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I did a good deal of browsing through customer reviews before settling on this product. I was a bit concerned about may people having difficulties with belts and other failures. Still, this product had much better reviews than the other electric snow throwers on Amazon, so I decided to give it a shot.
When it arrived, I was not overly impressed. It was small, plastic, and felt more like a toy. The instructions for putting it together were quite simple. I was concerned about the "handle" on the top of the chute where the snow is thrown out of. Still, it came together pretty quick.
The night I got it, we had about 3" of snow fall, so I decided to give it a quick run. The machine is impressively powerful. It launched snow a good 20'-30'. It even handled some pretty heavy wet snow. The thrower can be angled to almost 90 degrees left or right, so I could dictate where it threw the snow.
I would have given a perfect review except for the height adjuster (the handle on top of the chute). This part attaches to the end of the tube using a screw bolt/washer/nut combination. It is supposed to be adjustable so you can throw snow up and out or shoot it almost straight sideways. Sadly, the one end of this combination is simply a rounded hub with no place to grip with a wrench or screwdriver.
Try as I might, I couldn't get the nut to tighten down on this part, and so every time I angled the chute down, the force of the out-going snow would flip it up again. Thus, I was forced to blow snow several dozen feet in to the air, where it would either blow back in to my driveway or fly on to my neighbor's car and house. This summer, I intend to look more closely at how the machine is built to see if perhaps I can figure out a way to get things tightened down.
The height adjuster aside, I am impressed with this little machine. It seems to handle the snow quite well. It sounds like nothing more than an over sized hair dryer. My fiance told me she didn't hear me using it from inside the house.
I would recommend this product to anyone who is looking to cut back on buying gas for their gas snow thrower. It's also useful for those folks who have a smaller drive, but not the strength or back to shovel heavy snow. Just remember to carefully inspect the distance from the end of your drive to your electrical outlet. Make sure you have a long enough winter-rated electrical cord.Get more detail about Toro 1800 18-Inch 12 Amp Electric Curve Snow Thrower #38025.
