# Goodbye Toro 3000 GTS, hello...



## ewhenn (Sep 21, 2015)

*UPDATE: 2015-2016 Ariens Platinum 24*

Update: 12/17/2016

Sadly, updated again....

I've used it a total of 6 times for approximately 3 hours total use as last winter was warm and mostly snow free. Heck, in the picture below you can still see the little threads on the tires, that's now new this thing still is. It's already broken down to unusable twice, and now requires service again. The first time I went to use it, it had a starting issue which required service. Approximately 3 weeks later it required service again for a belt issue (I believe it was the pulley if I recall correctly). Today I went out to use the blower and again it had a problem, this time it was leaking oil. This unit has proved extremely unreliable, requiring repair for what is quite literally every other use. Completely unacceptable for a new high end unit to be this unreliable and require repairs this frequently. Of all the power tools I ever bought, this is the worst. Maybe I should have bought something higher quality, like a Power Smart for $399. 

Yeah, the dealer is nice and everything, but that doesn't help me at all. I need a machine that is reliable and works, not a smiling face that says, "see you in a week".










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*I'll be posting updates of my experiences and thoughts throughout the season:*

Update 3: 2/16/2016

This winter has been unusually snow free. Finally got a good test for the new blower. Had about 18" of heavy wet plow pile at the end of the driveway. Temps were 28-30 degrees and it snowed all day while I was at work. About 45 mins before I left work, it turned to freezing rain, so the wet snow was further moisture saturated, basically the worst of the worst for snow. My Ariens 24" platinum blower rolled right through that pile, across the driveway no less and tossed it about 25 feet, up and over my fence. Very impressed. Sorry for grainy picture, my old cameras aren't the best at night time.











Update 2: 12/29/2015

Well, this new blower has been a major disapointment. We got the first snow of the year, a slushy mess with a 4" heavy driveway pile. Was anticipating finally not having to break my back on the heavy stuff. Well, the new for 2015-2016 Ariens Platinum 24 wouldn't even start. Looks like no spark at all. That's me, pushing my old Toro after pulling it down from my garage rafters and gassing it up. Dealer is stopping by today to pickup the new blower. Utterly disgusted.

EDIT: was a bad plug, dealer serviced it on site. Running fine now.











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Update 1: 9/28/2015

Snowblower arrived today, side by side with the old Toro












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ORIGNIAL POST:

I know you want to know what I bought but first a little quick background. My wife and I bought a new (to us) house 2 years ago and inherited an old and shaky - but still running Toro 3000 GTS. Our house is on the corner lot.. with our driveway just past the corner that the snow plow driver turns right onto. I didn't think about that before we bought the house, but what ends up happening is when the plow turns the corner it carries everything with it, which ends up getting dumped into the first open spot, which just happens to be my drive way. Even on a light 2-3" snow I end up with 2 feet at the end of the driveway, and when its a 6 inch day, I get a huge 3 foot pile that's about 3 feet wide. On top of that it's usually slushy and heavy snow. I ended up having to manually shovel it all winter, including multiple times when the plow went by after I just finished clearing it, 15 mins before I was going to leave for my office in the morning. The Toro just couldn't handle it, but to be fair it's not really designed for that type of usage, it actually did well given what it is.

On top of the lack of power, I basically ran out of room to put the snow that was within the Toro's reach! While last year was unusually cold so nothing melted, it gave me another reason that something more powerful would serve me better. Picture below, that is a 4' fence, and my whole backyard is packed to the top of the fence all the way across. My Toro couldn't blow snow over the top of the fence. I would blow the snow up to the fence than manually throw it over (very time consuming). The other side of my driveway only has 6' of grass and then the other neighbor's driveway starts. That little strip had a snowpile 8' tall.










So, what did I buy?!?! I don't really want to be without enough power again given how my driveway gets dumped into, so I went with a 2015-2016 Ariens Platinum 24" SHO. I considered the normal deluxe 24", but I really liked the additional power from the new Gen 3 AX (17 ft/lb torque) and I got a really nice deal from my dealer on the Platinum. The heated handles and controls seem a bit nicer too, but that wasn't the main driver in my decision. I'm not looking forward to getting snowed in, but I am looking forward to getting the job done a lot faster.

