Side by Side Comparison of: Greenworks vs Snow Joe

first time (and reluctant) buyer. got it for $100 on black friday. live in ny so don't get mid-west size snow but it does snow (more or less) a few times during the winter. last night it snowed for the first time - we had about 5-7" of powdery snow. I am not old but not a kid, and I've been scared of becoming a "statistic" - in fact last year I got my first cardiologist check (they did the full thing and I came out with flying colors). I shoveled like every year, but I make sure to take breaks. it would have taken me 1.5 hours to shovel with multiple breaks). With this snowblower I did it in 15 min w/ no breaks at all. I almost miss the workout - but I'll settle for going to the gym. All this to say I really didn't want to buy one (in fact I left it in the box until now...2 months later), but it really is an asset. I even bought a heavy duty cord...very heave and perhaps overkill but I know it'll handle anything (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001KY03FC/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1).

I was told that electrics are under powered....and I think it may be if I got much much more snow (like the mid west) and if the snow were wetter and heavier. but my heart tells me that this corded version will do the trick...it really dove through all the snow like a beast (wrangling the heavy cord is a bit of a chore...but I think the battery powered versions probably run out of juice quickly...the cord gave me assurance that I wouldn't have to wait for recharging...and its cheaper).

I'm glad I bought this - highly recommend.

Funny story - my buddy who goes on and on about his big tough gas powered machine actually is now thinking of get an electric as a secondary. I think for most if not all snow we will see in NY around NYC, the electric will be more than enough. the gas powered is really for midwest/Buffalo level snow we think. He said he ended up not even taking it out this time and actually shoveled by hand since it is such a big production to get that heavy thing prepped and ready and filled w/ gas and move it around, etc. My electric I can basically pick up with one hand, and then wipe it off and unplug it and keep it in a large closet. I love it.

Update 2/14: got another snowstorm sadly but this time it was wetter and heavier and the snowblowing was a bit of a slog. The first time I guess it was slightly lighter but not too light and I was able to do the entire driveway and sidewalk in one shot. This time there was a couple inch layer of slushy wetness at the bottom and I had to stop twice to take a rest. All in all still better than shoveling.

Life saver during the blizzard! 30+ inches. Had to knock down snow before blowing but never could have dug ourselves out without it. We were worried it wouldn't work because of the price but worked like a charm

Bought this in September to save my back and do thankful I did! Northern Virginia just got hammered with one of the top 5 worse snowfalls on record. We had over 24" inches. We ran this a few times on fresh snow and it worked great. The final clean up was about 20". It was slow going and we had to take a few passes but she did a great job. Will buy again!

With the bulk of winter on its way, I thought it time to pull the trigger on a snowblower. So I started doing some research right here on Amazon. I was intrigued and impressed with a lot of reviews for the GreenWorks 2600502 13 Amp 20" Corded Snow Thrower, so I bought one. There are a few reviewers who don’t think this works right, and to them, I have a serious bit of advice: GET THE RIGHT EXTENSION CORD! In my opinion, this is it: US Wire 98100 14/3 100-Foot SJEOW TPE Cold Weather Extension Cord Blue with Lighted Plug.SOME BACKGROUNG:We live in Salt Lake City, Utah where some winters can be crazy. EL NINO WINTER 2016 IS COMING!! So of course, we want to be prepared.Check it out: So far, my wife and I have used our snow-thrower 3 times. WHOA! It worked so well that we bought one for her parents (along with the correct extension cord).It wasn’t super easy to put the thing together, but it wasn’t super difficult either. Once you get it up and running, there are some nice little handles to loop the extension cord around. When you are outside and ready to go, it’s good practice to take a few seconds and map out your path. Lay the cord out accordingly as to avoid running it over in the snow.The thrower sounds like a vacuum. It works terrific on flaky snow as well as slightly icy snow. Of course, the more frozen the snow is, the more effort you’ll have to put into it, and you may need to go over the ground an extra time, but compared to a snow shovel like this Ergieshovel Ergonomic Back Saving Snow Shovel, 18" W , GreenWorks will have you zippity do-da’ing the snow from your driveway onto your lawn in no time. Weee!It only took 15 minutes or so for me to clear the driveway, the sidewalks around our property, a pathway to the trash cans, and the front porch up to the front door. Not bad.BOTTOM LINE:If you’re reading the reviews and you’re on the fence about pulling the trigger, just do it! Just make sure you get the right cord because it makes all the difference in the world.

