# Electric Snowblowers... Novelty or Usefull?



## CanadianDave

This may be a little controversial for my first real post but I have been reading about and seeing a lot more "proper" single-stage electric units hitting the shelves and I was wondering how effective they are. I realize the main limitations to these machines but I am interested in hearing from anyone who has actually used one. I must admit that I am intrigued by the simplicity fo these things.


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## Stuofsci02

CanadianDave said:


> This may be a little controversial for my first real post but I have been reading about and seeing a lot more "proper" single-stage electric units hitting the shelves and I was wondering how effective they are. I realize the main limitations to these machines but I am interested in hearing from anyone who has actually used one. I must admit that I am intrigued by the simplicity fo these things.


I have never used one, but most of these units are running a 13A - 15A motor. This means you are getting about 2.0 - 2.3 HP of power as an absolute maximum. 

Since power measures the rate at which work can be done, the laws of physics already have these at a serious disadvantage to a gas powered unit with 5 HP or more.

Something has to give.. They either can't move the snow as far or can't move as much..

That said I am sure they might work ok in small spaces with smaller amounts of snow.


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## micah68kj

I've never experienced using one but my neighbor bought one last year and seemed to have a dickens of a time with the power cord. It was a true electric blower not battery operated. I was done with three residences by the time he got part of his sidewalk done. Admittedly, this was obviously his first time operating it and I felt bad for him but he soldiered on and finally got done. Just watching him though, convinced me to stay the heck awy from them. I know Toro makes an electric "Power shovel" that seems to have a decent legacy. Just not for me. Well, if I had *only* a small sidewalk to do and was a little older I would possibly consider getting one.
AND......:white^_^arial^_^0^_


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## skutflut

micah68kj said:


> I've never experienced using one but my neighbor bought one last year and seemed to have a dickens of a time with the power cord. It was a true electric blower not battery operated. I was done with three residences by the time he got part of his sidewalk done. Admittedly, this was obviously his first time operating it and I felt bad for him but he soldiered on and finally got done. Just watching him though, convinced me to stay the heck awy from them. I know Toro makes an electric "Power shovel" that seems to have a decent legacy. Just not for me. Well, if I had *only* a small sidewalk to do and was a little older I would possibly consider getting one.
> AND......:white^_^arial^_^0^_


I had a Power Shovel many years ago, in my first small house, single driveway, one car long. Got it for Christmas that year, and it didn't snow until March, Off I went, secret weapon in hand. Turns out it was about 3" heavy, wet snow. Power shovel was begging for mercy in about 6 minutes, internal thermal protection tripped, I went looking for a blown fuse, found none, and by the time I got back to it, it has cooled and worked again, for about 6 minutes. Tried it one other time in dry snow, and it sort of worked, but it only shot snow forward. Long story short, I dunno where it is, if it moved with us and I don't care.


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## mobiledynamics

3 Residences Joe ! Sounds like me sorta...

I do the neighbor to the right of me and I also do the neighbor to the left of me 2 houses over.
Ones older and the latter, her husband passed away suddenly one day after walking into the house from painting the fence...

The immediate neighbor to the left of me, I skip and would rather push the snowblower against the grain of snow rather than even cut a path to get to the other neighbor.


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## micah68kj

mobiledynamics said:


> 3 Residences Joe ! Sounds like me sorta...
> 
> I do the neighbor to the right of me and I also do the neighbor to the left of me 2 houses over.
> Ones older and the latter, her husband passed away suddenly one day after walking into the house from painting the fence...
> 
> The immediate neighbor to the left of me, I skip and would rather push the snowblower against the grain of snow rather than even cut a path to get to the other neighbor.


I don't charge anything either. Just do it because I'm the youngest retiree on the street and one neighbor has bad knees, one is 88, one nobody lives there and the nephew who maintains the place lives a mile or so from the house and is in his 70's. Also do anlther one across the street for a nurse who lives alone. She probably doesn't even know who does it for her.


