So I bought a CS400 to replace a fleet of Sears /Poulan saws. The bars and chains work for the Echo supposedly. I use this saw for clearing fencerows, cutting dirty wood and other extreme duty tasks, with fairly disposable picco chain. The new Echo bar and chain are still on the shelf, and I'm using old Poulan/sears bars and chain. These bars and chains literally say they work for Echo right on the packages.
It was cutting okay with an old very worn Oregon 14" bar then i lent it to a friend. I had just tightened and sharpened it and it was running well. He said it threw the chain within 5 minutes. He tried putting it back on without tightening the bar nuts and it shredded the bevel gears on the tensioner. I think I started the whole mess myself after the chain coming off awhile ago, he finished the job. Very poor design that requires the bar nuts to be tight to work.
Okay so I replaced the tensioner parts that were bad. Come to find out it ended up shredding the chain (which made him have to mess with the tensioner) and putting the bar out of it's misery. So I put a 16" bar and chain on it. Sharpened and tightened it. I was clearing boxelder brush to get to oak. Cutting performance was poor in the oak and boxelder with a pretty sharp chain. Saw pinched very slightly and then pow, chain flies off the bar and ruins that chain too from the sprocket turning against the back of the drive teeth. Down 2 chains. Afraid to kill more.
I've inspected the sprocket and it looks fine, as a near new saw should- chains all were quite tight and pretty new when it tossed it. Its almost like the saw has too much power or can't keep the chains tight an just lets them fly off except they ARE tight..
In addition its having starting and running issues, low power and generally I'm just dissappointed by it. I always wanted to love this saw, but all its done is make me run the Poulans even harder because you know... They actually run, don't toss chains, and even my crummiest superclean seems to have more power than this thing.
It was cutting okay with an old very worn Oregon 14" bar then i lent it to a friend. I had just tightened and sharpened it and it was running well. He said it threw the chain within 5 minutes. He tried putting it back on without tightening the bar nuts and it shredded the bevel gears on the tensioner. I think I started the whole mess myself after the chain coming off awhile ago, he finished the job. Very poor design that requires the bar nuts to be tight to work.
Okay so I replaced the tensioner parts that were bad. Come to find out it ended up shredding the chain (which made him have to mess with the tensioner) and putting the bar out of it's misery. So I put a 16" bar and chain on it. Sharpened and tightened it. I was clearing boxelder brush to get to oak. Cutting performance was poor in the oak and boxelder with a pretty sharp chain. Saw pinched very slightly and then pow, chain flies off the bar and ruins that chain too from the sprocket turning against the back of the drive teeth. Down 2 chains. Afraid to kill more.
I've inspected the sprocket and it looks fine, as a near new saw should- chains all were quite tight and pretty new when it tossed it. Its almost like the saw has too much power or can't keep the chains tight an just lets them fly off except they ARE tight..
In addition its having starting and running issues, low power and generally I'm just dissappointed by it. I always wanted to love this saw, but all its done is make me run the Poulans even harder because you know... They actually run, don't toss chains, and even my crummiest superclean seems to have more power than this thing.