That is how my daughter says something when it is a somewhat complex answer.

I have a nice Craftsman snowblower, but something is wrong with the carb, sonic cleaning etc. have not helped. New part is still on order.

Now I dont leave gas in them and run them dry, my weedeater (Stihl) and my blower (husqavarna) are great. But I have had the worst luck with these 8 hp and up carbs. I am told they just need to be run . . . weekly. Otherwise they will crap up their carb.

A few weeks ago the girls and I tried to shovel the drive etc. It was prone to ice and both my wife and I fell pretty hard.

Lowes, Home Depot etc all are sold out of snow blowers and with the 8" we are getting this weekend I was worried about another icy driveway. (its sloped down and up about 150ft.)

So today I picked up a eGo two stage 56v. Lowes did not have them listed on the website, but there they were, three of them. So one of them followed me home.

The polar bears are sniffing it out, getting to know the new member of the family:

20220114_162031 by redstone71, on Flickr

And the business end.

20220114_162129 by redstone71, on Flickr

We will see this Sunday if this 56v electric business can get the job done.

I will be curious to see your report.

I have the ego mower and chain saw, which gives me two 56v batteries and two chargers. I dropped hint after hint about getting the ego snowblower. Instead, for Christmas, my wife got me a SnoJoe. It's only 40v and 21" wide and not self-propelled, but it worked OK on the last 3 inch snowfall we just had.

I used to have the same problem with my small engine equipment. Snowblower, lawn mower weed whip etc. I switched everything over to 91 octane non ethanol fuel. Problem gone. Those little carbs and jets don't like that gummy varnish in the ethanol gas. I just make sure the tanks are topped off at the end of the season.

The SnowJoe is advertised quite a bit up here. They make an electric shovel, too. I dont know anyone who has one.

I needed to get a cordless leaf blower for a couple of storage lockers for work. Expensed the same eGO brand..wow, super powerful, very impressed. Can't tell you about how long the battery will last but, so far after a few uses, it's still going strong.

I'm loving the new electric tools, but I'm a little worried about snowblowers. It takes so much energy to lift and throw snow, I'm not sure I'd get much done with a battery powered unit.

Two weeks ago we had an eight inch snow. I blew snow for five hours straight and used around 1.2 gallons of gasoline (12hp, 33" blower). Much of the real work was busting out the berm that the state plows across the end of the driveway. 1.2 gallons of gas has 40 kWh of energy. Being very generous, I'm going to assume only 10% thermal efficiency, so I figure I used at least four kWh of energy actually moving snow. An Ego 56v 5ah battery is .28 kWh. Assuming 100% efficiency (which it's not), I'd need eight fully charged batteries to do the work of my 1.2 gallons of gasoline, at 10% efficiency. In reality, I'd probably need more. Or at least I'd be swapping batteries onto chargers very regularly.

I'm not knocking it, I'd love to have it, but I'm eagerly awaiting the field report.

Very interesting, an after action report is a must!

If it works anything like my Kobalt weed wacker, it will have impressive power for a good 10-15 minutes but will then need a fresh battery.

Compared to Hancock, MI, I think your requirements are somewhat light. Should be just fine.

Hmmm, wonder where it is made. You guys need to get a grip.

I am guessing those of you buying this crap just glaze right over things like Para's recent thread

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
Hmmm, wonder where it is made. You guys need to get a grip.

I am guessing those of you buying this crap just glaze right over things like Para's recent thread

I didn't glaze over it. but f' it. Even my beautiful John Deere mower, where did the carb come from? The one I paid $300 for? Yeah, John Frick em hard Deere bought it from China. Good luck finding the carb for my Craftsman snowblower that IS made here. Yeah. What frick me hell am I supposed to tell my wife as I picked her up off the damn driveway . . sorry baby, cant do China.

So I bought the ONLY snowblower in the frick me region that is for sale. I would GLADLY pay for a one made in the good OL USA, but where is it? where?

Yeah I am pissed, but watching my wife nearly break her hip at 50. F my politics, I have stuff to do.

Oh, I do use 92 octane non ethanol gas in it. When I tore the stupid snowblower apart and took the carb to get it repaired, all they could do was sonic clean it and it still is gummed shut.

Either they are not really pumping non ethanol gas (the mechanic hinted at this) or the carb is just bad after sitting since last season.

No he doesnt have a kit to fix it. no one has a replacement carb I can get here (It is on order.)
But hey, lets not let righteousness slow us the frick down.

Well redstone. I am sorry about your dilemma. As the man on the castle it is your job to find solutions. Of which there are some. But do as you must. Run down and spend your money on this chicom crap. That is a choice and not a solution. And I am not just talking about your little dilemma.

I understand it is damned near impossible to not buy their stuff. I just had to buy some led shop lights that were of course made in china. So i share your frustration. I am certainly not proud of it.

I have put my Crafstman snowblower away every season the exact same way since I bought it in 2015. Every season it comes out of storage, and fires right up.

Two weeks ago, I got it out and it is now dead.

So maybe back in October I should have known this, Tried to find the magic USA made carb that would fit it. But nope, so yeah, you can righteously challenge my manliness, fine.

But I wont let politix games cause my wife to fall again, trying to help me shovel the drive. F that. so I am doing all that I can.

John 8:7

I bought an Ego lawnmower last summer and have been very pleased with it. I was thinking about getting the snowblower so I will be happy to see your review.

The last snowfall was very dry and cold, I broke out my blower and it worked ok.


18V Ryobi LEAF blower. Later that day I saw a fireman using a backpack version to clear the driveway in front of the station.

It was just the front around the doorway, if its wet no way it could do the job. Then I resort to manual labor, me and a snow shovel. A short blade pusher, not the heart attack model.

We've got up to three inches of wet forecast today, I will try the blower again but know I will have to resort to the shovel. Annually we get 18 inches +/- but it rarely lasts more than 48 hours. It's not why I installed a ratchet locker in the truck this week, it's the slope in my side yard on wet grass in the spring that defeats the old F150. No longer.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
Hmmm, wonder where it is made. You guys need to get a grip.

I am guessing those of you buying this crap just glaze right over things like Para's recent thread

Good lord man, give it a rest! Your going to wear out that soap box real quick.


As to the subject in hand.

How big of a driveway are you clearing? I use to have a plug in electric snow blower and it was impressive. I guess the battery will all depend on how much snow its going to be throwing.

It'll be interesting to see how redstone's new snow thrower works out.

My suspicion is it'll work fine for light-to-medium snowfalls of light-to-medium snow densities. I suspect it'll struggle with heavy snowfalls and/or heavier snow.

Those are the ones for which one really needs a snow thrower.

A 150 ft. long driveway on a grade? Maybe in Central VA one would get away with a lighter-duty thrower, but I wouldn't want anything less than the Toro SnowMaster I bought a couple years ago.

But, as I wrote: I'll withhold judgement until redstone reports back. Battery technology has come a long way in recent years. Perhaps I'll be surprised?

I have a corded SnowJoe...works fine in lighter stuff up to about 6-7" max. We don't get big snow often but if I go out more than a few times, I can keep up with it. It's got a rubber impeller so it's also useful on the deck to clear a path for the pups