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

Going back and forth as to which one! Same price, Local dealers that service, like the look of both. Kinda leaning toward the Ariens only cause of the bigger engine 342 vs 305,is that a good reason?,or is 28" Toro a little more nibble to move around. Ariens seem to have more metal and less plastic, see I go back and forth.Please help ! Need to buy soon! Thanks for your suggestions.

I am in the exact same boat. I have also been going back and forth between the 2.

I currently have a 28" 9hp Crapsman which is about 5 or 6 years old. It works, OK but I was looking to upgrade. I went into buy an Ariens but ended up starting to think about getting the Toro. My friend sells both and is pretty honest about everything. He just bought the Toro, we also went in back to see how they come to the shop. The Toro machines have way less errors or better quality control from the factory. This was bad to hear since Ariens is from Wisconsin and I actually don't live that far from the factory. Now the extent to the quality issues were loose parts, parts put on upside down or backwards, so nothing that will really hinder the overall performance. The other thing I put into the mix is my father has had both Ariens and Toros but more recently Toros so I know the past quality is good. The other side of me would like to support a local made in the USA business. Another little bit is Ariens can no longer put the American flag on their machines because the tires are outsourced from outside the USA now. This is not a big deal to me.

This is what I have come up with so far:

Both have 3 year limited warranties, Ariens has 5 year on gear cases.

Price is a wash for me.

Areins has larger clearing path by 2", not a deal breaker for me because with either way you have to make 2 passes down the sidewalk.

Ariens has the larger motor, 342 vs 305cc. It may not be a lot but I am buying this for the deep heavy crap that I don't want to shovel so 40cc's is 40cc's more power that is keeping me from shoveling. Now you could go to the Toro 1128 to match the Arien's power but with that pivoting scraper, you have to have a perfect surface for it to be efficient. I do not have a perfect driveway or sidewalk. Plus the dealer suggested staying away from that.

Areins, all steel, heavy duty. Toro has plastic that is proven. My Crapsman has a plastic chute that I have sent softball size ice chunks through multiple times so if Crapsman can get it right I am sure Toro has it right. 

The Toro is easier to move around, lifting up the front, etc. However this is a positive and negative. Positive, it is great to move around the garage, etc. Negative because a light front will tend to lift up vs dig down on the hard packed stuff. The solution is Toro sells a weight for $80 to put on the front of it. The result, now you are paying more to have the same weight as the Ariens.

Turning, both have their own innovations and both "turn on a dime" I like the idea of the Toro with the triggers however they are one more thing that will need adjustment, are another thing that can get caught on something or get broken off due to them being plastic. When going forward both wheels are locked which I like. Now on the Areins, you don't have to pull levers, you just turn it. Plus it is good enough to put on the professional models so Ariens must believe in it. It seems to work just like a LSD in a vehicle. Now will both wheels ever be 100% locked like the Toro, no, but if it puts the power where it can hook up then I am fine with one wheel working vs 2 just spinning. If you have 2 wheels locked and no traction, it doesn't do anything for you.

Chute/Direction. I like the Toro how you can move everything like a joystick vs the Ariens controls. However is it just me that thinks the plastic joystick just feels cheap. I like the idea of it but then I go back to the reliability and the more things that need adjusting, a plastic piece that is sticking up ready to get snapped off. If they made it out of metal, would I feel better...maybe...I just don't feel that when you are spending over $1500 on a machine, why make everything out of plastic and make it feel cheap. It may not rust but at the same time, look what happened to plastic cars...bye bye Saturn. The Areins is simple, no frills, but isn't as user friendly as the Toro. However I don't have any problems using the controls, it is still nicer than my Crapsman.

Auger/Intake/Intake. The intake/auger is the same on both 14". The Toro can throw 45 feet, the Ariens 50 feet. Areins everything is steel. The Toro has a lot of plastic parts. I am not 100% against this but again I just don't know why they had to do it. You can say that snow sticks to the steel, but I have never had any issues with snow sticking to the steel on my snow blowers. And if the plastic has less resistance, should the Toro throw snow 55 feet due to less resistance? Anyhow, enough of the plastic. I do like the idea of the Toro putting the snow back into the auger that it isn't discharging. However I have a couple issues with this. 1. Shouldn't the snowblower be efficient enough to throw the snow that it is taking in in the first place. 2. What do you think the Ariens does with the snow it can't throw? Doesn't it just push it for a bit which in turn makes it to the auger anyhow. So why waste engine power to recycle the snow in the auger area? Maybe that is why the Toro doesn't throw snow as far? It isn't because of power because on both Toro and Ariens models, the less powerful models can throw just as far as their counterparts. I didn't design the thing so I don't know.