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## ELaw

Stuofsci02 said:


> I have never used one, but most of these units are running a 13A - 15A motor. This means you are getting about 2.0 - 2.3 HP of power as an absolute maximum.
> 
> Since power measures the rate at which work can be done, the laws of physics already have these at a serious disadvantage to a gas powered unit with 5 HP or more.


Word! 

It's nice to see someone who knows science and doesn't fall for marketing B.S. Sears can stamp "5 HP" on their shop vacs all they want (in blatant violation of truth-in-advertising laws, but apparently nobody cares about that any more), but it doesn't change the fact you can only get a little over two horsepower out of a standard electrical outlet.

Having said that, I will also say my grandfather had an electric snowblower for many years and was very happy with it.

In spite of living in eastern MA where we get a decent amount of snow, he had a very short driveway (about 20'), was patient, and being retired he was able to go out as soon as a certain amount of snow had accumulated and remove it, rather than having to wait until the end of the storm or the end of the work day. So if it was heavy wet snow he'd go out when there was 2" or so, more with lighter snow.

When he got older and I started doing his driveway, I kept an Ariens ST824 in his garage as I wasn't in a position to clear the drive every time a couple of inches fell.

I did use that electric machine more than a few times and have to say I didn't find the cord to be such a big deal. You just have to come up with a system for managing it.


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## mobiledynamics

I might not do the house 2 houses over with my new 2 stager.....
She's got PT wood for her driveway expansion joints.
One of them is split, raised at least 5-6 inch out of the joint.
When I use my 621, I make it my business to avoid that area.
Sometimes I forget as it's all covered in snow....and I'm like, let me just get this clean and proceed on.

I'd hate to ding my new SB for just being helpful ;-)


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## micah68kj

mobiledynamics said:


> I might not do the house 2 houses over with my new 2 stager.....
> She's got PT wood for her driveway expansion joints.
> One of them is split, raised at least 5-6 inch out of the joint.
> When I use my 621, I make it my business to avoid that area.
> Sometimes I forget as it's all covered in snow....and I'm like, let me just get this clean and proceed on.
> 
> I'd hate to ding my new SB for just being helpful ;-)


I've seen a couple homes around here w/pressure treated expansion joints. Never had to deal with them though. I broke a paddle last year on my Ariens 522ss. Perfectly clean driveway with about 5" of semi light snow. Not forcing the machine, just letting it eat and wham! This was the vacant home next to us and the driveway is new condition pavement. Have no idea what happened.


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## kueh

CanadianDave said:


> ... I realize the main limitations to these machines but I am interested in hearing from anyone who has actually used one. ....


I have a SnowJoe 40V 18" ss blower. It works fine for fresh snow and reblown snow. It is on the small side, half way between snow shovel and gas ss blowers. Pricey, but quiet. You can work away without disturbing your neighbours. Very light as well. The charge on one battery has a theoretical limit of 40 minutes. Experience reveals about 30-ish minutes in fresh snow, maybe twenty-ish in hard snow.


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## liftoff1967

I have a Toro 1800 power curve that is electric that I use just for my second story deck for a couple of years now. Sure is a back saver. Yea you have to work around a stiff extension cord, but I put my designated extension cord out in fall running it as straight as possible. This way it is a frozen straight cord, that really helps over a frozen coiled cored.


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## CanadianDave

liftoff1967 said:


> I have a Toro 1800 power curve that is electric that I use just for my second story deck for a couple of years now. Sure is a back saver. Yea you have to work around a stiff extension cord, but I put my designated extension cord out in fall running it as straight as possible. This way it is a frozen straight cord, that really helps over a frozen coiled cored.


Thanks for the reply. That is the exact application I had in mind for an electric unit. You may want to look for a power cord with an SJ jacket (thermoset rubber jacket) they are flexible down to -40. I would also recommend a 12 gauge version.




Stuofsci02 said:


> I have never used one, but most of these units are running a 13A - 15A motor. This means you are getting about 2.0 - 2.3 HP of power as an absolute maximum.
> 
> Since power measures the rate at which work can be done, the laws of physics already have these at a serious disadvantage to a gas powered unit with 5 HP or more. Something has to give.. They either can't move the snow as far or can't move as much.. That said I am sure they might work ok in small spaces with smaller amounts of snow.


