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.

If you want to spend around $1500 this is a nice machine

 http://www.ariens.com/products_snow/s_deluxe_platinum_group/s_deluxe_platinum_24/Pages/default.aspx

It has a differential which makes turning real easy and good traction to boot. You can spend less on the compact series and get pretty near the same blowing performance but at a handling and maneuvering cost.

To me the ability to maneuver without another lever to operate is a major advantage.  This machine has a nice wide stance and good balance.

There is a Simplicity Pro model

 http://www.simplicitymfg.com/products/snow-throwers/signature-pro-commercial-duty-dual-stage/

It is built well with real nice channel handle bars but a lever operated turning system. The cost is a bit high but I give the link for information.

Put a differential on that unit and that would be tops for me.

O

Hello,

  I just had a very similar predicament, and I ended up going with the Toro 826 OXE.  The main reasons I went with this was the freewheel steering and the quick stick chute control, as well as some brand loyalty to Toro.  I can't speak about longevity as of yet, only got to use it for the one storm.  But it handled my 400' driveway no problem after the blizzard last week. 

Good Luck,

-dan

I have a Deere 1020e I got for 1300. You can buy the 1330se for 1500. It was over kill for me. But a sweet machine.

I have a Deere 1020e I got for 1300. You can buy the 1330se for 1500. It was over kill for me. But a sweet machine.

tgseaver wrote:

Go with a Toro either the 826 or 828 depending on if they have any left. Great machines and have a quick chute joystick feature an auger system that recycles the snow if it bites off too big a chunk and you can turn these on a dime by pulling on the trigger. Easy to roll when off and they chew up the nasty stuff in a big way. I have some vids on YouTube of my 1028 if you'd like to see how fast the quick chute works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u66VEMXQtPA

The chute flick is about 20 seconds in. Far better than cranking the chute around IMO.

After lots of hands-on and on-line comparison shopping, that's what I spent on my new John Deere 1330SE; and I think it was a great choice. It's already blown plenty of snow to prove itself.

jdpilot wrote:

tgseaver wrote:

I would use the $1500 for a down payment on the Yamaha YS928J.

In Fact, I plan to get one this week, just waiting for the dealer to get them in stock, he sold out before the Holidays.

rubinew wrote:

He can't do that if he lives in the USA. They will not sell us Yamaha snowblowers here, unfortunately. Also the Yamaha is like $4k a LOT over his budget. Great machine tho. So you really decided on the Yamaha over the Honda?

Simplicity Pro Signature series are top domestic products.  I wouldn't overlook them.

Steve_Cebu wrote:

99% there, when the dealer calls, my wife and I will go take it for a drive, then decide.

While the Honda is every bit as tough and reliable( I have owned Honda cars, and loved them), the Yamaha seems to have a few more "smart" features that appeal to us.

Now, if the 373lb beast is an issue, then I would probably get the 928 Honda, before stepping down to the 624 Yamaha. I have my mind set on 28 inch :-)

rubinew wrote:

Yeah the fact that the Yamaha doesn't have or require shear pins is a BIG plus in my book. Please post some pics of your Blue baby when you get it. I'd love to see it.

I would use it for a down payment for a new Honda HS928TA.

Most of the machines that people are suggesting (that falls within your $1500 budget) have a B&S engine.  Rather than just suggesting a particular brand/model I would go out and check out what the local shops currently have available.  Choose whatever you feel has the best control scheme/layout and whatever feels good in your hands.
Ariens, Toro, Simplicity...they're all comparable machines and you probably won't go wrong with either one.

I like my Ariens and its built like a tank.  Other people on this forum like their Toro, Simplicity, etc and have just as much praise for these respective brands as well.

 If buying form a local dealer, that may be a factor for you.  You might end up going with a brand where you feel the dealer will be most helpful post-sale.

If I were in your shoes now and were willing to commit another $500 - $800 I'd probably pick up a Honda.  If not, like i said before, you probably can't go wrong with a Ariens, Toro or Simplicity.