So I bid my Toro blower a farewell for now. Thanks for your faithful and reliable service, even with the abuse I put on you. I appreciate your service so much that I lubed you up, cleaned your carb out, and made sure to lubricate your internal parts before I put you up high in the cool and dry heavens of my garage. I know you'll be ready should your services ever be required in the future.


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## GoBlowSnow (Sep 4, 2015)

ostpics:


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## markd (Oct 29, 2014)

Very nice choice! I'm sure that blower will serve you well for many years. Congrats........Let us know how it works when you get to use it.


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## Zavie (Sep 23, 2014)

Welcome to the forum, ewhenn. Very nice choice indeed! Yes pictures of your new snowblower would be appreciated. You could show the old and new side by side. Mostly we just like looking at snowblowers.:white^_^arial^_^0^_


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## ewhenn (Sep 21, 2015)

Zavie said:


> Welcome to the forum, ewhenn. Very nice choice indeed! Yes pictures of your new snowblower would be appreciated. You could show the old and new side by side. Mostly we just like looking at snowblowers.:white^_^arial^_^0^_


I will once it gets delivered, not coming in until next week, the one at the store was sold, but I still got to check out a unit before purchase. I'll probably also do a review since there are some new features/changes to this year's model.


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## WeldyWeldyFace (Sep 17, 2015)

Great back story, congrats on the new blower! Looking forward to the pics!


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## ewhenn (Sep 21, 2015)

Arrived yesterday, but was busy closing up my pool for the season.


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## Zavie (Sep 23, 2014)

WOW! Very sweet!


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## GtWtNorth (Feb 5, 2014)

Yikes, you're more limited than I am where you can put the snow, but with the new Ariens you should be able to double up on the pile height!


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## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

Welcome to the forum Ewhenn :white^_^arial^_^0^_


Very nice machine :wavetowel2:

You should add a location to your profile. Where are you that you're closing your pool already ??


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## db9938 (Nov 17, 2013)

Holy constraints Batman!

Good call on your needs, even if we have a tropical winter, you never know.


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## ewhenn (Sep 21, 2015)

Kiss4aFrog said:


> Welcome to the forum Ewhenn :white^_^arial^_^0^_
> 
> 
> Very nice machine :wavetowel2:
> ...


Thanks for all the comments.

I'm in a suburb of Buffalo NY. Last winter we got annihilated with snow. At one point I got ~5 feet in 48 hours. 

#Snowvember: Buffaloâ€™s best social media posts of historic snowfall | FOX31 Denver

Apparently the El Nino winter still might screw us over this year. When you account for more than just "El Nino = warm in the Northeast", and look at the number of factors impacting your weather you get a slightly different picture.

From out regional weather team:


The Climate Prediction Center Thursday released its late fall / early winter forecast for the United States. Graphics show Western New York is forecast to have a warmer, and drier than normal, period during these three months. This seems to follow what can be typically expected during an El Nino event
During strong El Nino events, warm waters in the tropical Pacific ocean cause a strengthening of the Pacific jet stream which tends keep cold air bottled up in Canada and an active strorm track across the Southern US. Such a pattern is a warm one for Western New York during the winter and diminishes the lake effect snow process which keeps our seasonal snow totals down.

There are reasons to believe, however that this is not a typical strong El Nino. First, the pool of warm water is much father west than what is typical, and the entire Northern Pacific ocean is also running much warmer than normal. This can have a dramatic effect on how the jet stream eventually sets up resulting in the possibility of more cold air intrusions than one would typically expect in an El Nino winter. On the other side of the US, the Atlantic ocean is running cooler than normal, again in opposition to the set-up of those previous strong El Nino winters. A warmer winter could keep Lake Erie from freezing over, which could imply more snow as any lake effect season would last longer into the winter. ( A frozen Lake Erie shuts that process down). 

It will be very interesting to see how this winter will unfold given how different the lead-in to the season is looking compared to past El Nino events. *There is one year that does look similar to this year in terms of how ocean temperature distribution is set up during the fall. That year was 1958, and that winter brought heaps of snow.*​


When he's talking about higher than normal Norther pacific ocean running warmer than usual he's referring to this (the blue circle):





The water below Alaska is very warm. This is what altered the jet-stream last year and caused so much arctic air to come down and caused the cold. The warm water is still there, and this factor hasn't been present in past El Nino events.