Thanks for the great and thorough analysis! You make some great points.


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## Yanmar Ronin

Bonus: in the summer use it to knock the bird turds off the deck.

Anything more than that ie. real snow on real estate of any measure you'd get better results sticking out your tongue and putting the cord up your (cough)ss.

Imo... :icon_whistling:

Humor intended... there's a niche for everything... right? :wink:

ccasion14:


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## SnowG

mobiledynamics said:


> I might not do the house 2 houses over with my new 2 stager.....
> She's got PT wood for her driveway expansion joints.
> One of them is split, raised at least 5-6 inch out of the joint.
> When I use my 621, I make it my business to avoid that area.
> Sometimes I forget as it's all covered in snow....and I'm like, let me just get this clean and proceed on.
> 
> I'd hate to ding my new SB for just being helpful ;-)


5-6 inches is more than the ground clearance of many cars! 4 inches is a high curb. She should get someone to fix that.


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## liftoff1967

Believe it or not, there is a market for the Toro 1800 electric blowers, at least here in Mpls. 

Spring of 2014 I picked up one of these off CL for $5.00, not working. A little time on the toro parts web site and $15.00 later and 1 hour of my time I had a working blower that was in good shape. I put it in my shed for the summer then listed on CL in Fall for $120. I ended up letting it go for $90

This past spring while cruising CL, I again found another flip. Same deal. $5 bucks, not working. Same problem, same $15.00 part and this time 20 minutes of my time. Tonight I sold it for $110.


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## SnowG

liftoff1967 said:


> Believe it or not, there is a market for the Toro 1800 electric blowers, at least here in Mpls.
> 
> Spring of 2014 I picked up one of these off CL for $5.00, not working. A little time on the toro parts web site and $15.00 later and 1 hour of my time I had a working blower that was in good shape. I put it in my shed for the summer then listed on CL in Fall for $120. I ended up letting it go for $90
> 
> This past spring while cruising CL, I again found another flip. Same deal. $5 bucks, not working. Same problem, same $15.00 part and this time 20 minutes of my time. Tonight I sold it for $110.


Tough way to make a living. :icon_whistling: (smile)


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## Bob E

I would need to spend twice as much as the cost of the electric snowthrower on the extension cords...


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## mobiledynamics

OT, but the cordless has been a game changer for me on many levels....
We have a landscaper but in between his visits, I do have a Husq. blower, etc on hand regardless.

I have not touched these in a year, when Dewalt came out with the cordless blower, trimmer, etc ! And I'm not even a Dewalt fan by far. I'm more a Milwaukee guy.

But these cordless tools are changing how I (we) use/own tools...


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## WriteNoob

I've used a 15 amp for 3 years. I've never popped the thermal breaker on it, and it's done all it's been asked to, going well into the realm of abuse. That said, it takes a couple of hours to do my drive, mailbox, and sidewalk after any kind of major snow. The whole time I was doing the plow piles, I was waiting for the Sparks and smoke. This year I got a great big Ariens. I'll use the the little electric for the light dustings. Mine's the 15 amp SnowJoe, by the way.

I also remembered why I hate to vacuume. It's that darned cord.


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## dr bob

When we arrived here in snow country a couple years ago, one next-door neighbor informed us that were were now partners/co-owners in a handy little electric snowthrower. Not much snow last year, and the couple times I tried the little electric, it didn't save enough work to make it really useful-- snow was light enough that a snow-pusher was useful instead.

This year it's different. Real snow in the days before Thanksgiving. Early snow, it was wet and heavy. I shoveled our driveway and one neighbor's as we were accumulating to about 6" at an inch an hour. Neighbor's hubby was in what turned out to be a six-hour line getting winter tires installed. It continued to snow into the night, and in the morning I decided that the electric snowthrower might help with the 8"+ overnight accumulation. Results were OK, but it really struggled with the depth and consistency. I cleared the paddles and chute too often, and it would go maybe fifteen minutes before the fragrance of hot motor windings would force a time-out and put me back on the shovel. Neighbor and I that mornig decided we needed to up our game some. I'm semi-retired, he and his wife are both still working, and the third partner and his wife are fully retired. A collection of heart-attack candidates in reality.