Toro 1028 OXE is listed for $1799. Ariens Delux 30" for $1299 or Platinum 30" for $1599 or Delux 28" for $999. Deere 1028 for $1299 or 1330 for $1499

If you have your wallet set to $1500 then I would seriously consider gettting a Deere 1028 (342CC) for $1299.  28" is a nice size: not too small and not too big.  342CC is going to give you some serious power.

MN_Runner wrote:

To pony up the extra dosh for a 1028 is worth it but their are also sales going on. Some dealers will deal, some won't. Toro also makes the 826 and the 828 and those are cheaper.than the 1028. But this guy needs toget out to the dealers, try out the machines he likes and then get the best deal he can on the one he likes. I'd honestly buy a Simplicity over the Deere since I know Deere doesn't make their own products and Deere dealers don't sell Deere snowblowers. I bought my Toro from the John Deere dealer.  They don't carry Deere snowblowers at all.

I live in NYC and it seems we keep getting hit with storms greater then 20" and even thou im no expert you want something with a big Briggs and Stratton motor and a few choices would be the Toro 1028OXE or Deere 1028 or  Husqvarna 1830HV or Simplicity L1528E. If your in NE dealing with the same amount of snowfall as me you dont want a 30"+ wide unit. Its too much to muscle in really deep snows. I see you have a 24" now so moving up to a 26-28" unit you will be happy.

Im new to this site, which is home to many who can help you probably alot more then me. Good Luck!

tgseaver wrote:

Northeast...check

175 foot driveway...check

slight incline...check

 spent $1,400 with tax on an Ariens 24" Platinum and used it for the 1st time last week.

tgseaver wrote:

You can pick up a nice slightly used machine this coming spring if you can squeak one more season out of that Yardman. There's always tons of used snowblowers on CL once spring begins and the snows are gone for a while. Machines that go for $ 2,500.00 new can be had for $ 1,500.00 or less after only being used for one or two winters. I always try to buy my used OPE during the off season as I've found you can save big $$$ if you plan ahead a bit.

For your 'Budget' of $ 1500.00 in the United States you have many options.  I might suggest you look at Consumer Reports for the ratings of NEW snowblowers and how they will be expected to perform when brand new.  This in no way suggests they will run that way once the machine is no longer new, so check out their "Frequency of Repair" ratings under RELIABILITY by Brands.  These ratings are created from actual owners of each machine who fills out an annual Consumer Reports survey about the products they already own, so its pretty reliable information.  You might alos read their forum for the information they have as well.  The technology of all these machine is pretty much identical, except for the Honda machines, so the factors that you should consider are how is any one performing any better than its counterpart.  They all have 2 satge augers and impellers, but which have the larger diamteres.  They all have the same friction wheel drive systems, but which do the work with the fewest repairs.  Then there is the engine, and the imports would seem to be about all there is anymore, so good luck discovering which of those are better. 

Lastly, see if any of your neighbors have a similar driveway and how they have fared with the machine they own.  Nothing life a little neighborly advice.  Good Luck !

New_Yorker wrote:

Consumer Reports is very out of touch with reality when it comes to snowblowers. That was discussed in full in another thread. I would suggest to the OP that he disregard CR as their info is outdated and their ratings tend to be based more on cost/value than performance.

New_Yorker wrote:

Consumer Reports is very out of touch with reality when it comes to snowblowers. That was discussed in full in another thread. I would suggest to the OP that he disregard CR as their info is outdated and their ratings tend to be based more on cost/value than performance.

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. 

In response to Steve_Cebu's post saying that John Deere dealers don't sell John Deer snow blowers: I bought my new 1330SE from a John Deere dealer, and traded in my old John Deere 524 for it.. I know that some John Deere dealers don't sell JD blowers (the nearest JD dealer sells Ariens); but, others do.

