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

Have you seen the junk they are now selling on the Home Depot website?It's called Sno-Tek by Ariens.It's being described as a value machine lol.Ariens will do anything to be known as the Co. that sells the most machines.They have forgotten about quality and it's all about sales.

In a recession no one should begrudge Ariens for doing what they have to do in order to remain a viable independent company...and not suffer the fate of Simplicity and be bought out by a small engine manufacturer.

Paul7 wrote:

Well, I assume we can apply that same logic to the rest of the manufacturing in North America. We all can readily see what the results are when we build lesser quality automobiles. Why would that example be different from anything else being built to a lesser quality than what we had appreciated in the past? Compromising quality is a step backward. How can anyone possibly substantiate that inferior quality is a good thing? I don't get it. And when does the "build cheap" trend stop? Do we all continue to buy inferior products and allow manufacturers to continue building cheap machines to the point that they work for a month before needing repair? I've said it in the past, the Japanese don't have a problem weathering difficult times and continue to supply the market with consistently high quality products. By accepting sub-standard products, we are going back to the "good enough" syndrome that was rampant in our auto sector over twenty years ago. It's thinking like that, which permitted foreign countries to infiltrate our markets and dominate the auto industry as we know it today. Sometimes, the consumer can be his own worst enemy. Anyone who accepts mediocrity over previously well built goods is contributing to the ultimate demise of that industry. it might not happen over night. But rest assured, it will happen. Demand better!

borat wrote:

VERY WELL SAID !!!!

I bought an Ariens 1332 DLE last season (Dec 2008) after doing what I thought was quite a bit of research.  I bought my unit at a small store not the big box store and paid a lot of money for it comparatively speaking.  What I have found is that I am really disappointed with the controls, so much so that I actually sent the company an email.  As I don't have a heated storage area to put my blower in after using it, unless the temperature gets above the freezing point my controls don't work.  The  chute height adjust won't move and the chute won't rotate the culprit of course being that the cables are frozen.  I can spend just as much time messing around with the chute as I do actually blowing snow.    I phoned the dealer where I bought the machine and complained about this problem and his solution was to remove the cables and bring them inside after blowing... I don't think so. 
Another annoyance that I have found is that the blower is pictured in the brochure with a heat shield over the muffler.  Well it appears that last years model doesn't have a heat shield.  Normally this would not be a problem I imagine, but as I spend so much time fussing with the cables I invariably put my gloves on the blower and they melt to the muffler.  I've ruined two pairs of gloves like this and you would think I would have learned the first time but you get so frustrated that you forget.  Nobs have fallen off the controls and the deflector for the muffler has fallen off. 
I will concede the fact though that it does move a lot of snow with relative ease but it's all of the little nagging things that cause me so much grief while I am  trying to blow snow that leave that bad lasting impression. 
If anyone out there has a solution to the bicycle cables freezing please I would like to know about it.
Ariens never did respond to my email as well.

Try blasting some WD-40 into each end of the cables if possible. The objective is to get the WD-40 into the cable to minimize the amount of water that is in there. For your information the "WD" in WD-40 stands for water displacement. It's important to get a good splash inside the cables. Get into the habit of spraying the cables and see how that goes.

borat wrote:
Borat, I think that there is a difference between the snowthrower market and the automobile market based on where you live.   Consider this...I live in a area where I can go two years without ever needing to start my large snowthrower.  We just got 10 inches of snow in SE PA today and this is the first time in years that I needed to start my large 2 stage Ariens snowthrower.   (For the last few years all I needed was my smaller single stage Ariens 722...and on some years I didn't even need it) However someone living in the North American snowbelt or Canada needs a machine that's built well enough to handle 10 snowfall with a much greater frequency.  If manufacturers only built snowthrowers with premium components, top of the line engines, cast iron everything, and engineered to exacting standards then I'd be forced to buy a lot more machine than I need...and for a lot more money than I may want to spend.   I can get by for many years with an MTD POS if I wanted to, while you really need a snowthrower that can take a much more frequent workout...and that's the difference.

As for how the Japanese can product quality and thrive while we can't all I can say is that I once worked for a German company where long range planning was 20 years...just like the Japanese.  I now work for an American company and long range planning is 3 months...or until the next earnings update to the investment community. 

MM42, there is no excuse for knobs falling off the machine that you bought.  And there's REALLY no excuse for Ariens not replying to your email.  I became an "Ariens man" years ago when their customer service was tops in the industry.  It's troubling to learn that it's fallen off that much.

Paul7 wrote:

Not buying that argument. The point is that the manufacturers are not only supplying low grade, inexpensive models, even their premium products are being built to a lesser level of quality. I have no problem if a company wants to make a cheap snow thrower for the "occasional user". However, when their so called premium units start to show signs of compromised quality and prices remain high, I certainly do have a problem with that. No excuse for building lesser quality products and still demanding top dollar for them. So, companies that cannot develop a business plan longer than three months can use that excuse to build cheap? I don't get the connection. Sounds to me that any organization with a three month plan doesn't have a plan. That sounds more like shoe string survival. As I've said in the past, a company can rest on it's laurels until enough loyal customers realize that their loyalty is not being rewarded with the quality products they had once appreciated. Customer, by customer, day by day, week by week, their market will slowly evaporate. When that happens, even China won't be able to save them.

borat wrote:
Ever hear the expression "penny wise but dollar foolish"?  It's the same thing.  I've seen US corporations do the craziest things just to make their numbers for a quarterly earnings call.  Things that did not contribute positively to long range strategy.  One US corporation I was with years ago sold off their only growing company just to meet their earning projections for the semester.

As far as the quality not being what it should on American made premium snowblowers...I can't explain it.  If I had to try, I'd suggest that the American made top of the line machines are less expensive than the top of the line Hondas or Yamahas.   But the fact they're less expensive isn't a good explanation because I feel that any American snow thrower labeled as a Professional model should be able to take a beating and be free of the nuisance problems that I've read about on this forum.

The reduction in build quality has made me hesitant for a while. I just got tired of fixing the little things getting worn out on a 36 year old blower. It's a rather small 24" / 5HP re-labelled Gilson. But it's built like a tank. bent & pressed plate verus stamped sheetmetal, Bearings versus bushings, Cast Iron gearcase versus pot metal. The impeller alone is an exercise in overkill, yet it got bent ingesting a 2x4. However, even bent, it continued to function for many years. I doubt any current impeller would fare as well. But to get anything built as solidly today I'd have to spend $3000 to get even close.
I doubt my next blower (Ariens ST30LE or Poulan PR1330ES) will lat as long.

Thanks for the tips on cable freezing, I'll have to keep that in mind.

I just recently saw a video of those old snowblowers.  Looks like they can gobbles a lot of deep snow and have high volumetric capacity.  However, the throwing distance was fairly short, looks like the most was about 10 feet.

I don't think I want something built as tough as these older snowblowers.  I rather trade off toughness for more performance/efficiency.  Not that I need to, but there may be occasions when placing snow in the neighbor's driveway may be entertaining.