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I live on the edge of the snowbelt in Northeastern Ohio. After shoveling out my driveway several times last Easter (!), I vowed to get a snowblower. After reading the reviews on Amazon, I bought a Toro ... and I love it!
We had a New Years Day snow storm that dropped somewhere between a foot to a foot-and-a-half of snow (with even bigger drifts in the wind). My 12-year-old son and I cleaned our driveway TWICE in a few hours ... as well as our back deck (try THAT with one of those big gas-powered monsters!).
We then tossed the Toro in the back of our van, drove over to my mom's house and cleaned out her driveway and sidewalk.
My back never would have gotten through that snow with just a shovel.
No tool is perfect, and one does have to deal with the electric cord with this Toro, but personally, I'd rather deal with a power cord than with gas and oil and everything else that a bigger machine entails.
Here's what I like about the Toro:
1. COMPACT SIZE. With two kids' sports equipment, two cars and a work bench, there's not much room left in our garage during the winter. The Toro smaller size fits in my garage quite nicely.
2. EASE OF USE. My 12-year-old son loves to use it. He has trouble starting our gas-powered lawn mower, but no problems with this baby!
3. WELL MADE. My 12-year-old son loves to use it ... and it still works! ;-)
4. LIGHTWEIGHT. It's light enough to carry up the steps to blow the snow off my back deck. It fits in the back of my van (see above).
5. POWERFUL FOR THE SIZE. For the New Year's storm, we had that beautiful slushy-freezing-wet snow that seems to prevalent here in Northeast Ohio (and did I mention it is HEAVY?!?). The Toro chewed right through a over a foot of the stuff with now problem. (The chute clogged once or twice, but that's gonna happen with this wet snow in any machine).
If you're looking for an affordable, easy to use snow thrower, I would highly recommend the Toro 1800.
UPDATE 3/2008
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We just got through a weekend of the heaviest snowfalls on record here in Northeast Ohio ... 36 hours straight of snowfall, and piles of snow 2' - 3' feet deep in my driveway. Insane levels of snow ... deeper in my mother's driveway, which I also had to shovel. This snow was the heavy, wind-packed stuff, and I'm pleased to say that the Toro 1800 continues to perform like a champ.
(Hint: I found that taking the electrical cord inside to keep it warm made in more manageable for the multiple trips outside to plow the driveway.)
Saturday morning my kids were chomping at the bit to get outside, so I let them use the Toro 1800 while my wife and I stayed warm inside (hooray!). We took turns using the Toro several more times throughout the weekend, and it really handled the heavy stuff quite well.
In my mom's driveway, the snow was actually DEEPER than the top of the Toro's chute! I thought for sure I'd be shoveling by hand, but the Toro just chomped through the piles of snow. Sure I worked up a sweat pushing the Toro into the piles of snow, but it was nowhere near the exertion of shoveling that much snow by hand.
This snow fell so fast and hard that it gave many people who owned BIG snowblowers a run for their money ...
The Toro 1800 is amazing! I'm really glad I bought it ... in just few months it's already paid for itself in the time I've saved shoveling driveways.
Get more detail about Toro 1800 18-Inch 12 Amp Electric Curve Snow Thrower #38025.
