Earthwise SN70016 Electric Corded 12Amp Snow Shovel, 16" Width, 430lbs/Minute

So I'm from Jersey and if you're looking at the date of this review, we just had around 8 inches land in my area. What better time to test this bad boy out? Granted, I ordered it about a month ago and assembled it. We just haven't had any snow since. I'll say, shipping/box presentation was rough. The product came with a corner smashed in pretty bad, but I hoped everything inside was packed well enough and everything seemed to be in place properly. Instructions to put it together are OKAY. The one thing and maybe my fault, is that I rushed ahead on using 4 screws to put the bottom base together where you join two green plastic covers together. You don't want to do that step until you're ready to screw in the base of the wheels to the unit. The screws will join the wheel assembly to the base of the unit, linking the two green covers together. Just a piece of advise for you there. Aside from that little detail, I think the rest of the assembly was quite straight forward and easy enough. So now, onto performance and ease of use. Some people may complain because it's corded, but I knew that going in. I have 100ft extension cord. As long as you have it loose behind you so you can walk without it pulling you back because you ran out of cord, you'll be fine. I wrap the cord over my shoulder to prevent it from dropping down anywhere near the machine. To engage the machine you have a safety switch you press in and then the trigger held down to activate. Fires up immediately and I just went right at it. The wheels definitely give it nice stability at the bottom so that you can push it with 1 hand rather than having to use two hands to hold it. Though you can, and there is a handle midway up the shaft to give you that extra leverage. I did use that when the snow got tougher to push through. Frequently you're going to hit a snag where it appears to not want to spit, but you simply need to raise or lower it until it bites the snow. It's a lot easier than saying it and all happens in seconds while using it. Put it simply, it won't just do everything for you on its own and will require you to get in with it to make sure it's constantly biting the snow and spitting it forward, but it does it very well and for the most part effortlessly. Another key note worth mentioning is that you can adjust the angle to spit the snow. Not all of these tools have that. It works really well because I required to make it spit left towards my yard and avoid shooting straight onto the street or the neighbors yard on my right. This helps tremendously to guide the snow towards where you want to pile it up. Now for the CONS or things to keep in mind. First obviously, this is my first usage of the machine and cannot give you reliability results yet. I will come back to update this review however if it does go bad on me and any leading factors for that. Keep in mind, you want a relatively flat surface when using this. I mean it can be a driveway that inclines/declines, just make sure that there are no rocks/stones/broken portions that can result in the auger whacking into. Either you're going to be spitting rocks/stones, or you're going to break the plastic auger. Granted it's hard plastic, so it won't go down without a fight. I just wouldn't test it. I bought the 16 inch wide housing over the 12 to get a little more width which would equal completing the job sooner. I HIGHLY recommend that. I know it doesn't seem like much, but those extra inches do help in the grand scheme. More being chomped and spit at a time means less overall passes needed to clear your driveway/walkway. Lastly, you can tackle a wall that the snow plow makes in front of your driveway with it. Because it can be lifted up with a little more effort, you can just basically put it on top of the wall and start grinding your way down. I did this and it worked great. You just need to get yourself an entry point angle to then get it on comfortably and push it along the top until you shave the wall down. So yeah, for now, without a doubt, if you don't mind a corded blower, I highly recommend this. My driveway is the exact length of average sized car left to right and two more right behind them. If you can picture those measurements covered with 8 inches of snow (cars were not in driveway so it was completely covered), it took me 35 minutes to complete the job including the snow wall.

First attempt at using this device was on week old slightly crusty snow. It didn’t work very well and went into thermal shutdown three times after a few minutes of use. However on four to five inches of fresh snow it worked great and cleared my driveway without issue. So as long as you understand this is a relatively light duty machine and use it for what it is built for it’s great. If you have heavier crusty snow, I would look at other options.

Putting the shovel together was not all that difficult. The only tricky part I ran into was paying attention and making sure the posts were aligned correctly when connecting them, especially the section with the wiring you have to click together. The shovel arrived just before a larger than normal snowfall in our area and it worked great to clear the first 4" of snow. The next day, another 6" or so inches fell and I went back at it. This portion was a bit heavier, and after about 10 to 15 minutes, the shovel just stopped. I gave it some time to cool down, but it happened again after just a few minutes of operation. After the 3rd time, I just put it back in the garage and shoveled by hand. After letting it sit for 2 days, I plugged it back in to see if it was working, and after about 30 seconds there was a flash, a lot of smoke, another flash, a LOT more smoke and then it died for good. Needless to say, I returned it and did not replace it. This may be a great tool, but the one I received did not fare well at all.

