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

I FINALLY decided. LOLOL! I bought the Toro 221Q. :) Now for it to snow so I can try it out!!
What 2 stroke oil is best? It came with Toro's oil mix. I try to use a synthetic blend in my other 2 cycle OPE.
I am sure there will be a learning curve on how to use it.
Thanks for all the advice.

Kelly

I'm with Shryp on this one. I've seen people on roofs with a shovel. Very old and newer homes have steeper pitches but a lot of 60's and 70's era houses seem to have flatter roofs. I've not seen blowers on any residences, but I have seen them used on some commercial flat roofs. I did see a Toro Power Shovel being used on a house once, so a single stage would be the logical next step up.

There are lots of youtube videos of snowblowers on roofs.  One of them actually has the fire department doing it.  I think all the videos I saw were sngle stage units, but then you have to be careful not to tear the roof off :)

Shryp wrote:

Many houses in my area have switched over to aluminum roofs. sadly we didn't but the cost was really high. But on my house we get icicles that are the thickness of my thigh and run all the way to the ground. The aluminum roofs avoid that. They do have other drawbacks tho. We had such a bad year 3 years back that we had to have people come over and shovel off the roof. Big $$$$ but so is falling off the roof.

I'd probably buy a Toro Power shovel for the roof if I had to do it again and find a way to tie myself to the house. A single stage would be a bear to fit through the window and a ladder is right out.

Steve_Cebu wrote:
Steve,

If you have icicles like that, you need to take a serious look at two things, 1. your attic insulation, and 2, your attic ventilation. You're probably having ice-dam formations as well, and that could cause serious problems down the road.

drifter wrote:

They put on a new roof and I got to see exactly what was under the old one. We have no attic at all, no crawl space, nothing. The roof ends at the sheetrock on the other side. We were having some ice dams but supposedly that's been fixed. It's all on one side of teh house the back side with no sun gets almost nothing. They redirected drainage around the door and we shall see since every year the ice has ripped off the water drain. They used a different method this time. Hopefully it will work this time.

Wow, that sucks Steve. Ice-dam formations can allow the backwater to get quite deep,,, well over a foot in some cases. This allows water to seep under the shingles, and down into your walls, rotting out studs, and causing mildew problems. Not good. I certainly hope your roofing contractor applied a membrane along the edge of that roof.

One cheap solution would be to use heater-cables along the edge of the roof. These heater cables should be zig-zagged from the edge of the roof,,, and back to a point behind the wall below that part of the roof. The heater cables provide just enough warmth so that any ice forming around the cable melts, allowing drainage. Unfortunately, this will not eliminate your heat-loss.

http://www.heatersplus.com/roofs.htm

Well everything looks tight. Now to fire the bad boy up. I have decided on staying with Toro brand 2 cycle oil until after warranty. This way I can show I did exactly what laid out in the manual. Keeping the receipts as well.
It does say use a TCW-III oil but I can't find any in the 2.6oz bottles.

drifter wrote:

Yeah it did suck but supposedly they have it all fixed now so we shall see in another month or so. No way to run cables we used to have them but the ice tore them down. The roof is insulated but that is where the sun really beats down. So hopefully we will not have any more huge ice.

I hate to say this Steve, but unless you eventually get some sort of ventilation, between the top of the insulation and the underside of the roof, you're going to have the same ice situation. It's unavoidable. Snow lands on the warm roof,,,,melts from the bottom,,,water flows down towards eaves, and once that water reaches the eaves, it refreezes because there's no heat-loss to warm those over-hanging eaves from underneath. Water keeps coming,, , freezes,,,builds up the ice dam until the back of that dam reaches the warm part of the roof, and everywhere behind that dam is standing water. Sunshine really has very little to do with it.

Without proper ventilation, the only ice-prevention "fix", is to shovel the roof frequently, and not let the snow build up..

The next time you're up on the snow-covered roof, have a look at the granular ice-layer at the bottom of the snow-pack. That's where the snow has melted from contact with the warm roof. Snow "reflects" sunlight on top, while the blanket of snow traps heat underneath, melting from the bottom.

kellyinkc wrote:

You can buy them at Ace Hardware or your Toro dealer. If not, buy the bulk size and those kits with the measure tables. Squeeze and dump into gas tank. No mess.