Dewalt sent over their 60V Max dual battery cordless snowblower for review, model DCSNP2142, and it’s time to talk about it.
I tested the snow blower late last year – in February, when we finally had deep enough slow to use it.
We recently had comparable snowfall, and my experiences with a different snow blower helped to put the Dewalt model into better context.
Advertisement
Dewalt Cordless Snow Blower Features & Specs
The Dewalt cordless snowblower has a 21″ max clearing width, brushless motor, electronic chute control, 7-inch steel auger, and 3 speed settings (eco, standard, turbo).
It’s relatively compact when folded up for storage. I have yet to find a cordless snowblower that stows away as easily as cordless mowers, but this one is pretty compact.
Initial Built Quality and Assessment
It arrived with a defective or damaged handle assembly. I tried but couldn’t easily fix it myself. I shared the images with Dewalt. They said:
In checking in with the product team, it would appear this defect was likely an issue during the shipping process. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a specific fix recommended for it. Apologies! I did share with them so they’re aware for shipping of future product.
Defects and shipping damage can happen. If I ordered this, as opposed to it being a test sample provided to me, I probably would have sent it back for a replacement.
Aside from that minor fluke issue, I had no qualms about the build quality or materials used.
Advertisement
It didn’t feel like a first-gen model, everything seemed well thought out. Don’t lose the safety key.
There are warnings about not sticking your hand to clear clogged snow from the chute. The snow blower didn’t come with a clearing tool, but you can buy it online. Look for model 931-2643, Amazon has it for $15.
I liked the 7-inch steel auger. Compared to another model I tested with a rubber paddle, I felt that the Dewalt cleared snow closer to the ground.
Battery Selection
The snowblower shipped with FlexVolt 12Ah/4Ah batteries. From the user manual, they recommend using it with that battery size:
IMPORTANT: Only use DeWalt Flexvolt battery system batteries (DCB612 recommended) with this snow blower.
They also say that it can operate with just one battery instead of two:
NOTE: The snow blower can operate with a single, fully charged battery but it is not recommended as it will result in less run time and reduced performance.
Power and Performance
Testing was done in around 5″ of snow.
According to my notes, the Dewalt cordless snowblower did a decent job of clearing snow in full and half width passes.
It did bog down at times – mainly where the snow was compacted or piled up – in which cases slowing down or switching to turbo mode helped.
You’ll learn very quickly about how much snow a single stage snow blower can and cannot handle, and how fast.
I can manage with having to work a little slower. After all, this is a single stage snow blower without a powered drive feature.
The Dewalt snow blower shut down on me during use. I started it up again and it shut down again. I took a short break, came back, and only got another couple of minutes out of it.
According to the user manual, the indicator means there’s a fault. A blinking light would indicate that the snow blower is “overheating from being overworked.” A solid light indicates an “error or failure in electronics, motor, or battery and snow blower will shut down.”
The batteries were very warm, and even a bit hot, and so I concluded that the batteries overheated and triggered a thermal shutdown or similar.
Dewalt says that you can clear up to 16 parking spaces per battery charge, with the fine print saying: based on 9’x18′ average parking space size in 3″-5″ snow depth, using (2) DCB612 batteries. Results may vary depending on environmental conditions.
I had been switching modes, and taking between half width and full width passes depending. I knew I was likely pushing the Dewalt FlexVolt snow blower towards its limits, but I didn’t expect to reach it.
It couldn’t completely clear my driveway before the batteries overheated. I put the snowblower away and grabbed a shovel.
We recently had just under 5″ of snow, and I tested a different cordless snow blower.
I have learned that I very strongly prefer 2-stage snow blowers over single stage. With sufficient power, they don’t bog down, at least at the levels of snow we’re talking about here.
With the Dewalt cordless snow blower, I was working at the pace of the tool, which means having to pull it back and move slower when there’s too much snow buildup, and sometimes having to roll back and forth to clear areas of heavier snow.
I’ve run out of battery charge before, when testing other single and dual stage snow blowers. That’s simply a matter of running out of limited energy.
