Craftsman Professional Tools

[jessechaveriat]

I have a craftsman professional edger, and was considering buying a backpack blower. After reading about 2 dozen horrible reviews on the blower, i am going with a husqvarna. Has anyone else owned or used any Craftsman Professional power tools? How did they perform?

[picframer]

Lawn care business tips

I look at any Craftsman product as homeowner grade not commercial except for their hand tools like wrenches. For me I buy what I can get serviced locally, Deere here sells Stihl, I have 7 of their saws, four backpacks, three trimmers, four brush saws, three pruning saws and four edgers. One of the guys dropped a crank in a BR600 blower late in the season, it was replaced and ready to go within 24 hours, in the meantime we were given a loaner BR550. In short it's rare I have any issues with their equipment. I also concern myself, perhaps a little to much about customer perception and image, it has made an amazing impact on new business when we show up with the gear we have and we get a lot of business from people walking or driving by, we picked up two wood chipping jobs yesterday at a site I am working at (we have three crews going at the moment), the constant feedback is "You have one professional set up, I haven't seen anything like it", I have invested a tremendous amount of capital but I am in this to make serious money and image sells.

__________________
Andy
Halifax, Nova Scotia

[lukus223]

Originally Posted by jessechaveriat

I have a craftsman professional edger, and was considering buying a backpack blower. After reading about 2 dozen horrible reviews on the blower, i am going with a husqvarna.

Has anyone else owned or used any Craftsman Professional power tools?
How did they perform?

I have been running the Craftsman Professional for the last 18 months. It has been great!! I have used it for edging and for clearing. I have run the thing wide open for hours clearing fence lines and never a problem..... yet. It has been great for my first trimmer, but It is ready to be retired to my "home" trimmer. I plan on going with a 23cc Tanaka for lawns and a larger Husqvarna for everything else.

I heard that they are manufactured by Husqvarna, just look at them and a $200 husky side by side. The color of plastic and the sticker appear to be the only difference.

My Husq 350BT blower was the best money I have spent.

[Steve]

I was thinking about that too. Sears must have someone else manufacture their products.

How does their warranty compare to Husqvarna?

I am guessing that the High level sears product is most likely equivalent to a mid level Husqvarna.

Lucus and Steve,

Here is the deal. In this competitive world that we call the power equipment industry, Craftsman manufactures about ZERO of their power equipment. They bid it out to who ever can manufacture it for the cheapest, meeting Craftsman's specs, not the actual manufacturers specs. Typically their mowers are made by American Yard Products and their trimmers by the LPB (lowest possible bidder, with the emphasis on "lowest"). Their trimmers and blowers are about the same quality (from what I have seen) as the rest of the box store products. They are not really designed for heavy duty daily use. And no, they are no where close to Husqvarna's specs. They may look similar but I promise the guts are different.

I personally would avoid them, but then again, that may just be me.

[lukus223]

Originally Posted by SuperiorPower

Lucus and Steve,

Here is the deal. In this competitive world that we call the power equipment industry, Craftsman manufactures about ZERO of their power equipment. They bid it out to who ever can manufacture it for the cheapest, meeting Craftsman's specs, not the actual manufacturers specs. Typically their mowers are made by American Yard Products and their trimmers by the LPB (lowest possible bidder, with the emphasis on "lowest"). Their trimmers and blowers are about the same quality (from what I have seen) as the rest of the box store products. They are not really designed for heavy duty daily use. And no, they are no where close to Husqvarna's specs. They may look similar but I promise the guts are different.

I personally would avoid them, but then again, that may just be me.

I would agree with you as well. All craftsman power equipment is crap. Maybe I just happened to get get luck on last years trimmer model. I tried buying the "non-professional" 4 stroke trimmer that offered different attachments. I needed a hedger with a reach for one job. It was a joke, total crap. I took it back that day and got my money back and later bought a Tanaka Pro Seris hedger (very happy with that).

However, the craftsman "professional" trimmer that came out in 2009 has been great! Don't know if I just got lucky or what. Then again, if it didn't start tomorrow, I wouldn't be surprized.

I bought all husqvarna from a local dealer last summer. The blower sucks and the trimmer locked up after 3 weeks and yest it was mixed right. The honda lawnmower was good, I will give it that. I bought a Stihl trimmer and blower, And that blower out preformed husqvarna 10x. The stihl has been used wide open all summer and no complaints. This year Stihl went to 2 year waaranty on commercial instead of 90 days. Huaqvarana to me its not that great either. Your money buy what you want. But, id really think twice.

Originally Posted by MikeO

I bought all husqvarna from a local dealer last summer. The blower sucks and the trimmer locked up after 3 weeks and yest it was mixed right. The honda lawnmower was good, I will give it that. I bought a Stihl trimmer and blower, And that blower out preformed husqvarna 10x. The stihl has been used wide open all summer and no complaints. This year Stihl went to 2 year waaranty on commercial instead of 90 days. Huaqvarana to me its not that great either. Your money buy what you want. But, id really think twice.

That is an interesting. I am curious what made the machines lock up if the fuel was mixed correctly? There are only a hand full of reasons that make a 2-cycle machine lock up. One of them, and obviously the most common, is improperly mixed fuel. Most of the others tend to have to do with the mechanical part of the machine. If the machine was not found to have a warranty defect then that narrows it down an awful lot.

Like said, I am interested in hearing your opinion as to the reason it locked up.

Before it locked up I used it and I would say for 15 hours. When it did lock up, it was wide open, and maybe for 10 minutes. Whats even more interesting my blower, husqvarna same oil same gas, is fine. the oil was mixed properly, I compared it to my friends mixture. His mixture was slightly darker then mine, hard to tell but, it was. That blower never locked up on my mixture of gas and oil, I used it all summer long out of spite. I bought all Stihl not a glitch mixed the same way. Took the trimmer to the local distributor of husqvarna, sat on the shelf and I had to call the guy 5 times to see whats up. He just said i didnt mix it right, I brought in all my stuff and said prove me wrong. They never warrantied it, or offered to look at it. Just said mixed wrong. Besides Stihl just went 2 years on commercial warranties instead of 90 days. What do you think im buying from now on. Stihl just got Echo as well.
Stihl is a damn good product, that blower is smaller then husqvarna and blows 3x better.