Chances are you don’t want to repeat last winter and are starting to look now for the best electric snow blower. If you have been reading all the electric snow blower reviews, you have probably been caught off guard by the wide variety of electric snow removal devices available.
Electric-powered units are now as popular as gas powered. If you want something more economical, cleaner and quieter, they could be the right choice for you.
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How Do You Pick the Best Electric Snow Blower?
Power And Reliability Can Equal Gas
Don’t think that by choosing to go electric you are giving up anything in terms of power or reliability. Gas models focus on multiple stages of removal and are best for wide width clearances of deep and heavy snow.
Electric models can clear just as wide an area, but they tend to reserve power solely for single stage wet and heavy snow removal. They used to be only good on powder, but the new designs allow for the augers to churn snow easily so they can be used just about anywhere there is 8 inches or less on the ground.
The Elephant In The Room
The one thing that even the best review rarely addresses is what turns out to be the elephant in the room when it comes to snowblowers and that is their size when they are stored. If you will notice, many of the electric models are narrower than the gas models and feature handles that collapse. This is so they are small enough to fit in garages or even hallways for storage.
Snow blowers have to be kept out of the weather in order to improve their lifespan. The larger ones need their own shed usually, but the electric ones are designed for urban homes where space is at a premium.
Finding The Best Electric Snow Blower
To start, reading the various electric snow blower reviews is a good way to find what you need. Just reading them isn’t enough. You need to know what size snow removal unit you need. Size comes in two measures – the width and the depth of the blower.
Width refers to how wide an area the blower can clear in one pass – your best bet is to measure your narrowest area such as a sidewalk.
The second is the depth. The golden rule on this measurement is if you get 8 inches or less per average snowfall than a 10-inch depth clearance is good. The depth refers to how far down the auger blade will go on the first pass.
Second and third stage models make more than one pass to churn and loosen snow for easy removal. You only need that if your average snow is of unusual depth or weight.
Read The Reviews The Right Way
There is a trick to reading the reviews and it starts with learning how to recognize the difference between a review that is really an ad and the real thing. Reviews that are really paid advertising will often only push one product and will never offer up any negative commentary about the item.
Since nothing is perfect, that should be a big red flag. A real review presents a balanced opinion of the item that shows it in its good and bad light. The writer knows that not every product is perfect for everyone, but for some people, it may be just right.
In The End – This Is What Matters
If you want to really find the best electric snow blower for you then you have to do more than just read the electric snow blower reviews. You also need to think through what it will take to store your blower and how you will handle the annual maintenance.
Most electric snow blowers have a standard small engine design so you don’t have to be an expert or specialist to keep them in good shape. You do want to call around before you buy a model to make sure that someone in your area does work on them.
This is just a proactive measure to make sure that the parts will be available should you need them so you don’t have any problems at all in running your electric snowblower.