Headlight, isn't a huge deal for me but the Toro has theirs just mounted like an after thought, which looks chunky and can get caught on stuff or snapped off. The Ariens is nice, flush, and out of the way.

Tires are a wash.

Sorry for the long post but this is what I have been debating. So far I am leaning towards the Ariens but....

Its so funny you posted that post Steve, I think I have my Toro sold and now im deciding between the 1028 and 1128OXE. What do you mean the pivoting scrapper malfunctions?

tgseaver wrote:
 Dont worry about the plactic, last year I was in the street a few days after the storms using my machine as an ice cube maker! I live in the city and parking is a nightmare to begin with nevermind when everyone dumps snow in the street and then it freezes into small mountains. I was using the machine like I said to chew this stuff up, solid chunks of ice flying through the chute, at the end of the season I realized its indesctrucible!

stresst wrote:

The local dealer told me that the scraper bar can jam and apparantly it's a PITA to unjam it. It was enough of a concern that I didn't want to have a reliability issue. The 1128 costs more money and they had both units. Maybe your local dealer caan explain it better. All i know is I don't need my snowblower jamming up on me during a storm.

Hope whatever you get next will work out well for you. Me I'd buy another 1028OXE if I had to buy one again.

Klennop, Great post, good to know other people are going thur the same exact process ( with no skin in the game). I did go to a Ariens dealer and played with the Platinum's controls and got use to them quickly,I liked everything else about the Ariens, just seems to have more beef to it because of the steel. I am going to the Toro dealer today .................stay tuned............ but the Ariens is in the lead.

Steve_Cebu wrote:
Any type of mechanical device in that area of the bucket is just asking for trouble. It's a nice concept but I could see sand (or other debris) getting caught up in between the scrapper blade and bucket and causing a jam. 

I spoke to the dealer today regarding a new engine as well as a new blower. First off a complete engine is not available, only the shortblock for the 10 & 11hp. I was hoping to sell my complete short block after I made the swap to recoup some cash. Price for short block and labor $700.00.

I asked about the 1028 & 1128. He said he sells more 1028 because of the price differance. He said many opt for the 828 and 1028, he said he sells his share of the 1128's and has not heard of an issue with the scrapper since 2006 when they had many issues.

Another thing I was thinking about today...again it is about the plastic. If you notice the really high end blowers from Yamaha and Honda which are easily double to triple the cost of what we are looking at don't have any plastic on them. Look at how much plastic they use on their motorcycles, snowmobiles, generators, etc. however none of them use it on their snowblowers.

Now look at the cheaper brands such as MTD, they use a ton of plastic, much like the Toro.

Just some food for thought.

klennop wrote:
Yamaha and Honda high end models (which we don't get in the US) comes with metal chutes that are lined with plastic.  Some members of this forum also have lined their chutes with plastic with benefits of slippery surface for higher chute velocity and less snow/ice sticking.  So they do come with plastic, strategically placed where it makes sense.  Honda and Yamaha is not going to crazy with plastic everywhere because customers dropping $3000+ on a snowblower as a long term investment is going to expect a good amount of metal.

While cheaper brands do utilize more plastics, it is not an indicator of poorer quality.  How it's used and where it's used is more important.  Homeowner snowblower are usually designed with higher convenience and ease of use in mind.  The Quick Stick feature of the Toro is only possible with the use of plastic chute.  Metal chutes are too heavy to move around quickly using the Quick Stick mechanism. 

Also cheaper brands do have more plastics in them, to meet price points that big box store customers expect, on top of the promotion and sales going on.  Consumers wants cheap OPE with big engines and features, whether or not they consciously aware of the trade offs in quality and performance.

For commercial use, the perception is that plastic chute will not hold up to the constant bombardment of snow and other debris.  This is partially true.  Design engineers don't go out of their way to change commercial user perception of plastic, just give them what they want and call it a day.  Properly designed chutes and material selection can make plastic chute just as good as metal chute, but why go change their mind if they want they don't want to.

Toro has always been criticized for using too much plastic in their snowblower.  A lot of that comes from non-Toro owners who do not own or use Toro.  However, there aren't too many actual Toro owners complaining about the plastics failing.  People are usually more apt to voice their dissatisfaction than praise.  If there is any complaint, it is the lightweight front end which tends to ride over the snow more easily than heavier buckets.  Other than that, Toro overall as a snowblower system seems to work and people have been happy.

Ever see what happens to plastic after it gets a good hard knock...when it's forty below zero?