I ordered the WORX snow thrower from Amazon last Friday afternoon -- arrived Tuesday with free shipping - amazing. Was easy to put together and I went out to clear ~5" of snow, including a 4' pile left by the plow at the end of our driveway. Had to break up the pile at the end a little bit - easy - and then the WORX cut right through it and easily deposited it over the 6-7'+ piles on either side of our Minnesota driveway. First time in my life I have been disappointed when my snow removal job was done. Is a small, quiet, incredibly powerful, well-built machine. Took about one pass to get used to the cord - be careful with that. I also own a battery powered WORX lawn mower (also purchased through Amazon) - just finished its second mowing season and has been perfect - I expect this new machine will be as well. Thanks to Amazon for the incredibly speedy, free shipping. WORX WG650 18-Inch 13 Amp Electric Snow Thrower
For a small electric snowblower, the WORX WG650 18-Inch 13 Amp Electric Snow Thrower employs a large ejection opening, which greatly helps but does not totally prevent, clogging of slushy snow. It is light weight and throws snow an adequate distance. I have had experience with three other brands and this seems the best of the four.
Bought this just before the recent blizzard conditions in NYC that left us with 3ft drifts around the car and against the garden walls on the sidewalk (we have an end house). Consequently, for the first time out of the box I thought this might be asking a little too much of this unit. I couldn't have been more wrong!
It does take a little bit of care to not try and make it do too much at one time, but you can either take out the bottom of the snow and let the rest fall down or tip the machine backwards a little and take the higher stuff first - either way the machine deals with it well. There is simply no way I would have wanted or even been capable of digging out the snow with a shovel but with this snow blower it took very little effort - slightly more than a traditional hand push lawnmower.
As it was going so well, I ended up going 4 houses down of my neighbors and clearing their sidewalk also.
It easily shoots fresh snow at least 20ft. More than enough to get it well out of the way of where you need to clear.
If you don't have a long outdoor insulated extension cable then make sure you get one. Trying to work with a shorter cable, while making it easier to keep away from the machine, ends up with you popping the cable off at the machine end. In fact, that would be my only criticism of this, that it is easy to unplug the cable at the blower end. Some sort of locking catch or strap would be a nice addition.
That small thing is no way big enough to mark this item down though. I have no problem recommending anyone to buy this.
Another Update :) : Used it today (1/27/2011 - Long Island storm: wet, icy on the bottom and power on top. 12" of snow). It worked great! Because the snow was higher than the 10" intake, I had to make two passes, like vaccuming. This wasn't a big deal because I usually do 2 passes anyway, to get the little left over. Despite the heavy snow, it still threw the snow far, didn't notice much of a difference from the medium/light snow. I even helped a neighbor (who usually gets help from another neighbor with a gas thrower) and he was very impressed. I started by apolizing that it was electric and probably not that powerful, but he said any help is better than nothing. Then he saw it at work and he said it was as good as the gas blower...if not better. Than he said "$250! are you kidding me, I'm getting one!". Don't get me wrong, there's still work to be done, but this machine totally saves your back!
Quick upate: I got a replacement and I think the origninal rod was defective, as the new one has welding spots that the origninal did not have. I also think I installed/assembled the crank rod incorrectly. You need to fully assemble the rod and fully insert it into the chute BEFORE attaching it to the middle bar. I've noticed some discrepancies on the throwing power/distance. Other then the obvious differences in snow weight, I also noticed that there's a big difference between aiming the snow straight ahead versus 90 degrees to the left or right. Straight ahead gives you very good throwing distance, like 30'. To the left/right and you get about half that. I still love this machine, especially at the end of the driveway.
Right off the bat, you have to make sure you're getting this blower for the right application. Because it's electric (i.e. extension cord following you around), you need to make sure your clearing needs don't have you going all over the place. For instance, my needs were just my front walkway and driveway. It's in the front and not a lot of landscaping to navigate through. Once you've made this determination and know that your clearing needs can be handled with electric (or gas), then all the comparisons, quality and considerations come into play.
Okay, so now I've figured out that I'm an electric candidate, now the pros and cons of ELECTRIC, not necessarily this model...which my guess is most of you reading this already know (so I won't go through them all).
Pros - easily stored (light and small enough to be hung on wall
- no maintenance (oil, gas, tune ups, etc)
- no need to store gas all winter long
- hundreds less than gas
- lightweight, so it's maneuverable
Cons - extension cord limits where you can go (for example, I couldn't just stroll next door to help my neighbor)
- can't have a lot of landscape to navigate, the cord will annoy you way too much
- costly heavy duty extension cord needed ($50-$100 in most cases)
- usually not self-propelled
- (Most people put lack of power here, but I'm NOT going to, as it appears technology has caught up a bit)
Okay, why I choose this model:
Simply put, I bought this one because of the reviews. All had 5 stars. I couldn't find a bad review...although there were only 20 reviews in total that I could find. That's it. All the electric blowers had the same specs and features, for the most part.
Now the review on the product itself:
I'll give you the bad, first. You have to be careful of the plastic deflector (piece that directs the snow). If you run over a hard item (like a small rock), you'll break the deflector (*note, if you use less of a right angle, the object won't hit the deflector with as much force and you may be okay). Also, I've read in a few places that you can reinforce the deflector with aluminum sheet metal. The rod that spins the deflector in 180 degrees broke the first day. It does take some time getting use to the extension cord. It's like vacuuming, except you really don't want to use one hand on the snow blower (although you can, because it's light). That's it for the bad.
And now for the good. It's is powerful and relatively quiet. It throws the snow (medium weight) very far...at least 20'. It feels sturdy (other than the parts mentioned above). I've used it on 3" of fresh snow and it had no problems and threw the snow very far, over 3 car widths (aided by a little wind). If you have a flat surface, it will get right down to the surface (especially if you tilt it forward a little). My driveway is a little wavy, so there were bits of snow left in the valleys, but not too bad. The chute rotation worked great, until it broke. Like the others mentioned, because the blower is light weight, you can put it on top of a mound of snow and let it do its' work. It also did a great job at the end the driveway were the town plows dumped a bit of snow.
Final words:
This is my first snow blower, so I really can't compare it to anything. I've always been reluctant to buy one because it didn't seem worth it for the number of times it snows more than a few inches in my area (Long Island, NY). But for $229, I thought it would be worth a try. I'm happy I did. It wouldn't have totally cleared the 24" of snow we got a week ago (might of), but it sure would've helped. If I had it to help at the end of the driveway alone, I would've been happy. Definitely worth a shot if your environment/application lends to it. - Snow Blower - Worx - Snow Thrower - Electric Snow Blower'
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