# Gravely (Ariens) Hydro Brush 36 REVIEW!!



## Erik1981

Being an active member of Lawnsite.com and doing this review over there I felt it should be posted here as well, especially since we will be using it on our snowblowing crew at this time.

Because of our use of numerous Gravely machines and how impressed we have been with them Gravely asked us to do a review of their Power Brush!! Gravely shipped one out to my dealer and I got word last night that it had arrived and my dealer brought it over to our shop just a few minutes ago.

Gravely is owned by Ariens, one of the best companies out there when it comes to snow equipment.

When he got here with it I pulled one of my trucks out of the shop and used it on my dirty shop floor. My shop floor is full of dirt/sand/salt from the last few weeks of winter. So it is caked and dried on pretty well. Once I found out Gravely was sending me one of these to try out and review I stopped sweeping that area of the shop... Once pass with the Power Brush cleaned it right up back down to the tile.

Since we are getting this in the middle of snow removal season our hope is that it is a great tool for sidewalks and maybe some driveways. 

I am going to post some pics of the machine and some before and after pics of the shop floor along with detailed info about the machine shortly.


----------



## Erik1981

Equipment pics


----------



## Erik1981

a couple more pics


----------



## Erik1981

a couple of pics of my shop floor. Im not sure if the pics do it justice but it did a great job getting up a lot of stuff.


----------



## Erik1981

We are supposed to get some snow overnight so I hope we get to use it in the morning, if not I am going to take it to one of our Condo Associations and clean their sidewalks with it just to get a better feel for it. I will post before and after pics.


----------



## Erik1981

The model Gravely sent me came with a 287cc 9.5hp Subaru engine which seems to have more than plenty of power. It features a Hydrostatic drive system which has infinite speed adjustments, this is a great feature because you are not locked into a speed selected by a gear and you can adjust speed on the fly.

The brush is 36" wide and can rotate upto 40* in either direction with the pull of a trigger under the right handle. This model also features hand warmers, which I did turn on today while I had the shop opened up and they worked great, to me as a commercial guy who is out for hours at a time, hand warmers are a must for me and my guys. The Halogen Headlight allows for working in very dark conditions and puts out good like for a pretty good distance ahead of you.

This machine is quality built, like all other commercial Gravely pieces we own. Everything is very heavy duty and built to last. I will get into more specifics on the materials and quality of the build tomorrow after I have had more of a chance to use it.


----------



## detdrbuzzard

I hope you get some snow to test it on. when I was a kid we had a snow removal company that would do the sidewalk with a power brush attached to a jeep


----------



## Big Ed

What is the price tag on it?


----------



## db9938

Does the engine have the usual snow use provisions? ( heat duct shrouds to the carb)


----------



## detdrbuzzard

Big Ed said:


> What is the price tag on it?


if you gotta ask you can't afford it


----------



## uberT

Are these machines intended as a substitute for a snow thrower or just a final clean up afterwards? How much snow can they move?

There's a video on Utube where someone is using this machine on their lawn !


----------



## Hanky

I have seen them used on lawns in spring to sweep all the road salt and sand off lawns on green areas beside the highway going through towns.


----------



## Ariens Company

*Power Brush*



uberT said:


> Are these machines intended as a substitute for a snow thrower or just a final clean up afterwards? How much snow can they move?
> 
> There's a video on Utube where someone is using this machine on their lawn !


uberT -

We recommend using the power brush for light fluffy snow (6” or less)
or heavy snow (no more than 3 inches) for best performance.

Here are several links to our videos for the Power Brush.

This video shows the many uses for this unit as it can be used not only for snow removal, but dethatching, raking, etc. 




This video shows the Gravely power brush being used for snow removal 




Let me know if you have any other questions.

Mary Lyn


----------



## uberT

Mary Lyn, thanks for the reply. You addressed my questions about it  I guess this is for the home owner that 'has everything' or a commercial setting where there are sidewalks and lots of pedestrian traffic.


----------



## Erik1981

We got to actually use the machine the other night and it was pretty impressive. I did take some pics of our work but the camera on my phone must not have been operating well because the pics are very distorted to the point you would not be able to tell what the pics are of so I am not uploading them. 

The Hydro Brush really shined on long sidewalks. We had a customer call in the morning and asked what we used because it cleaned their walkways so well, they were quite impressed!!

We were working in about 1 1/2" of fresh snow that had a normal moisture content (not fluffy but not real wet either, good snow for snowballs!!) On hard surfaces that were consistently kept clean, so we were cleaning only fresh snow we could run the machine at full speed and you would never know that it snowed even if people had walked on it before we arrived. We had a few places that had not been shoveled or blown with the smaller snowfalls (1/4" - 1/2") so there was a fair amount of hard packed snow on the concrete under the fresh snow. In these conditions it worked best to slow down to 1/2 speed or less in order to get the concrete perfectly clean without having to go over it twice. 
In areas were we had to go back and forth, throwing snow on top of the next path as we cleared, it handled the additional snow like a champ. At the end of a path when we had to turn around and change the angle of the brush to throw snow in the opposite direction, my guys found this to be an easy task - just pull the trigger (trigger is under the right handle and is metal and rugged so it will not break) and swing the back of the unit, release the trigger to lock it in place. This was a very smooth procedure.

Where we found it tough was in areas where we had to make 90* or 180* turns. If there was some hard packed snow in those areas, then the machine would jerk a bit from the brush trying to brush up the snow and the tires wanting to spin faster than the brush allow it to move forward, but I think that if they tire change were on (optional accessory) this would be eliminated.

This machine features electric start which was a great feature to have out in the cold, no pull starting, just turn the key and go!! The engine throttle and choke controls are actually down on the engine, so if you need to use them you will have to bend down and reach under the handles to use them. It would have been nice to have these on the control panel but not a huge deal.

We found that this machine is an ideal piece of equipment for sidewalks and big open driveways or small lots.


----------