Overheating the batteries was unexpected. I didn’t have another set of FlexVolt 12Ah batteries, and so I had the option of taking another extended break, breaking out a different snow blower, or grabbing a shovel.
I might have appreciated reduced performance if it meant the batteries kept going for a little longer, maybe even until they ran out of charge. But if it did that, I likely would have complained about the performance being sluggish.
Objectively speaking, higher performance at the expense of battery endurance seems to be the better compromise.
I passed the test sample to another reviewer, and haven’t yet heard about how well it served them this season.
Summary and Recommendations
I cannot recommend it without qualifications. I also can’t say I recommend against it, because it worked reasonably well up to a point.
It didn’t live up to my expectations, but there also aren’t many other cordless snow blowers that operate on power tool batteries.
The batteries were the weak point, and that’s fixable, either with a second set of batteries or maybe in the future with next-gen batteries with improved thermal properties or faster cool-down.
Maybe running the snow blower slower and lighter would have helped to avoid this, but I don’t see that as a favorable solution. Single stage snow blowers are slow enough.
The controls were fantastic, and I liked the electronic chute control. Its performance was adequate for a single stage snow blower.
This won’t be the best match for everyone. To be frank, I was disappointed, but that was more a matter of starting with high expectations.
If you are already on the Dewalt FlexVolt battery platform, or you want a compact cordless snow blower that’s powered by FlexVolt batteries, that’s what you get here and nowhere else.
Price (as of the time of this review): $999 for the 2-battery kit (DCSNP2142Y2)
There’s also a tool-only option for $699 (Acme has it on order), but it seems harder to find. The kit with batteries and chargers will likely have wider availability given Dewalt’s specific battery pairing recommendations.
Thank you to Dewalt for providing the review sample.
fred
I am too far along in years to deal with any sort of heavy snowfall. But I still have an old Ariens (291cc engine) machine sitting in the garage – just in case the landscapers don’t show up on time. While the Ariens is supposedly an easy electric start model it can be finicky (carburetor and gas issues the likely culprit). So, I’ve toyed with the idea of a battery-cordless model. Late last year – I read a Popular Mechanics piece comparing 7 models – rankling an EGO SNT2405 as their top pick – with the Dewalt coming in at #7. Nothing in that article or Stuarts’s assessment of this Dewalt piques my interest enough to buy anything for my use case. I suspect, however, that the manufacturers will keep at it and hopefully we will get more capable machines. If Makita is listening – I’d certainly take a look at a machine from them if it used the same 40V-8.0Ah in use in my lawnmower
Ted
If you’re deep in the Dewalt battery platform and only need it for moderate snow, it’s pretty good. Our landscapers only come if there is 2+” on snow, and we have a 100’ drive to clear. The Dewalt is perfect for this situation. It’s also relatively compact so it doesn’t take up a lot of room in the garage. I’ve been happy with it.
Tucker
I know some people who have Ego 2 stage blowers and speak highly of them. Good performance and acceptable runtime.
For the Dewalt if it’s overheating batteries with 5 in of snow, that’s all but useless. Especially for the money. Maybe for a plow guy who’s doing 15ft of front sidewalk and that’s it the size and weight make the runtime tradeoff worth it.
Andy
My 24” Ego 2 stage w/ 10ah batteries has handled all of the last 3 winters worth of storms without overheating or running out of batteries. My driveway is about 110 feet long and 10-12 feet wide. I keep the batteries inside and bring them out with me when it’s time to use them. A friend has the same SNT2400 with 7.5ah batteries and it performs very similarly.
I live in the Albany NY area and we get all kinds of snow, from light fluffy powder in 10* weather to late season wet heavy snow when it’s in the upper 30s.
My only complaint is that the auger has shear pins but the impeller doesn’t. My snowblower pulled a section of a ~1” thick branch into the impeller (at full power) and the branch got wedged between the impeller blade and discharge chute. That brought the impeller to a rapid stop and destroyed the auger/impeller gearbox. Ego covered the repair ($300 part at customer cost) under warranty without any dispute, which was nice. Fortunately the timing aligned with a warm spell so I didn’t have to shovel any snow!
