Poulan Pro 400E 18-Inch 4.0 HP Electric Chain Saw
by Poulan
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List Price: Buy Used: from $84.99 (click here) Category: Tools See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Poulan Pro 400E 18-Inch 4.0 HP Electric Chain Saw
Customer Review: very impressed
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm sure the most common concern for long time gas powered saw users such as myself is "will it have enough power?". The answer is yes, unless you are a logger, this thing has plenty. I've been cutting some fairly dense russian olive wood and this saw melts right though. My only issue was that I have always used motor oil as a bar lube (used motor oil actually, and never had a problem) but when I tried it with this saw it simply refused to pump the oil. After switching to the Poulan bar oil, it works like a charm. I recommend using hearing protection, its not overly loud, but I don't want to end up as one of those guys who always says "whats that?". I love this saw.Customer Review: Go Ahead and Lose the Gas Can
Summary: 5 Stars
This particular Poulan electric is an excellent tool. It can quickly dispatch and process real trees. It's surprisingly light and well-balanced. For heavy work...whether pulling from an AC outlet or a generator...be sure to use a short, heavy (10 or 12-gauge) power cord because its motor is capable of drawing some serious current if the blade starts bogging down for some reason. For light duty work like pruning, a general-purpose outdoor extension cord (14-gauge) will probably suffice.Customer Review: Piece of Junk
Summary: 1 Stars
What a piece of junk. It made two cuts and then quick. Dead in the "water". Won't run. Won't do anything. Owner's manual suggests this could be a problem with the power switch (it does feel like the switch is broken) - so apparently this is a common problem.
Had to get out my "toy" 16 inch Homelite chain saw to get some work done, and the Homelite works just fine, except the cutting bar is too short.
Poulan? Junk!
Hey Amazon, how do I get my money back?
Customer Review: Poulan Pro 400E 18-Inch 4.0 HP Electric Chain Saw
Summary: 5 Stars
Excellent powerful chain saw. Only minor complaint is owner's manual does not recommend using the saw with an extension cord over 50 feet. I have very successfully used it in heavy duty operation with 300 feet of heavy duty outdoor extension cord. Highly recommended.Customer Review: Adequate for small occaisonal jobs
Summary: 4 Stars
Poulan is one of my least favorite brands, after buying a Poulan lawn tractor that is hard to maintain and with service centers distant and impractical. However, I figured how could Poulan screw up a simple electric saw, so I took a chance.
That said, I found it to be a simple and lightweight tool that has worked well for cutting up an old corral fence and for trimming branches.
I'm no longer cutting down trees for firewood and my old Homelite gas saw was worn out and clogged up, so I wanted to try an electric chain saw just for trimming.
There is no parts / schematic manual. If something goes wrong, the cost of repair and shipping probably exceeds the value, so buy this with the idea of using it until it quits and then throwing it away, unfortunately.
As someone else warned, if you take it apart be careful. Mine stopped working so I opened it up.
It's fairly simple; the pump that puts oil on the chain is a cute tiny plastic piston that gets pushed as it touches a plastic disc that turns with the chain sprocket and thus bumps the piston apparently squirting a tiny bit of oil with each revolution of the sprocket. Simple steady oiling.
When the back lash safety bar gets tripped, the bar not only turns off the power; it releases a powerful spring that securely tightens a metal band around the chain sprocket, quickly stopping the chain. I now realize that mine had been tripped, though I don't remember any real backlash. I tried playing with the spring to re-set it, but the spring is surprisingly powerful and would be near impossible to replace if I removed it. So I mostly reassembled the saw and pushed the back stop bar all the way forward and the spring popped back into standby position and released the drive sprocket. It had not looked like that would work but it did. There is just enough allowable motion for the spring lever to snap back and forth. I put the rest of the saw back together and it worked fine.
When using it with two 50' extension cords, one of them burned out. It was an older cord so no loss. Unless you have a really heavy extension cord, 100' seems about the maxim usable distance from an outlet.
For light use it seems fine. For me the big benefit is that it has no carburetor to clog up while stored.