Great snowblower for the money. Very easy to use, maneuverable and fairly light. One warning which I hope helps your purchase. Do not buy the 16/3 orange 100 foot extension cord which is currently shown on Amazon as "Frequently Bought Together" for this machine. (16 gauge with 3 conductors.) The snow blower is rated at 13 amps and this is a 10 amp extension cord which is not enough. In the manufacturer's instruction manual there is a chart which shows longer cords require even higher amperage ratings than 13. If you're like me you'll want a 100 foot cord, which means minimum 15 amp rating. Amazon shows under "Also Bought" a number of cords which are 12 gauge and 15 amp. They are more expensive but this is a safety issue. There is one for Extreme conditions which stays flexible in the very cold, and in hindsight I wish I got. I am surprised how rigid the extension cord gets when lying on a cold driveway. Otherwise, the snow blower itself represents a great value. Not as powerful as bigger gas machines, but I am having no problem keeping up with snowfalls. Plus it is quiet, has no gas or combustion odors, and starts in the bitter cold without fuss.

I received this the day before Jonas bomblasted us with snow.....we ended up with 20 inches and boy was i glad to have this!! I was thoroughly impressed with its performance, as it chewed up and spit out 8 inches like nothing on the first evening! The next morning when i woke up to 20 inches, i was wondering how this machine would stack up against almost 2 feet of snow but it churned through it, bit by bit. Granted, i had to push down on the bar to raise it up a bit and knock off the first 10 inches then lower it back down to grab the last 10 inches but hey, it definitely beats shoveling!! Also, i might add that i have a gravel drive and even with no practice i only hurled a few gravel here and there. After awhile i got the hang of it and knew exactly how much i could push down on it and it never happened again. Also, i read some reviews on here that said that it didn't throw the snow far enough but i strongly disagree....it's all in how you angle the chute as to how far it throws it. I had no trouble launching a 10 in x 21 in slab of snow 10-15 feet, which struck me as very impressive for an electric unit. For the money, i can't see how this machine could be beat

The timing of my purchase aligned nicely with the east coast snowstorm that started on January 22, 2016. Because of the two days of snow and the high snow amounts, I cleaned my 100 ft+ driveway and sidewalks twice over two days. The first day was a light snow and about 5 inches. The blower handled it very easily and quickly. It didn't scrape to the pavement perfectly but it was close to what my neighbors with larger gas blower were able to achieve. On day two, after a heavier snow overnight, things were a bit more challenging. The snow was probably 7 additional inches and it was a heavier snow. I had to overlap passes to keep moving. The alternative was to push down on the handle to tilt the blades higher to "take off the top" then do an additional swipe to clean down to a flat path. It cleaned fine but took extra time. It took mere minutes to put the unit together. Instructions were very clear and the unit was packaged very nicely. I am giving the unit the full 5 stars although it wasn't perfect. However, I pushed the boundaries of what this unit was advertised to do. Given a regular snow of 6 inches or less, I would have been extremely happy without reservation about my purchase.

