Chainsaw storage procedures

[sactown]

Very interested to hear how you all go about prepping a saw for long term storage such that you are confident it will start up fine the next time. The more details the better. Thanks in advance for sharing your insights.

 

[Woodslasher]

How long-term are you wondering? 3 months? A year? 5 years? If it's anything under a year or so I just set them on the shelf exactly as they are when I shut them off on the work site, and they pretty much always fire up fine whenever I grab them next.

 

[alfack]

I just fill it up with some motomix run it for a minute and call it good.

 

[Firewood Hoarder]

I empty both the fuel tank and oil reservoir on the saw and run it until it quits. Then I know the fuel line and carb are empty.

I then clean the air filter, and blow the saw down with compressed air to clean it. I do not sharpen chains before I put them away, if I know the saw is going on the shelf.

I do this with any saw I anticipate sitting on the shelf for a few months or longer.

Anything else, likely to get run in the next month, just gets cleaned and sharpened.

 

[sactown]

How long-term are you wondering? 3 months? A year? 5 years? If it's anything under a year or so I just set them on the shelf exactly as they are when I shut them off on the work site, and they pretty much always fire up fine whenever I grab them next.

Good question, I’m talking over a year. I bought a larger saw I doubt I will use very often and want to treat it well so it’s good to go when it’s needed.

 

[sactown]

I just fill it up with some motomix run it for a minute and call it good.

So that clears out the ethanol which is good but couldn’t that still gum things up after a year+ sitting there? I don’t know much about motomix, maybe they’ve somehow accounted for that which would be very cool.

 

[sactown]

I empty both the fuel tank and oil reservoir on the saw and run it until it quits. Then I know the fuel line and carb are empty.

I then clean the air filter, and blow the saw down with compressed air to clean it. I do not sharpen chains before I put them away, if I know the saw is going on the shelf.

I do this with any saw I anticipate sitting on the shelf for a few months or longer.

Anything else, likely to get run in the next month, just gets cleaned and sharpened.

That sounds very thorough, my kind of thinking. Is there a specific reason for not sharpening the chain as you described?

 

[Firewood Hoarder]

That sounds very thorough, my kind of thinking. Is there a specific reason for not sharpening the chain as you described?

If I am moving saws around on a shelf, I figure the potential for damage to other things or myself is lower with a dull chain. I don't have scabbards for all of them, and ran my elbow over a sharp chain on a saw in "storage" exactly once.

The "favorite" saws have scabbards and get put away sharp.

 

[hacskaroly]

? I don’t know much about motomix

Motomix has about a 7 year shelf life unopened, after opening it has several years. Saw a test with a weed eater that was 5 years old with the same tank of motomix (demo weed eater) and it started up fine. This was just to show the fuel is still good and does not gum up the system after a while.

Hopefully if you are mixing your own fuel you are using non-ethanol fuel.

 

[nbbt]

So that clears out the ethanol which is good but couldn’t that still gum things up after a year+ sitting there? I don’t know much about motomix, maybe they’ve somehow accounted for that which would be very cool.

Personally I NEVER run fuel with ethanol in any of my OPE.
Seems to deteriorate any part with rubber compounds much quicker. Plus the shelf life is MUCH shorter than non-e fuel.

 

[Sloughfoot]

So that clears out the ethanol which is good but couldn’t that still gum things up after a year+ sitting there? I don’t know much about motomix, maybe they’ve somehow accounted for that which would be very cool.

Have to go out of your way to get ethanol where you and I live, which is nice. I've never had an issue with "old" Exxon gas mixed with HP2.

 

[redneckhillbilly]

it seems there is many ways to skin this cat, I used to run everything out of fuel before winter storage, its alot of work to do that to all the rototillers, mowers, saws, whackers, chippers. ect the last few years I have been filling them up to the brim with fresh e-free fuel, the 2 strokes get filled with canned fuel and it works fine for me with storage up to a year, but honestly if i needed to store something for a longer period of time I would run them completley empty until it dies, than pull the choke and try to get every last bit of it burnt out and than store it in my temp controlled basement.

 

[Coupe]

Unleaded fuel which we are stuck with in New Zealand is a pain as it
does go off pretty quickly and can be a pain as our fuel is crappy right
from the bowser. It is a good question if you are going to store them for any time
as the way I look at it running the carby dry eliminates the chance of fuel build
up in the carb but that leaves the diaphams dry and can cause them to start going hard.
Thee amount of old chainsaws I have had given to me with hard diaphams is unbelievable.
I syill like going around my collection and give them a run every two months or so.