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.

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?

Dr_Woof wrote:
It shatters.

A lot of people don't live in -40 climates.

Not going to snow much at -40.  Interesting tidbit, -40C is the same as -40F.