Have a Flymo wood shark. Up till yesterday worked faultlessly but yesterday there was spark like effect in the motor and had a weak cut. I have a petrol chainsaw but love the electric one at home. Less noise and much cheaper to run. Instead of binning it any idea of the cause and how to repair? Would doubt if it is worth taking to anyone to repair. Its 3+ years old. As Aldi and Lidl always do 3 years guarantees I will have to wait till they are selling them again. Any help appreciated

Without knowing any more, I’d guess the brushes in the motor?

Slightly OT but can I just walk into a shop and hire a petrol chainsaw with no experience?

As the Monk said it is probably the brushes. Take it apart (isolating power first of course!). Locate the motor and brush housing, remove the brushes and see how long they are. Chances are they will be worn almost to the clasp.

Somewhere like espares may have replacements. They don’t need to be branded just the correct size. Cheap and easy maintenance job.

I had a brush go in a DeWalt Hammer drill (bit of grit flew in and knackered it). Local DeWalt service centre replaced the whole drill for a brand new one as they no longer held spare brushes for that model. Fantastic service, given it was a few years old and I didn’t have a receipt or any warranty etc.

Not sure you’ll be so lucky with Flymo as it’s a consumer brand and they just expect you to buy a new one.

Slightly OT but can I just walk into a shop and hire a petrol chainsaw with no experience?

No idea, but you can order them online and they don’t send a fella round to give you an exam.

Thanks will look into repairing my self. As it is a Flymo spares should be easy but will look at unbranded spares first.

zippykona – Member
Slightly OT but can I just walk into a shop and hire a petrol chainsaw with no experience?

Probably best to by a new one should be able to get one for £70 or less. You Always sell it on if you only need for the one job.

Stihl have a Trek-esque policy of no mail order sales.
You can buy a Husky easy enough.
You don’t need any formal quals to use a chainsaw, but most hire places will want you to demonstrate that you know what your doing. Being able to fuel, oil and start it safely without instruction is the test I’ve seen
But if you haven’t used one before, get someone to show you what’s what rather than going it at it blind.
They are serious bits of kit that can bite you pretty quickly if you don’t know what you’re doing.

to put it another way, there’s a reason you can buy chainsaw trousers

Normally I take a saw and clear the trails with that.
There’s so many down at the moment and some are quite big it will take me forever.

Slightly OT but can I just walk into a shop and hire a petrol chainsaw with no experience?

Our local hire shop lets you although I had read that evidence of training was needed.

If it’s not the brushes, you may have got some dirt in the slots and damaged the commutator. That causes sparking and weak performance. Don’t ask me how I know this. 😳

“Normally I take a saw and clear the trails with that.
There’s so many down at the moment and some are quite big it will take me forever. “

really bad idea.

chainsaws on public land without liability insurance is not clever.

Will skip the chainsaw.
How much dynamite for a 4ft thick oak tee?

Saw someone on Mountain Men a few weeks ago using explosive wedges to split wood.