem that I haven’t yet resolved, but, it has served me very well for a long time otherwise. I don’t know if they all hold up this well, but if I can’t resolve this problem, I will buy another one or a saw with a similar reputation. I don’t know about their saws but I think Echo would be a good choice, too. I have an Echo trimmer that is 16 years old and has done a lot of brush cutting with a blade (as well as weeds with the string) and I am ashamed to admit that I have used and abused it in every way imaginable. I once ran a full tank of regular gas through it with no oil before I realized what I had done. Durn Fino how it survived, but it did. And that was several years ago. It is now old and tired, has some loose parts and leaks a little,….like it’s owner, …..but it still starts easily and runs like there’s no tomorrow. I better hush ‘cuz this is sounding like a commercial and I’ve never had anything to do with either company except to buy and use their products. Just some FYI for anyone who wants to listen B-)
I bought a poulan wildthing around 4 months ago.I kept that saw in top condition,taking it apart,cleaning it and sharpening the chain. I run wood all winter and have cut enough for 3 years. I did have to have the cylinder and piston replaced along with 2 plastic liners. I can say I called the co. and found a shop nearby and within 3 days had my saw back,fixed,running better then ever as it never really ran that well from the start. Sure they dont last,the older ones were great saws,but my point is I was running 10% ethanol mix fuel at 40 to 1 as per instructions. I was told ethanol makes the piston and cylinder hotter,that I should use premiun fuel and mix it a tad under 40 to 1.Best advise was to set low idle almost 2 turns out as the saw lens out as the rpms decrease and to rev the engine to max rpm and richen hi end circuit til saw loses a very small amount of rpm.Wow, big difference,I cut down 18 8 to 18 inch diameter pines 2 weeks ago,sectioned them, delimbed them and piled them. Yesterday I cut down a 10 foot tall 53 inch diameter hard maple and the saws still working,hahaa. Yeah, their cheaply made these days but if you maintain them right you can easily make your money back.I paid $125 for mine. These saws gota be maintained after every use,yes, they will still break down,but I have 7 more months of abuse for this saw,if it failsthey either fix it or replace it so its cool with me. So at least you know you can run the crap out of it for a year and if she blows they replace it for free.I was thinking stihl 390 but at almost $500 hell I could buy 15 truck loads of oak, locust,or maple. I prefer yellow birch,can be dried in 3 months and burns awesome. 15 loads of wood would last me 3 years leaving me without the hassle of cutting any wood. I do it cause its fun though. Opinions are like assholes,everyones got one.
I bought a poulan P3314 a few years ago. I don’t have a big property, but I do have quite a few big maple trees that needed to be pruned. I couldn’t see myself using a bucksaw. So Poulan was my cheap way out.
I had the toughest time trying to get it to start !!! After checking for spark ( which was OK ), and fiddle farting around for a bit, I come to pin point the problem. The FUEL LINES” !!! They were hooked up backwards. I hooked up the fuel lines the way they should have been hooked at the factory, and this P3314 has been working like a charm ever since. It’s not a power house, but it serves the purpuse every time I need it.
iv had three their junk junk junk
I agree, Poulan’s are junk. I bought a Wild Thing, used it for about two months, then just stopped running. I took it to a service shop, they told me the piston was scratched, and not worth fixing. I always mixed the gas and oil according to the manual of 40 to 1, and this still happened. I am saving right now for a Stihl.
poulans are awesome and stihl is even more AWESOME…however, i can buy a poulan for 1/4 price of stihl, throw it away in three to five years and buy a new one…have had several and had good luck out of them (poulan)
I purchased a Poulin Chain Saw (20″ bar, 46cc) for $199. from Home Depot about 6 years ago. I understood that I was purchasing a low cost product. I have cut many trees over the six years and purchased a new bar and a few chains. Cleaned the air filter once or twice. To my amazement, the Poulin Saw continues to work well, always starts and has been very reliable. Maybe a I got lucky with this model and generation. I will buy another as for the price, I can assume a level of risk.
