Get the drop on the drifts: Tips for buying the best snow blower
It all depends on your driveway, its incline, how much you want to spend, and how much maintenance you are willing to do.
It’s January in New England, which means snowy weather is on the way. A storm brewing off the coast could drop a foot of snow or more in Boston and the surrounding cities and towns starting Friday evening and moving into Saturday. There’s a chance that it might even turn into a bomb cyclone, a term that may make even the hardiest New Englanders want to flee to Florida.
For those sticking around, just the thought of removing all that snow can make your back ache. Snow blowers can make the process less agonizing, but with dozens of styles, models, and brands, how do you know which one to buy? It depends on your driveway and the amount of snow you typically get, said Brian Macey of Snow Blowers Direct.
“Amount of snow is a big factor,” Macey said. “Larger snow blowers don’t handle small amounts of snow well, and vice versa.”
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The most common types of snow blowers are single-stage and two-stage. Single-stage snow blowers tend to be better for small driveways and lighter snowfall, Macey said. Single-stage machines have augers that touch the ground, allowing them to clear close. Two-stage snow blowers have augers a couple inches off the ground, propelling large swaths of snow at a time.
“With a two-stage, those are a lot better with larger amounts of snow,” Macey said, “but those don’t actually make contact with the ground, so a lot of times you might end up with a small coating of snow still on the ground.”
If you have a gravel driveway, two-stage is the way to go. “You never want to use a single-stage on a gravel driveway,” Macey said. “With a single-stage snow blower you have the paddle actually touching the ground, so if there’s loose rocks, it’s going to scoop those up and fire them out through the chute.”
There’s also the behemoth three-stage snow blower, made with a chopper at the front to break up larger chunks. Snow stands little chance of holding its ground against this blower, Macey said, but people should consider what kind of machine they can handle before running to purchase a massive snow-dozer.
For anyone who lives atop a hill, a track-drive snow blower may be the safest option. This style is built like a tank, with tracks where the wheels would be. Though track-drive snow blowers can be slower and harder to manipulate, they offer more traction than wheeled snow blowers, said Dale Vogelsanger of Snow Blowers Direct.
“A round tire only has rubber around that whole tire circumference, and that may be only three inches,” Vogelsanger said, “whereas with a track-drive you’ve got 10 inches of rubber, so they’re much more sure-footed.”
The cost of a snow blower can vary significantly, according to LawnStarter. On its website, the yard service company noted the average cost of various blowers:
Electric
Corded: $92.47
Cordless: $207.42
Gas
Single-stage: $549.42
Two-stage: $1,081.19
Three-stage: $1,699.30
But there are other things to consider besides the cost.
“If you’re going to buy a big snow blower, you want to make sure you are able to handle it,” Elysee Jean of Mr. Jean Mobile Tools Repair in Waltham said.
Maintenance is one consideration. Many snow blowers have gas engines that require some of the same care that car engines do, Pete Fenlason of Westborough-based Boston Lawnmower Co. said.
“Like the car or the truck you drive, it has an engine, and even though you don’t use it throughout the year, doing maintenance on the engine, a simple oil change is crucial to longevity,” Fenlason said.
Forgetting to empty the gas from the tank at the end of the season can be fatal for the machines.
“If you don’t use ethanol-free fuel and you leave the fuel in the snow blower, you’re going to be calling me next season to help fix it,” Jean said.
You can avoid these kinds of maintenance issues by buying an electric blower, but these may not offer the capacity needed to clear a large driveway. “For the most part, anything electric is going to be single-stage. The electrical ones can’t provide as much power as a gas engine in an efficient way,” Macey said.
When investing in a snow blower, one should always focus on whether the machine will be up to the task at hand, Fenlason said.
“You should be not only thinking budget-wise, but also thinking about purchasing a snow blower that will do the job.”
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