Some comments on YouTube by someone in the Ego corporate service group mention that it’s a known issue that’s being looked at by the engineering team but no change that I’ve seen in the ~2 years since that comment was shared.
Scott K
How many of the 10ah batteries does it require for you to clear that size driveway?
Andy
It came kitted with 2. The snowblower will operate with only 1 battery, but I typically consume 6ah to 10ah worth of charge (across both batteries) to clear my driveway. I typically up the impeller / auger speed for wet / heavy snow and that uses more power.
Increasing the auger / impeller motor speed control above the lowest “Eco” setting is the quickest way to drain the batteries.
Eco is fine for anything in 30* or colder, but can struggle if the depth gets too high in wet snow where ambient temps are at / above freezing. The forward / reverse speed control seems to have little to no impact on battery life.
Tucker
That sounds about right for folks I know who have them – couple 7.5 or 10 Ah batteries can handle a lot of driveway.
We’re outside Buffalo – on the side without the crazy 6ft of snow in 2 days snowfalls. My gas Honda 2-stage is only a couple of years old, so I don’t plan on being in the market for anything else for a good long time.
Andy
Yeah, I’d say the big lake-effect storms are probably outside of a good use-case for an electric snowblower! I know it’s usually lighter snow, but just on sheer volume, that may be a tall task.
Jimmie
There’s no substitute for Watt-hrs. Those 12Ah FlexVolt batteries are large for hand-held power tools but at 240 Wh capacity they’re smallish compared to competitors’ OPE batteries. Fine for a weed- or hedge-trimmer but I figure my (gas) snowblower is probably the hardest-working tool in my garage so I wouldn’t expect a pair of 240 Wh batteries to go very far. Those cells are going to be asked to deliver a LOT of current in very cold conditions.
The smallest battery configuration Ego recommends for their single-stage snowblower is a dual-6Ah (672 Wh) and their remaining single-stage battery configurations offer dual-7.5Ah (840 Wh). Their 2-stage blowers use dual-10Ah (1.1kWh) or dual-12Ah (1.35kWh) configurations.
Dave
Watt hours determine runtime. They have no bearing on how powerful a battery is or how much current can be delivered.
Andy
Yes but also no. While yes, watt-hours is a measurement of power delivery over time, that higher energy capacity translates into improved performance.
Larger watt-hour batteries can provide the same current output as smaller batteries, but since the current is being drawn from a higher number of cells, each cell isn’t working as hard.
This translates into the bigger battery supporting high tool performance for a longer time than a small battery.
A relevant example is the Ego 56V battery line. A 2.5ah battery (140 watt hours) is one group of 14 cells in parallel (1P), a 5ah battery (280 wh) is 2 sets of 14 cells in parallel (2P) a 7.5ah (420wh) is 3P, and a 10ah battery (560wh) is a 4P setup.
A 1P pack can deliver up to 20A, a 2P pack up to 40A, a 3P pack up to 60A, and a 4P pack up to 80A.
S
How does the metal auger work if it contacts something?
In most 2-stage blowers, there’s sheer pins to disconnect the augers from the drive shaft. Does this have something similar, or is it relying on the motor to sense the load and stop?
Stuart
As far as I am aware, there are no shear pins. The only replacement parts listed in the manual are the safety key, auger belt, and wheels.
s
i would be curious what kind of stop or failsafe there is in the system.
i routinely do snow for some of my elderly neighbors, and given the age of the neighborhood, there are a number of cracks or uneven pavement across the different houses.
my 2-stage blower has broken the shear pins a few different times on those uneven spots, which i learned to stay clear of, but i’m happy that the shear pins where there in my case to prevent further damage to my equipment over an act of goodwill.
i’d still love to reduce the amount of store/maintained gasoline in my garage if i could, but i just don’t think my use-case is ideal for electric snow blowers for some time.
TomD
If it is belt driven perhaps that’s the shear, or the motor can stop fast enough without damage to the components.
