Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

Hello People,

I was in Lowes the other day and I was looking at their snow blowers.I looked at the Troy built , when I was checking it out I noticed that the augers seemed to be three separate pieces and they were kind of loose and sloopy.When I checked out the Husqvarna the augers were nice and tight and also liked the controls.

Went to Home depot and checked out the Ariens and the augers were nice and tight.The only thing that bothered me was the control for the chute,the chute turned to the right no problem ,but when I tried to turn it back to the left it seemed to get jammed and would not move.I guess it could have been from other people checking it out from time to time. But then I could possibly take that as an indication of what could happen if I would buy one and end up using it alot.I don't know.Maybe it wasn't put together right by one of the employees.They had the 926le for $999.99 with the remote deflector.

The Husqvarna two stage blowers have the remote deflector standard on all the models. You might find it strange,but I seem to care for the remote deflector than the manual because of the certain situations I would run into by snow blowing around the house and some of the elderly neighbors I would be helping out. Also I seem to recall that the Machines are powder coated not just spray painted.A local dealer has the 924sbe,tecumseh snow king L-head engine,and the fd-gear transmission( i don't know what that means) for $939.95.

The snow blower that I buy is going to be my first one ever and like most people, I don't want to buy a inferior machine.

I post this question here because i see were some people have had alot more experience in snow blowers of all kinds.

The Ariens are made in Wisconsin and Husqvarna in Sweden. Both seem to be well built . But again I have not had the experience in operating any of these Machines.

Local Arien dealer says he will not have any Ariens in until a few weeks.

Any suggestions will be welcomed from any people who have had the opportunity to operate any of these machines.

Have been driving myself crazy the past few weeks trying to come to a conclusion.

                                                                                                                                                            thanks, Jim

                                                                                                                                                       

                                                                                          

    all the blowers are built the same now,  cheap sheet metal.  all have same drive systems, impellar systems.  i have seem mtd's  in the shop and have been able to get parts for 25 yr old units. 

mech12 wrote:
I have to disagree that while there are a lot of similarities there are some differences. Whether those differences are significant is where most of the discussion comes from.

Things to look for:

1. Is the chute plastic or metal? I prefer metal.
2. Is the connection between the chute and the remote control metal?
3. The Ariens remote control has a locking mechanism that might have been engaged when you were testing it;
4. Take a look at the auger gear box, some are aluminum, some are cast iron
5. All machines have traction control either:
1.     Locking and unlocking one or both wheels, trigger control is nice; or
2.     Having a true differential, even nicer.
   
6. Is the engine OHV or an L-Head? (I like OHV)
7. Does the traction unit use wheels or tracks ( most people have troubles with tracks)
8. Don't get too hung up on clearing width. the difference bwtween 26" and 28" is neglible for most driveways.
9. I hardly ever use electric start but it has been handy a few times, I suspect a block heater would be better.
10. I think the bearings used in the higher end machines are better quality although probably not significant uless you clear a lot of driveways.
11. You can get a machine that is too big. Maneuverability  is also important. as is storability
    

Personally I've been lusting after an Ariens 926DLE.

Regarding the Ariens:

I have checked out many Ariens machines assembled by HD.  It is really pot luck. Some stores have there act together and the hired help
can assemble the chute controls with no problems ..... other HDs.... forget it.

There is nothing wrong with Ariens.....It is the hired help in many cases that can make or break  the reputation of a great company. They have a 3 year warranty if it is ever needed.

I bought a 926LE for my Dad at a local Mom and Pop shop that has been in business for 30 years at the same price as HD. Maybe there is a local Arien's dealer that has one assembled correctly that you can check out.

I also bought a 1128DLE from the same dealer because of SERVICE.

 Simplicity also makes a nice metal machine along with Honda. 

  

Hello people,

I think I am going with the ariens 926le.The 926dle is a little to pricey for me.

I went to Home Depot over the weekend, and they dropped the price of the LE to $899.99 and the employye said if I apply for a Home Depot credit card they will take another 10% off. Which will bring it to $800.00. When I asked if they had any in the box, the guy said " We have a lot of the 926le in the back".

I'm wondering if I wait a few more weeks maybe they will drop the price a little more? What do you think? Is $800.00 a good price?

Or maybe I should wait for the local dealer to get them in and see if he would match it?

Thanks for the feed back from earlier post and any with this one.

And I was wrong about Husqvarna having the remote deflector standard on all two stage blowers.

