Snow Removal Made Easy
The lawn mower has been retired as winter roars back onto the scene. For many people, that means it’s time for the snow blower to make a command performance. Whether needed for a driveway, sidewalk or just to get around, a snow blower really comes in handy. It is an excellent choice for clearing dense, compacted and/or deep snow. It has an easily adjustable chute deflector and power-driven wheels, which can disengage independently to assist in turning. When choosing the right snow blower for your home, consider the size of the area that will be cleared, the time you have to do the task and the amount of snowfall you normally have each year. You will find many varieties. Snow blowers provide great help to those people whose physical condition is not very good. If you live in an area which gets a great deal of snow, you probably own a snow shovel and get a lot of exercise shoveling off your sidewalks. If you’re fit, then certainly you’ll have no problem with that…unless you’ve got three sidewalks and a driveway to do. Everyone reaches a point when it’s best if they don’t do that kind of hard physical activity – and that’s where the snow blower comes in.
Blowers Work Well on Dense, Compacted Snow
Snow blowers are an excellent choice for clearing dense, compacted and/or deep snow. They have an easily adjustable chute deflector and power-driven wheels, which can disengage independently to assist in turning. When choosing the right snow blower for your home, consider the size of the area that will be cleared, the time you have to do the task and the amount of snowfall you normally have each year.
Single-Stage Snow Blowers
The single-stage blower is a light duty machine, which uses a single high-speed impeller to pull in snow and expel it from a discharge chute. For an average suburban home with a driveway and sidewalk, a single-stage snow blower is the way to go. They are relatively lightweight and affordable, and are capable of handling up to eight inches of snow. Although technically not self-propelled, the auger (shaped like a corkscrew) moves the machine along with its rotating action as it scoops up snow and throws it through the chute. These blowers use a single high-speed impeller to both move the snow into the machine and force it out the discharge chute. The impeller is usually in the form of two or more curved plastic paddles that move snow towards the centerline of the machine where the discharge chute is located.
Two-Stage Snow Blowers
Two-stage blowers, as the name implies, get rid of the snow in two stages. An auger is used to break up the snow first, and then it is sucked into the impeller and blown out through the discharge chute. This type of blower is used if your area typically gets snowfalls of more than a foot or more at a time.
Time and Back Savers
Properly used, a snow blower can save you a lot of time and backache. There are many manufacturers, including Honda, John Deere, Sears-Craftsman and Toro. The best time to buy a snow blower is after the season has ended, when they all go on sale.