Poulan Pro Blower won't start

12 years ago

Hello everyone, I have a question and would greatly appreciate some feedback (and vent a little while i'm at it!). I was hired by a woman recently to do her yard work three times while she recovers from eye surgery. I tried to start her poulan pro blower but had no luck getting it to run. It turned out I had overlooked in the instructions that the trigger must be held down while pulling the cord. After waiting awhile and doing so it still would not start.
She took it to a local repair shop before my second visit, and they claim that because I did not hold the trigger while attempting to start I "ruined the carburetor". I don't believe this but she is convinced since they are the "professionals". To be fair, she had the spark plug changed, fuel filter changed, air filter cleaned, new gas put in. She is in the process of trying to get it replaced under warranty.
My luck that it breaks! It is my opinion that these guys at this shop don't actually know what is wrong with it, and told her that what is wrong would cost as much as a new blower (which I agree with, if they do the work!). Is it really possible that it was my fault? I didn't treat it any different than my own equipment, none of which require the trigger be held while starting.

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Comments (5)

loger_gw
12 years ago
1. How many years of use?
2. When did she use it last or was it used last?
3. I usually start my equipment in an accelerated position out of habit vs instructions.
4. How has the owner started it in the past?
5. What was the shopÃ¢ÂÂs explanation on how your procedure damaged the carb?
strelnikov
12 years ago
A couple years ago I bought a Poulan Pro blower at a big box store. It worked maybe a half dozen times then refused to start or run. I took it apart and discovered that the cylinder head was supposed to be held on by only two bolts, not four (bad idea). Except that the threads for one of the bolts wasn't drilled or tapped so the head was only held on by only one bolt and that one bolt eventually vibrated loose, causing a huge air gap between the crankcase and the cylinder head (which is why it wouldn't start). I called Poulan customer service and told them that this thing was defective out of the factory. They said sorry the warranty is expired and we can't and won't help you. So I went out and bought a Stihl and have never looked back. I will never buy anything made by Poulan again.

I suspect the problem with that blower has nothing to do with the carburetor.
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weed_cutter
12 years ago
You didn't damage the blower, you were just the one to discover the already existing condition.
strelnikov
12 years ago
Exactly. The blower failed because of the combination of a poor design and a manufacturing defect. Since I didn't use it very much (mainly a couple days in the fall to pick up leaves) by the time it failed the warranty was expired. Any company with ethics would have sent me a replacement blower that was known to be free from defects. But they were probably upset that I told them exactly what the problem was and didn't take it to a dealer who would have snowballed me into thinking that I'd not followed "proper procedure" and somehow damaged the carburetor.

Yeah the Stihl cost me quite a bit more than the Poulan but I was so mad I didn't care. It has performed flawlessly and never let me down. My yard always seems to end up with most of the leaves from the huge old oak trees and maple trees on several neighbors' properties. It's just not practical to rake up all those leaves by hand. Plus the blower grinds up the leaves a bit so I use 1/3 the leaf bags I would have used if I'd raked them by hand.
Richard Tarpley
6 years ago
Well this is 08/09/2020 and I have the same problem!!! Just done a google search and ran across this! I have used this kind of equipment every since I was old enough to hold one including my dads old Homelite chainsaw. But this thing OMG I am done with this. I got it in May used maybe 4 or 5 times and will not start no matter what I do. I should have know something was up when I took it out of the box and I didn't crank like it should. I thought maybe because it was just new!!!! Wrong! Hope everyone is doing well during this Covid 19 stuff. Good luck to all.