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

The Toro 1800 Power Curve snow blower was pretty simple to assemble, but there are two points that need attention.

First, and VERY IMPORTANT is when putting the handle together. There are two bolts that hold the top and bottom part of the handle together. The wire from the switch to the motor is fed through one of the handle bars. It's way too easy to damage the wire with the bolt. I tore the outside insulation, but the interior wires are still protected.

The other problem with assembly is the chute that directs the snow. There are a couple of bolts with self locking nuts that need to be tightened tight enough to hold the chute in position yet loose enough to allow the chute to stay in place. The bolt heads are held in position by a square hole in the plastic. When I tried to tighten the self locking nut, it was tight enough that the bolt was spinning in the plastic wearing out the square hole. I ended up replacing the locking nuts with a regular nut and lock washer. I'll have to watch them so they don't come loose.

Last night there was about 5 inches of fairly wet and heavy snow. I first used a shovel to roll up about the first 10 feet of my driveway (2 car wide / 4 car long) and then tried the blower to move the piled up snow. The pile was about 12-15 inches deep and pretty well packed. The blower did just fine sucking up about a 10 inch wide swath and blowing it into the yard. I did the rest of the 5 inch deep driveway from side-to-side blowing the snow all the way across the driveway and into the yard. It worked just fine. The snow chute worked pretty good allowing to me change the direction on the move. The up-and-down part was pretty good and allowed some aiming of the snow, but not as much as I would have liked.

The main points for me is quietness and ease of use. Just plug in and go. I haven't had a problem with the extension cord. I have a 100 foot 16/3 cord I use for my weed eater that seems to work just fine. I can also pick it up with one hand and move it around the garage - try that with a 3hp snow blower. If we get a foot or so, I may regret it (maybe not) but those don't happen very often. By the way, I bought this at a local hardware store - it cost me $30 more but I like to support local stores. Get more detail about Toro 1800 18-Inch 12 Amp Electric Curve Snow Thrower #38025.