# New ariens Pro 28 broken weld...not happy



## bkwudz (Jan 14, 2013)

Not Happy, untill I went back to the dealer!

I purchased from the local dealer before the winter.

The Pro 28 has been fabulous, we are getting hammered with snow here in New England and I have moved a ton of snow with it and it has worked great. 

Today after another couple hours of use, a weld on the chute broke. The tab that connects the chute to the control.

















The weld broke on one side, it was a bad weld, very little penetration. it was held on with another small weld on the other side, but if used the way it was, It would break completely and the chute would fall off. With more snow coming end of the week I thought I was in trouble.

I went to the dealer to talked to them figuring they would want me to leave it for repair.

Well I was wrong, and this is why you buy from a dealer instead of a big box store.

They had me bring it right in, and Instead of leaving it while they waited for the part to come in, they welded it right there so it was useable, and put In a order for a new chute that they will replace under warranty when it comes in.


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## sscotsman (Dec 8, 2010)

awesome!








yes, you definitely wouldn't get that level of service from a big box!

Scot


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## bkwudz (Jan 14, 2013)

sscotsman said:


> awesome!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That's what eased the pain a little, I was pretty upset that a 3 month old, $2000 snowblower was out of commission due to nothing more than someone doing a poor job welding the chutes. 

You can clearly see the start of the weld not even touching the tab.


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## bkwudz (Jan 14, 2013)

I'll post a picture of the repair they did on the spot. It's pretty impressive .

Keep in mind with the winter we are having , how busy this place is. It's a major hardware store and and power equipment dealer. The guy said they are off the wall, and areins is backed up getting parts out, 1-2 weeks he said.

But they cleaned the area, put two good welds on it, primed, it and painted it to match, all while I waited.

The repair looks so good, and I'm sure it's just as stong or stronger than stock, I I hope they will just give me the part, and I'll save it till it till it needs to be replaced down the road.


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## f2benny (Dec 18, 2012)

bkwudz said:


> The repair looks so good, and I'm sure it's just as stong or stronger than stock, I I hope they will just give me the part, and I'll save it till it till it needs to be replaced down the road.


If they give you the new one I'll buy the old one for my old machine.


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## bkwudz (Jan 14, 2013)

Here is the temp repair the dealer did so I could use it while we wait for the part


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## Ariens Company (Nov 1, 2013)

bkwudz said:


> Not Happy, untill I went back to the dealer!
> 
> I purchased from the local dealer before the winter.
> 
> ...


bkwudz -

I'm sorry you had to deal with this issue, but I'm glad your dealer was able to help you on the spot and order the new part for you under warranty. I appreciate you sharing this and would like to notify the District Manager from your area of the great service provided by your dealer. 

I definitely reach out to the dealer if there is something they need to change to provide better service for you guys, but in this case it would be good to give them a compliment on a job well done.

If you would care to share this information either in this thread or in a private message, that would be great.

Thanks.

Mary Lyn


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## Shryp (Jan 1, 2011)

Uh oh. Looks like they got some over spray on that black cover.

It is great that they didn't leave you without a blower though.


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## rosco61 (Dec 8, 2014)

*Dealers*

You got awesome service.


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## scrappy (Dec 7, 2014)

Dealer 10 Ariens -0.0

Kudos to a real dealer that can actually fix and or fabricate what ever it takes to get it back to working.

The factory weld is unacceptable QC should have found that before paint.

When you get the new part just keep it. The repair might be better than the replacement.


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## bkwudz (Jan 14, 2013)

Ariens Company said:


> bkwudz -
> 
> I'm sorry you had to deal with this issue, but I'm glad your dealer was able to help you on the spot and order the new part for you under warranty. I appreciate you sharing this and would like to notify the District Manager from your area of the great service provided by your dealer.
> 
> ...


Thanks Mary Lyn, It was upsetting to have a new high-end snowblower break and be unsuitable after the 5th time using it, but in the end, The Ariens dealer made it right so all is good....a cool Ariens winter hat would make me feel even better . 

