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

Hello everyone and greetings from your friendly neighbor from the north.  This is my first post on this site and I am looking for help in selecting a snow blower.  To give you some background I live in Kingston, Ontario, Canada beside Lake Ontario.  We receive a wide variety of snow types (wet and dry), and amounts (zero-20 inches).  I am looking to clear two driveways, both flat, each 25-30 feet wide by 30-40 long.  On is asphalt in good condition and the other is a gravel (finely crushed and well packed over the years) also in good condition.  As the snow season is allready underway and this neck of the woods is snow blower deprived I am somewhat limited to my choices.  The limited selection I have does seem quite good.  The two options are: Ariens 927LE, 9hp, 27 inch, Tecumseh snow king L head, aluminum gear box, costing $1434 to my door and Simplicity L1428E 9.5hp, 28 inch, Briggs & Stratton Intex, cast iron gear box costing  $1637 to my door.  The Ariens is from a box store of similar color and the Simplicity is from a dealer who will set it up, start it up and deliver.  I not a experienced mechanic so I feel that this professional set up help would be beneficial.  I originally decided to buy Ariens but through some research and comments on this site am begining to have some doubts in the quality of todays product from Ariens and and worried about the closure of Tecumseh.  I a m not as familiar with Simplicity and have heard concerns regarding their remote chute control freezing.  I do like the fact that Simplicity has a cast iron gear box and feel that the service I receive will be better given the fact that the box store associate informed me that the Ariens repair person does not treat box store purchsees very well and puts them at the bottom of the list.  Is this decision just a personal preference like Chevy or Ford or is there a distinct advantage from one model to the next.  I think that either snow blower will treat me well and like the savings of $200 with the Ariens but would gladly spend the money to get a better, longer lasting machine.  Please help with any comments you have.  Thank you in advance for your comments        

Its just not the same.  To me the its like the difference between freshly squeezed OJ and flat orange soda.  I like the look of the metal channels on the Simplicity, but I've never used one so I can't make a comment about balance or speed.  If you look at the Ariens the handlebars are small 3/4" tubing.  Mine flexes quite a bit when I move it around.  I'm sure its fine on smaller blowers but the whole thing is just out of porportion. 

Point being, for the same money you can get a smaller Honda that would do the same work as a bigger machine.