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

A Home Despot ad came with my newspaper today saying "10-25% off all snow throwers".  While running my errands, decided to stop in at my local HD to see what they were offering (Holland, OH). Turns out they had many Toro electric power shovels, two Toro 3650's still in the box (**all assembly required**), and one Yard Man 10.5 hp 2 stage (just like the one pictured in the ad). Nothing else that I could see. This Yard Man had a chute control that didn't work, and a chute that really was PLASTIC. Understand, I'm not knocking the Yard Man. It might be perfectly fine for an average winter in, say...San Diego. But this would be the wrong machine to buy if you lived in Buffalo, Bangor or Boston. It was only $100 less that the Toro 726 I purchased a year and half ago.

Moral of the story: Shop the Depot and the other big box stores if you wish, but don't neglect your local dealer. Any Simplicity, Ariens, Toro or Honda would run rings around the Yard Man machine I saw today, and last a lot longer.  My $.02 .

AZ

I wouldn't worry too much about HD or Lowes having snowblowers during this coming week.  Seeing how poorly they were assembled on the floor models, says it all.  I have no doubt a good percentage of them will be returned Monday morning after the storm because they failed for one reason or another.  Individuals may also assume that this is the one and only storm we'll get this year, which is a mistake.  If you're still sitting on the fence trying to decide if you want a new snowblower, I'm sure some really good deals will come up this week on slighly used machines, unless HD and Lowes have to return them to the manufacturer.  My neighbors laughed at me when I was testing my new snowblower during the last week of September, especially when I had to drive it up and down the driveway to check that the scraper wasn't going to impact any high areas.  Well, I know who is laughing now.