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

Let me ask a question, suppose you have four snow blowers side by side all the same width, horsepower, etc. What makes one better then the other? Forget plastic chute vs steel, forget the power steering, heated grips, reliability, etc,etc. I am talking about moving snow......will say a 3k Honda have tighter auger clearances and make for moving more snow? Just trying to understand the huge variance in snow blowe prices.

If all machines are side by side with equal output engines will will say 9hp Honda move more snow then say a 9hp craftsman with a Tecumseh?

If you are comparing machines "out of the box" than there may be quite a few that are the same. Now if you take a look at the same machines after some use then you can see the differences. Take a look again after a few years, more differences. I have a 30 yr old Ariens and a 12 yr old Toro, I wonder how many of the other machines made in those years are still running?

No. No machine is the same. Honda Snow blower has a much better design. They use Hydraulics to do work as appose to the average blower using friction disc. There shoot and impeller design has very close clearances make them blow better. Manufactures vary in their designs. Some have different design augers and impellers. Some have different auger and impeller speeds. Some engines themselves have different power curves, manufactures use that in there designs. A 6.5 HP Honda will blow like a 10 hp Ariens

bus708 wrote:

Guess I should have left Honda out of this, LOL

What I am getting at is I see many machines use B&Stratton engines. Now for example take my Toro 826OXE with a 250cc briggs out the door I spent 1500+ but then you have a Poulan or Cub Cadet which cost half! with the same 250cc engine will the Toro throw more snow then the other two??

Ulltimately what I am gettting at is when is "too much money" for a snow blower? When will one outperform another? I want to get something more powerfull then my Toro 826, will going with a Husqvarna 14527E be a noticeable differance? Or I am I pissing in the wind!

I know people that have had the same Toro, Snapper and Craftsman blowers for the last 15 years and they think I am nuts! Now if there clearing there property with there 5 and 7 hp antique blowers why do I need/want more?

stresst wrote:
I'll jump in with my 2 cents worth.  If your just talking about moving snow clearing a path. 
I would say the difference would be in the design and engineering of the blower itself.  And the size of the blower drive pulley on the crankshaft. 
Four blowers, same driveway, same type and depth of snow.  All start together who finishes first.

Larger diameter impeller more capacity.

Larger diameter pulley higher impeller RPM. - This one can really have an effect.  For every 100 rpm increase in the impeller shaft.  You get a 300+RPM
increase in the impeller blade tip speed.  And you can get that 100 rpm increase by increasing the pulley size by just a 1/4"  When I repowered mine so
I could go to a bigger pulley.  My impeller blade tip speed increase was about 740 rpm (by the calculations I did)  That's a bunch.  I increased my pulley size by 1/2"

Tighter impeller to housing clearance more efficient.

Now if you add in who throws it the furthest. That changes a few things. How many impeller blades. And how well the operators kept the blowers feed with snow.
Without bogging the engines down in doing so. But that wasn't your question

I had an Ariens rep tell me.  Fewer blades give you greater snow volume thru put. 
Something to do with the dead space that is behind each blade that is empty of snow. Fewer blades fewer empty spaces.
More blades according to him can give greater throwing capacity or distance.  My blower has five blades. Most, if not all Honda's have three.  I believe some of the
newer Ariens have three as well.
I was just on the Ariens site. The Professional has a 14" impeller and 16" augers. It's the only one that has augers that size.  A lot of others have the 14" impellers
but only 14" augers. Interesting.

Why do you feel that you want to have more power? You want to walk faster while blowing 12" heavy wet nasty snow? Or you just suffer from the same ghost alot of us suffer! Hay, more Power!! It makes me feel more insured....

My Toro 1028 has 3 impeller blades. I had a Honda 928TAS and while it is a good machine I didn't find it to be worth twice the price of the Toro.

Sometimes a snowblower is just a snowblower. I read and hear the hype but if you get say 15 years out of a machine that cost you $1,500-1,800 that is pretty darn good and of course going 20+ years is a bonus.

Sure there are snowblowers that will out throw the Toro but not by a lot and the costs are higher and how far do I need to throw it anyway? It throws powder 60 feet and heavy EOD stuff about half as far and that's plenty for my uses.

