Poulan Pro 400E 18-Inch 4 HP Electric Chain Saw
by Poulan
|
List Price: Category: Lawn & Patio See more product details |
|---|
(Click here)
Tools and Hardware Reviews of Poulan Pro 400E 18-Inch 4 HP Electric Chain Saw
Customer Review: An excellent choice for the typical homeowner!
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased the Poulan Pro 400E chain saw to trim some trees that were damaged by the recent ice storms that occurred in the Upper South and Midwest, and have used it for several hours. This particular model was number two among electrics in the latest Consumer Reports ratings (the top rated one costs over twice as much!).
This replaces my Craftsman gas (2-cycle) chain saw, and if I'd known what I know now at the time that I purchased the Craftsman, I would have realized that - for a typical homeowner with a 1/4- to 1/2-acre lot - a corded electric such as this one offers the best combination of power, convenience and value.
My thought is, if you are a homeowner and face a job that requires more power or speed than this chain saw offers, you probably need to play it safe and call in a professional tree service. That being said, I've been able to cut limbs up to approximately 12" in diameter, which is fairly thick.
Some differences between an electric and gas chain saws: First, electrics are not as fast. For the occasional user this is actually a plus, because it allows you to pay more attention to where things are going to fall, and it also allows you more precison with your cuts. Second, electrics are not nearly as fussy; if you need to pull it off the shelf after it's been sitting for a year or more, all you have to do is fill the chain oil tank and check the chain tension (which gas chain saws also require), plug it in, and you're ready to go! Third, electrics are incredibly quiet compared to gas chain saws, and vibrate much less, which makes using them a much more pleasant experience. Finally, there's no gas and oil to mix, no exhaust fumes, and no nasty burns from accidentally touching the engine or muffler (which is a mistake that is easier to make than you might think).
All in all, I am extremely satisfied with this product. One last thing: The reason I had to replace my old chain saw (after three or four uses over a five-year period) was that the engine seized, despite the fact that I VERY carefully measured the gas/fuel mixture...in fact, I used a digital gram scale to get the correct proportions. Apparently, this is a common problem with gas chain saws in the sub-$150 range, so please be aware of this if you are comparing the Poulan Pro 400E to a gas chain saw in this price range. Unfortunately, rebuilding or replacing a gas chain saw's engine costs more than the price of a new one.
Again, I'm very pleased with this product, and from the looks of its construction and its performance, I think I'll be happy for some years to come.
Customer Review: Disappointed
Summary: 2 Stars
OK, so I read all of the reviews, and learned that this is the same as the craftsman unit. Lots of positives. So I bought it, oil, and a spare chain. Hard to beat for $100.00 (total), and I was only gonna use it once in a while. Everything looked good. Previous reviewer mentioned unit unplugs easily. This is true. Tie the ends of the plugs together and bend the prongs abit, and it is OK. I quickly took down a small tree (about 10 inches in diameter) and everything was going fine. I attempted to take down a long run of vertical bamboo stalks. I say attempted. It cut for a few seconds, then spit the chain. Every time. Over and over. I checked tension and determined it was fine. I asked around, and I was informed that chain saws and bamboo just don't go together. Oh well, can't blame the saw for that. During subsequent use on trees and such, the oiler area would get clogged with sawdust and debris. I was constantly having to remove the adjuster / cover and clean things out. At one point it got so bad the oiler stopped working entirely (no oil consumption) and I quickly dulled the chain. I cleaned things up and installed the new chain and cleaned the oiler area. Back to cutting on a stump and the new chain lasted about 10 minutes. It was now dull and the rail was very warm. I dont know if it is critical for the saw to be on a specific side when cutting sideways. I dunno. I just kept having to clean out the oiler area which I believe was my major problem. I watch some of the logger shows on TV, and never see them taking their saws apart and repeatedly cleaning them. Design flaw? Anyways - now I am looking for a good deal on a dremel chain sharpener at my local hardware stores. I'll get the two chains ready for the next time I need it. Would I recommend this saw? For the price I paid? Yes. For the limited frequency user, its fine. Buy an extra chain. Would I turn people away from it? No. Just warn them to watch the oil consumption closely. When it stops, clean things out before proceeding. The cover comes off easy, and it only takes a couple of passes with a rag to remove the debris. The tool for adjusting the chain works good at getting down in the grooves of the cover to clear things out.
