If a chain is truly dirty I can see cleaning. Maybe I need to set the bar lube flow rate because out chains come off clean especially the cutting teeth. Never saw and file loading up issues so far. We did get the holes drilled in the hard 1/4" steel plate table top for our 5" vice so when we get through or awaiting parts for our two ATV I will look at mounting the HF sharpener on a mount that can be clamped in the vise when its use is required.
I have not issue with the concept of washing a chain. For the 58 years (since age four) I have been around chain saws and in those 58 years I have never seen a saw chain get washed. I still have only seen it done on the web.
If oil messes up a grinder wheel I may just hit the cutting edges with carb cleaner.
Now I like to clean out around the oil jet that keeps the bar oiled.
Time will tell.
Years ago when I had a job with what some would consider normal hours I set up a little sharpening business, on the side, to do everything from handsaws ( which still got considerable use by builders in places where a power saw is just too big or heavy), circular saws, both steel and carbide tipped, and just about anything else that needed a sharp edge including chainsaw chains as well as my own equipment.
You would not believe the shape some of the chains were in and the folks saying that they kept them sharp with a file but they just didn't cut right. Sharp they were, but at oddball angles, tooth lengths, depth gauges, etc. Many had a burned on roll/hump of crap right behind the sharpened tooth edge on top. Picture cutting a piece of meat with a sharp knife that had a pencil taped to one side.
Chemical cleaning was the only way to dissolve that stuff and it made the chain look like new as well.
I was not shy about charging for good work and charged more than the going rate at other establishments that sold saws, chains, and all the goodies to go with them. I would ask some of the repeat customers why they brought their chains to me since I knew I was higher?
They all said, because the teeth were really sharp, cut straight, weren't reduced in length much, and they were "clean as new"
I even did some competition saws. That is why in one of my bloviations I mentioned staying with the OEM angles. You can make a chain cut super fast or even do rip cuts but the price to pay is very shortened chain life.
I did not come on here to argue about soaking or not soaking chains prior to sharpening, but just to answer the OP's question with some experience behind the answer, of how a chain saw grinder like he recently purchased performs when used properly.
I'm sure there are a lot of guys that have tried them in the past and didn't like them do to something they did or didn't do in the process. So they put them back in the box, go back to filing, or taking the chains to a store to have them done, and blame the machine for their own ineptitude.
Cleaning your bar, oiler, carburetor air cleaner and keeping the correct chain tension are just as important as a sharp chain.
Enough on the subject from me.