Curtis
We had one at our store to demo and one of our guys had it out once and hit a curb with the auger. It bent the auger and also snapped the drivebelt. Unfortunately this was the first year and they didn’t’ have any parts available…
Rog
I blew out our driveway and the neighbors’ this past week of almost 7” with my 40V Ryobi snow blower and I was more than happy with its performance. It didn’t die, stall or barely bogged on a 4Ah battery and finished with half the battery left. I always WD40 the chute and auger which helps the snow to not stick and pack in. I say all that to say; I’m surprised this “beefier” Dewalt didn’t perform better for you.
Stuart
I am not kind to single stage snowblowers. It tackled the snow plow-compacted end of the driveway pretty well. It did the job, just not to completion.
I found the clearing quality to be quite good.
Hon Cho
Stuart wrote: “I cannot recommend it without qualifications. I also can’t say I recommend against it, because it worked reasonably well up to a point”
Talk about damning with faint praise. It failed during your use under conditions (5″ of snow) that it should have been able to handle. That’s a hard fail and not “reasonably well.”.
Stuart
It all depends on your needs. If it’s the choice between a shovel and this snow blower in 5″ of snow, I’d choose the snow blower. Snow blower and shovel vs just a shovel? I’d still choose the Dewalt snow blower.
The batteries overheated under prolong use where the batteries drained from 5 bars down to 2.
It’s not bad. I just want to be able to clear the driveway and walkway in one session.
Other single stage snowblowers have run out of battery charge on me, and I had to grab a spare. You can do that here too, but it drives up the cost.
It could make sense for FlexVolt users who have spare batteries available.
If in Dewalt’s engineering department, how could I improve upon the snow blower? If it taxes the batteries at a slower rate, performance would suffer. Smaller width and auger to decrease the load? That would lead to longer application speeds, making it slower to clean smaller or larger driveways alike.
The batteries are the bottleneck, and there’s no easy around that yet. Understanding this has made me more forgiving. That said, would I buy a personal copy for my own use? No. If I had a smaller driveway? No. If I had a smaller driveway, wanted a small storage footprint, and had other uses for FlexVolt batteries? Maybe.
Brian
Come on. Based on the performance you experienced your conclusion shouldn’t be anything but a hard pass. The thing is practically useless. Why would anyone shell out $1,000! and when they still need to grab a shovel in 5” of snow?!?
I appreciate the detail and pictures you provided (as usual) but all it tells me is that, in this case, your judgment is way off.
Stuart
It’s a matter of suitability and perspective.
For my needs? I couldn’t get rid of the test sample fast enough. But there are users with different needs and smaller driveways for whom it might be a good fit. This isn’t the type of tool where no one should ever buy it for any reason. My job is to tell you what happened, it’s up to you to judge whether the tool’s suitable for your needs. If my driveway was 100 square feet smaller, everything might have seemed perfect. A generalized hard pass seems inappropriate.
Farmerguy
What was the outdoor temperature when you were testing this? Wondering the effect of cold temperatures on performance, were batteries indoor temp before use, or is it not an issue or concern?
Stuart
My garage is insulated and heated, so the batteries were maybe 64-68°.
Outside temps were high-30’s.
Looking at my photo time stamps, the safety key was in my hand, and the snow blower was clean and surrounded by untouched snow at 2:23pm. I made my first few passes within 6 minutes, with 5 charge status bars showing for each battery.
I got the first red light at 2:46pm.
If the batteries were too cold, that would have changed really quickly. I am of the belief that Dewalt dialed in the motor and electronics for high performance, and that it taxed the batteries until the protection circuits kicked in.
JP454
I’ve been using my DeWalt tools outside for the last few weeks in the teens to 30s degree. I’ve been amazed at how poorly they’ve done.
They’ve been used in circ saws, framing nailer, drills, impacts, and woodworking tools.
If I leave the bigger draw tools sitting for any decent amount of time (15+ min) and it’s below freezing the batteries can barely power them. They also wouldn’t charge until I got them in a box that was above freezing.
2ah and 5ah old XR packs won’t even run the framing nailer or saws.
Newer 6ah XR and PowerStack 1.7 do much better with the cold.
My few years old Flexvolt 6 doesn’t do well but the newer Flexvolt 9 does ok.
All that to say if you’re starting from a cold garage it will definitely affect the run time. I looked at these for my snow plowing and they just didn’t make sense for cost and one property I had that was almost 1000′ of 4′ wide aggregate sidewalk. I knew it wouldn’t get through that so it wasn’t that useful.