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## 1894 (Dec 16, 2014)

Yep !!! Every winter is an adventure when you live in a lake effect region. 

ETA: Good choice on your new machine !! The 306cc on mine ( last years model ) did pretty much anything I asked it to do last winter , I bet that 369cc will take anything lake Erie throws at you with ease !


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## PixMan (Feb 14, 2015)

Great choice of machine, congratulations!

Don't say goodbye to the single stager though. They are very useful for the light stuff that the two-stage machines have trouble throwing very far. I might get one someday for that very reason, even though I initially thought they were "limited life" because of the paddles being in contact with the ground. I've been re-educated here.


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## db9938 (Nov 17, 2013)

ewhenn said:


> Thanks for all the comments.
> 
> I'm in a suburb of Buffalo NY. Last winter we got annihilated with snow. At one point I got ~5 feet in 48 hours.
> 
> ...


The guy over on weather bell.com is mimicking something very similar. I definitely appreciate his pragmatic approach, and evidence through prior observations.


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## kueh (Dec 29, 2013)

It's an issue with the chute design. Just too short. A couple of winters, I had the same issue. The snow was piled so high that I had the chute as vertical as it goes, but couldn't get it over. I had to finish the last row with a grain shovel.


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## ewhenn (Sep 21, 2015)

Update #2 posted.


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## caddydaddy (Dec 10, 2014)

ewhenn said:


> Update #2 posted.


Dang, that sucks! I'm guessing this is the first snow where you needed it? Hopefully they get it back to you soon and they aren't backed up with repairs.
My new Ariens let me down during the first snow in 2007, but I guess there's failures in any brand.


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## ewhenn (Sep 21, 2015)

caddydaddy said:


> Dang, that sucks! I'm guessing this is the first snow where you needed it? Hopefully they get it back to you soon and they aren't backed up with repairs.
> My new Ariens let me down during the first snow in 2007, but I guess there's failures in any brand.


First snow of the year, literally. 

Dealer came out and serviced on site. Bad spark plug. 

Two thumbs up for my dealer.


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## caddydaddy (Dec 10, 2014)

ewhenn said:


> First snow of the year, literally.
> 
> Dealer came out and serviced on site. Bad spark plug.
> 
> Two thumbs up for my dealer.


Great that they got it fixed quick for you! A bad plug seems like a strange failure.


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## ewhenn (Sep 21, 2015)

updated


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## PixMan (Feb 14, 2015)

ewhenn said:


> updated


Confused. What update, when?


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## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

I think he's going back to the original post and updating it.

Seems really confusing instead of just using the thread as a chronological message with updates. :2cents:


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## PixMan (Feb 14, 2015)

Kiss4aFrog said:


> I think he's going back to the original post and updating it.
> 
> Seems really confusing instead of just using the thread as a chronological message with updates. :2cents:


Yeah, I see it now. And I agree. The common thing to do is just add replies for chronological order, plus for those who get an e-mail advising of a post to the thread it gives you a link that takes you right to that most recent post rather than the first one.


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## ewhenn (Sep 21, 2015)

Sadly, updated again....

I've used it a total of 6 times for approximately 3 hours total use as last winter was warm and mostly snow free. Heck, in the picture below you can still see the little threads on the tires, that's now new this thing still is. It's already broken down to unusable twice, and now requires service again. The first time I went to use it, it had a starting issue which required service. Approximately 3 weeks later it required service again for a belt issue (I believe it was the pulley if I recall correctly). Today I went out to use the blower and again it had a problem, this time it was leaking oil. This unit has proved extremely unreliable, requiring repair for what is quite literally every other use. Completely unacceptable for a new high end unit to be this unreliable and require repairs this frequently. Of all the power tools I ever bought, this is the worst. Maybe I should have bought something higher quality, like a Power Smart for $399. 

Yeah, the dealer is nice and everything, but that doesn't help me at all. I need a machine that is reliable and works, not a smiling face that says, "see you in a week".


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## mrfixit (Dec 3, 2016)

Bummer.
All I can think of is be glad it's not a multi thousand dollar vehicle.


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