Craftsman 18" Chain Saw Reviews

Okay...to be quite honest, this is not a review of the Craftsman 18" inch chainsaw...yet. I've just purchased one and this review is to pay homage to my Craftsmen 20" inch chainsaw, which finally gave up after 15 years of hard labor. If the 18" inch holds up half as well, it will be one great tool.

I purchased the 20" Craftsman chainsaw fifteen years ago with the primary goal of cutting up logs. I would have truck loads of logs delivered to my home and I would then cut them into rounds, split, then stack them, for use in my woodburning fireplace, the sole source of heat for my home at the time....

Craftsman 18 inch chain saw - the saw worked well- for about 10 minutes!

Then it would not stay running if you increased the engine speed (how can you cut anything when it's idling?).

It finally quit and would not start at all.

Returned it and ordered a Husqvarna.  I know they are reliable.

I've bought Sears/Craftsman/Kenmore for years.  Ok, so may be I'm working the machine too hard, since I'm cutting down 150 foot tree's and Ok, the book says to not run the engine at high throttle for longer than 30 seconds.  But come on, this year I burnt out 6 of these 40 cc engines andlast year about the same.  One things I do love Sears' warranty.  I get a new one every time.

I will recommend though, that if you're cutting something big and want your saw to last, get the Stihl or Husquavarna (Husky is now sold at Sears).  If I burn out one more, I'm upgrading to the Huskiy.

Bought this chainsaw after Hurricane Ike felled the old Oak tree in our backyard.  It had been some time since I logged a tree - in fact it was 30yrs ago when I was in the Boy Scouts doing my Back-Woods-badge that I last logged a complete tree!

Anyway, this 18"Craftsman chainsaw was a dream to use and made a dificult job relatively easy.  The safety brake bar for the chain was great allowing the saw to left running on the ground while moving logs out of cutting area BUT importantly not allowing the chain to run.  The easy start feature proved very easy to use and the slot on teh bar for simple...

After we experienced the ice storm here in upstate NY in December, our back yard looked like a tornado had hit it....trees and limbs down everywhere! With the help of our Craftsman 18" Chain Saw, our backyard should look as good as new by the spring. I only hope our neighbors go out and buy their own, we're getting a little tired of being the "good Samaritans" and the tree service guys who are trying to make a living aren't too pleased with us either. Well, we couldn't find a generator during the storm, but having the craftsman 18" chain saw for clean-up afterwards has made it a little less painful....