We are wrapping up a pretty significant noreaster hear in new england and i had an opportunity to use 2 different blowers today. My own Ariens Compact 22 (subaru powered) and my inlaws Husqvarna 8527 (tech powered).
Ariens: Went out at about 9AM during a lull in the storm and was met with about 8" or so of heavy compacted snow. We had a mix with sleet and even small hail for a while this morning making this snow very heavy. EOD was well over the top of the bucket, I'd say 24" average height. The ariens again did a very good job, easily blowing the main drive and taking care of the EOD with little fuss. It took quite a bit of small bites and letting the machine ride up a bit and then backing up to clean up but all in all drive was done in about 40 mins after creating smooth sides and cleaning up the walk way working around 1 car and helping the neighbor across the street with the EOD. Approx size 25x30'
Husky was used about 1:30 PM, again about the same amount of snow (father in law had done a quick job early in the AM) so I'd say 6-8" on main drive and same EOD. While this machine is significantly larger than the Ariens I was surprised how much harder it was to handle. Turning was much harder, and required quite a bit of muscle. This machine has the hydro drive and I found it kind of difficult to set a decent speed. The controls are marked with a forward and back for the speed selector, however, the slowest forward speeds used for the EOD actually looked like you would be putting the machine in reverse. I'm sure more use would resolve this as you would get used to what speed is located where on this lever. This machine has a 5" wider bucket than my Ariens so it did make quicker work of their larger driveway. The weight was pretty significant on this machine, but it also road up just as much as my Ariens did in similar situations. The big difference I found was that while I would have to back down in the ariens in the EOD due to the engine bogging a bit the husky kept right on plowing through with minimal bogging. The significantly larger tires on the husky combined with a weight made for minimal traction issues, ariens compact tends to spin its tires easier. Size of this drive is about 60x20 give or take. This job took me about 35 mins also working around 1 car.
I found throwing distances about the same with both machines, which I was kind of surprised about with the 2.5hp disadvantage to the Ariens. I preferred the controls on the Ariens for the chute, while the husky has remote deflector the chute controls on the husky were harder to adjust on the move and had significantly less range of chute turning as compared to the ariens. I found it much easier to turn the crank to direct the snow on the ariens rather than the push and slide levers on the husky. I also found handling in the compact much easier. While I am not a small guy muscling the husky around in the turns grew tiring. The machine also didn't seem to want to track very straight, I found myself putting a constant pressure on the right handle to keep the machine going straight ahead. The snow is exactly the same at both locations because there is only about 3 miles of distance between both houses.
Don't see too much Husky talk on this forum so figured I'd throw this out there since I used both today.
This message was modified Jan 13, 2011 by shiva916
