Thread: A good trimming saw for $100?? Ryobi 10532 Review

There were a few things that slowed this down that I only found out after the fact.

The repair shop had been sold, but the new owner couldn't make a go of it so the old owner took it back, that was about the time my saw was taken there.

It took a while for them to get the shop up and running again, it was in that time period the paper work on my saw was submitted by the shop to Ryobi. There was a mistake on the paper work that was submitted to Ryobi, but it had to do with the shop being reimbursed, not a problem with them approving the replacement saw. Ryobi thought the shop was going resubmit the corrected paperwork and the shop thought Ryobi was sending me the saw, so they were both waiting for the other party to do something.

When I talked with Ryobi this time they reviewed all the paperwork, found that everything was in place other than reimbursing the repair shop, so they said they would bypass the shop and send me the saw without further delay.

If that happens by next Tuesday (they said I should have the saw by then) then Ryobi will have lived up to their end of the deal.

It looks like if the shop had not been in such a state of confusion at the time the paperwork was submitted and it had been done correctly, it would have only been about two weeks until a new saw was in my hands. One week for the shop to tear the saw apart and file the paper work and one week for the saw to be shipped.

My local Stihl dealer went out of business during this time period, can't say I liked that shop much, I guess others felt the same way.

Another update

The first date for me to receive a saw came and went, I called and Ryobi said that I was never told they were sending me a saw ???? and that they still needed the form filled out by the service center. I went to the service center and they said it been faxed twice, so I called Ryobi from the shop. After 45 minutes on hold I was disconnected, it was 5:00 PM East coast time and they closed for the day, which disconnected the call.

I just got off the phone with them now. This time they said they received the fax a long time ago, but there are no saw's of the same model available and that they had been trying to get a hold of the repair center to inform them. They offered to send me a Homelite UT10580 (a real piece of junk) as an option.

The final solution (maybe I shouldn't say that yet, its only been 8 months) is they will send me the Homelite, which I don't want, but I also get to keep the Ryobi, so maybe I can fix it. This time they sent me a confirmation # of the order and shipping instructions.

I only agreed to this so I would at least have something in my hands and have this ordeal over with. I do get another 1 year warranty on the Homelite though…..great Isn’t it. I am now on a first name basis with most of the warranty people at Ryobi, I even know the shifts they work.

I will now have two more saws that I really don’t need, one of them I don’t even want and the other one doesn’t run.

Now I just need to see if it shows up. What could go wrong?

that sucks and is sucking worse by the minute.

Buyer beware. Stihl has the best warranty resolution, parts availablity, and dealer network bar none. I still say if you are not a mechanic buy a stihl.

Hey Zombie, thanks for putting the tooth and grind illustration on your sig. I've always been sort of confused about that. I tried to rep ya, but I gotta spread first. Information is always appreciated, and your a good source. JR

Originally Posted by jra1100

Hey Zombie, thanks for putting the tooth and grind illustration on your sig. I've always been sort of confused about that. I tried to rep ya, but I gotta spread first. Information is always appreciated, and your a good source. JR

It's the little tidbits of info that makes life easier!

Originally Posted by ondarvr

They offered to send me a Homelite UT10580 (a real piece of junk) as an option.

Interesting. The web site shows the MSRP as $127, which is about what I expected, but Home Depot sells it for $159.

The parts list at homelite.com doesn't show any major parts, just recoil, muffler, bar, chain, and some plastic covers and stickers. I suppose they realize it's not worth replacing a piston on a $127 saw. Does this imply that it ranks below a Wild Thing in the grand hierarchy of saws?

Do Homelite, Ryobi, and Redmax have the same ownership? If so, tell them to send you a GZ400.

My plan is to fix the Ryobi myself, I raced motorcycles for many years, doing all the work on mine and then my two son's bikes, rebuilding, boring, porting, jetting, frame and suspension mods, so doing a saw isn't a problem. It will sit on the bench next to my dads old 031 that needs a new ignition system until I find the time and ambition to fix it.

The only reason I took the saw to a service center was because it was under warranty and I didn't want to do anything that would void it. Had it been off of Craig’s list or something I would have just pulled it apart right away.

The online reviews on the Homelite average about 1 star on a 1 to five scale, with 1 being the lowest.

All I wanted was a lighter low cost saw so I didn't wear myself out with my bigger saws and the Ryobi seemed like a good choice. I'm getting too old, at one time I used an 80cc Husky for everything, now I use a 2150 Poulan whenever it will do the job.

Another update.

Called Ryobi again today to see where the saw was, started to get the same run around of needing papers filled out from the service center. I stopped the person in mid sentence and said it has all been done and the replacement saw was to have been shipped 2 weeks ago. Now she said there was no record of that call, that is until I gave her the date I called and order # for the new saw. She then said yes the saw was being shipped, but to the service center, not to me. I told her no, it is being sent directly to me and she said, that is not the way they do it. I had her pull up the shipping address and it is being sent directly to me, but it took them over a week to get it out the door.

I have the tracking # from FED EX now, so it should be here on the 11th.

I will end up with a supposedly running Homelite saw I don’t want, and a non running Ryobi saw.

The Homelite arrived today, it was supposed to be here yesterday, but when I looked at the tracking info yesterday it said it was on the truck and out for delivery. The only problem is it was out for delivery in the wrong part of the state, about 100 miles from where I live.

