# another poulan-craftsman blower issue



## euro930 (Apr 20, 2006)

i've just found this site...after reading all the posts about the common issues and problems associated with this blower [the $99 model sold at home depot and sears...walmart...etc etc] i have just experienced first hand the issue in dealing with home depot on a repair of my unit which i purchased late summer of '05....same problem as i have read many others had...worked fine...i have been very careful about fuel-oil mix....unit working fine one day...won't start-run the next...called home depot...was told to bring in unit for check...they sent the unit out...charged me $35 to check with understanding that if a warranty issue was involved, $35 would be refunded....as an aside, when i purchased the unit, i did purchase the offered extended warranty which never has come into play....i paid the above $35 and waited......two weeks later, i got a call from home depot.....repair facility had returned the unit...no warranty issue...when asked about what was wrong...was told "bad gas"
that did not set well with me as i have an accute understanding of what bad lubricants and gas do to engines...there is no way that bad gas had been involved in this problem....i noticed an earlier post when i reviewed all the posts about the blowers in question...same diagnosis...bad gas....is this the "escape clause" on getting out of a short life on this blower? home depot seems to be standing firm...although when at the store to pick up the unit, i wanted something written on the repair order indicating the problem discoverd and when i pushed for this, they chose to refund my $35.
when i first discovered this problem with my unit, i called poulan direct and spoke to a customer service employee who basically listened and told me there was nothing they could do....i asked for a supervisor to call...was given a name...left a voice mail and never heard anything....poulan is owned by electrolux out of belgium....seems like these guys are pretty good at hiding from the consumer.....i'd love to see a thousand posts-repies on what my next step should be...it's as much the principal here as it is the money...i must have had about 25 hrs of total run time [i have not read the owner's manual but have been told there is a 50 hr engine performace limit...that info should be in big type on outside of box.......anyway, it looks to me like the manufacturer knows the problem associated with the design...makes a lot of noise about the 2 year limited warranty [on the outside of box] and continues to sell and in general mislead the public with the cheap price.
commcents? suggestions? i have a bad taste in my mouth about the way this was handled by home depot....told them and they gave me a toll free 800# to call customer service in atlanta...which i have not called.
regards


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## hankster (Jan 1, 1998)

Really, from personal experence, you will not get any further with this no matter who you call. My next advice is to buy the next unit from Sears (and not just because I work for Sears). This would have been repaired by the Sears repair center. If you would have the Sears RA (Repair Agreement) you can be assured that it would have been fixed. Unless there is EXTREME abuse, all repairs would be cover with a RA. About the only time we will kick a blower for a trashed piston/cylinder is if it has been returned multiple times for the same repair indicating improper customer use, has obvious abuse or we find bad fuel in the tank/carb. YMMV - I can only speak for the repair center I work at, each repair center could have slightly different parimeters. 

Why is this? I think the main reason is that Home Depot and Lowes uses the manufacturers warrenty to cover their products. They have to justify warrenty coverages with Poulan and if the HD repair center says it is improper fuel mix, Poulan will stand behind that. Sears on the other hand is self warrentied.... in other words they buy the items from the manufacturer with no warrenty and do their own coverage... they have to answer to no one when doing warrenty work so generally are easier to work with. 

BUT, they have tightened things up some over the past year but over all is still better then the other guys.

I won't go into the details of what we have found with these model blowers other then to say, at last look, we have about 1400 pistons and 700 cylinders in stock for repair of these blowers (and other Poulan engined equipment). But then we also repair about 300 Poulan "style" 2-cycle handheld product a week 

As a note: These blowers can last for, what I would estimate, about 5 years under "normal" conditions but that is about it.

If you look on the model sticker on the blower (normally located on the outlet) you will see it says a 50hr limit, but this really just for the emissions testing and should not be an indicator of engine life. Just as automobiles have 100,000 mile emissions warrenties, all L&G engines have a limit on how long it should run and still comply with the emissions standards.

Sorry I don't have better news for you.


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