My wife and I had were looking for a snow blower to save our bad backs some agony when we happened upon the Toro Electric Power Snow Shovel at Villagers here in NJ. We had looked at normal snow blowers, but the cost to buy one was too much for something we might only use 2-3 times a year. Plus we have a small driveway and no sidewalks, so it made no sense to purchase a blower. So we decided to take a chance on the low cost Toro Snow Shovel for our needs, and at a cost of $92 plus tax, it was hard to beat.

Last night we had our first significant snow fall here in NJ, so I finally had a chance to use the shovel. The item did require some assembly, which was a bit of pain to put together. There is a hand holder that had to be attached to the center of the tube and it was not easy to put on. The whole process took about 20 minutes to do.

By the time I was ready, our driveway had approx 3-4 inches of snow covering it. The shovel is electric and required an extension cord (you must purchase that separately) to use over the course of the driveway. The shovel worked very well. It easily tossed the shovel off the driveway with minimal effort from me to move the shovel. Plus the shovel is far less noisy than a snow blower, which could be a concern to the neighbors who don't like loud noises. The only disadvantage of the shovel is that it blows the snow straight ahead, and not off to the side like a regular snow blower. This requires you to push the shovel at an angle to get the snow blown off the driveway. But this really is a minimal disadvantage.

In what would have normally taken me 35-40 minutes to clean the driveway, I accomplished in about 10 minutes and with no discomfort to my back whatsoever. I am very happy with the Toro Electric Powered Shovel.

UPDATE: A very good question from the Feedback asked how the unit works. Basically the "shovel" unit has a cylinder of rotating plastic blades much like you would see on the back of an old style Riverboat. They are underneath a heavy duty plastic housing unit. As you push the shovel forward, the snow is scooped up as the blade turns and is propelled forward at a high velocity. From my first use of the shovel, it propelled the snow away about 4-5 feet. For flat surfaces (such as my driveway), this unit is ideal. If you have a gravel driveway, I would not use this unit as I am sure that rocks would get scooped up and damage the blades. Hope this helps!


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