Retail: $109.99
Purchased on sale: $98.00
If you’ve been following me on Twitter @guycraftblog, you’ll know that I’ve been going through some chainsaw woes. I purchased my Poulan P3314 14″ chainsaw a few weeks ago. I was very excited because I have never owned a chainsaw. The weather turned South, so my new saw sat unopened, in the garage for a week. When a nice day came around I opened the box, mixed my fuel and realized I had no chain oil. Who knew you needed chain oil? After one more trip to Lowes I was finally ready to hack apart that pile of logs that have been calling my name for a month.
I followed the starting instructions. Push the primer 6 times. Pull the choke out all the way. Pull the starter cord 5 times. Push the choke in half way. Pull the cord until it starts, and the saw started with that wonderful sound of Springtime. I cut through my first two logs and shut her down to get my next logs in place. That was the last time the damn thing would start.
I tried for 45 minutes to get it started again. Half of the time the pull cord would seize halfway into a pull and be ripped out of my hand, which becomes rather painful after a while. I got it started once or twice only to have it crap out in a matter of seconds. The manual was no help. I’ve never known a trouble shooting guide in a manual to be of any use, but I still look at them. I even went so far as to call customer service. They gave me the address of a local repair shop. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that a tool should have to be taken to a repair shop after one use, (unless I do something really stupid with it.)
I had read reviews of this particular saw before I purchased it. They were split right down the middle. Half of the people loved the saw, and gave it 5 stars, because it started every time and it was so cheap and ran great. The other half hated the saw, and gave it 1 star, because it was hard to start, and had to be taken apart all the time. I just thought that I’d get one of the good ones. Stupid.
In the short amount of time that the saw was working it cut just fine. It was light, but it did vibrate quite a lot which caused my hands to go numb after a few minutes of use. The on/off switch felt cheap and flimsy and it was difficult to get the choke to stay where you put it.
Lowes was kind enough to accept the chainsaw back. I am now the owner of a slightly larger, far more expensive, and much better reviewed 18″ Husqvarna. That review will follow once I get some use out of it.
Maybe someday I will lear the lesson that you get what you pay for, but not likely.
Pros: It’s cheap
Cons: It’s a piece of crap don’t buy it
Poulan P3314 you have earned a 1/2 out of 5 chainsaw rating. Sad.
Guy Craft 