Im still glad I went with this one over a gas unit. I dont have any of the associated hassles and the unit will be ready at the drop of a hat. I may have had the same issues with the oiler clogging on one of them, maybe not. I dunno.
Hope this helps if your on the fence about this one.
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.
Customer Review: Bad Design - Poor Warranty Service
Summary: 1 Stars
I also read many of the positive reviews about this electric chainsaw before making my purchase. An electric chain saw for me would be used very infrequently but I still did the research. I received the 400E saw and tried it out without cutting (running no-load). It sounded good. That was the last good experience I had with that chainsaw.
My first advice is to stay away from this saw like the plague. As others have pointed out, it is very poorly designed. My first usage of this chainsaw was halted after cutting about 32 feet of 6 inch maple tree trunks to 16 inch length. The trees were downed by a recent wind storm. The saw just stopped dead.
Since I only paid about $90 for it, and being an engineer, I decided to look into the problem myself. I found that the motor brushes when under load of any kind, became hot and would hang up or stick, opening the motor circuit shutting the saw down. I freed the brushes up, tested the unit and put it away until the next time thinking this was just a fluke and that would be the end of it.
Well, needless to say, this happened 3 more times in one day about 7 months later. I was not abusive to the chainsaw. I let the saw cut at its own rate. I even used a #12 gauge extension cord. Every 30 to 35 feet of cutting 16" firewood this same problem would occur (brush hang up).
I had only used the saw on two events during about a year's time. I finally called Poulan warranty services and explained the entire situation to them. The spokesperson agreed that this was a factory defect and said that it would be covered under warranty. I took the name of the spokesperson, his number, and other information to an authorized Poulan repair center that he referred me to.
Finally, after the 400E had been in the repair shop for about 5 months, the repair center called me. They had called the Poulan number that was given to me to verify the warranty coverage. The result of the call was that the coverage promised to me was denied by the Poulan Warranty Center.
My biggest complaints are:
I am without an electric chainsaw.
The 400E was a worthless piece of junk to me.
My credibility with the local repair center was damaged directly through the guidance of the Poulan warranty spokesperson.
I will post again if anything changes.
Customer Review: Good enough for me, so far.
Summary: 3 Stars
This is my first chain saw so I really can't compare. However, this basically is the same chain saw as the Craftsman 34118, which I bought and returned for this one. The deal breaker for Craftsman is the tool-less chain tension adjustment. It sounds good on paper but instead of using tool, you have to fight with a flimsy plastic wheel with only two fingers to try to tighten it as much as possible, and you can never tighten it securely enough. It is tool-less but not pain-less, and the whole thing will gum up with oil and saw dust every time, making it even harder to adjust.
Instead, this 400E use two nuts and bolts to secure with tools. You can tighten it as much as you want, painlessly. Two nuts and bolts verses single plastic thumb wheel, and the nuts and bolts win every time. That is what holding the bar and chain so I won't trust it with my two fingers and a plastic wheel. It will gum up each use as well, but the tool in your hand doesn't really care.
Back to the saw, it cuts well enough but not as aggressively as I expected. That might be due to the facts that it has a low-kickback chain, slower chain speed for electric, and I was cutting small wet pine branches. It makes a cleaner cut on thick branch over one inch. Anything smaller, it tears it apart instead of cutting. Also, after about an hour of use, there were some black soot on the motor fan vents. However, I didn't see or smell any smoke coming out, but the exhaust air was very hot. I have seen some review saying about the black soot and motor died in a couple hours. I will work it for another hour and see what happen. Hopefully, it would die within 30 days if it has to so I still can return it to Amazon. Other than that uncertainty, it overall is a keeper, but don't expect it to be heavy-duty. If you want to use a saw day-in and day-out, commercial grade gas is the only way to go.
Personally, I think you should have an electric saw for light around-the-house job even you have a gas saw already. The convenience of just putting it down for a drink of water knowing you don't have to restart anything is well worth the trade-off of power, not to mention using it inside without killing yourself.