Nice to see Ariens using social media to see how customers are doing with their products too, good job!

The dealer is O'Connor Hardware in Billerica Ma...they Are the ultimate hardware store, they are a legend in the area !


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## bkwudz (Jan 14, 2013)

So its time of an update. Still love the blower, but might not be too happy with Areins.

I got the replacement parts, and they are different than what is on the machine. 

The cable that controls my chute comes over the top and mounts to the chute. 

The cable and chute I got comes from the bottom and mounts to the chute.

It looks like either way works, but the over the top design look to put less stress on the cable, and perhaps is a upgrade to the 2014-15 models, as I can find the cable from the bottom on many older machines, but one the over the top design on newer ones.

My dealer check the model, serial # and part numbers, and all are correct. So it looks like ariens is supplying what they have for parts.

The blower will work like it is probably forever, but for a $2000 blower I would like it back to condition a 3 month old blower came from the factory in.

How is the cable supposed to mount? From the bottom or top?


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## bkwudz (Jan 14, 2013)

And the quality of the welds on the replacement chute are terrible. Ill post some pictures later.


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## Ken05 (Feb 13, 2015)

bkwudz said:


> And the quality of the welds on the replacement chute are terrible. Ill post some pictures later.


Probably the chutes are now "internationally sourced" ie china junk.


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## Town (Jan 31, 2015)

bkwudz said:


> So its time of an update. Still love the blower, but might not be too happy with Areins.
> 
> I got the replacement parts, and they are different than what is on the machine.
> 
> ...


The problem with the older design where the outer cable comes up and attaches to the chute and the inner cable extends to the chute deflector is that snow and ice can enter the cable and freeze it. My Craftsman 11/30 had this problem. The newer Ariens design where the cable sheath is looped over the chute deflector and is attached to the deflector and the inner cable extends to the chute helps prevent snow and ice from entering the cable sheath and freezing it. 

I would recommend the new over the chute cable positioning as better than the old approach. Good luck.


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## enigma-2 (Feb 11, 2014)

Whether it's made in China or Wisconsin, doesn't matter. Where's Ariens QC? If the replacement chute also has bad welds, it should be getting caught before it leaves the factory. What else are they missing?


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## AriensSnowman (Dec 9, 2014)

bkwudz said:


> And the quality of the welds on the replacement chute are terrible. Ill post some pictures later.


I see this all the time. The quality of robotic single pass factory welds are usually pretty bad. The welds on my Arctic Cat atv are appalling, and all of them are like that. The absolute worse, most failure prone, disgusting factory welds I've ever repaired for a client came from Swisher. Horrible products, horrible customer service, horrible designs, and bad ratings from users all around. Run from that company, and they're American made! Doesn't always matter where they're produced, it's about quality control and caring about your products. Even with Arien's flaws, the company does seem to care.


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## Pathfinder13 (Feb 28, 2014)

Most dealers are pretty good, but of the three in my area I know of one mower/blower equip dealer about 20 miles from me that doesn't have the same level of customer service quality as the others around me. Like everything they vary. Happy to see you have a great dealer there !


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## SirFuego (Dec 1, 2014)

Ariens Company said:


> bkwudz -
> 
> I'm sorry you had to deal with this issue, but I'm glad your dealer was able to help you on the spot and order the new part for you under warranty. I appreciate you sharing this and would like to notify the District Manager from your area of the great service provided by your dealer.
> 
> ...


So out of curiosity for those of us that have welders at home...

If a weld breaks in the middle of me clearing my driveway during a major storm, can I burn it back on myself, finish the driveway, and take it to the dealer after the storm is over to submit a warranty claim? Or does the act of me welding an already broken part void the warranty?

Honestly, I probably wouldn't even bother with a warranty claim at that point and just paint it, but let's say that I'm not happy with my welds for the sake of argument...


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## RedOctobyr (Mar 2, 2014)

I think that's a good question. I would certainly get some close-up pics of the broken weld before doing anything to it, myself, as evidence for the dealer/Ariens. 