Today marked the third opportunity to use my/our new Husky snowthrower. The little Hobbs meter I put on it shows six hours of engine run time after clearing four driveways and the privately-owned little cul d'sac we are sharing. I'm getting the hang of driving the Husky now, letting the machine to do the work with me pretty much walking behind it more rather than wrestling/fighting with it as I was doing the first time.


So to the question of the value of the electric snowthrower: It's OK for light stuff, virtually no maintenance required. Good for walks more than real driveways even with the light load, since it doesn't throw snow very far. Wider stuff means the snow gets thrown several times on it's way off the driveway. The light weight makes it good for walks with steps and landings, as it's relatively easy to lift up and down to different levels. For just steps, a shovel works much better really.


Moving to the two-stage gas blower adds storage space, fuel and mechanical maintenance requirements to the whole snowclearing experience. I'm pretty sure the two neighbors/partners are not thinking about care and maintenance, but I'm not worried about keeping it in tip-top shape myself. It gets a full inspection after each use, tank refilled with sta-bil-ized fuel so it's ready if/when they need to use it. I need them to use it on my driveway when I travel on projects, so it makes sense for me to keep it in tip-top shape at all times.

If it doesn't work out for them they can always go back to the electric one in the neighbor's garage I guess.


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## 94EG8

I acquired a free Toro Power Shovel over a decade ago and I have used it to clear the deck, for that it works reasonably well, but for a driveway, no, not really.


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## db9938

Maybe it's just me, but my experience with batteries in the cold, generally don't have the same life, as in the warmer weather. 

I have a co-worker that bought a rechargeable, before consulting me, and he has an eight car length drive, with a sizable parking area in front of his garage. He obviously needed a gasser, but he saw a sale and acted on impulse. 

I've been looking for a used gasser for him ever since.


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## zandor

How do electrics do at cleaning up after a 2-stage? I don't need power, I have a gas 2-stage for that. I would like a cheap, easier than a shovel way of cleaning up that last little bit the 2-stage leaves on my front walk and sidewalk though. Is anything out there worth bothering with, or should I just stick with the pusher shovel? I have a nice heavy steel shovel that scrapes pretty well.


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## jburson250

The steel shovel's big advantage? No extension cord!

I used a Toro Power Shovel for a combined dog run and path to my oil tank fill the past 3 seasons. There's enough power for maybe 6" of fluffy. I could do it all on a 50 foot 14 gauge cord, but had to pay too much attention to where the cord was. Trying to push it forward, then discovering you've got a boot on top of the cord ceases being funny after the 4th or 5th time.

I gave it to my neighbor, he has a way larger deck than I do. It was a tough little machine,
but ill suited for my needs. Replaced it this season with an Ariens Classic 24.

Last year's 100" winter made the decision for me.


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## vmax29

I don’t know why people don’t like the power shovel it seems to work great for small areas. I put up a thread earlier on it and no one seems interested in them. I guess they are not a real snowthrower. Useful IMHO.


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## vmax29

jburson250 said:


> The steel shovel's big advantage? No extension cord.......discovering you've got a boot on top of the cord ceases being funny after the 4th or 5th time


I can appreciate that. Very true!


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## Slinger

> How do electrics do at cleaning up after a 2-stage? I don't need power, I have a gas 2-stage for that. I would like a cheap, easier than a shovel way of cleaning up that last little bit the 2-stage leaves on my front walk and sidewalk though. Is anything out there worth bothering with, or should I just stick with the pusher shovel?


The electrics typically do not have rubber paddles that scrape the ground like gas powered single-stage machines do, so while they may get some loose snow up they will not have the weight or scraping power to clear down to pavement unless the snow is fluffy. They also may not be able to throw that little bit of snow off of the driveway as too little snow usually doesn't throw very well/far.


