Top positive review
891 people found this helpful
Great so far with caveats (updated) (updated again) (updated for Minneapolis Blizzard 14 apr 2018)
By Shaun Kelly on Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2013
2018 update - still going strong! Although I've managed to break a wheel off earlier this year, on one of the steps in back when I was moving it, I just had it out in what is likely over a foot of wet snow and you just have to take it slow, sometimes rock it to unclog it. I've added a video. -- I own three snow throwers, all 18". When I bought my house I started with a gas powered one, which was recalled once and which has had carb problems 3 out of 5 years after that, largely I suspect due to me not finding time to "summerize" the engine and drain the fuel in time. It is currently working but is hard to start and seems to be lacking power, I suspect the carb needs cleaning again. It also leaves me smelling like gasoline and exhaust whenever I use it. I have an electric, extension corded model, which seems slightly more powerful than the gas model, but the safety interlock switch mechanism has been touchy and occasionally it won't start at all. When it does work it's awesome, sans moving the cord, which though not too bad isn't really a hassle. The problem is I'm on a corner lot, and the extension cords just don't go that far. Thus, when I learned about the Snow Joe ION, I was excited, and since it's snowing a lot this year I ordered one. So far, I've used it twice on 1 and then 2 inches of light fluffy snow, however I have also used it to clear plowed, somewhat icy snow at the street corner and the driveway, though not extensively. I was pleased that it handles it - you have to rock in and out, it'll slow and stop if you push in too hard, but it was making progress roughly equivalent to maybe 80% of the gas engine on the big plow leavings. The fluffy snow was being thrown farther than the gas engine throw it, but not as far as the corded electric. It is quieter than both the other throwers. Pros: I really like the flashlight. It has a powered chute aiming control. The battery comes out easily so it can be charged in the house and kept warm for maximum power It seems to handle light snow very well The handle and chute assembly knobs seem to have nylon lock nuts in them and thus probably won't shake loose So far the battery seems to be holding up quite well and allows me to clear my double width driveway (20x30?) and about 160 feet of of sidewalk on a charge, at least in light snow. It is really quiet. It throws snow far enough, comparable to the gas one. It doesn't smell like fumes! Cons: It doesn't move along the sidewalk as smoothly as the other throwers. It seems to ride a bit further down and scrape more. The handle assembly seems just a bit more flexible/less sturdy than the others I have. Part of that may be due to having an adjustable joint to give you a choice of handlebar angles, or it may be due to the single U shaped fastener further down, instead of having a pair of fasteners. Over time I'll be watching this to see if it becomes an issue - it works okay so far, it just feels less solid than I want. The knobs holding down the snow exit chute seem tight but it still seems to go out of adjustment - both of my others have a more firm tooth grabbing mechanism that holds the chute angle better. Wish list: Other than adjusting the sturdiness/feel issue, if it were up to me and I was planning their next release, I'd stick a second battery pack holder on the machine and let you optionally equip a second battery pack, and when running on two batteries I'd give it a mode switch for more torque/power, so you can switch to higher amp consumption but power through heavier or wetter snow and plow piles more efficiently, or set it back on normal and have longer life (not that I've needed either really so far, I just think it wouldn't cost much to do it). Overall, though, I'm quite pleased with it so far, and I may bump up to 5 stars later after I've used it more. ======= Updates: ======= I've now used it a lot more, including on a 4-5" snow, though it wasn't a wet snow, it has been too cold: Pros: It handled the near 5" well. It can handle the tall 2 foot drifts on the boulevard okay, it just slows down and might need 2-3 passes. Cons: The rubber cover that screws down over the chute direction switch shook loose. That may or may not have anything to do with the next con - The snow chute has ceased to rotate reliably. Sometimes I am able to get it to move with the switch but mostly not lately. It will spin by hand, with some force. I do not know if it was some ice that got in someplace or if there is a wiring fault - I finally brought it into the basement to melt/thaw out and the motor is spinning it now, we'll see how it does outside in the subzero later. I'm still happy with it and still rate it 4 out of 5, but I'm not bumping it up. ========== Update with a 6" heavy snowfall ========== Twin cities got a surprise snow dump today. I'm not sure snow totals elsewhere, but it seems to me we had 6" here, and there were a few more inches on my sidewalks that had blown in earlier this week that I was waiting for today's snow to handle. The blower worked pretty well in the heavier 6" snow, and just slowed down a bit as it went, and when I hit the deeper piles where it had blown it it just slowed down more. Now, I'm on a corner, with a double wide 35 foot driveway. This was the first time I'd drained a battery dead before I've finished blowing, but I got the sidewalk all around and 85% of the driveway, which is impressive. I did have the problem with the snow chute not working, at first, but once it had warmed a bit by running it worked fine. My current theory is that the chute rotation switch triggers a relay somewhere down in the machine, and that that really is stuck when it's really cold. Warming it up bf running it for awhile or by bringing it in the house awhile seems to make it work, thus my theory. So, despite the chute issue, I'm going to bump it up to 5 stars because of how it handled the deep snow today.
