Toro 1800 18-Inch 12 Amp Electric Curve Snow Thrower #38025 Right now

Last year, there were some enterprising lads from the neighborhood who cleaned my drive and walks when 4 or more inches of snow fell, but they didn't bother with the light stuff. Their appearance also depended on whether school was cancelled, so I had to do a bit more shoveling than my back was comfortable with. I bought this Toro electric snow thrower on sale last summer because I needed a small step up from manual shoveling for when the enterprising lads weren't around, and I thought this would handle at least a couple inches or so. I chose electric because I didn't want a big, noisy, smelly, and maintenance hungry gas burner for infrequent and undemanding use.

January, 2009, saw record-setting snowfall and bitterly low temps in SE Michigan but no enterprising lads. I was left to tackle up to ten inches at a time on a 70-foot long double-wide driveway with what I thought would be a wholly inadequate light-duty electric toy. I was wrong. This thing chewed its way through powdery snow, wet and heavy snow, and snow that had been packed by traffic and threw it a surprising distance. Sure, when I tried to take too big a bite and shoved it into a three-foot drift, it slowed and protested, but backing off and taking smaller bites solved the problem, and I never tripped a breaker. It was so fast, efficient, and - dare I say - fun that I cleared two neighbors' drives while they were at work.

After a few uses, I had learned a couple important lessons. First, to avoid entangling the electric cord. start clearing closest to the cord's source and work away from it. That way the cord is always trailing you. Second, and I'm sure this applies equally to gas-powered machines, don't throw the snow upwind.Get more detail about Toro 1800 18-Inch 12 Amp Electric Curve Snow Thrower #38025.