Looking to purchase a snow blower for first time me in my life. My drive way is 40 feet long and 15 wide. Sidewalk is 35 feet long and 4 feet wide. Basically your typical suburban lot. Any suggestions?

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It's been a while since I've bought one and my model doesn't get sold any more.

But, whatever you choose, use this stuff for fuel. It's expensive but worth it. It's what gas was back in the 1970s and will start without additives.

https://www.acehardware.com/departments ... lsrc=aw.ds

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MOVE

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I love my Honda single stage. If I were in the market, I’d look at whether an electric could do the job. You don’t need Dr. Ken’s fancy gas.

Don’t skimp. Cheap small ones or electric will make you want to kill yourself in a meaningful snow.

I’d recommend at least 24” from a reputable brand.

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Last year I got the Toro 60v battery one. It was pricey compared to a comparable single stage gas but I'm very happy with it. Really light, stupid easy to use and maintain, throws snow very well too. Also really quiet. My driveway is comparable to yours and no issuee with the battery. Battery is expensive when it will come time to replace, but it has a 3 yr replace, for now

This. Either get one that's gonna do it well (and I have to say that there is tremendous sense of achievement when one takes 14" of snow and sends it in a beautiful arc off of your driveway...it is a beautiful thing)

...or have a male child 13-19 years ago...

or hire someone

https://www.ariens.com/en-us/power-equi ... gLzVPD_BwE

I’ve always had an Ariens and they’ve consistently treated me pretty well. I have quite a bit of snow to move as my driveway is almost 100 ft long and it has an attached patio. They aren’t the cheapest. I don’t have the tallest housing opening. If I had to do it all over again I’d go taller to get through drifts and big snows a bit easier. Mine is one of the smaller two stages but the benefit is that it takes up less room in the garage.

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Men use shovels

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for that size driveway i would go electric, no doubt. the big toro one is clearly the best. fuck messing around with gas unless you need longer than 30min runtime https://www.homedepot.com/p/Toro-60-Vol ... /316817667

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I’ve not heard how the electric ones operate but that’s a good suggestion. The only machine I have left for yard work that is gas operated is the snow blower.

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And that makes sense.. snow blowers expend a fuck ton of energy. Anything over a regular sized driveway I would still do gas... Or modify an electric one to hold more batteries. Actually it would be run to convert to lifepo4 batteries with like 4x the run capacity. Probably about 1k upgrade but there would be no swapping shit to charge. You'd get like 2 hour runtime and then just plug it in when you're done.

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I have a pretty shitty snowblower and a normal size driveway. There is no greater frustration than trying to snowblow at 5am and getting dominated by a large drift that chokes up your augers. I wouldn’t fuck around with electric unless it’s very high end or you don’t mind doing the driveway in 30min increments.

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Do you have a bad electric or gas one?

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Gas. Just too small for this climate, particularly if we get a wet snow.

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There's no reason an electric snow blower would have less torque to burn through snow drifts over a gas powered one. In fact electric should have more torque. Don't buy shitty electric anything. If you do, then compare them to shitty gas models.

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So I’m a dummy and was thinking battery v gas (rather than electric).

My question was more around power consumption for the batteries. I know Ariens a little and know they have some very high end battery stuff, but don’t know how affordable that will be. Good brands have avoided small battery powered because they can’t perform.

And none of that has anything to do with electric, so this is all rambling nonsense.

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I live in a townhouse and there is no better sound than hearing the bobcats plowing the driveway at 4 in the morning after a big snow.

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What?

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Late edit. Upshot: I wouldn’t recommend a small battery powered.

Electric may be ok depending on the girth of the drive. Gas is the gold standard and it will remain that way.

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Get yourself a big old 24 inch icebreaking gas hog, throw some TruFuel in it and dominate your driveway.

I do the whole neighborhood and plow a dog track in my backyard for the dog to get around.

You will feel like a Viking.

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Well said b

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I have a MTD big gas hog someone gave me. It is awesome. I would not buy such a big thing though.

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After years of shoveling, somehow I got older..... Bought a battery powered one last year (EGO), and it worked fine for every snow we had. If we get a really large storm, the batteries wouldn't last long enough to do the entire driveway (35x20). But, if we get that much snow, I'm not going anywhere anyway. I really like not dealing with gas, oil, etc.

If I decide to replace my pushmower, I'd probably get the same brand as the snowblower, and then I'd have a second set of batteries to swap in for larger snow amounts.

I bought an Ego lawn mower last year and love it. It feels pretty good not messing around with fuel and oil and all that. I'm definitely looking at Ego electric models. I have a pretty small driveway so a large snow blower isn't even that imperative for me, I am actually considering getting the Ego power shovel. I dont have a lot of room in my garage for a big snow blower that might only get used a couple times a year, and the power shovel will hang right up on the wall. It is rated up to 6" of wet snow on a double-wide standard driveway on one charge, so that should do the trick. I will probably be picking it up this week.

Still shovel, can move the small snows around fairly easily, and have a guy if know what plows us out if we get a bigger snow. Use him 2-3 times a year, and he only charges $20 bucks, so have avoided acquiring and storing a snow blower so far, the wife and kid keep threatening to buy one for me, but so far so good.

I have a 24" Aries 2 stage. It's 10 years old....still running.

2 Stage is a must for the slush at the end of the driveway.

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Ended up going with this. Had a similar recommendation from a friend. Looking forward to seeing how this works.

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