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

I had hopes for this item because my husband and I both have bad backs (I have 4 herniated discs, fibromyalgia and chronic sciatic pain). We have a city house with only about 50 ft of sidewalk, and 10 feet of driveway to shovel since we park the cars at the end of the driveway. I had hoped that since we don't like gas powered tools and have such a small area to do that this item would be great for us. We got the snowblower delivered from Amazon a day before a 12" snow storm. It had been reduced the week I was considering it to 279 so I took it as a sign. Got free super saver shipping. I found it slightly tricky to put together because of the wires through the handle thing, but not as bad as some made it sound. I am a woman with a some mechanical knowledge (more than my husband who also had the flu that weekend). I used it three times during the storm, after each time about 4 inches had come down. It worked great, and was almost exactly like using our electric lawn mower. I was able to move the snow with a basic push pull motion which was SOOO much better than the bending, lifting and throwing of shoveling. The only difference was that the lawn mower still cuts while being pulled back, but the snow thrower only throws snow when moving forward. It pulls itself somewhat so I also didn't find myself having to work hard at pushing it at all. (we had bought the Toro snow SHOVEL which I stopped using years ago because of the effort to push it along). My husband was sick through this storm so I did it all and it was great. I could tell that alot of it was made of plastic so I didn't just go out there and ram it through the heavy stuff the plow left in the driveway. It definitely is not happy to hit chunks of ice and has a lot of plastic parts. It seemed to want to climb up over the icy stuff which was helpful in taking it down in thinner layers to avoid breaking it. I also ALWAYS chop up the stuff with a shovel before shoveling/snowblowing if its had time to freeze. You sort of want to hold onto the machine with two hands (there are two handles) to SHAVE it down where it is icy or full of chunks from the plow. The directions recommend this as well. At @35 lbs it was fine for me to do that. My neighbors looked envious. It took a bit of time, but not having to lift the shovel full of heavy, icey snow was great. I also liked what a open area it cut around the cars, which are parked in a narrow driveway between close houses. When we shovel it usually just slides down and its hard to dig out the cars. We also have uneven slate side walk and driveway that the toro snow SHOVEL didn't work well on, but this snow THROWER was fine on it. Of course my daughter did some clean up work with the shovel afterwards. I don't think any snow blower will get it perfectly clean down to the sidewalk/pavement. So, I only used it for one storm so far, but it saved me alot of back trouble. I would recommend it for those who have small area to clear, who are comfortable using an outdoor electrical corded machine(it does get stiff in the cold and you have to keep it clear!), and those who don't mind "taking it slow and easy" with a small machine that has a lot of plastic parts. If you're someone who demands power, have a large driveway, want to do over 6" at a time or want to be able to just blast through the heavy stuff from the plow, I don't think this is for you. I also am having trouble having the hood stay at a bent angle. Wants to just shoot up straight all the time. So I am working on that, probably needs different bolt/washer. But I really am happy with it so far. Get more detail about Toro 1800 18-Inch 12 Amp Electric Curve Snow Thrower #38025.