I can’t start my Poulan 18″ 2540 (several years old), and called local dealer who said he could tune it up for $100. That seemed crazy since a new one is about $150. I checked plug, and air filter, both perfect, and no issue with the cord. What is my next most likely issue (fuel line??). I figure it is worth trying to fix myself and not throw any money away. I was planning to add a little fuel to the cylinder just to see if she will fire. THen if is conks out it would likely be the fuel line or filter… Any experts advise?
Bingo
Put some mixed fuel in the cylinder, and she fired up nicely. Problem was after I shut it off in a few minutes, I could not restart without putting more fuel in cylinder. Could this be clogged line? Filter? other?
Should I just let it run for longer period, maybe cut some wood, and then come back to see if it cleans itself out?
Clean it – if it runs with gas in the cylinder – but not continuously you have a block in the fuel line somewhere. Good luck
I bought a Poulan chainsaw in 1981, and am sad to say it just died this week, not bad as it’s been in constant use over the past 30 years and I only paid $120 new
I just got two deals: Poulan 40cc 18 inc bar for $ 115.00 or Stihl MiniBoss 33cc 14 inc for $ 155.00!!
Any oppinion!!??
Sorry, the Stihl chain saw is 31.8cc and the model is MS 180 C-B with the original price $ 199.95. Is posible to get 25% off! Is this a good deal? If I don’t get an answer today, tomorrow I am going to buy it!!
Larry – A cheap chainsaw is no bargain if it dies. I bought one cheap tool in my life – won’t do it again.
I have owned a Poulan 2150 since 2000. I cut and burn wood all winter long. Dropped it out of high trees,still goes strong…I believe this is the wood shark model now. No issues with it, cranks and cuts hella wood. I wanted to get a bigger bar and since the 2150 is a “die hard”, I bought the “Wild Thing”. I had to take it back twice after cutting ONE tree (froze up, unable to pull the cord) and the last time Tractor Supply just gave me a Husky 142. The Husky and the Poulan 2150 are running strong. Been through about 5 bars and MANY chains.
A crap shoot I guess on what you buy. All I know is the 2150 is always there if I get in a pinch.
All of you have good points. Cheap is, just that, probably 75% of the time. Well, even expensive is quite often than not these days, cheap dressed in high price tag. I have a Poulan saw- a 2775 model with 46cc and 20′ bar. Don’t remember exact price paid for it 6 years ago, but was around $150 at Menards. It has had issues with the chain oiler leaking oil into the carrying case since new. I had to go 20 miles to find a “Certified Waranty Provider”. Not much luck there. After leaving it there for over a week, they called and said it was ready. I picked it up and went to cut a few piles of logs. The leak never stopped; the case always has oil in the bottom. I try to keep it and the saw clean, but it’s a battle. Anyway, my solution is that I only fill the bar oil tank if I will be running for at least 4-5 tanks of fuel, otherwise I only put in a little so there won’t be much in the tank to leak when it’s put away. Till this year, that has been the biggest problem. Not a serious one, just takes a little planning to use it. This year the original chain finally wouldn’t hold an edge anymore so it was replaced. The bar seems okay so it’s still original, just new chain. It’s been hard to start, and the original rope broke this past November. That stinks because now I have to replace the rope after about 10 uses because it breaks. That is because replacement rope just doesn’t hold up. Cable is next solution if I can get some the right size. Next, it just wouldn’t run right this year. I went to adjust the mixture screws and found there is no way to turn them (they have no slots or anything). I took them out one at a time so not to mix them up amd cot small slots in them to use small screwdriver for adjustment. I hadn’t noticed that the heat shield on the muffler had cracked and part fell off the corner. This caused the exhaust to melt the chain brake off. Not just heat damage, but actually melted completely off!