Ordered it in February, it showed up in July (sigh), assembly was trivial. I used it for the first time today (NJ - Blizzard Jan 2016). The snow was between 6 inches and 18 inches this morning, then this afternoon it was 3 to 6 inches. I struggled a lot the first pass (especially at the bottom of the driveway), but the second pass was smooth as can be.Then an hour later two guys with fancy ($1000) snow blowers showed up to do my neighbours driveway, and they were struggling worse than I was. Made me feel real good!The good:- It worked, better than a shovel for sure. Not as well as I dreamed, but faster than shoveling and far less effort. Can't argue with "it worked"!- Not as effective as a $500 / $1000 gas snow blower, but FAR more than 50% / 25% as effective.- Yeah it looks like a kids toy, but ... starts up REAL snappy, manoeuvres easy, and throws the snow like it is not kidding around at all.The bad:- The extension cord is generally a pain in the ass all around (as expected). And DO NOT run over the extension cord, it will get sucked in FAST, and mangled. I still need to figure out a good way to deal with that friggin cord...- Does not work so good when snow is over 1 foot deep (as expected). For a big snow, either get out early and clear the snow in stages, or expect to struggle.Bottom line:I expect this will work well for me 90%-95% of the time, which is "good enough". For the 5-year Blizzard, I plan to hire someone with heavier gear to clear it.Overall, WELL worth the $250.

A few days after this arrived we received about 14" of fairly wet snow. I was skeptical of how well this could perform with that much snow, but it did a pretty good job; it still takes a little effort to push it through that much snow, but it is a lot easier on your back than shoveling. You do have to deal with a long extension cord, which is a little bit of a hassle, but this is a lot cheaper than a gas blower and it can sit for years and not have starting issues. If we always received a lot of snow I'd go with a gas blower, but I hope to only use this once or twice a year.Two items that will make this electric snow blower easier to handle are a good cold weather extension cord and a good cord winder to store it with. I found both here on Amazon in the “US Wire 99100 12/3 100-Foot SJEOW TPE Extreme Weather Extension Cord” and the “Quick Winder RAP-100 Electric Cord Reel.”Edit 01/28/2016: I've edited this to include a photo after clearing 10" inches of snow that was on top of about 2" I had not yet cleared. Once again it takes some effort to push this through that much snow, but it was much easier on my back.

First, I got this on a lightning deal for less than the average going price. I live in western NC and only get light occasional snow here. Just had my first opportunity to test it out. We got about 7" over night and I got out to clear things early. Cold and powdery, it worked better than shoveling, but a few comments: 1) Go slow, more than 4-5 inches and you have to push-pull back and forth. 2) Shooting straight forward, fairly high and it easily moves the snow away, but to the side it only throws it about 5-6 feet, and easily clogs up. You can move it back and forth and tap up and down to clear pretty easily but a nuisance. 3) Going straight and down a hill easy, but pull back up "in reverse" with it off and then go back down. For an average one car driveway it will throw to the side okay and clear. 4) The cord isn't convenient but makes it inexpensive to run; not sure if a rechargeable would be strong enough to last, just don't know. Final summary: Better than using a shovel. Easy to put together (be careful with the "spout" and don't break when snapping together). Not expensive, although I don't know if one at a bit more than costly and more powerful (than the retail price) might be more effective and worth the difference. I bought for light snow and have only used once, so I can't comment on longevity. (I also got the extended warranty, as it wasn't much to add, just in case). I recommend for light snow to clear walkways and smaller driveways, but don't plan on using for heavy snow.

I'm giving this snow thrower a 4-star rating simply because it is well-built and does exactly what it claims. It is relatively easy to put together as long as you follow the instructions. Assembly is mostly fitting pieces together and tightening pre-made knobs. One complaint I have is cord management. The extension cord holder to keep the cord from becoming unplugged is not large enough for my heavy duty extension cord.

One problem is keeping the cord untangled and away from the front of the machine. That's not unique to this model, as it's an issue with all electric snow throwers.

The first use of the snow thrower was in a snowfall of approximately 5 inches, with fairly heavy snow. The machine handled the snow very well, and I was very pleased with the performance.

I previously had a similar Toro Snow Thrower that quit after one season. In comparison, this snow thrower seems to be better built and more robust. I hope it lasts more than one year.

