Discussions

Thinking about upgrading to a new snow blower and looking for recommendations on a great 2-stage make/model, etc. Hoping to find something more powerful, reliable for long-term but reasonable price too. Our old single stage snow blower is just not cutting it these days. Any suggestions are appreciated.

term my choice would be Honda first, Ariens second.

Ariens gets my vote

John Deere sells good ones.

I really like my ariens deluxe 24, only had it a year so can't comment on long term quality, but I've heard good things, and as another poster mentioned honda seems to be #1, but man are they spendy lol

I’ve had my Ariens for 9 years with no problems.  
Although, I do find it difficult to pull start, so I just use the electric start all of the time.

We basically need it for city use. Decent size double driveway but don’t think we need the highest CCs. Don’t want to go too low and not have enough power but price correlates with motor size.

I have a older Honda HS724 and it’s simply amazing! Starts first or second pull every time. They are expensive as mentioned but even after many years of service they hold a lot of their value, there are many other good brands but do your research because you get what you pay for.

We are still using the Ariens my Dad bought 40+ years ago and it works fine. I like the26" cut and I wouldn't want less than 8hp but I think the new ones work more efficiently and might not need as much power.

My first snowblower was a Honda, 622 I think, with hydrostatic drive and tracks. It was great for the small area that I had to do. Lost it in a fire though. I now have a 928 track with hydrostatic drive as we live on an acreage and can use the bigger one. Love it too. The only problem is when I'm doing the mother in law's driveway, I have to be careful not to blow the snow too far and onto the neighbours. Both snowblowers would blow the snow about 25 feet in the air. I've never used a tired snowblower so I can't compare. The tracks make for easy loading/unloading into a pickup. They also work great for hills. The tracks can also be quickly adjusted on the go for running high, level, or aggressive "digging". Plus it is one handed operation, leaving the other hand to adjust the chute or speed. The hydrostatic drive means that it is easy to keep the snowblower working without overloading it or underworking it.  
 
Without knowing much about the competition, Ariens would be my second choice.  
 
For me, hydrostatic drive, tracks and one handed operation are a must.

My father in law has a 10 year old Honda on tracks.  
It has a lot of power to move snow.  
That will be my first purchase when I'm ready to buy to a snow blower.

A 1992 Honda HS 80 with tracks five years ago on ebrandon. It is a great no frills simple snowblower that I use on a double vehicle driveway and around the yard at my farm. Nothing else even comes close for build quality or parts availability.

Lindenbergs on 14 1st street has good ones too