Leaf Blowers

On November 22, 2013 I purchased a 350 BT blower, along with the 3 cans of pre-mixed fuel to extend the warranty to 4 years. It ran fine for 6 months then a problem developed similar to others here.

It would run for about 15-20 minutes then begin to bog down as though it was running out of fuel, even with a full tank. When this would start it would also develope a rattle similar to a spark knock. I put up with this for a while then located a local Husqvarna repair center, or at least that's what I thought.

I took it to them during the summer of 2015, where it sat on their shop floor for 6 weeks. I called several times inquiring about the status and was told the carburetor was the problem. They said they were checking with Husqvarna but the carburetor was not covered under the warranty. WHAT? Why not? Why did I spend more money to get the extended warranty then? I personally called Husqvarna in Charlotte and was told the same thing. After 6 weeks the service center had not even looked at it so how the hell did they even know what the problem was? I picked it up untouched.

After some online research it appears that those having the same problems are finding it's due to the Walbro carburetor. There's even been some information concerning the same carburetor on chain saws and that there had been a recall of the Walbro carburetors on them. Those were replaced with Zama carburetors, and no further problems occurred.

I live in a townhouse and I doubt this blower has 30 hours on it in the 3 years I've owned it. I use ethanol free premium gas in it, and occasionally use 100LL aviation fuel. Even this hasn't cured the problem.
Today I finally had a chance to work on it myself.

The exhaust screen was clear. The spark plug was fine. The fuel line had no cracks but was slightly soft so it was replaced. I disassembled the Walbro carburetor and cleaned it, ensuring all passages were open. It appeared to be fine before and after the cleaning, including the neoprene tip on the needle. After re-assembling everything I test ran it for 20 minutes at full throttle hoping for the best. It was better but still wanted to bog down slightly a few times as though it was running out of gas, but the tank was full. I ran it for a few minutes without the gas cap on and it still did the same thing.

This blower is junk! For what I paid for it, and the fuel to get the extended warranty, HONOR THE WARRANTY! Replace the Walbro carburetor with a Zama carburetor. Send the replacement to me and I'll return the defective Walbro to you. I refuse to go back to the local service center when I can do a better job than they did.