This worked wonders on my first snowfall of over 8 inches. I did have to occasionally push it through the snow twice to get it through the end where the plows had come by, but it was easy to use. My neighbor started before me, and he has a smaller driveway with his gas snowblower, and I started with my electrical, and I was done before he was. A thumb thick branch did get stuck in the bottom blade area, and the machine wouldn't work until I had to carve it out, as it was really jammed in there. The chord did come loose quite a few times which was frustrating, but I still loved it. I do want to give a shout out to the people who spoke about using a better power chord that was weather resistant! So glad I spent the extra money. Would've been much less happy with the product, if I hadn't followed that advice. The problem I found was that the weight of the better chord kept dragging the chord out even with the double loopy thing they suggested that I used.

Finally snowed today so I could try this out.

What I liked:
* Light weight. It's easy to pick up and carry around
* Electric. I didn't want yet another gas engine to maintain. I have a small Honda generator that I'll pair with this for areas that the extension cord can't reach

Now for the actual use. I tried this in fairly dry snow, and fresh, with only about 2 inches on the ground. Our driveway is 20 feet wide. I started out by clearing out the center, then going from there to one side, with the snow being thrown onto the area not yet cleared. Then I repeated for the other half.

It was much faster using this vs. a snow shovel, which was my other option. 60 ft long driveway, 20 ft wide, cleared in 20 minutes or so.

Now for the not so good. In the 20 minutes of use, it plugged it 3 times and had to be cleared out. Not hard to do, but if the snow was any wetter, it would have been much worse.

It doesn't throw the snow very far. It only throws it out 3-4 feet, with most of the snow only going a foot or less. This makes the area to be cleared that much harder to clear.

The motor on this isn't very powerful and bogs down easily. I was using a 12 gauge, 80 ft long cord, and it was plugged into an outlet only a few feet from the breaker box in the garage, so it wasn't starved for current. Getting closer to the edge of the driveway, where the snow was now up to 4 inches deep, it really bogged down easily. I had to take 1/2 width passes, and walk slowly to clear it out.

It snows only a few times a year where I live, so this will be fine for that. Also, I don't plan on clearing the entire driveway every time it snows. Realistically, you only need a couple of 20 inch wide paths for your truck to drive on, unless the snow is really deep, in which case this won't help you anyway. So, for clearing a path to get out of the driveway, and for clearing off a walkway, this will work fine.

I do worry about the plastic blade and how long it will last, and I'm betting that the gears are all plastic too. Don't expect this to be an everyday workhorse.

I got this little guy on Thursday ahead of ghe blizzard. When i walk up on Saturday we already had over a foot of snow. The first time was a bit of a challenge, but after that it was a breeze. I had to do several passes, but for the price, it beat shoveling any day. The cord was a bit awkward, but i knew it would be before i bought it. If it made it through this storm (30"), I think it will make it through anything.

The blower came on time. Works great with fluffy snow. When it come to the heavy wet snow the shoot kept on getting clogged.

I bought this in 2016 the week we were expecting a blizzard. We got over three feet of snow and this cleared it from the driveway. With snow that deep I had to cut a starting point with my shovel, then run the blower into my hole multiple times. It worked pretty well.

This works better than I'd expected. I've had a couple gas-powered blowers and thought I'd give an electric one a try. Dragging a 100' cord around is a slight nuisance, but is more than made up for by this thing starting immediately and running smooth and consistent. I live in CT and have used it twice this year, once in about 6" and once in a little over 1'. With the 6" snowfall, it ate through it like nothing (no surprise). I was more surprised that it handled a bit over a foot all at once. I had to make a second pass in certain areas where it drifted closer to 2', but aside from that it was all handled in one pass. Since it's been a remarkably mild winter I haven't tried it on anything more substantial, but it seems like it would do the job just fine as long as I don't let a few feet pile up an try to do it all at once. I'm also not sure about really wet snow, but again, based on my limited experience I think working on it during snowfall (rather than waiting until the end) should prevent any issues.No real complaints with this. It's easy to use, light weight (the 100' cord weighs as much as the blower!), and throws snow halfway across my yard. I'm good.