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## JLawrence08648

I've used a 110v and thought it did a great job even in 24" of dry snow however I'd rather have, and do, a gas single stage. I think every person should own a 2 stage and a single stage. The latter to do small snows, clean ups, or as a backup when the 2 stage is down. You can get a good running single stage for $50-$100, even less.


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## RedOctobyr

I have a good 2-stage, and the electric Toro Powercurve 1800, which I used for clearing the deck. It's done impressively well, even for 12"+ of snow. It makes more torque as it slows down, so it will slow under a heavy load, but it keeps chugging along. 

Managing the cord on the deck isn't bad. I wouldn't want to use it to clear the driveway and EOD, but if the 2-stage had a problem, I'd still try the electric on the driveway, before grabbing a shovel


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## WVguy

Ordered DW an electric snow thrower, on sale at HD for $110 + sales tax. A Snow Joe 18" 14.5 Amp with light.

What, you bought your WIFE a snow thrower? When you already have a nice Ariens two-stage gas powered one that will throw snow almost into the next county? I can just hear the comments from her female cousins - "You lazy jerk! Get off your butt and do something useful around there!"

Well, here's the issue: When it snows, I'm in the camp of "let it snow until it's done, then I only have to clear it once". DW on the other hand gets a bee in her bonnet and will grab the snow shovel after the first inch and say "I'm just going to clear the front porch and steps". Then it's "Well, I was out there, so I just went ahead and did the walkway". After that it's "I just wanted to clear a little bit of the driveway" and she ends up doing the whole thing. Twice, maybe three times as the snow continues to fall.

And to top it all off, then for the next three or four days she complains about her sore back.









So I asked her if she wanted an electric one (weighs ~30 lbs) to avoid all that and she agreed. We'll see how this works out.









If/when we get any appreciable amount of snow I'll come back and let y'all know if this was a good idea or a flop.


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## FrankOceanXray

My SnowJoe corded sucked. Sold it as quickly as I could. I ended up buying a really nice extension cord for it.. so I got that now.


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## WVguy

FrankOceanXray said:


> My SnowJoe corded sucked. Sold it as quickly as I could. I ended up buying a really nice extension cord for it.. so I got that now.


Well, at least I already have the extension cord. Reviews are kind of all over the map on those things, most positive but a significant number of people hated them. As best I can tell it seems to depend on the alignment of the moon & stars....

If it doesn't work out then I "chalk it up to tuition" as my father used to say, sell it for what I can, and life goes on.


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## Bob E

Next time hand her a broom. Works good for a couple inches and it's easier on the back.


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## crazzywolfie

i haven't used 1 recently but when i did it seemed pretty underpowered. almost had to do a pass or 2 down the side of the driveway to make a place to toss the snow because it is not powerfull enough to throw the snow 6+ feet off the driveway. it might have only thrown the snow 3-4 feet. maybe the new ones have gotten better since but i doubt it. personally i will stick to my gas blower. maybe eventually the cordless electric ones will be good enough to consider but i think it may be a while. either way it still beets shoveling


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## tabora

If anyone doubts the capability of a small SnowJoe (Model SJ615E) electric, here's a photo of my deck which was covered with bucket-high, solid, wet snow... Aside from a few clogs that were easily addressed, it went very well! I've used it to do a 3-car-wide driveway with fluffier snow, as well.


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## RedOctobyr

If you like the concept, but the Snow Joe itself leaves something to be desired, you could try a used Toro Powercurve 1800. They can be found for under $50 around here, if you look around. I've paid between $25 and $50 for the ones I've bought. The $50 one was actually young enough that it's the current style. I hope the SJ works out well for you!


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## FrankOceanXray

WVguy said:


> FrankOceanXray said:
> 
> 
> 
> My SnowJoe corded sucked. Sold it as quickly as I could. I ended up buying a really nice extension cord for it.. so I got that now.
> 
> 
> 
> Well, at least I already have the extension cord. Reviews are kind of all over the map on those things, most positive but a significant number of people hated them. As best I can tell it seems to depend on the alignment of the moon & stars....
> 
> If it doesn't work out then I "chalk it up to tuition" as my father used to say, sell it for what I can, and life goes on.
Click to expand...

:Thumbup:


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