I won’t be looking at DeWalt snowblowers until they have a pouch FlexVolt battery. I think that’s the combo they’ll need to make this reliable.
Stuart
I highly doubt they’ll have a pouch cell FlexVolt battery. Tabless cells seem most likely.
MFC
I use dewalt for most everything, however batteries have their limits. Lawn mowers, leaf blowers, line trimmers, snow blowers, etc. are all meant to be run non-stop until the job is done. Batteries do not do good under those conditions (high discharge, high heat).
Not a single tool made by any of the big OPE platforms has ever impressed me. Either they’re underpowered, or you need 10 batteries to keep it working through the task.
This is why I’m not confident when they talk about running a whole lawn crew on batteries. Not to mention the failure rate of large batteries after three years.
So, temper your expectations for battery related OPE. Either, it can do a small amount well, or a lot poorly. You’ll need a lot of batteries either way.
fred
I see my battery powered OPE as just and adjunct to my engine-driven stuff. My older Milwaukee leaf blower (2728-20) heats up batteries and cuts out after only a few minutes of use. My Makita XGT (GBU01Z which came as a promotion with their lawnmower) – is better – but neither is close to my old Echo gas-powered backpack blower. The Makita XGT (GML01Z) lawnmower – with 2 40V-8Ah batteries is great for my trimming some of our “garden room” lawns – but I leave the main lawns to the landscapers with their tractors and zero-turn lawnmowers. Over the years my gas powered snowblowers have been called upon to mostly clear paths – not the entire drive up to the house (left to the guys with the snowplow on their truck). If the battery ones from either Makita or Milwaukee get better – I might consider one – but would not expect it to be capable of much – beyond also clearing paths.
Ale
I have a stage 1 and stage 2 EGO snowblower. I live in Canada and we get around 10 feet of snow annually. And lot of time this is wet snow not fine powder. So I use my snowblowers a lot. I can say after 2 winters that they work flawlessly and I would never go back to gas. This is so much better in every way.
The only thing I dislike is that the 2 stage unit is a bit too light so it want to climb snowbank if you don’t push it down. I wish they offered a track version.
fred
My Ariens has 2 steel plates mounted on the housing up front. Makes the machine heavier – but not prone to climb. I wonder if you could add something like this:
https://www.govets.com/ariens-226-cxg-5xpv5.html
Ted
Not sure I agree with that. I’ve gone to 100% battery for all yard work on a 1 acre lot. Dewalt mower, trimmer, leaf blower. All 60v. Mowing usually just about drains 2 – 10AH batteries. I pop on a 12AH into my trimmer. Finish up and use them same battery in the leaf blower.
Not having to deal with gas or ICE-relate maintenance is amazing.
Goodie
Ted, I’m with you.
I really enjoy not having to worry about whether some tool that I use maybe 6-10 times per year will start. I hate stabilizing and storing gas, and I like that the batteries can be charged quickly at home.
I have 80v Greenworks mower, leaf blower, and weed wacker (great sales on them at Costco a few years ago) and 40v Ryobi (14″ chainsaw, electric polesaw). They all work as designed.
What sold me on going all electric was a single event. We lost a tree in a wind event. It was about 12inches in diameter and 40 feet tall. I bought that little 40v Ryobi chainsaw the same afternoon. It did a pretty nice job getting the tree limbed and bucked in about 45 minutes. I had two batteries, which helped.
We now have an EV and I will never buy another ICE vehicle unless I need that Kubota tractor…
MFC
For a single unit homeowner, they work fine. But how long have you been doing this and how often do you use your batteries?
I have about 30 DeWalt batteries and most are around 5 years old. Every single 60v battery has failed around the 2-4 year mark. I jump them off of other batteries and get them working again, but it’s a matter of time before I have to do it again. Their use capacity is greatly diminished after that though and I wound up using four 9ah flexvolt batteries, one 12ah and three 6ah to mow my one acre yard and trim/blow it off.