This little thing is impressive. I wasn't expecting much out of an electric snowblower and the Snow Joe far exceeded my expectations. It handled the Northeast "Blizzard of 2016" without any real issues. I took two passes while clearing my property, each time after about a foot of snow had fallen. Granted, this was mostly light powder, but the snow during the second pass was heavier, and it blasted through the mountain of slushy stuff at the end of the driveway left by the DPW plows (you have to make repeated attacks on snow like this, jamming it into the pile, pulling back and going in again until you break through). I did not experience any of the chute clogging that other reviewers mentioned. The chute stayed clear even after hitting wet snow. When used in deep snow, the machine throws snow about 20 feet. I found its performance to be comparable to a single stage gas snowblower.My only complaint with this machine is that if the snow is less than 6 inches, it doesn't do anything. It's basically useless. The snow just gurgles out of the chute and spills onto the top of the machine and back onto the ground about 2 inches away from the chute. If I had purchased this for lighter snowfalls due to an injury or something that would prevent me from shoveling, I would be very disappointed. Luckily,I bought this for the deep snow that I can't be bothered shoveling and for that, it works very well.

Just carved out some space for a car and the snow was over 2ft. deep and crusty. Amazed. Granted you have to "slice" it along but I am still thrilled that with a little bit of effort and some time it cleared it out nicely. Easier than shoveling. Not happy the price dropped $40 the morning after I purchased and even though it had several days delay in shipping I still couldn't cancel the order - tried multiple times.

2/09/2015 - Location: New England - ProsEasy to assembleEasy to operateLightweightBlows the snow as statedEasy to maneuverGrabs 10 inches of snow easyPrice for the extra power and width worth it especially if you have along drivewayPlug n play no oil no gas no wasteNo rust since most parts are made of plasticConsThe wheel doesnt have good traction since its just a plastic wheel, similar to kids toysScraper at the bottom would be better steel, again made of plasticThe auger is made of hard rubber - I would love to see real metal auger for this price rangeOver a foot of snow your better off getting a gas two stage - this wont cut itOverall it works great! Saves my back and cuts my job in half. Totally worth price since my driveway cost $100 to plow.

I got this on black Friday for $140 and at that price it is a great machine. My suggestion would be to get a longer extension cord than you think so you don't have to deal with pulling your cord out of the socket over and over again.

Pros:
-Lightweight
-Compact and saves space/folds up nicely
-Inexpensive
-Can handle up to 12" well
Cons:
-After only two uses the turn directional handle broke so I have to turn the spout manually
-The vibration is such that the directional spout doesn't stay locked and will shoot the snow straight up
-The scraper doesn't get to the bare pavement and leaves a thin layer that a shovel usually would get.

Light and therefore easy to maneuver which is a major plus in snowy conditions. Easy to assemble - up and running in 5-10mins.
-1 Star for poor throw distance for snow; I have a two car wide drive way and certainly does no throw from center of driveway out regardless of fluffy or wet snow.
-1 Star as leaves a layer of snow on the bottom regardless of snow condition. I used it with ~5in fluffy snow and also in 3in wet snow in both cases need to follow-up the blower with shovel to scrape the bottom layer off the driveway/walkway.
FYI, Max distance from AC outlet to edge of walkway is about 70 feet and I use a 12AWG outdoor extension cord which seems to work OK. It is NOT the ultra flexible so a little cumbersome to manage.
I bought over black friday sale at about $109 at this price I would recommend for light snow regions or areas where snowfalls <5times a season, in Michigan (for me) I doubt I would recommend if price was any higher unless above two items were improved

Had the first snow of the season, about 4 inches with some ice pellets. It had a real hard time scooping up the snow, I really had tilt it and and push it to try and pick up the snow. I think it was because the plastic blades were having a hard time breaking through the top layer of "ice". I wasn't expecting a lot of from it but was certainly more than I got. We will see how it performs for the next snow.

