Outdoor Power Equipment and Small Engines - Craftsman 16" electric chainsaw repair

I just bought a Craftsman 16" electric chainsaw. Added chain/bar oil, checked tension, and made 5 cuts on a 10" tree lying in my yard. Then the clutch started slipping and it won't cut. Even without load, the chain doesn't move half the time, and any load at all stops the chain. Re-checked tension, no change.

I imagine I can open it up and tighten a screw to firm up the clutch, but I hate to void the warranty if there is more to the problem than just tightening a screw. OTOH, I don't really want to leave the tree in my front yard for 6 weeks while I send this thing in for repair.

Does anyone have experience with these saws? Advice?

Patrick

I took the saw back to Sears, they gave me another.

20 minutes of sawing later, the engine was smoking. Clever boy that I am, I could see right away that an electric motor shouldn't be burning oil, so I called Sears. They agreed, and I brought that one back. I pointed out that it was very difficult to pull the chain around the bar, even when the bar tension was zero, and that the saw was like that out of the box. They agreed that was a bad sign.

So, we pulled out a third saw, this one from an earlier shipment. The packaging was slightly different (paper band holding chain brake to handle, rather than wire tie, different internal cardboard pieces). The chain on this saw moved freely around the bar. Brought it home, cut the offending tree into firewood, no problem.

Folks at Sears were very nice all along.

Glad your problem was resolved. Good service is getting scarce these days. Sears usually pulls through though.