This isn’t a Toro 521 self-propelled 2-stage snow blower with chains like I had for Minnesota winters. But for a KC winter with 1-3 storms per year and half as much snow, this thing rocks. I keep asking it to be the Toro and it keeps trying and often succeeding. Job 1: will it move 400 pounds of snow per minute? I didn’t take the time to weigh, but it moves an AMAZING amount of snow per second, pulverizing it into a snow cloud that just blows away. Will it move 6-8” of snow? Yes, depending on how wet/heavy/icy it is. But 4” of heavy snow is no problem. 6” will require more muscle on your part to push it through. But 4” is more like pushing a vacuum cleaner back and forth. Yes, it is plastic, but really solid. The little wheels are like a Fisher-Price toy, but they do the job. The whole thing is light weight and it is best to resist the temptation to push it hard into the ground. Let it rest on those wheels and do most of the work, even if you have to cover the same spot twice. It's tiny - you can hang it on the wall in the garage. Try that with your 2-stage. Nope, it isn’t as effective as the big Toro or Husq, but it is 85% as effective, and 15% of the cost. A good tradeoff.

Product needs assembly but came missing the 4 screws that attach the handle to the motor assembly. Called product support but as it was a Saturday they were outside normal business hours. As I didnt want to wait who knows how long to get screws sent to me I went to menards and bought four stainless #8 x 1.25" flat head screws. They worked just fine and won't rust. I searched the bow multiple times thinking they were maybe outside of the plastic package with all the other screws and hardware. Quite upsetting to be sent a new product that lacked quality control and packaged it missing items. Fortunately grok gave details for the replacement size. It is not quite as light as I thought but considerably less then the corded 22" snow joe it replaced. It's quite as well and takes up less space. Have yet to use it.

I purchased this to clear the snow off my back deck when it's too heavy to shovel. This throws the snow really well and being able to direct the angle is ideal and works well. I prefer the powered cable instead of a battery for the throw strength. I've used this now for two Canadian winters in souther Ontario and it's holding up very well. I expect many years from this based on my experience to date. The build quality is great and the design works well. I highly recommend it.

At first I was excited for how compact this machine was. However, within the first season of using it, it broke. I live in Nova Scotia where we get quite a bit of snow. I have a small single car paved driveway that houses an SUV. No garage. Machine is stored in the house in a storage room. The beginning of winter it was working good, couple inches here and there it could handle fine. It was throwing the snow up in the air creating a snow blizzard with every stride. Annoying, but we made it work. The FIRST snowfall of 8 inches and it stopped working. Makes all the sounds but no rotation. Honestly, for $200 I am shocked it couldn't even make it one season. 0 out of 10 would not recommend.

First thing I want you to do is get out your ruler, tape measure, whatever. Now, measure 8" from the floor. See how high that is? That's the MAX depth of snow you can get through. This is NOT a snowblower in the traditional sense. It's a shovel with wheels that will blow light snowfalls from your deck, driveway or wherever. If you have a heavy snowfall, unless you're outside clearing the snow every hour or two before it gets over let's say 5 inches max, you will not be able to use this without using an old fashioned shovel first. If you have wet snow or ice? Again, unless you're out there hourly, it's not going to do what you want. If you have gravel....come on. Use your head. It's plastic. You do not want to be scooping up stones with this and if you do, that' is on you my friend. It's relatively easy to assemble, but if you have an extra pair of hands to help, that would be good. First usage, you will probably smell the electric motor. Don't freak out unless you ignored everything I've said before this. It went away after a little while and didn't return. Things I didn't like: The trigger is hard to keep pressed down and with the safety button, you have to hold it for it to work. If you've got any issue with your hands like arthritis or like me, you're getting older and stuff don't work like it used to, it might be hard on your hand. But that's what kids are for, right? The other thing I wasn't keen on was the length of the handle AND the ungrounded plug. Seems to me, anything you use outdoors in snow, should be grounded. That led to another issue. The plug was hard to get into the extension cord at first. I, like most sane people, got a grounded three prong outdoor cord for this but so I was a bit annoyed making it fit together. You don't have to force it, but BEFORE you go out into the cold, plug it in when it's warm and the plastic will give enough to fit it snugly but not break. That's it. It's good at doing WHAT IT WAS MADE FOR. Can't stress that enough.

It was great while it worked. I have used it three times for maybe about 15 minutes each time and on the third time I used it. It just stopped working. It could be an internal fuse or something. I have no idea, but it is completely dead, and I have no idea what to do next. I’m going to try contacting the seller. The snow that I was trying to remove was about 6 to 8 inches deep and it was very light and fluffy and it was only on my sidewalk and deck. I own a gas powered snowblower and I use that for the driveway and larger sidewalks, . This was just a convenience tool to remove snow from close to my doors and down to the driveway. Update – and working with technical support and leaving it outside for a few days I plugged it in again and it worked so there must be some sort of thermal protection or something in it that it needed to reset

Quite working 4 days past the 30 day mark only used a handful of times and then. If the snow trying to be cleared was a couple feet I would understand, but it has all been light and a matter of a few inches. So disappointed in the product.