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

And lived in the Northeast,with a 175 foot driveway,with a slight incline, and a rather large turning pad what snow blower would you buy? Currently have a 12 year old, 24", 7 hp Yardman that I need to retire soon! Thanks in advance.

As a Long Term Consumer Reports fan and subscriber I would just say that each and every year every CR subscriber gets a survey to fill out of the products they have purcahsed with the past few years.  The survey then allows ordinary people, who spent their hard earned money on products like snowblowers to tell about that experience.  From those Real World and Very Practical answers CR creates its reliability ratings.  The Consumer Reports magazine does not permit their advice to be used in commercials, nor do they accept advertising.  Such independence and unbiased testing is done nowhere else, so it becomes incumbent on all who don't like such impartiality, for whatever reason, to malign Consumer Reports.  However there is no other organization that does the same, so their results are unassailable regardless of what the Biased persons may feel or say.  Consumer Reports remains a uniquely reilable source of accurate consumer advice, and I and thousnads of others recognize that fact.

New_Yorker wrote:

I will not argue the point with you. I suggest that you do a search in this forum on Consumer Reports. Their reputation from the past has not carried over to the digital age very well. They are clearly out of touch with the real world. This has all been discussed in this forum before.

Steve_Cebu wrote:
The "REAL WORLD" then, Accoding to YOU, does NOT INCLUDE the Actual  Owners who rate their personal snowblower and other products they purcahsed with their hard earned money and have experience with over years of first hand use ?  Myself and many others simply disagree because it simply does not get anymore 'REAL WORLD' than that, so we'd  have no idea what you interpret that phrase to mean, but then I have discovered that on these forums many posters mistakenly imagine that they know more than the owners manual.  So pretty much anything is possible.   Opinions from a bunch of people on any forum are only that, opinions.  As such they may or may not be reliable, hardly objective, and are only based upon the limited knowledge, experience, IQ and communication skills that each may posess.  The Consumer Reports people at least operate in an objective manner, which is why they never permit their advice to be published for money by others, or accept advertising.  The sheer size of their survey makes it above reproach, and reliable, and certainly far beyond the handfull of varied opiniuons on a forum such as this.  I would advise the Original Poster here to take any such advice with a large grain of salt , and seek a corroborating source before believing anything here.  CR would be just such a source to consult.

Reagrding these sites, and consumer reports.

The problem that exists with CR and more so with forum sites, is that quite often, the voice is usually (not always!) of the one, who has had issues or problems with a product.

Most ppl who have purchased a product, and are completely satisfied with that purchase rarely fill out CRs or join forums like these.

Again, this is not absolute, but it is true that a satisfied person is less likely to fill out a survey,

Same with these forums, while I came here to see what the opinions of a new product are, a lot of ppl do come to these forums to find advice for a current problem.

Most ppl in a forum have strong opinions, based on their experiences, and have personal prefences, etc, that bias some of their comments.

While I would be nice if everyone who owned a product like a snowblower would fill out a CR, this is not the case.

And while some ppl with positive expereinces will in fact fill out a CR, it is known, that the ppl with bad expereinces will always have more impact on CR, and forums! :-)

Good points rubinew.

Personally I'd rather read about problems than experience them.  Hence, people voicing their displeasure with a product should be heeded.   Learn from their experiences but don't take everything said as gospel.

As far as CR goes, I subscribed to the paper copy from the 70's through to the early 90's.  About 10 (?) years ago I started using the online version, but let that expire 4 years ago.  In my experience*, it became less and less valid, as they all too often had different expectations and requirements for products than I had. I did find that by IGNORING the ratings but reading the reports of the testing itself I got data for my decision making process that had more value than the ratings. That said, after some totally ridiculous choices by them in areas where I had expertise I finally decided it was no longer worth the money and dropped it completely.

*The plural of anecdote is NOT data. The experience of just one person with a product is essentially meaningless, whether you are discussing CR, snowblowers, or toasters. Only by using aggregate experience can you arrive at a meaningful conclusion, but this is tempered by who is giving you their story. This forum, for example, is going to appeal to the more technical person who will - more than the general population - do most of their own maintenance and has different expectations than the general population. This is not the same audience that answers CR surveys, but it is the audience that will be able to explain what problems they have had, and often, why.

Anyway, back to the OP: tgseaver, could you tell us where in the NE? What's best for NJ is not going to be the same for ME, upstate NY, or Canada. Also, your physical condition and age and the usage of the machine by other family members can often eliminate what might otherwise be your first choice. What is perfect for a youngish healthy large male will NOT be the ideal machine for his wife or older children. What is your driveway made of and what is its condition? In some cases on this forum, for example, we've found that taller people hate using some machines that are fine for smaller persons. So, if you give us a little more info, you'll get a better answer as to what to look at.

Only you can go to a dealer and try them out and make the final decision, but we can narrow it down for you.

Hi all,

I have been a customer of the paper and online formats for a total of 15 years.  Rcently, I observed some factual mistakes concerning the recent online review of snowthrowers.  Without going into a lot of details, I contacted CR to communicate the correct info and never heard back.  They have corrected some of the info, but the review was not valid because of the false information provided.  Price info, feature info was incorrect for at least the ARIENS and TORO models.  I was terribly dissapointed because as indicated by some of you this has been an important source of unbiased infor for me for years.  The fact that they didn't bothere did call back to explain, thank me is irritating, but not the main point.  The whole ordeal, for me, calls into question how much I can trust the information from this point forward.  In this case, fortunately, I had done so much research prior to reading the article that I saved me from making another decison, potentially.

Best regards!

Briantun wrote:

CR used to be good years ago but lately I think their subscriptions have lagged. I mean it's easy enough to find a forum like this for almost anything or even Amazon reviews. I do a LOT of those and if it's good, bad or defective I write up a review on it. I tend to ignore 5 star praise gushing reviews. Although I have written a few like that. I have found that over time you will see a pattern emerge with a product and even if it's not a big deal it will crop up from many different reviewers. This is not the case with CR. This forum no one gets paid and yet lots of great info and more detailed than CR. Plus the cost is FREE. The fact that CR doesn't have advertisers and the Net being free means that CR is outdated. CR will not be around forever. I hate ads and CR doesn't have them but CR subscriptions have fallen drastically over the years as well. That means less subscribers contributing info for their reviews and to be honest they are lazy in the way they update data. Many times you will see info on cars that is from a model 2 years ago and hasn't been updated, but they list it as the current model.

rubinew wrote:

You make some excellent points but the Consumer Reports Surveys do get filled out by many thousands of subscribers each year.  Those people must pay for their subscription, and probably recognize as I do, that such surveys and results benefit them through that subscription, so they probably Do participate in larger numbers than non CR subscribers would.

CR does admit that because snow blowers are NOT a product used by everyone, they limit how much they test them.  In my case I compared their ratings to my new Honda Machine and they had it right, it excels at everything but got their Worst rating for Handling, which is accurate.  I'm big enough to wrestle the machine around to steer it, which is a necessity to its operation.  A smaller person would want to think twice about shoving a 256 lb machine left & right to steer it.   In the morning after, even I'm a tad sore in the muscles from the experience.

Before the age of computers and on line forums etc., Consumer's Reports was of some value.  However, nowadays, with everything you need to know at your fingertips, it's no longer a valid source of good information.  CR have reduced themselves to making money on subscriptions and providing substandard information.  Their objective has switched from being a reliable source of consumer information to a minimum investment publication focused on making a profit.   That's why the information is so inaccurate.