Y'all who own a chainsaw, or even a couple.....

[nitesite]

... But aren't a tree service or commercial saw man.

If you own several saws, yet they sometimes sit for a few months until storm damage or tree trimming or felling a tree becomes necessary to run 'em.....

Q: how often do you fire them up periodically?

(Admission: I run six saws. But not on a weekly basis.)

I also have six gasoline generators (half are still NIB) and the running ones are run about every 6-8 weeks under load.

Q: DO YOU RUN YOUR SAWS PERIODICALLY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO USE THEM RIGHT NOW? Just for exercise?

 

[buyobuyo]

I have a number of Stihl 2-stroke yard machines. The chainsaw gets run when it's needed, and I don't bother running it otherwise. I mix my own 2-stroke gas with ethanol free gas, Stihl oil, and fuel stabilizer.

Same goes for my 4-stroke machines. Ethanol free gas and fuel stabilizer. Never any issues with them sitting.

 

[Bobster]

I usually drain the fuel from my power equipment (inc. saws) when done because it gets used infrequently. I just pour it back into the gas can. Then if the pre-mix hasn't been used in a while, say 3 months, I'll pour it into the riding mower and mix fresh when I need the equipment again. I have to keep 40:1 and 50:1 on hand. I use Sta-Bil in all my my equipment fuel.

Even then, if a year goes by without using equipment, I'll often find deteriorated fuel hoses but not always. Sometimes I am surprised when something fires up and runs well after extended storage.

 

[cmcdonald]

I keep my Stihl saw in a colder climate so yeah, I'll usually start it up once or twice during the winter months. That is when I'm most likely to need it anyway. We had tons of heavy, wet snow on the trees recently and a few came down on neighbouring properties but we were fortunate this year...so far.

 

[CaddmannQ]

I used to have a McCulloch and I fired it up about every three months. Nowadays I hire guys to do my pruning, And I just have an electric chainsaw for small jobs.

I think the things should be operated every 90 days maximum, under the conditions of dry storage.

My biggest bugaboo was I thought they should make the fuel filters easy to change. They can be tiny and cheap and you could put a new one in every time.

If there was any dried up gas on that fuel filter, it was ruined.