Nice snow thrower. My only issue is I couldn't get the chute control bar into the body so have to bend down and spin it by hand which is a pain in the butt. Do like that this version now has a cable guard which loops the extension cord to keep the cord from being yanked out or damaged as you drag the extension cord around. Burned out 3 extension cord heads on the old version of this machine, as the constant shifting of the cable caused the head to shift from side to side, causing sparks that eventually melted the plug of the extension cord. On this model, this issue is gone. The old model had a chute that was screwed on with two small bolts. One fell out and I had to jury rig a new one as it was a custom bolt. Those are now replaced with a better solution on the new model.

I wanted so badly for this to be my solution. I bought my own house over the summer. I used to live in a townhouse where the snow maintenance was handled by an association. Now, It's my job. I didn't want to drop $1,000 on a gas snowblower, so I figured this would be a good option and I got it on sale. Here are the good parts:
1.) It's light
2.) It's quiet - like a loud vacuum cleaner.
3.) No mixing gas and oil
4.) It's easy to operate.

Here is where this thing falls short (I'm not going to complain about it being corded because it's obviously an electric machine and if you're going to complain about cords on an electric machine, that's not fair):
1.) I live in northern Illinois. We've had two big snows with wet snow this season. The auger on this machine just doesn't "bite" into the wet snow. Because of this, you have to shove it into the snow, which only packs the wet snow further.
2.) It's light so there isn't much "oomph" behind it.
3.) The motor can only throw snow about 4-5 feet. Admittedly this was snow on the heavier side but if you're plowing the middle of the driveway, you'll have to throw it again.
4.) Snow dams up in the ejection port.

In all, if you live somewhere with fairy dust snow that is light and powdery all the time, then this is probably fine. If you might get wet snow, seek a more powerful machine. I'll probably end up with a gas-powered one after all.

Good for up to 6 inches of snow. Otherwise a toy. Clogs often. When it does work, with smaller snowfall amounts, gets down to the pavement. I used it for 2 winters then ordered a gas powered thrower.

Good for snow up to about 15 inches and not too densely packed. Anything more takes alot of effort to push and will clog the machine.

The Top guard that directs the snow does not have thick enough Plastic, the snow blower picked up gravel and punctured a huge hole in the top and it shifts constantly,snow may shoot out the top in 3 different directions.

I don't know what I expected for that price. It works okay for light power, but it is easier just to shovel for anything wet or deeper than a couple of inches.

It's super light compared to the other snowblower i've tried. The plastic construction is worrisome. I used this for the first time yesterday. Admittedly a snowstorm that had more inches than it can handle. But already noticed wear on the bottom since my sidewalk isn't paved. The plastic chute is horrible, after 4 or 5 pushes, it lifts up from the position i set it to as vertical it can be. It's powerful, but because of the chute problem, snow either launches to my neighbor across the street or hits the wind and end up on me. Was super excited but now...just extremely disappointed.

Not very powerful, blades are plastic, stiff snow directer that you can seem to point in the right direction due to it being hard to turn. The only thing I like about it is that it turns on quickly.

Gears for discharge jammed . Company sent repair instructions and I have to get a special tool to fix it.
.

Snowzilla experience was not all that great with this. Granted, I let the snow accumulate more than 10in overnight but it was just very hard pushing this thing. Cable management is a pain as well. I wished I had a gas blower.

Won't work on any heavy snow, simply packs it down further and makes it a bear to shovel. Would also not use on anything over 3-4" for the same reason. Plan on selling it on Craigslist. Would not purchase again.

This snow blower is very light duty. It does not throw the snow very far. I would not recommend it for heavy snow or use. It would likely struggle to throw more that three or four inches of snow and it will not throw it very far. Keep in mind that you need a 14 ga extension chord (if longer than 50 feet) or 16 ga if under 50 feet long. The blower seems to be very cheaply constructed. Unlikely to make it through many winters.

Terrible in every way. This snow blower will barely move a light dusting of snow let alone do anything for a few inches. If you regularly get snow do not waste your time. also amazon will not issue a refund unless you contact them within 30 days so by the time it snows and you have a chance to try the product for your self it might be outside this time frame so be mindful.