                                                                                                                                                                               Thanks, JIM

Patches,

I have a Husky 927 model that I bought from a Husky dealer in March 2005 with a 20% discount off of MSRP.

You can not go wrong with either a Husky (buy from a Husky dealer)  or the Ariens 926.

$800.00 is a great price this time of year, so if you need a blower this winter, buy it now.

I think the only time the price will be lower in your area is if you have no snow this winter and the blowers go on deep, deep discounts around Feb.

                                                                Fred  

Patches,

What did you buy???

                                     Fred

I just purchased a Husqvarna 1130SBE-XP from Lowes last week. Tonight I'm going to return it and get my money back.

Despite the Husqvarna website, the 1130 SBE-XP I got new from Lowes this week (1/1/07) does NOT have handwarmers. It also doesn't have the 6" tires, doesn't have the high speed impeller, doesn't have the ball bearing auger support and doesn't have the grease zerks. In fact, even thought the label says 1130SBE-XP, it's really the 1130SBE-OV with a Halogen light added. But this isn't Lowe's fault. I contacted Husqvarna, they told me the features listed on the Husqvarna website are for a new version of that - only those models made after Jan 7th. 2007 will have those features. So there's no way of really knowing the features of any Husqvarna Snow Blower from Lowes.

This is annoying because the street price on the -OV is $1199 (what you pay at Lowes for the supposed XP), while the street price for the -XP is $1399 or maybe $1299. So what looks like a good deal is really a bad deal, expecially since you can get the identical machine at Sears on sale for $1049. These two, plus Poulan plus maybe others are all made by the same mfr, not Husqvarna. I think this is AYP. It is definitely NOT made in Sweden.

My opinion is that this is deceptive advertising, since nowhere on the web site does it say that there are updates - especially including EVERY feature that separates this model from its lower cost cousin.

But the real reason that I am returning it is that after no more than 30 minutes of use in only 6" of light snow the auger stopped turning. I thought maybe I caught a rock and sheared the bolts. But no, they were fine. It turns out that the engine pulley for the auger is made of two sheets of steel stamped to shape and attached to each other. But the steel was weak and the engine ripped a disk out of the center of the pulley so that it was no longer attached to the engine shaft. On a 2 day old blower! The manufacturer probably saved $1 by getting a cheap pulley, but I ended up with the consequences.

While it worked, it was pretty nice. The chute moves nicely if you properly lubricate things (though nowhere near as nice as the Toro I looked at today). Engine runs very nice, easy to assemble. You'll need to add a few cable ties, on my blower the chute control cables rubbed against the tire. Fast speed is really fast, you practically have to run to keep up. No snowpile I pointed it at caused the engine to slow down, though to be fair there were no really big ones.

I think I'll get the Ariens 9526DLE or 11528DLE - they probably really do have all the features that the Husky claims to have and I'm told that the quality is much better. Plus both of these are all steel. The Husky has some plastic parts (not the chute, but the piece below the chute.) I looked at the Toro, but it just has too much plastic for me. The Toro web site claims that the cast iron gears (like the Ariens DLE models) means that the shear bolts won't break as easily - sounds good to me.

I can't recommend that anyone buy any of the Husqvarna snowblowers - you just can't be sure you'll get what you think unless you check before you buy. And how will you know if you got the high speed impeller or other features you think you should get.

Despite the bad blower, I have good things to say about Lowes - they trucked a snowblower across the country for me and didn't complain at all about taking it back. One week later, the manager from Lowes called me back - he had contacted Husqvarna and they'd agreed to refund the $200 difference between the list price of what it should have been and what it really was.  I'll stick with the Ariens, but it's great to know that real customer service is alive and well. If you get your machine from Lowes you can be sure they will stand behind it...

HD usually has a 25% off `sale on blowers around the 20th or so of every jan. 

nibbler wrote:
   You are  correct.    Although  there are only a few different mamufacturers, these   machines are sold under many names.   Some are only painted a different color. But there is Ariens And Husqvarna who build machines that are different from the machines built by MTD and the machines built by Briggs and  Stratton. My personal choice  are the  Husqvarna models like the hydrostatic  16530EXL  ,  and the Husqvarna built  hydrostatic Craftsman models  52993 and the 52070 . These models also have only Briggs engines.

royster wrote:
Below is a link to the current Craftsman line-up for the US market.  Which one is the hydrostatic model?  Offerings change with a single season...just imagine how much they change over a five year period.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/dap_10153_12605_DAP_Compare+All+Models?intcmp=snowexp