The point of diminishing returns is if out of the box it doesn't do the job you need it too or it breaks down a lot. Sure I prefer Toro but that's because Toro works for me and it's easy to use nd my wife can use it as well.

I guess I need to do a video of the Toro electric leaf blower working at 200+ feet down the driveway.  That Toro elctric edge trimmer is looking pretty good for the summer as is the Toro lawnmower.

stresst wrote:
Had to laugh.  There it is,  need/want.  I would say "when is "too much money" for a snow blower" it's when a person spends more on a blower they can really afford or really
want to spend.  To get something that they probably don't really need.  They just want it.  And that's okay.  If I had the money, really had the money to buy and up keep
a Honda. That is what I would buy.  They are really expensive to buy new and parts are really expensive.
But the design, engineering, and quality is there.  And it shows.

I've had a used 928 wheeled for a while.  But I new that if something broke it would be much more expensive in parts to fix than say an Ariens.
I sold the used gear box out of the 928 for $265.00 to a guy on the east coast. 
He also had me overnight it to him for another. $65.00 and he was thrilled to get it. 
I couldn't possibly justify spending $1500 - $2000 on a blower.  Cause I just don't have that kind of money to spend on a snowblower.  Didn't really have the need I guess.
But did have the want.  So I built my own. I now I have the best of both worlds.  A tough old Ariens with a great Honda engine. LOL

If you want something more powerful than a 8hp and you can justify the expense.  Even if your not really sure you have the need.  Then buy an 11 or 13 horse.
Just skip the 10 horse.
If you do buy a bigger one you may not be disappointed with the blower.  You may end up being disappointed with mother nature.  Not giving you multiple ten and twelve plus
snows every week to blow.  That's not fun.  It's like buying a nice fancy powerful dune buggy.  And living 300 miles from a dune big enough to really use it on.  Need/want

Ground beef or fillet mignon comes out the other end of your digestive tract the same.  They do taste different and costs different.  Your tastebuds and your pocket book needs to talk to one another.

A Mustang GT and a BMW M3 have similar performance numbers, but they are vastly different.  If you can't notice or appreciate the difference, then it's too much money to spend on the more expensive car.

From shoveling for 2 years I 'upgraded' to single stage 3.5 and 6 hp machines.There are 2 stage machines with 10-13 hp.At the end all of these do the same thing, some take longer,some are painful. LOL

Yeah, this is kind of an open-ended question.  It's somewhat subjective, based on what's important to you.  Do you want something that just gets the job done?  What about ease of use, reliability, parts availability, warrantee, longevity?  It's like plumbing.  You can buy a German-made faucet that will easily outlast you or I, and you will pay for it.  Or you can buy something cheap that works great for a couple of years and then starts to leak.  You can't get parts for it and you have to pull the damn thing out and replace it.

Some folks value the name...to show off.  Whatever floats your boat.

I ask myself (most times) could I get away with something less expensive, still be satisfied and put the savings to better use?  Perhaps education or investment or food?  ;)  I traded up this fall from a 12-year old MTD to a 18-year old Ariens.  Yes, traded up, in my mind, based on what was important to me.  I went down in HP, 10 to 8.  Down in auger housing size, 30 to 24.  But I got a machine that is reliable, balanced and parts are everywhere.  This machine should last another 18 years.

I went down the path of buying a new one in the $1500 - 1600 range.  A new Simplicity, Toro or Ariens would have been great but I had better uses for the money.  Plus, I'm having fun and learning something about restoration and myself as I do so.

   I have a  Husqvarna  27 inch with the Briggs (USA built engine ) 305, 14.5 torque  With hydrostatic drive.  Purchased ed in Feb 2011    

My next door neighbour has a John Deere  27 inch with a Briggs (USA  built engine)   305 , 14.5 torque with disc drive. Purchased in January 2011.

We  had a lot of heavy storms  last winter, and were able to compare  the 2 snowblowers.

Just clearing the level drifted driveway, there wasn't much difference ,Except I was always travelling faster and always finished before he did.   

Now the end of the driveway :     With my Husqvarna with the hydro drive , I was able to go through the heavy  snow from the snowplow with one pass. The engine speed and sound was consistent.

With his John Deere , he couldnt get through without pushing , backing up and jerking his machine  , finally getting through the heavy snow. His engine speed was reving up and down on the governor and making a loud racket.