Also, I think $1500 is a lot to spend for a snow blower for personal residential use (I feel a little foolish and stretched for doing it myself), so I would argue against using that money as a down payment for something more expensive. If you were intending to use it commercially, there might be some justification for spending more to get specific features and warranty advantages. But, for use at home,  there are plenty of sub-$1500 machines available that will do a great job of trouble-free snow removal for many years. If you've been doing the job with a 7 HP yardman for the past 12 years, probably any of the machines recommended in this thread would give you a major performance improvement over your current blower, and get you inside or off to work a lot sooner than your used to.

jdpilot wrote:

Sorry, but that should have read MY John Deere dealer doesn't sell Deere snowblowers nor do a couple of others in my area. Home depot sells John Deere and they are made by MTD I believe. They might very well be good machines but my local John Deere dealer won't sell them as he says theyaren't real John Deere products and they tend to be unreliable. Now i have no way to validate what the dealer says. But since they are a John Deere dealer there has to be a reason they don't carry them. They probably can't compete with Home Depot's prices for one.

I spent like $1,800 for my Toro and look at it as a 15 year purchase. Much better than relying on the Plow guy who does a poor job compared to me doing it myself. It is a lot of cash upfront tho. For me it's worth it being able to get out of the driveway when I NEED to not just when the plow guy feels like showing up.

jdpilot wrote:

My MTD, which I just did an inspection on, and is in very good shape. 8hp and 24 inch, is a great blower, however, it can not get through the tough drifts that blow into my yard.

I spend most of my time, backing up, pushing in, leaning on the bars so it won't ride up, using a shovel to break up, then repeat.

After 2 hours my back and arms are wore out, I am beat! :-) Imagine my 125 lb wife doing this, 3 times in December already.

Unfortunately there are those of use who live between city and country life. Not enough room or place for a tractor :-), but your average wheeled snowblower just can't get the job done.

I need track drive, to push into the drifts, I need the weight, HP, and I want 28 inch.

My wife wants electric start, and likes the Hydrostatic drive, and yes, she does get stuck with the job of snowblowing, when I am travelling.

So in order to get Hydrostatic drive, electric start, tracks, and wieght, plus 28 inch, and at least 9 HP, you are now in the $2000-$3000, with most manufactures.

Now my logic, if I am going to spend 3k, I will likely spend another $600 and get a Yamaha, a machine with proven reliability, durability, ease of use, etc. (also no Shear Pins to deal with!!!)

Again, it is about what fits your particular needs. 

Steve_Cebu wrote:

I bought my Deere at the Dealer in Freeport, NY. I didn't see anything but mts, yard machines, and just a few Airens at Home Depot. I have seen in this forumn that multiple people Implied the new Deeres are made by Simplicity. I could be wrong. My dealer carried Several other brands as well.

Chxbeachva wrote:

Well here Lowes and Home Depot both are loaded with Green & Yellow John Deere products. I really don't recall who makes Deere the dealer told me and I *think* it was MTD but I could be wrong about that.

I believe the high end Deeres are made by Briggs, along with mostly equivalent Simplicitys and Snappers. If you look at the units and specs on their individual sites you can see what is identical.
At one time there was lower end Deere in the big box stroes that might have been MTD, I don't know if that's true anymore.

rubinew wrote:

Not to rain on the parade of CR bashing, but to bring this back to the original point about our freinds snow blower question, I purchased a Simplicity, albeit used, i still would have spent the full retail on it, B&S engine solid chassis, bar controls, (not beating on the Toro's, but not cables) I just felt that the Simplicity or JD was the best value in my opinion...

if we want to beat on other research forums, lets start another discussion and not wast this thread...

Cheers

Doug

What about Honda 520AS or Toro 421QE?  Any of these two single staged snowthrower will do the job for most conditions for the wife.  With the remaining money and either 421 or 520 is not enough then I would buy a 2 staged blower (Ariends, Deere or Toro).

For who makes Deere, Snapper and Simplicity see:

http://www.abbysguide.com/ope/discussions/52489-0-1.html

There's not much mention there about Snapper but I went through their models the other day and they parallel Deere and Simplicity being not close but an exact match.  Catt's list of Simplicity models can have a name change to Snapper.  Over the years Deere had many people make for them.  Interesting the Deere guy pooh-hoo'ed the new line.  In the past Deere was MTD, Murray, Ariens and others.  Big quality variation.   The Briggs line may not be the best but in the past he probably carried worse.