There have been many posts about how great the Honda snowblowers are. While I couldn't test one in the snow or even start one (none were prepped), I did get to see a few.
Some things are different. For instance, it has a manual worm chute direction crank. However, rather than a thin rod skewed at an odd angle with a wound wire serving as the worm, this has a machined worm gear and a shaft suitable for an automotive steering column complete with universal joint. It is very smooth if a rather long 5 1/4 turns lock to lock.
The auger is also a bit different. The blades are pretty thick and the teeth are bent over. This probably chews up snow more aggressively and may be a benefit on frozen snow, although no one has reported a problem with other augers. It is also a very open design like the Ariens.
These are the Ariens' and Husqvarna Crown'sfor comparison:
This is something you don't see on most snowblowers. It is the oil fill for the hydrostatic drive. The hydrostatic drive would let the Honda creep along in heavy snow slower than a typical friction disc system, letting it be a bit more effective in pentrating hard snow without riding up or handling large snow levels or heavy snow without becoming overhelmwed.
Because it wasn't running I wasn't able to measure impeller speed. The impeller itself looks rigid enough but otherwise nothing special. The impeller housing gap may be slightly smaller than other brands, but nothing very obvious and it doesn't look like enough to make a difference.
These area Toro and Deere impellers for comparison
The console shows the chute rotation lever to the right. It is a bit low; low enough for my wife to comment that she wondered if I could operate it comfortably.
None of the models on display, a 24" and 28" wheeled and 28" and 32" tracked, had any steering and all were a bear to move around, even in the showroom. The salesman wrestled with them.
Net, they appear well made with some interesting features but none that should dramatically improve snow removal. The Husqvarna Crowns drive their impellers at 1600rpm, 5000 ft/min tip speed. If Honda is doing the same that would give it a longer range and some extra capacity over units that didn't. The hydrostatic drive, unique in the US market to Honda and one Husqvarna model, would give it the ability to move more slowly though snow letting it deal with particularly challenging conditions better than a snow blower that didn't have that feature.
Is it worth a $1000 or higher premium compared to competitive units? That is probably an individual decision.
