We’ll see how it works in a year from now….

So, here goes my review. First this chainsaw had a great price and with the Amazon Prime, we received it in just a couple of days. We had a Craftsmen gas powered style, which my husband just found annoying to use. The starting of it was temperamental, the weight was cumbersome and the running to buy gas and the special additive was just a pain.

Second, we had already purchased a smaller 16 inch electric Remington chainsaw and he wanted another one with a longer chain and more power.

Third, he found this one easy to use right-out of the box. The much lighter weight allows him to cut more wood, because you are not fighting fatigue. A much easier start-up, just the push of a button and its running and also a useful sight-glass for the chain oil.

Fourth, the electric is much quieter than the gas ones.

And just for your information, my husband likes to split wood, with a maul ax. He only uses the chainsaw on really difficult pieces and I do mean difficult. His biggest challenges in our neck of the woods is Eucalyptus. It is very hard wood and very heavy and both of our electric chainsaws have worked great.

He has replaced the chain on the Remington once, but has not had to change the one on the Poulan yet and he has been using it, mostly on the weekends for over 6 months now.

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.