So, if you’re a single lot homeowner that rarely uses your batteries (once a week or every two weeks), then batteries are more ideal. However, in constant use batteries don’t last, and I melted three DeWalt mowers before their gen. 2 came out. I’ve moved onto gas at this point and am a lot happier with it. Way cheaper too.
Ted
I got the 60v trimmer and leaf blower in 2018. The trimmer came with a 9Ah battery. It’s still going strong. My mower is from 2022. Came with two – 12AH batteries and they’re still doing just fine.
Not sure what explains your experience but I’ve never had a battery fail.
Jerome W Sirois
purchased tool only one this December 2024 .put batteries 6 ah flex volti n it used for about 15 minutes noticed it did not clean all the way to pavement then realized did not put the larger batteries 9 ah flex volt in that i intended replaced batteries tried to start went to solid default light did all the trouble shooting suggested had to return it return was okay but took 3 weeks total to get my refund
Big Richard
Sounds on par with other reviews I have seen. Disappointing, though I still want to try it for myself. I have to say I would only be using it for those 2″-4″ light fluffy snows when I just want to get the sidewalks and crosswalks done before work without working up a sweat shoveling (double corner lot, so around 300 feet). I had a smaller Greenworks 40v that more than sufficed for this task with a single 5Ah battery, but sold it planning to buy the DeWalt as it made more sense for me, but have yet to pull the trigger waiting on a good sale.
5+” of wet, heavy, sticky snow is 2-stage territory, every time imo. I understand you wanted to really test it to its limits though, and not everyone has the room or need for a 2-stage, so not knocking you at all. I also have a pair of 15Ah hogs that I would relegate to it, curious how much difference they would make. The difference in the 20″ 677 chainsaw between the 9Ah/12Ah and the 15Ah is quite noticeable.
A PowerShift or even 4x60V 2-stage would be silly expensive, but a much more capable machine.
Stuart
The difficult part about testing snow blowers is that the weather has to cooperate. 1” of snow and I’m grabbing the shovel.
There’s a certain thickness of snow below which it’s more work and hassle to push a single stage snow blower around than to push the snow around with a shovel. Last year’s nearly 5” of snow was the only testing opportunity.
Goodie
I agree with this completely. My take is that unless I live somewhere that gets large (and heavy) snow events several times per year, the return on investment for a snow blower is questionable. There’s usually only one event per year that justified using a machine.
I’ve lived in NE Oregon and Idaho (both at nearly 4000 foot elevation), Colorado (7000 feet), Kansas, and southern New York. Kansas and New York were the only places where I would have considered getting a snow blower.
That said, people are free spend their money the way they want and there are folks who can’t physically shovel.
Mike
My old gas snow blower is getting close to being old enough to buy a beer and I know eventually it’s going to give me the double bird so I’ll be in the market for a new one sooner or later. I have been super curious about the Ego and Toro battery powered 2 stage blowers. For me it seems like this is a really interesting application for a battery powered OPE. With warm weather tools like a mower you’re using them in season at a pretty regular interval and you know when the season is over so you can winterize it and put fuel stabilizer.
Snow Blowers have such random usage, some winters I’m running mine weekly other winters like this year I haven’t started it once to use. It’s just all over the place and I always wonder if the next time I need it will it actually start. At least with the battery powered ones I’m a lot less worried about that.
scott taylor
Im not a snow blower guy since I live in Atlanta but I have both the front and rear tine tiller ryobi. The rear tine with two 6ah batteries, will run continuously for about 30 minutes with no issues, the same with the front tine tiller. I have even modified the rear tine to double the width and it still kills it. I can’t wait to see what the newest ryobi 40v batteries edge batteries do. I have both tillers since Home Depot had the rear for 499 and 4 6ah batteries a couple months back and the front tine for 199 with only one 6ah battery. I Have two of the expandit power heads and various expandit tools from almost 25 years and all are still killing it.
