Our most helpful positive review

4 people thought this was helpful.

Strong Small Throws snow 15/20 ft December 20, 2009

Bought this at sears on sale its so easy to use fill one side with oil and the other with gas and with electric start it started right away.Threw snow 15/20 ft and it pulls you along just steer in the direction you want to go.Even cleared the packed down stuff left by the plow in the street.If you dont have a really long driveway then this might be what your looking for.

Our most helpful negative review

1 people thought this was helpful.

Not bad, but be very sure of your needs before buying. January 10, 2010

Be very sure of your needs before buying this snow thrower.  It isn't a bad unit, but its design is a collection of compromises.  Be sure it works for your situation.

It is small and light, but actually can be a handful to control.  At times it will make you grateful you don't have to shovel, but most of the time you will still shovel.  You will like it for your residential drive, but also find it doesn't do well over pavement seams and cracks.  Sometimes it will throw snow all the way to the neighbor's drive, other times it can't throw from the middle of yours to the edge.  Like I said, it has some pluses and some minuses compared to both the shovel or the two stage models.

I live in north-central Indiana and have a medium sized residential driveway.  This is not the snowiest place in America, but it does get real winter sometimes.  We get frequent, but usually light snow.  All last winter (a mild one), I really only wished for a snow thrower twice, otherwise a pusher snow shovel was more efficient.  This winter has been more severe, so I have used this Craftsman unit about five times already.

I really wanted an old '80s era Toro two-cycle snow thrower with brushes, They were light and powerful.  Their brushes worked very well on pavement, especially over cracks and seams.  They excelled clearing light to moderate snow and took up very little space in the garage.  Unfortunately, thanks to CA, you can't buy two-cycles anymore.

This Craftsman unit is a bigger than the old Toros, but still fairly compact, light, and easy to store.  No, you don't have to mix gas with oil, but the four-cycle engine generates a lot fewer rpms.  This is a bit of a problem because a single stage snow thrower needs all the rpms it can get to actually throw the snow.

I had hoped to use this unit in light snow, under an inch.  Forget about it.  Absolutely worthless.  Because the unit uses a rubber blade design, it just doesn't clear down to the pavement.  The blades also make the unit shudder and hop around from side to side under a light snow load.  I'm a big strong guy, but you get tired trying to control it.  Snow is also pushed under the unit past your feet.  What snow it does move is only thrown a few feet at best.  You have to throw the same snow over and over.  You never clean to the pavement.  This winter I have opted to push shovel my drive six times for every time I used the snow thower.

In moderate snow, one to four inches, this unit does beat a shovel.  Not great, but good.  All the same problems as with light snow, but it will throw a little further (about six feet) and save your back when push shoveling will not work.  Never clean to the pavement, but will get your car out of the garage and off to work without the heart attack from shoveling.

The sweet spot for this blower is snow between four and eight inches.  With these depths, it will throw the snow twenty feet or more.  It will handle better, but will always tend to drift side to side.  You will not really care that it has not cleared to the pavement.  Yes, you and the machine will be encrusted with snow and ice, but you will definitely appreciate not using a shovel and be done is a fraction of time over shoveling.

In heavy snow, this unit is useful, but its abilities are limited.  Other than a few drifts and the snow plow pile at the end of the drive, I haven't had to deal with heavy snow.  With only a ten inch intake height and limited power and rpms, you can't really take full "bites" of snow and expect good things to happen.  You have to make half-width passes to avoid over loading the unit.  If the snow is really icy or wet, you have to be even more patient.  It will do the work, but you have to work smarter, not harder.

As I said, this unit is a package of compromises.  Be sure the compromises are in your favor and you will be happy.

Reasons to buy:  small to store, lightweight to move and handle, have moderate snowfalls, less expensive than two-stages

Reasons to avoid:  small person who wants easy control, want to replace shovel for light snow, have really uneven pavement, person with limited mobility or bad back because it has a manual adjust shute.

I am honestly considering the return of this snow thrower, but I just don't know of a better option.  I still will not buy a two stage because it is overkill for my situation, but I had hoped this unit would replace the shovel in light snow and it doesn't.