For me, it's an issue of time savings as much as the work involved.
For example, last Sunday my wife and I spent four hours shoveling out our driveway so she could get out for work on Monday. We don't always have that luxury. Sometimes it'll be completely clear the night before, and we'll wake up to 6-9" on the ground.
It's not a big deal if I have all day to clear the snow away. But if we wake up and discover it has snowed, the faster we can get the driveway cleared the better, or else someone is going to be late for work.
Even with a snowblower, there will be plenty of hand shoveling involved around the cars, on the walk between the house/garage, etc.
If there's 6-9" of fresh snow on the ground in the morning, I'm sure you or your wife will be far from the only folks a little late to work that day... :)
I believe the post you quoted answered that question. But no, I have not used one. Have no need to do so and when I have to shovel I will use something that is not a clumsy abortion.
Actually, our snow is usually limited to our elevation. Go down the road just a mile or two and there's usually nothing. People at work give you this "yeah right" response when you tell them you're late because of snow. :)
Whatever but I am sorry you suckered on it. Guess you do have to try to justify it. What did it cost? Lasst I saw IIRC was $69. The one I saw demonstrated was $24 out of a junk shop. Buyer pitched it after that.
Let me see if I can get through to this imbecile "Harry K." You never used one, so you have abso no idea how well it works. I wasn't suckered into it, in fact, I've gotten excellent use out of it.
You, on the other hand, are continuing to babble on about something which you have no experience with.
So, once again - why exactly do you think this device doesn't work as advertised? Put up, imbecile, or shut up.
Sorry to drop in on this thread rather late. We live in Iowa. This has been one of the worst winters we have had in many years. We have an eight horse Ahrens (or however you spell it) two stage snow blower that will handle just about anything except very wet snow. That plugs the shoot and we have to take it out of gear, wait until we are absolutely sure the auger and all other moving part have come to a complete stop. Then we dig it out of the shoot with a small round point shovel we have. We back up a ways and put it back in gear. If we are lucky we will be able to move along quite awhile, but not always. We live on a four lane main street and our driveway gets filled a number of times before they are done. I don't cuss at them because I ran one of those plows for 34 years, but I don't have to like it.
This winter some of our snows have been in excess of 6" with drifting, while others have only been 1"-3" of the fluffy stuff that is hardly worth using the machine on. Unfortunately I strained my back on the very first snow and the doctor told my wife she has to do the shoveling and learn to use the snow blower. Actually, she's pretty darned good at it.
She has been asking me if we can look at one of the light weight electric snow blowers that she could use on the lighter snows by next fall before the first snows come in December. I have to confess that I have thought about that for a number of years, but just have never followed through with it. Our driveway is over 90' from the street to the garage and then there is a turn around area behind the house and of course the rather large dog run that we try to keep clean so it's easier to pick up their droppings.
We have two lawn mowers; one is a rechargeable electric and the other is a corded electric and we love them both. No gas, no oil, no spark plug. Just sharpen the blade once or twice a year.
Our neighbor has a light weight gas Toro snow blower and they have a gravel driveway. She has it adjusted up just enough that it doesn't throw gravel at her hour or ours.
Good luck with whatever you decide.
I would like to have a 4-wheel ATV with a plow on it, but just cannot justify the cost of even a used one. Besides I am not the type to take one mud running or any of that other stuff the young pups around here do with theirs.
I ended up buying the Toro 1800 electric snowblower for $300. It took less than 30 minutes to assemble, and we still had patches of snow around I could try it out on.
I didn't have much snow to test it with, but I think it's going to work very well. Our driveway is about 150-200 feet long, but with a 100' cord and an outlet on our pumphouse about halfway up, I can reach the entire drive.
The snow we had left was mostly packed wet snow from earlier shoveling. The Toro 1800 had no problem going through it. I was impressed. With some of the taller piles I just lifted it up and set it on top, then worked my way down through the snow bank. Quick and easy.
We have a gravel driveway, and yes, it picks up tiny bits of gravel here and there, but no more than hand shoveling does. Of course, the blower throws the stones so I'm careful to aim the shoot where the stones (or snow for that matter) won't hit anything.
Now I just have to wait for our next snow fall, which we probably won't see till sometime next year.
The only real gripe I have with the Toro 1800 is the handle height is not adjustable. I'm six feet tall and the handle is kind of low. It gets worse when I try to tip the blower up slightly to avoid picking up stones. My back gets kind of sore from all that bending over, but it's still better than shoveling.
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