How many hours should a 50-hour rated chainsaw be expected to run?

The same thing, like gasoline. How much is a $5.00 a gallon gasoline? Five dollars.

@john65pennington I don’t think it works that way with rated hours. In the case of what people call ”$5.00 a gallon gasoline” the gasoline is something less and only once the tax is added is the final cost $5.00.

I have used and owned a several chain saws. I don’t care what the rating says. The saw will last forever if you maintain it. Flip the bar every 20 hours. Clean the filter. Don’t run it with the brake on. Buy a replacement chain now so you can swap them out when one starts to get dull. Have the chains sharpened professionally. I have 6 chains for my 18” Poulan. I buy the best chains I can get: Oregon . Not the ” 2 for $12” specials . I will spend $20+ per chain and they will last a long time. For a few bucks I have them sharpened. Keep the oiler filled. I don’t use bar oil – why spend the money? I use dirty 30W oil drained from my tractor. My small Poulan is 30+ years old and it still runs great.
The hour ratings are a joke anyway. How will you keep track? Will you add a meter on the side? Sendec has one. I put one on my woodsplitter.

Luckyguy says it all. Like any other equipment, proper use and maintaining it makes it last longer.

@LuckyGuy – I never would have considered using recycled oil! Have you been doing it long with no ill results?

I have been doing it “forever”. It is messier than bar oil since it is thinner. But it flows really well. Sometimes I will give the chainsaw a quick rev to throw a line of oil where I want to cut. It acts like a marking pencil.
Whenever I flip the bar and replace the chain, before I start the saw, I dip the front 3–4 inches of the bar into a coffee can of used oil to pre-lube everything. I pull the chain around by hand to make sure everything is coated. Then I start it up.
When I am finished, I slip the bar and chain into a plastic bag so it does not drip all over the place.
I keep the used oil in gallon jugs and give it plenty of time to settle before using it. I never use the sludge at the bottom. That gets recycled eventually or is used for starter in my fire pit. A guy I know keeps magnets in his oil jugs to grab metal particles. I don’t bother.

I figure this method is 100% recycling and much better than sending oil back to the refinery where it will be cleaned, reconstituted, and repackaged and shipped back to the store where I have to go buy it and bring it home.

Thanks Lucky, I will start doing that too. I always hate throwing oil away especially these days when they advocate changing so quickly and the oil hardly even seems dirty!

I have a lot of used 5W30 I never thought to try it. I know you are using 30W… would 5W30 also work?