Purchase Toro 1800 18-Inch 12 Amp Electric Curve Snow Thrower #38025

As the titled indicates, my Toro snow thrower just burned itself out after 2 years of light use. I did nothing unusual today, just plugged it in and started to clear my driveway of about 4-5 inches of snow when after 5 minutes use I smelled something burning. I pulled it into my garage an unplugged it before examining it for anything clogging or stuck in the "blade". I couldn't find anything wrong so I plugged it in again. When I pulled the handle to start it turning it ran for 30 seconds and then I saw a spark come from the end that contains the electric motor at which time it died. It never did a great job, especially on wet packed snow, and the electric cord was a pain, but I would have rated it a "4" on performance given its limitations. Very disappointing to shell out $300 for something I used so little but I'll take it to a local service center to get an estimate for repair. It probably needs a new motor but if the total cost is over $100 I'll just chuck it and borrow my neighbors gas snow thrower for the rest of the winter.

UPDATE: 2/29/2008, I removed the electric motor and found the armature to be damaged. The replacement part cost is $168 from a local Toro dealer. This cost is for the part only, no labor involved, and more than half what the entire snow thrower costs. The Toro dealer suggested I buy a new one instead of replacing the motor. Needless to say I didn't buy the replacement motor nor did I buy another Toro 1800 Power Curve. I bought this snow thrower because of the high rating it was given by many reviewers, not realizing that most of them were not long term ratings. I liked mine too, when it worked, but am very disappointed in its reliability. It would be interesting to see what other purchasers of this snow thrower say after 2-3 years of service instead of 1-2 months. Would they still rate it 4-5 stars?

UPDATE#2: 3/14/2008, After contacting Toro by email, explaining my problems and that I owned the snow thrower for about 2 1/2 years and thus outside the warranty period, they graciously offered to repair or replace it if I sent it back to them at my expense. So I disassembled it, packed it up in the original box and brought it down to a local UPS center. The cost was $38, but 2-weeks later I received my seemingly new unit from Toro. I assembled the unit and started it up with no problems. Now I need some snow to try it out. So although it was a time consuming experience, with some expense, I am very impressed with Toro's customer service and would rate them 5-stars in that area. The short lifetime of the original unit was disappointing but at least the manufacturer stood behind their product. We'll see how long this one lasts but I'm satisfied with Toro and would buy another product of theirs based on their customer service.Get more detail about Toro 1800 18-Inch 12 Amp Electric Curve Snow Thrower #38025.