JonChicago
I purchased a Toro 60v Powerclear single stage this past fall. It was a bit more expensive but is AWESOME. It utilizes a rubber impeller that makes slight contact with the ground and does a great job of clearing compacted snow. Also, while there is some plastic there is a complete metal frame, it is basically a Toro gas snowblower with batteries and an electric motor instead of fuel tank and engine. I compared it in the store to the EGO, Ryobi, Dewalt, etc and the build quality of the Toro is much better. I recommend it WITHOUT qualifications
Jared
I’m a single-stage snowblower user – but of the corded variety. It sounds like this Dewalt might be an improvement in terms of performance, but with the obvious drawback of runtime and overheating. That IS kind of disappointing to hear.
I think single-stage blowers are pretty limited generally. They’re simple and inexpensive, but I suspect most manufacturers wouldn’t recommend them for as much snow as people use them for. I feel like I abuse mine all the time – using it for way more snow than it’s supposed to move.
With that in mind, I suspect from your review that the Dewalt is performing right in normal single-stage territory – it might even be a leader. The problem is, it’s a $1300 kit (here in Canada). That’s a TON of money for single-stage performance.
For context, I spent like $140 for my Kobalt single-stage corded. That’s obviously an unfair comparison – it’s missing two very expensive batteries for one thing, and cordless always costs more.
However, it’s not the comparison that’s important in my mind. It’s that I can accept the Kobalt’s performance when it’s $140, but when something costs nearly 10x I expect more. That’s too much just to lose the cord.
Kilroy
A couple weeks ago I picked up a single stage Greenworks 13 amp corded snowblower (cheaper than my Man Plow, as the snowblower was $87 on sale, maybe because it was shipped from a Walmart DC outside Orlando).
In 4″ of snow, the snowblower wasn’t great (had to go slowly with it, didn’t throw snow more than 4 or 6 feet, and barely moved the wetter stuff that the city plow pushed against my driveway). However, it did better than I thought it would, as it did move the snow. It was also much easier on my back than pushing that much snow with the Man Plow would have been, and a little faster as well (not by much). With 4″ of snow on a 900 sqft driveway, it took me about 25 minutes to clear the driveway, which isn’t fast but which I’m okay with.
Overall, I’m happy with that corded snowblower, especially given how cheap it was and how small it is. With an inch or two of snow, the Man Plow will be faster and easier, and for much more than 4″ or 5″ the snowblower will really be frustrating, but with the storms I get, that still means I’ll likely be using the snowblower a fair bit.
If I do see a storm with > 4″ of snow in the forecast, I’ll just plan to do 2+ driveway cleanings. I’d rather do that than buy a $1400 new gas snowblower (that I don’t have space in the garage for) or hire a plow service.
Jared
I live rural, so I use a tractor for most of my snow-clearing. I have the corded electric blower to clean my walkways and sometimes my garage pad or deck. However, I’ll give you an example of “abuse” of a single-stage snowblower that I was talking about in my previous comment.
Earlier this winter, there was a big storm here – and my tractor had broken down (hydraulic pump failure so I couldn’t use the FEL). Normally, should such a thing occur, I have a couple neighbors who wouldn’t object to helping me out. However, one was away working, the other on holidays… so I busted out 300′ of HD extension cord to test how far I could get on the driveway.
I blew snow for hours. A couple hours the first day, close to five the second. Most of the snow was 5-7″ deep, but at the end of my driveway where it’s not sheltered it built up taller than my blower’s chute.
And it worked. It was slow and the work was hard, but I eventually cleared the whole thing. Where the snow got too deep I would run the blower into the pile, backup and go again – or I’d stomp off a chunk and blow that.
Using a single-stage snowblower that way is work. They’re not self-propelled and they bog down if pushed too hard. A shovel is often just as easy when clearing a walkway. However, the blower can shoot the snow 20-30′ if you adjust the chute just right and keep the blade spinning fast. That’s a big advantage over lifting up a scoop in a shovel and throwing it to the other side of the driveway.
I simply could not have lifted that much snow with a shovel.
Mark
Ridiculous that a battery would overheat in a snowblower. The need to go back to the drawing board.
Tom
I love my single stage Toro. That’s what just about every commercial snow clearing company uses here in Chicago. Cleans the pavement well and pulls you along in light snow and rarely bogs in heavy snow. Super easy chute operation too. Like any small engine needs just a bit of maintenance.
