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

My 25 Year old no name snowblower has finally reached a point where it's not worth repairing and I have decided to buy a new one.  Right now the pickings are a little scarce in my area but I can get either the Toro 826 LE or the Ariens 1027 LE.  Both are pretty much the same price but I really can't decide between the two.  They both seem to pretty much have the same features except the Ariens does have a 10HP over the Toro's 8HP.

Which one would you all prefer?  I was a little disappointed in the huge amounts of plastic on the Toro but still overall it did still seem to be just as sturdy as the Ariens. 

I have also been very disappointed in how difficult it is to find any brand snow thrower with a B&S engine.  Why did they all go to Tecumseh?  I don't really have anything against Tecumseh but I've always had great luck with B&S engines and that would be my preference.

**** I feel I should also mention that the Ariens is at Home Depot, they have 2 floor models left.  That kind of worries me because of all the people in the past few months that probably played with the controls while browsing for snowblowers in the store.  It just concerns me that it may cause something on the snowblower to break prematurely.

The issue that I have with box stores isn't that a part-time clerk may have bungled the assembly and set-up.  Yes that may happen but I took my Ariens front-tine rototiller to an Ariens dealer once to have it serviced.  As part of the service they sharpened the tines...and then put the tines on backwards.  My point is that you can get bad service anywhere but my sense is that most Ariens dealers are on top of their game compared to box store clerks.

My main concern with the box stores is their liberal return policy.  Anyone buying a snowthrower from HD has 30 days to play with, fiddle with, or do God know what to the machine...then return it where it's resold.  Years ago I bought a riding lawn mower off the floor from a box store.  I couldn't get it to start for the life of me.  After much frustration I learned that someone previously bought it, put year old stale gas in it gumming everything up, and returned it because it wouldn't start.  The store clerk simply drained the tank thinking that would fix it and put it back on the floor. 

My message is that when buying from a box store...make sure that you're not buying something that some idiot had 30 days to mess up and then returned.