Okay. so we are shoveling by hand. And our daughter is worried about us, and was trying to talk us into getting a snow blower. I looked into it a few years ago, and when I saw how heavy those things are, and learned that they need regular maintenance, and thought about what a PITA it would be to get one to the shop every year, I decided to keep the shovels.
But… I bet they make electric snow blowers these days. And they probably don’t need a lot of routine maintenance. No oil. no gas, no air filters… So maybe I should consider it again.
Anyone used an electric snow blower? Does it work? Do you like it? Any advice?
I should probably mention that my driveway is not very large, but it’s below grade, so I need something that can throw the snow up and away, and pretty far. Also, it is sloped and faces south, so in small and even moderate snowstorms, it’s a solar-powered-self-defrosting driveway. I only need help when it’s a pretty big storm.
I’ve watched some YouTube videos on IIRC the EGO two stage. Generally favorable but needed extra batteries to take care of whole driveway.
Do you need/want two stage? How much area do you need to clear?
I’m a shoveler but will be getting a sidewalk this year so a blower is becoming more attractive…
Two stage has the curly things in front to direct the snow to the middle, and then a propeller behind to throw the snow. One stage gave a horizontal scoopy thing that grabs and throws the snow.
Two stage is more capable but also more expensive.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single stage snow blower in action. Also, I think when it would work, I don’t need a snow blower at all. That’s when I can just scrape some lines in the snow (activating the solar-powered function. ) and wait for the sun to melt the rest.
If it’s going to be helpful at all, I need to to remove the berm left by the municipal snow plow and remove big masses of snow.
I’ve been using my leaf blower this year, only had one wet snow where I to use shovel. Its been so cold this year the snow is light and fluffy.
My single driveway of 60 feet and sidewalk of 120 feet have not been an issue.
I used to have an actual single stage battery blower from Costco last year and it had trouble with wet snow, so I returned it. Started using the shovel this year but looked at the leaf blower and tried it.
That’s what I have, although it’s gasoline powered. Works well, unless the snow is really wet and deep. Then the ‘chute’ that guides the snow up and out can get clogged.
Here’s a 1-stage EGO snowblower, followed by a 2-stage.
I had an electric corded snowblower than someone gave me many years ago, but it was a small single-stage thing and I frankly didn’t find it very useful, particularly since it wasn’t self-propelled.
I have no experience with modern electric battery snowblowers, but here’s a few things I can say. As you know, batteries lose capacity in cold weather. As you also can probably imagine, snowblowers use a lot of power to move all that snow. Unless someone has good evidence to the contrary, and even being the environmentalist that I am, I’d seriously consider a good gas-powered one, and definitely without question one that was self-propelled and two-stage.
Why self-propelled? Because as you point out, they’re heavy, and pushing a heavy piece of equipment against snow is not something you want to do. Why two-stage? Because you need the performance for significant snowfalls where a dinky single-stage might be completely useless. In a two-stage, the auguer at the front captures the snow, grinds up anything that might by icy, and feeds it into the interior second stage where a spinning impleller drives out the snow and throws it a fair distance. You also want to have well-designed controls to manage the direction and the angle of the snow chute.
Sorry, that’s all I got. Can’t give advice on battery-electric snowblowers, but definitely get a good, powerful self-propelled unit. Don’t cheap out or you might end up with something that isn’t really very useful.
Also consider whether you have adequate storage space for it. That’s was one of my issues, besides the fact that I consider myself old enough to have the privilege of not going outside at all in the snow, which is why I have a snowplow contract instead. But even one year of a typical plowing contract – and certainly two – would pay for a very good snowblower.
You almost certainly want a 2-stage then, especially if you’ve got to throw the snow a long way.
I have no advice about electric, but I will point out that if you don’t want to do the end-of-season maintenance yourself, a lot of shops will pick up your snowblower to do the annual service.
OK, given this explanation, I do have a two-stage, gasoline-powered, self-propelled snowblower. It’s heavy, and does clog up in heavy, wet snow, but it gets the job done. Far, far better than shoveling.
I’ve had mine for about 8 years. My only service thus far has been to run the gas tank dry at the end of the season, and I’ve changed the oil twice. I’ve had no issues starting it each year.
I’m in Colorado, where we could generally clear our driveways with a leaf blower (dry, fluffy snow). I’ve literally watched neighbors clear their driveways and sidewalks by using an (unmodified) lawn mower.
Aren’t you in the Northeast? That matters. When every shovelful weights 20+ pounds, how best to clear snow is a very different equation.
Once a year, I drag out my corded, single-stage snowthrower, and – to a much greater degree than is ever the case with my corded electric lawn mower, I curse the cord. The cord gets buried in the snow and you can’t see it to wrangle/avoid/manage it.
Yes, the northeast. This storm is light and fluffy, but we sometimes get heavy sticky snow. And as mentioned above, my driveway is below grade and the snow has to be thrown up fairly far. All that advice about not lifting snow? Yeah, useless for me. If I don’t lift it, there’s no place for it to go.
I’m in southeast Michigan with a driveway about the size you described yours (+ a lot of sidewalk). I love my Toro electric snowblower. When I bought it (4/ 5 years ago) it was the number one rated model Consumer reports reviewed. I’ve never used more than about 50% of the battery.
My only complaint is that the thingamajig that the directs the thrown snow is very cumbersome. I have to believe there are electric snowblowers that have a better one of those.
I had a corded electric snowblower about 10 years ago that lasted a couple years before it gave up the ghost. It wasn’t great but it (mostly) got the job done. When it died I bought a one-stage gas one that i’ve been reasonably satisfied with.
The battery powered ones have gotten much better now. I bought an EGO electric lawnmower after I fired my lawn service last year and it’s been great. If their snowblowers are of similar quality i’ll likely switch to one next year.
My town has a sidewalk plow. I don’t have to clear the sidewalk. I do sometimes need to clean up the secondary berm created by the sidewalk plow. (Which isn’t really a plow, it’s really a giant riding snowblower, the width of the sidewalk, with a little cab for the driver to ride in.)
A neighbor of mine has a handheld electric snowblower. It looks like a wimpy vacuum cleaner like a Dust Devil. It does a surprisingly decent job, but it really struggles against more than 4” or so. He spent a full battery cycle doing a 15’x15’ patch in the 10” we got, and it didn’t do a good job against even that small area.
Yeah, you’re supposed to change the oil every year, but there’s really no more maintenance than that, at least until the belts start to need adjustment, which takes several years IME.
I don’t have to clear the sidewalk. I do sometimes need to clean up the secondary berm created by the sidewalk plow. (Which isn’t really a plow, it’s really a giant riding snowblower, the width of the sidewalk, with a little cab for the driver to ride in.)