Top critical review
11 people found this helpful
EDITED: DON'T BUY THIS
By IMHO Tep on Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2019
My original review is below. Here is the mid to end winter edit; The Snow Joe is terrific the battery and the charging system are not. Fully charged this little unit can tackle the biggest storms New England throws at you-- but, and this is a BIG but, the battery only system is a HUGE mistake. Back when I ordered this the Battery version and the Hybrid were the same price, it never occurred to me (because I'm dumb) that the hybrid meant it also came with a cord-- THAT's the one to go with even though its a pain in the neck to clear snow and watch out for a cord, your alternative is to work in 10 minute intervals and then sit back and wait for the unit to charge up again which takes 2-3 hours. Or, you could buy multiple batteries but that would mean you'd need multiple chargers too and at $100+ for an extra battery plus the cost of a charger you're now spending enough that you could buy a small gas snowblower that will work better than this one. Want more info, sure thing; Initially the battery charged up as it was supposed to, got me through the first big snowstorm-- heavy wet snow, and a lot of it. The thing was a workhorse and held out about 40 minutes before it died. Just enough time to get ALMOST everything done, and then I just shoveled the rest. The very next storm I charged the battery and noticed that the charging station didn't change from red and green to green and green (which indicates the battery has fully charged), when I took the battery off and pressed the button to test the charge level it only read ¾ charged. I put it back on the unit for another 90 mins with no change. When I used the snowblower it only lasted about 20 minutes before dying. I tried turning off the lamp, I tried stopping it when I was moving it backwards, I tried a variety of things. At the next storm it only charged to ¾ again so I reached out to customer service chat at Snow Joe and they were great- sending me a replacement battery right away. I plugged this one in and it charged all the way to green green and the unit lasted 40 mins at the next storm. All was right in the world. Then the next storm it only charged to ½ which for anyone mathematically challenged is worse than ¾ charge. Until didn't last even 10 mins. Customer service again, they decided it was the charger and said they'd send it right out-- only it never came. Another storm another ½ charge another chat and they have no record of either sending me the replacement battery or the replacement charging unit and they promise to send replacements again, I'll update when and if they do. So unless you can take 2-3 days to clear out your snow put the money towards a "real" snowblower. Original review; In New England we often get big snowstorms-- heavy wet snow. If you leave it for a few days it becomes even harder to shovel. I ordered this snow blower after the gas one I had agreed to buy on Craigslist fell through. I liked the idea of a cordless electric model-- in the past I've had a corded one and it's a pain. It arrived a few days after the snow which had been substantial, as you can see in the picture the snow was higher than the mouth of the snow blower. All right-- there's the setup now onto the blower-- it arrived and assembly couldn't have been easier-- took about five minutes and I hate putting things together. So FIVE Stars on that. I popped the battery into the charging unit so it'd be ready to go in the morning. The unit with the battery is pretty light-- about 25-30lbs-- I was able to lift it and move it around pretty easily. The tires are decent sized and better than just your average cheap plastic tires-- I'd say these are above average cheap plastic tires. Now the snow. IF you've used a gas powered Two Cycle snowblower this is nothing like that. It has no drive train so it moves forward based on how hard you push it-- it works best in deep heavy snow like this if you do it in layers. The remote control chute control is a nice touch so you can change the direction of the stuff blowing back at you as you go. How's it work? If a Two Stage Gas Snow Blower rates a 10 and a shovel rates a 1 this is a solid 5. It's a lot more powerful than the corded one I had and like an aggressive Yorkshire Terrier it wants to get in there and show you what it can do. Pushing it isn't easy-- while you save the pain on your back from shoveling you're still going to need a decent amount of strength to get it through serious snow. I'm a 200lb man and I outlasted the battery-- my wife is about half my size and she didn't. As I started trying to clear out an area I hadn't shoveled prior my neighbor came over with a big smile and asked if I wanted him to bring over his "real" snowblower-- I told him I was in no rush. Where we live neighbors are nice enough to do our front sidewalk and our 50 foot driveway. I'm hoping them seeing me with this toy won't make them think I don't need the help anymore. How about a simple good/bad... GOOD Nice to not have to deal with gas and oil. Starts with a simple push button. Light is a nice touch but I don't know how much of a drain it puts on the battery. Unit is lightweight. It moves snow-- if this was a lighter storm it would have taken care of it-- but if it was a lighter storm I would have probably just shoveled. Better on your back than a shovel. BAD The battery takes about 2.5 hours to charge and lasted (in albeit heavy snow) about 20 minutes-- far less than the advertised 40 minutes-- which in itself is not that great in the first place. Should I buy TWO extra batteries and chargers? That would add another $300 to the price bringing it to $500 (I paid $200 for the unit and one battery and charger) which puts it close to just buying a "real" snowblower. In summary-- if you've got a tiny property along the lines of a 15' x 2' walkway and you don't get a lot of heavy snow, this will be better than shoveling. If you have more than that you're going to need extra batteries unless you can take two days to clear out your area. It's a hard worker, it really wants to be great, and I want to give it five stars-- but it's low battery life really hurts its ability. Make sure if you order this you get the HYBRID which allows you to plug it in when your battery dies. I ordered this style but got the standard one and sadly cut the return box down before noticing. EDIT; Three storms in here in New England where we have 600 day snow season, the first storm as written above was heavy and wet-- and Bruce gave out halfway through it. I had to recharge and then was able to finish up but the recharge took almost three hours so if I was in a hurry that wouldn't be great. The other two storms were 8" of fluffy stuff-- this took care of everything in no time-- by two front walks, my sidewalk, my long driveway and my pretty large back deck. A++ and then 5" of really heavy icy stuff-- no problem here either-- it ripped through it like nobody's business. THEN the battery gave out and wouldn't recharge to full capacity-- a quick chat to snow joe (go to their website and click on SUPPORT) and they shipped me out a replacement immediately (make sure you register your snow blower). Giving this FIVE stars now. Great service. They stand behind their product, and if you don't expect a professional grade serious three stage snowblower this will probably work fine for you.
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