Then I'd probably weld it. If it's a discussion with the dealer, vs shoveling a 2 foot blizzard, I'd hope that the dealer will be reasonable. 

I've been to O'Connor Hardware a number of times, and have been very impressed with them. But wow, that's great service!


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## PixMan (Feb 14, 2015)

Wow, what a sparkling example of "good news, bad news"!

You gotta appreciate that level of service from the dealer. Welding is something I'm not equipped to do (yet) but I can certainly appreciate the difference between "adequate" and a good solid weld.

The dealer experience is why I use the local retailers and not big box stores. No one would get that from their on-line purchase, so why are so many obsessed with saving a couple bucks up front if it ends up costing them the intangibles of downtime, warranty claim forms, etc. if not actual cash out of hand?

As for the cable routing, both of my machines listed have the cable coming up from the bottom. I've seen the over-the-top version and wondered why they couldn't seem to decide which to use.


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## gto4evr (Feb 6, 2015)

PixMan said:


> so why are so many obsessed with saving a couple bucks up front if it ends up costing them the intangibles of downtime, warranty claim forms, etc. if not actual cash out of hand?
> 
> 
> 
> > Simple in my case: I saved $500. If my weld broke, I'd be pissed, then I'd go out to the garage, get the grinder, get the welder, and 20 minutes later I'd have the chute fixed. Then I'd remind myself that even if you factor in that time and effort, it's STILL less time and aggravation than calling a local dealer, loading my blower into a truck, spending an hour driving it over there, hopefully getting them to do something to fix it, and either have to come back next week, or wait an additional hour for them to fix it so I can drive back home and notice I just burned $20 in gas and 3 hours of my life! Plus, the added satisfaction that I took an inferior product and fixed it myself, got some fresh air and didn't plant an ass print into the couch in front of the TV for an hour of my life! Oh, did I mention that I'd saved $500? That buys a lot of personal wrench time in my book for things that MAY fail during the warranty period.


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## SirFuego (Dec 1, 2014)

gto4evr said:


> Simple in my case: I saved $500. If my weld broke, I'd be pissed, then I'd go out to the garage, get the grinder, get the welder, and 20 minutes later I'd have the chute fixed. Then I'd remind myself that even if you factor in that time and effort, it's STILL less time and aggravation than calling a local dealer, loading my blower into a truck, spending an hour driving it over there, hopefully getting them to do something to fix it, and either have to come back next week, or wait an additional hour for them to fix it so I can drive back home and notice I just burned $20 in gas and 3 hours of my life! Plus, the added satisfaction that I took an inferior product and fixed it myself, got some fresh air and didn't plant an ass print into the couch in front of the TV for an hour of my life! Oh, did I mention that I'd saved $500? That buys a lot of personal wrench time in my book for things that MAY fail during the warranty period.


In my case, my local dealer was the same price as buying online or even through Home Depot, so it was a no-brainer. But I understand what you are saying. My dealer offers a free annual tune up/inspection if you drop off the snowblower yourself -- and I'm not even sure if I'll bother. In the time I'd take to load/unload it and drive to/from the dealer,drop it off and pick it up, I could have probably done the tuneup myself and just be out of the cost of oil and/or spark plug that I usually keep stocked in my garage anyways. Not to mention that it gives me a better understanding of how it works, so if something does go wrong, it could be a couple minute fix in my garage.

But with my hobbies, it's not uncommon to replace a steering box and steering pump in the dark on a muddy vehicle broken on a bunch of rocks (speaking from experience). So working on flat ground in a garage, even if it is cold, isn't really that bad 

That said, if you know aren't mechanically inclined or know that the problem is beyond your capability, you should also be willing to pony up a few extra dollars.

Back on topic, though. After I used my snowblower last night, I inspected the same tab the OP had issues with and my welds looked fine. There must have been a single booger that was holding the OP's tab on from the factory because the welds on my machine seemed like complete overkill for the forces that tab should be seeing. In fact, a couple solid tack welds is probably all that's _really_ needed, but I love overkill, so it's not a complaint.


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