@ Okay, remove the spring and mechanism and keep cutting. The bar adjuster still works so no loss. Never used the brake even once anyway. Well, the other day I was cotting the remainder of the third 30 foot tree when it just stopped running. Kept pulling the rope till it broke again. Once it was replaced, back to trying. Just seemed to have no compression and wouldn’t start. I tore it down and found the piston ring broken and stuck in the ring groove of the piston on the exhaust side. Likely my fault for not having enough oil in fuel. I usually mix about 32:1, but the last batch may have been more closely 40:1. Parts are not readily available locally, even though this is a very commonly sold brand. Apparently few people probably even try to repair these because they are cheap to buy. So, hello NET! Found the ring, chain brake assy, and the heat shield with shipping from a few places for around $30. Sure, I could go get another saw for another $150, but $30 for parts isn’t too bad. So, here’s my point; I have had this saw, and used it pretty hard, for 6 years now. It’s had problems to be sure. I don’t think $150 is in-expensive, but far less than $1000. I know Stihl is much stronger than this, but it’s got just as much plastic. A lot of their sales come at much higher prices just for the name, with little real differences mechanically. My piston does have some scoring on the exhaust side, but I’ve seen much worse so I’ll just keep using it as long as it will run. I think it is sometimes luck, sometimes persistance, and a lot of trial and error with this kind of equipment. You know. .001 inch in a 350″ chevy isn’t much tolerance. But in 46″ it is significant! That these little engines run at all, ever, seems to be miraculous to me. The machining of such extreme tolerances needed for these extremely mass produced machines is mind boggling. All manufacturers have issues! Most outsource parts like carburetors, pistons, chains and bars, and most other parts. Your Stihl likely has a carburetor made by the same company as Poulan, Echo, Husqvarna, and most others. This is a fact! look up the parts individually and you will see more often than not many manufacturers using the exact same parts. That is how they can make them all affordable for all of us. If they were all 100% hand made, custom engineered, they would be impossible to afford for all but the most wealthy; and THEY have no need for such things! Each machine can and likely does have flaws. Some minor and un-noticable, some major and unforgivable. they are after all, machines made and used by humans. I gripe at my saw when it has problems, but all in all it has been a worthwhile product for a reasonable price. lets be honest, if we were all perfect in what we do, doctors, attorneys, and even surgeons wouldn’t be “Practicing”, they would perfect their work!!! Just something to consider. Remember the Ford Pinto, the Chevy Corvair, and the Toyota Prius! Thanks.
The following fuel/oil mix has helped my cheap saws start and run better:3.2 oz. valvoline multipurpose oil,one oz. octane improver,one oz.stabil. in one gal. 87 octane.I preferr a gasoline with no ethanol if available. If the saw is new, allow it to idle for 20 min. for a good]breakin.Replace the ‘outsourced’ sparkplug with a name brand-even if the name brand is really an outsourced product. that’s all /
stihl…400.-…..will not break
I’m with you Doug. I bought one, and it never started. The 2nd one the rope broke the first time I used it. What a piece of junk.
Brought a poulan 33cc 14″ chainsaw about 2 years ago. Trimmed 20 year old crepe myrtles. Took it to visit my mother to trim 30 hedges. the chain became sluggish and stopped turning. Maybe I used 3 tanks of gas since I purchased the machine.
Great discussion here. I’m shopping for a chainsaw, which is how I came across this page. I’m a carpenter by trade, and I suspect that what’s at play here is the same situation as carpenter tools. The box stores have driven reputable manufacturers to allow their name to be pasted across cheap imported garbage that is not of their own design. For example, I used to trust Hitachi tools implicitly, but then I bought a portable table saw that sucks and have since seen the exact same saw branded with all sorts of names…some big names and some generic. Obviously Hitachi found a cheap saw factory and agreed to purchase a bunch of these crap saws with their name and color scheme so that Lowes would sell them.
The point of my long story….just because it says Poulan doesn’t mean it was engineered and/or manufactured by Poulan. Same goes for all brands….you gotta do homework these days to find out if it’s a “genuine” brand X or the “box store version”. Sad state of affairs.
Following up on my prior post, take a look at this link for an example of how diluted and unreliable branding has become, and how it’s up to consumers to research products before they buy now (can’t rely on brand name anymore). http://corporate.husqvarna.com/index.php?p=ir&s=acquisitions&afw_lang=en. Husqvarna has bought out Chinese manufacturers, as well as several others across the globe. This is typical of large corps these days, and so it’s really hard to know what you’re getting when you buy.
