I bought this machine from Amazon.com and it was delivered just as expected. With free shipping and no tax, Amazon just can't be beat. Assembly wasn't too challenging if you're careful and read the instructions. That took less than an hour. On the first two snowfalls I dealt with both heavy and dry snow less than 4 inches and it worked great. It would be good if the directional crank was higher and easier to reach. Direction is very important as you are also dealing with a cord which takes getting used to. I learned the hard way-DON'T let the cord get caught up in the blades!! It will damage your cord and the cord is very difficult to get off without taking off the blade. That can easily happen in low visiblity situations such as at night and when you try to hurry. Also make sure your driveway is smooth and free of sticks and small obsticles.
The best way to deal with the cord is to go back and forth, continually working away from where the cord is plugged in. On the next snowfall, about 4 inches of dry powder, it was working well until I hit a stick and then a rut where my driveway goes into the street. Well it stopped blowing snow even though the motor still whined.
Upon examination in my garage(with it UNPLUGGED of course)I noticed that the blade was spinning free of the shaft some of the time. The manual was no help at first. With a little thinking I realized that I could fix it by taking off the right side panel and tightening the left handed hex nut so that the shaft would tighten and engage a coupler. This is part of the process to replace the blade. I suspect that the shaft, upon getting an obsticle stuck in the blades, spins, loosing the blade and allowing it to spin free, the design being to protect the components in such a situation. If this is true, it is a very good design, but it should be explained in the manual along with how to retighten it. I'm sure many people wouldn't bother or wouldn't be able to figure it out and would send it right back for a refund or warrenty service and write a bad review. If the problem happens again, I'm sure I can fix it in less than 10 minutes, so I would rate this 4 and a half stars for mechanically-minded people, but only one and a half stars for those who are not. Of course, now that you've read this you know how to quickly fix it and need not to be warned away.Get more detail about
Toro 1800 18-Inch 12 Amp Electric Curve Snow Thrower #38025.
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