Breather

Thanks for the replies guys. I like the two-cycle smell myself. I had a Lawn-Boy two-cycle mower for years as did the neighbor behind me. I spent close to twenty years of my life smelling the aroma every mowing season. Not to mention gas trimmers, edgers, etc. I can only imagine the complaining I would have had to endure had she been in my life then, lol.

I mix the gas quite often but, believe it or not, she does take charge and gets it done herself when we run out and I'm not home. I'll just tell her that if I decide I'm going with a two-cycle, I'll deal with it all the time. Out of curiousity, how much does the synthetic mitigate the smell and smoke on a two-cycle?

I talked to another dealer today who told me that the repair kit was not solving the issue on all of them(421) and for those still affected Toro was then sending replacement carbs, which haven't completely solved the issue either. He said that he talked to Toro tech service two days ago and they supposedly have yet another carb that supposedly solves the problem once and for all. He claimed that next season, there will be no two-cycle snowblowers and only 4-cycles will be available and all of those will have the newest carb and supposedly, trouble-free...

Hi,

I'm new here. I found this board recently. I heard something similar to the original poster about the Toro 421. I called two local dealers here in northeast Ohio yesterday to inquire about the 421Q. I'm debating between a 221 and a 421 myself. They both said they couldn't sell what they had on the floor until they received their repair kits from Toro. They both had the same story. The aluminum parts in the carb were being "eaten" by ethanol and that the plating on the needle valve was too "thin" to handle it which was causing it to flake off and clog the carb, thus causing it to leak. The repair kit consisted of a new needle valve, seat, and fuel line. Both dealers advised me to put a fuel shutoff valve on the snowblower if I bought it, which I would do on my own anyway.

Should I let these problems with the 421Q scare me away from it? I was leaning toward the 221Q but the significant other likes to do the driveway too when I'm away and has been complaining about "having another one that makes us stink from using it" and "having to mix the gas". Not like that's hard to do but she always complains about it.