The box was soaked with bar oil, so I've got a leaker, the saw was very clean so far, but I didn't take the air filter cover off.

This saw is so cheap and flimsy I'm not sure you cut with it for half a day before it would wear out or die, I do like the translucent fuel tank though, its easy to see the fuel level.

There is only one bar mount bolt and the nut is mounted in a very cheap plastic handle, the entire side cover, bar clamp and tensioner are one unit made from plastic so cheap and flimsy that I would expect toy chain saws are built better. This is probably why one of the main complaints on this saw is not being able to keep the chain on. Actually from the other comments in the online reviews a big problem is not being able to restart it after it warms up. So maybe this is how they extend its life span, you can only run it until one tank is used up or you shut it off, and then it won't restart until the next day.

It did do one thing though, it started and appeared to run OK, something the Ryobi never did. I was able to make 2 cuts in a 6" log successfully, I stopped after that, didn't want to push it too far.

I'll go to the service center and pick up the Ryobi this weekend and see what it will take to get it running.

As to the Wild Thing comment, this thing makes a Wild Thing look like a 372.

After reading through this thread I decided to buy one of these little Ryobis. Did they stop making them? CPO Ryobi lists them for $129, but don't have any in stock. Home Depot doesn't list them anymore. None listed on Ebay, Craigslist has one used one 500 miles from here for $120, used. Anybody know of a current source?

Thanks!

Well, I dropped by Sears, just to see what the Redmax/Ryobi/Craftsman Pro saw actually looked like in person and how it felt to heft. I certainly was NOT going to spend $369 plus tax for one! Well, turns out they had an "open box" one on the shelf. Marked down to $277. Still too much for a hundred dollar saw (if you can find one, that is!). The sales guy says that it's missing the case....I show him on my Droid phone that Sears has it on sale anyway for $249. He knocks another 30% off that price for no case and some more because he can't lay his hands on the wrench. So.....at $166 it's more than I wanted to spend, a lot more that you lucky folks paid for yours, but at least I could cut with it today.

Took it back to the shop and tore it apart before I put gas and oil in it. I figured there was not much sense in running it stock if I could do the muff mod and the intake mod right off the bat. Sigh. No such luck! The carb screws defeated my best efforts to get at them! There is NO way a hemostat could grab what look like caps over the screws. I couldn't even get my surgical tweezers on 'em! The carb was "Made in China" (although the sticker on the saw says "Made in Japan". ZAMA. The "plugs" are made of alloy and are retained by small brass balls that fit into a small recess cast into the plug. There is a hole in the center and it appears that the adjustment screw itself is hidden back behind all of this. Is this what a DD driver fits? I've never seen one, so help me out here.

So, after checking things out a bit, I put the saw back together and go to put my Oregon bar and chain off my old Echo (dead) on it as it's 14" and I have a bunch of new chain already made up for it. The adjuster for the Sears saw is some EZAdjust rack 'n pinion affair that seems pretty cheezy, but I figure there must be a "normal" adjustment setup. There is....sorta. The case is machined for a typical screw type adjuster that carries a threaded drive pin for the hole in the bar, but the screw mechanism itself is missing. Does anybody know what fits and where to get it? The one off the Echo was much too small. I looked on Bailey's but got lost and they're closed now. Manana, maybe.

So I mount up the stock 18" bar and chain and wander out to the wood pile. Since I can't do the muff mod I just run the thing "stock". I put in 40:1 gas, but that's new for me as my Stihls and Huskies run 50:1. It fires right up, is pretty quiet and runs just fine, thank you very much. A bit down on power, maybe, but if I can figure out the carb adjustment then I can do the muff mod for more HP.

Overall, after running a tank of gas through it I'm pretty happy. I don't see anything else out there on the market for under $200 that I would rather have. It's light, it has a rear handle, it has pretty good power, carries a 3 year warranty, and seems well built. Lots of plastic, but it's GOOD plastic.... They seemed to put metal in the right places and plastic in the rest of the saw for light weight.

One final question: do you experts think I can run the same mix in both the Sears (40:1) and the rest of the saws (normally 50:1)? I was a bit surprised at the 40:1 since the saw is supposedly pretty clean burning. Green? Eco-friendly? PC? Screw that! Gimme the power!!!

In this picture you can just barely see the adjustment screws, they look like they're in the end of a double barreled shotgun...

Here's a couple of snap shots of the new saw.

Anyone have to repair one of these? I've used it a ton this summer, and overall it's been great. The problem is that I have been using it a lot to cut off tiny saplings and branches and small trees and stumps flush, so I drive it right into the tangle of brush a lot, so the chain snags a couple times each day and flies off (yes I watch tension closely because of how it is used). With all that, it looks like the last time out, it nicked the fuel tank just enough to cause a small leak on the final chain fling.

I tried some epoxy, but it either does not hold up to gas or it didn't stick well enough as it still leaks there. It looks like I can get the tank as a spare part, but it will be a full tear down to replace it (it is half the saw, practically). Not sure if it is worth the $30+ shipping or not, but I certainly have gotten my money out of this saw, so i may just bite the bullet. Just beoytching before I go buy it and get it done, I guess. Anyone have any thoughts otherwise?

-Dave

nice little saw...i might need to find one