I guess the bottom line is to talk to techs that have serviced a particular machine and ask…is the engineering sound, are parts available, is build quality good? And then ask users about performance.
In the case of the Poulan saw in this thread, a service tech would have probably told you that it was a mostly unserviceable i.e. disposable machine. But that doesn’t mean it’s true of every Poulan product on the market, just that one because a box store wants to sell it for cheap.
Bill – thanks for that link and your thoughtful responses. Appreciate it.
I bought a used Poulan 1950 at a yard sale for twenty bucks! I put fresh gas in it and it started on the second pull. Cuts great and does a good job. It’s a great twenty dollar saw. You can probably get a used Stihl for $300.
After ‘running in’ my Poulan doing very light cutting I switched to a synthetic 2 stoke oil using aTmix of 80:1. Now the saw starts much easier with far more power. Using the lean 80:1 mix allows the engine more fuel.Cannot purchase the carb adjust tool locally-This made me think of a way to get more fuel through the carb without adjusting the H/L and the 80:1 gets it done.The syn. oil I use allows a saw to use a 100:1 mix,but I was skeptical of that lean mix,so I used 80:1 and it works better than I ever dreamed. runs like a $500 saw now and I won’t use anything but synthetic .always do an easy breakin procedure on these lower cost machines and you will extend it’s useful life.
I have had the same POULAN Wildthing for almost 5 yrs now. Use it every summer to cut wood for the cabin. I have never broke a rope and the thing runs like a top. Preventative maintenance (and a little common sense) goes a long way! Broken ropes are nothing more than OPERATOR ERROR.
Many thanks for all of those who have commented on the “quality” of Poulan. I too have had limited success with the 3314 series. Now, I am faced with the decision of either trying to repair the recoil starter spring that has seem to have come off the back side of the nylon cam, or junk the chainsaw and purchase another brand. The consensus here seems to be weighted towards Stihl, but Wayne and others bring up several valid points. I agree that the cost of producing a quality small motor is extremely difficult and labor intensive. Also, because of consumer demand (and our unwillingness to pay for quality), the big box stores, Home Depot, Lowes etc, have forced Poulan, Stihl and others to use the same outsourced labor and parts, therefore the same problems appear across all lines. The marketing of these items have no differentiation other than the price point, and by driving down the costs in order to compete and maintain the same profit margin, we see engineering compromises that effectively turn what was a tool that would, “last a lifetime” into a tool that is now a commodity, holding no brand loyalty because there is no quality difference. The discussions on this excellent forum are largely based on what has broken, not on the difference in the capability of one model over another. I suggest that quality comparisons between manufacturers cannot be made, because there isn’t any real difference between them.
Thanks for all who have weighed in on this. All I really want is a chainsaw that will last more than a couple of seasons. I’m willing to pay for quality, but I am not knowledgeable enough to make an educated decision. This forum has at least, opened my eyes to the problem.
Replacing the standard sparkplug with a CJ8 plug helped the ‘wildthing’ to be easier to start. Have also stopped the 80:1 fuel mix .Now using pennzoil air cooled at 40:1. Purchased a carb. adjust tool online.Now very satisfied with the ‘wildthing’.
I bought a poulan – pro last month .Hard to start , then it wouldn’t start.Took off top to look at filter . It looks like it was made out of tissue paper .Carb. was completely full of trash . Now the kill switch want work , have to pull choke to stop it . This all is with less than 5 hrs. running time . I sent a question to Poulan , their response , take to authorized dealer .I am trying to return this peice of chunk and find me a real saw .My recommendation , don’t buy a poulan of anything .
I bought both my husband and father in law a poulan chainsaw thinking I was getting a good deal. Both saws have about maybe 15 hours of running time and now they won’t work at all. Never again will I do that. Matter of fact, my husband says I am no longer allowed to get him tools because of this…lol
I HAVE TWO 14″ POULAN CHAIRSAWS. THE SAME THINK HAS HAPPENED TO BOTH. YOU CAN’T ADJUST THE CHAIR BECAUSE THE SCREW GOES INTO PLASTIC AND THE PLASTIC IS BROKEN. WHAT CAN YOU DO TO CORRECT THIS PROBLEM.