Love my Ego mower too, but based on reviews from friends and on the web, I just don’t think battery is worth it for me as I really value the speed I get with my gas setup.
Michael F
I’m a lifelong Texan moving to Idaho next week, so I’ve been very curious about snow blowers. I’ve got a bad back, so I’m not going to be out there shoveling. I have my eye on the 2 stage EGO because it seems to have the right performance for the money.
Mark
As a lifelong Pennsylvania resident, do it.
I’ve had mine for a couple years. It’s fantastic, and our snow is usually a lot slushier than our west.
jlf
Our Craftsman snowblower is broken and no one had time to repair it before a snowstorm hit last weekend so I bought this DeWalt snowblower. (Originally i’d bought a much cheaper Ryobi 40V one but I immediately regretted the purchase because I don’t have any Ryobi tools that use 40V batteries so returned it and replaced with the DeWalt.)
It worked perfectly fine on the light snow we had (maybe a little over 4 inches). We have a fairly large driveway and it got through the whole thing without running out of power. When I took the batteries out to charge, I installed a single 9Ah flexvolt battery that I’d already owned just to see what would happen and it actually worked ok with that as well.
I like having this as a secondary snowblower because it is more maneuverable and has a narrower width than the huge metal Craftsman so it is easier to use for an average sized woman in some circumstances. (My husband usually clears the snow but he had a back injury so I needed to step in, hence the quick purchase of a machine I could pick up and get in and out of car by myself.)
That said, it feels more than a little flimsy and I wouldn’t trust it to do a good job on heavy, wet snow. It struggled to handle the dense snow that the street plowers left at the edge of our driveway.
Tangentially, I also own Ryobi’s 18V 10″ snow thrower and it’s only been used a handful of times in the 2 years since I bought it, so I was astonished to find that it has simply stopped working since the last time it snowed. At least it’s still under warranty, but caveat emptor.
PW
This is a fair and thorough review, although I disagree with the conclusion.
For me it’s about price. For $1,000, would I be disappointed in this? Yes. Absolutely. To me it’s unacceptable to have an expensive (cold weather!) tool overheat its kitted batteries and shut down. At least when used on any kind of “normal” setting, which is what I understand to be the case here?
I get the challenge of balancing tool performance with battery thermal limits. In this case, I think the decision should be up to the user. Any “normal” mode should mean you can run all day long. Add a “turbo” mode that runs batteries closer to the limit if there’s a danger of overheating. This is in line with some Ego products I have, where there’s a differentiation between a “normal” top performance, and something that’s gonna push the battery limits.
I’m also pretty unimpressed that it shipped with or got damage. Again, stuff happens, but this is a $1,000 product. I expect effort to have been made in package design.
Seems to me like this product needs another revision from DeWalt to be anything other than a hard pass, especially at this price point.
Another Bob
Not surprised this battery tool isn’t holding up. Battery OPE has come a long way but a few select tool categories are a hard nut to crack. Back pack blowers, lawn mowers and snowblowers all come to mind.
I figure it’s hard to manage runtime/performance with such varying conditions (wet heavy cement snow or the fluffy type) given the limited amount of power from a battery platform.
Also why would the blower not come kitted with the 15ah battery? Price point consideration maybe? I’d think it would give a higher thermal shutdown threshold.
Solid pass for me but I expected that. Thanks Stuart for testing it out. Maybe version two will work a little better. Or maybe ask for a set of 15ah to test?
SteveP
Just like lawnmowers, it seems to me the older gas models of snowblowers were mostly made of metal with some plastic parts. Now it seems these products are mostly made of plastic with some metal parts. That’s fine for a $50 drill – but a $1000 snowblower? And then they change the model the next year, so the plastic part you broke is never available as a spare part. Unlike that 10-yr-old Honda mower, where you just have to worry about rust
Mark
That is crazy at that price. I’ve been using the Ryobi 40v single stage for years, and I can’t recommend it enough for what it is. I’ve pushed it through 8 inches of snow without much back ache. Granted I had the plastic auger break on me, but it was still usable and pretty easy to replace.
You can get one with 2 7.5mAh batteries for $700. The DeWalt is an absolute rip off. Wow.