I dont know what the impeller speed of each machine but  both machines have a 12 inch impeller and a 12 inch auger.   There were no slipping belts on the Simplicity John Deere.

60 feet Steve??I think your fudging the numbers just a bit.And yes I have seen you on youtube.If thats 60 ft then,I'd like to know what measuring tape you are using.Also someone else questioned your measuring technique that saw your video..So Im not alone....

How well the machine is designed, build tolerance and balance will determine how well it performs. 

If that JD was built by Simplicity and had trouble with end of driveway snow, then I'd say there's something wrong with it.  Probably a slipping belt.   Here's a couple pics of my Simplicity 928 in action I've posted before.  Not quite 60 ft.  More like forty.  My previously owned Craftsman machine would be lucky to throw half that distance.

mikiewest wrote:
This is 20 feet:

http://www.youtube.com/user/SteveCebu?blend=1&ob=5

not that there is anything wrong with that! ;)
but seriously..its 20 feet.

Scot

Thank you all for your reply's! Great thread IMO!

mikiewest wrote:

Yes I know someone questioned it online. I also used a 50 foot tape measure and when that ran out I marked where the tape ended and then I measured to the furthest point that it threw it. This is powder and it's not throwing against the wind. So it stands at 61 feet. I think no matter what I use to measure the distance someone will question how far it is.

So if you have some foolproof way of measuring so that no one will question it I'm listening. For me a tape measure works just fine.

sscotsman wrote:

Yes it's also not the video in question either. That video was very heavy wet snow from this October.

The video where it threw 61 feet was with the chute facing forward is this one. I was out there with the tape measure myself, so I know how far it threw it. It was throwing onto fresh powder so it was real easy to see where the snow was coming down. I got soaked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va7J5zDk4e0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJh9bgt3yi8

Looks like 59.867 feet unassisted.  I think the wind helped carry it along to 61 feet. 

aa335 wrote:

You can see the wind what little there was was blowing a bit to the left. I measured it straight on, at 50 feet I was being buried in snow, the outer edge was 61 feet.

I was curious to see how far it was throwing it but this was very light powder. If it had been heavy snow it would not have thrown it that far.

60 feet,    but why is it  so important that the snow is moved this far, wouldn't 30 feet do the job.  I think it is more important how  your snowblower handles the snowplowed snow  at the end of the driveway. However your neighbour might be impressed if he is  down wind, and you are filling up his driveway.

royster wrote:
Sure, 30 feet would get the job done, but why not have a little fun while you're at it.

  Video Link

royster wrote:

Actually I have to throw the snow into the woods and my neighbors cannot see my house unless they get in their car and drive here. So for me the further away the snow is the better. Of course this is a problem when I am near the house as it blows with force mighty close to the windows on the ground floor. 60 feet is with light powder. I have lots of videos of the EOD on YouTube so you can guess how far it throws it. I'd measure it but someone will say it's not as far as I claim.

My neighbors aren't impressed with snowblowers as they all have their driveways professionally plowed

I have plenty of room to throw snow.  From the edge of my driveway to the row of cedars, it's approx. 90 ft.  Back yard is also wide open.   Don't know what it is but I just really like to see snow being bombed high and far.  The higher, the further the better!

borat wrote:

Sadly mine bounces off the trees if I angle it too high. But due to teh design of my driveway and teh way the wind always blows. I generally have to blow the snow in one direction or get wet fighting mother nature. I do love watching the light powdery snow fly high into the air tho.

There's something special about seeing a rooster tail of snow being propelled 50' or 60' into the great beyond. It's nice to be able to place the snow where YOU want it and not be limited by a poor performing snowblower.

FrankMA wrote:

Absolutely!

aa335 wrote:

Yes, of course, more fun.    Nice video,        I like to see the snow going over the tall trees in my back yard.

Yeah, it's only fun when you can blow the fenders clear off the minivan...two streets away.

aa335 wrote:

I know that place.It is on my way to my mother-in-law's house.I could have gotten parts from there but twice the prices of Boats.net.

blumonster wrote:
Really?  It looks like a residential driveway.

aa335 wrote:

I meant Bill's Power Equipment in Brookfield where the guy on youtube bought his snow blower from.Probably he lives in the area also.