Can't get mine to start at all, I bought the appropriate extension cord and all. Waste of money!

Sounds like a vacuum cleaner, works less well than one. A snow thrower not a snow blower and it struggled to handle 1" of snow. Very disappointing. Sigh.

Only used it twice since I purchased it and it has stopped working. Worked great when it worked, but this time it I used it for 3 passes then it wouldn't turn on any more. After each pass, I stopped it to turn around then it wouldn't start again until I waited about 10 minutes. The last time, it wouldn't start anymore. Also there is a little piece of plastic that holds the guide bar in place, which broke when I tried to change the direction of the blower spout using the bar so now the bar is just flopping around. I cannot give this snow blower a good review. I have finished up with a shovel and have put it away. wasted my money.

Wel this was a bad experience, (not becasue of Amazon. This show thrower arreved in a double box, the inner colorful box and the outer box with the from china address. So I took to out of the box and examined it before assembling it. The first thing I noticed were both "hub caps" were sitting in the bottom of the box. One with a tab broken, so I immediately checkked the wheels, the left one would not spin at all and the right one barely. The axle was protruding about an inch or so beyond the wheel that would prevent those hub caps from ever going on and it seems like there should be a spacer or something to hold the wheel away from the support bracket.
So it says on the box call GreenWorks before returning to the seller, so I did and what a waste of time that was. I was immediately told it must be an Amazon assembly error, even though it was in a sealed box. I thought we would have a conversation on the possible missing spacers, but all I got out of this was an offer from GreenWorks to provide the Amazon contact number. THe support agent didn't even care that the QC#24 sticker was right by the wheel that would not turn.
So far Amazon has been good we're going to try to arrance a swap and pickup.
So to wrap up:
1. I bought this because of the 4 year warranty, but if this is the way GreenWorks customer service is you can forget that.
2. I expected weaker construction, but I think it's reasonable to expect the wheels to turn.
3. The Snow-Joe product while more expensive might be sturdier.
4. I'll stop back when I get the replacement.

Steve

This snow blower wet the bed the second time I tried to use it. My driveway is very short, and only one car wide. The snow was powdery, and less than 4 inches deep. This no-go Snow Joe stalled out almost immediately, and was annoyingly difficult to restart, even after leaving it to rest fow quite a while. It stalled out twice more before I called tech support.Tech support was no help. They wanted me to take the starter apart and reassemble it, hoping that would remedy the problem. I declined. I have no proclivity for mechanical repair, and was not about to void the warranty for the sake of an experiment. They insisted I do so before they would honor the warranty. Instead I cut my losses, scrapped this piece of garbage, and went back to using a shovel. One other thing. For the short time I used this overpriced cake mixer, it feebly threw the snow a foot of two away, wildy spraying snow on every inch of ground between it and the trajectory end point. This makes me doubt the starter was the only thing contributing to its poor performance. Spend your money elsewhere.

Useless after a snow storm. Get a gas one.

Not great if you're tall....you have to bend as you're blowing the snow. Very poor if the snow becomes slush and icy. I don't recommend it.

poor performance compared to other models I have had, poor customer experience when contacted company

If zero were an option, that's what this thing would have gotten. It did NOTHING in last weekend's storm here in NJ. Just kept getting clogged and didn't come close to pavement. Resorted to shovel to save sanity. Fortunately heart held up too. The $200+ should've gone to charity.

This couldn't handle over an inch of snow. You have to push it with so much force to get any snow into it, and when you do, the chute clogs every 5 seconds, so you have to break away from what you're doing just to punch the snow back down. This happened repeatedly. The extra piece on the chute that is used to direct the height was loose due to the cheap plastic and rubber washer they provide you, so when snow actually could shoot out of it, it forced it as high out as it could, blowing right into your face and body. The whole thing is cheap, bendable plastic. I hadn't even gone inside from shoveling yet, and I was disassembling this garbage to get back in the box so I can return it. This is the worst product I've ever used in 30 years of life on Earth.