This sat unused for a few days after purchase, and then a foot of snow fell over a 24 hour period. What a baptism by fire for this snowblower! Also I have never used a snowblower before but found this one to be really easy to unbox, to operate and to maintain. It's a trooper!

During that snowfall I went out five different times using this snowblower so I feel like I have a thorough understanding of its capabilities. The first time out felt difficult but it was heavier snow. The next two times it had turned light and fluffy - plowing 2-3" of fluffy snow was so easy and quick! The fourth go with this machine was after a night of snow and some parts that had gone crisp or packed down were more difficult. Using the accompanying mini shovel to break down the compact snow made it possible to snowblow it. So with a little extra effort you can even take care of day-after detail work or widening your pathways. Fifth was better than the fourth but still tough on firmer spots. Fresh snow was a breeze!

I've seen other machines throw snow further and I realize this machine has its limits but what you get for the price is phenomenal. It's a great electric snowblower that will clear all the pathways you need. When you push the machine too far or try to use too much power when it is on a low battery it shuts down, making it easy to learn its capabilities so that you can operate it efficiently. I really had a lot of shut offs my first couple of times using this machine but now only have 1 or maybe 2 which is just a low battery signal. This features makes this very user friendly, especially for someone who's never used a snowblower before.

Pros:
- Easy over a few fresh inches of fluffy snow
- Capable of handling heavier snow (will just wear battery more & take longer)
- Super simple to put together & operate
- Easy maintenance (everything is ready out of the factory)
- Battery operated so no cords to worry about

Cons:
- Battery life can run out quickly and takes about 3 times as long to charge.

Since this is my only complaint I have ordered a new battery. It would be easier to do two runs worth in one sitting than it is to do one then go inside and wait one & a half to two hours to charge up the next go. It would have been nice to have a longer battery life but it's a minor easy fix, and for some people on a shorter driveway it wouldn't be a problem.

Tips: Make sure to turn the frame adjustment wheels until firm but not crushingly so. Dust off all snow after usage! Remove batteries only after discarding wet/snowy gloves to keep them dry. Go WITH the wind! Make sure to register your machine at the manufacturer's website for an extended warranty.

Handeling

6AM, 1/29/23

I have a long driveway (about 10 car lengths, concrete), a large parking area in front of the garage, and a bluestone and brick patio entrance area to the front door. I live near Milwaukee. I liked the original SnowJoe, but the electric cord was becoming a nuisance. The battery version, though a few inches narrower (18"), seemed like a cost effective solution. It handles 1" snow very easily, was particularly good on the patio where a shovel snags on bricks, and I could do the whole job on one battery charge. But wasn't being challenged... until..... Last night we had 8-10" of powder snow. Up at 5:30 AM I fired up the battery Snow Joe.

It careened down the long driveway and quickly plowed away the 8" layer like a hot knife through butter. I was impressed. It was clearly using a lot of energy, so I expected I would have to recharge. At the end of the driveway, the plows had piled about 1.5 - 2 feet but Joe had no trouble munching through it all, taking smaller bites. I probably used most of the battery energy here. I didn't want to run the batteries to zero (experience with Ryobi products I learned this is not a good idea because the battery has its own logic circuitry and if this is not powered the battery goes totally dead and it becomes very difficult if not impossible to reactivate it, using various tricks found on google forums )

On one battery charge Snow Joe did the whole long driveway, and part of the parking area (I may go over it again since a small half inch snow layer remains). Now recharging and should be easy to finish in an hour. I am impressed by the sheer bulk of snow removed and the convenience!!! With the cord I couldn't reach the last few feet of the driveway where the snow plow piles are, would spend half the time moving the cord around, and I would be cussing like a sailor. If these sorts of large snow storms were more frequent I would buy some more batteries, but nothing wrong with a long coffee break. I will complete this report when I'm done with the job.

8:40 AM

Charging takes a about an hour and fifteen minutes
I couldn't quite finish the job on the second charge. Enough
to make driveway passable, and the patio, but not quite elegantly finished.

Rather than waiting another hour-fifteen of charging I cranked up my old Joe with the plug-in cable to finish the job. NEVER AGAIN... You spend 2/3 of the time, dragging the cable around and replugging it in. The cable is heavy (14 amps) and it gets stiff in the cold weather. It has imited length of 100', too short for my driveway (I had bought an extension but didn't bother with it). Cable is a real nuisance. Also, I didnt notice any better performance out of the cable Joe.. The battery one performed just fine and seemed to deliver more power than the cable version ... (remember, power = energy/time; maybe there's
a lot of resistance in the 14 amp 100' cable that reduces power. ..from experience I know
that a 12 amp cable doesnt work at all with the old snow Joe.)
Far better to wait an hour for a recharge and only use battery Joe.
Old Snow Joe and Cable are going to the J-yard.

Overall I remain quite impressed with the battery 18" Show Joe. It cuts through 8" of powder snow
quickly and efficiently. It can bite away at the multiple piles that the city snow plows leave at the
end of the driveway.
It does leave about a quarter to half inch of snow that can be removed on a second pass, but
never completely.
The energy storage of the batteries is a bit shy for my wants, but I am patient and
can wait out the 1:15 hour recharge time, or buy additional batteries.

I give this little 18" battery powered Snow Joe 5 stars.

Addendum: After all this, I have noticed a rasping noise coming from the battery Joe. Hopefully I didn't
do fatal damage. It did munch some ice at the end of the driveway and that is a stress point. Will not be happy if the one big snow fall requires I have to purchase a new machine. We'll see.

I have had a couple of Snow Joe electric snow shovels ( corded) over the past 20 years or so and they have done an excellent job for me however, I am beginning to feel my age with them.

We live in a ski resort town and I have a two car driveway about 75' long plus a 600 sqr ft deck and while the homeowners association gets around to the driveway eventually, it is always too late for us early skiers and they never touch the deck which I use in the winter for BBQ'ing and smoking food.

A friend bought this unit and raved about it so my wife bought me one for an early Christmas present and I must say, in the first week I am very impressed. I did buy and extra set of batteries and in the first two weeks have experienced just about everything the weather can throw at us.

The first experience was in 6" of fairly heavy snow. The blower was working pretty hard with 6" of heavy plus a snow berm left by the road plows snow and it took both sets of batteries to do just the driveway and berm.

A couple of days later, we received a total of 17" of pretty light, fluffy snow over two days and the blower really shined. I waited for about 10" of snow to pile up to test the claim it would handle 10" of snow and it did quite well but did require two passes to completely clean up the driveway and the supplied 4 Ah batteries did not quite do it all. When I plowed the remaining 7" the next day, the blower handled it in a single pass and I did the entire driveway on the smaller 4 Ah batteries. A little more overlap might have eliminated the second pass on the first day.

Today, I blew 4" - 5" of pretty light, fluffy snow off both the driveway and the deck with just the 6Ah back-up set of batteries in about 45 mins.

Overall, I am very pleased with this unit and recommend it highly for light duty applications. I was planning to keep my electric snow shovel "just in case" but have just put it on Craig's List.

Well done Snow Joe - great snow blower. I also own a Sun Joe pressure washer and am very happy with that product, as well.

I bought this snow blower because we are no longer able to shovel our driveway and sidewalks. We got about 12 inches over the course of 2 days so this little guy was really put to the test. It does a great job in areas that are a straight forward plow, like sidewalks. It had a harder time on the driveway because some of the snow had already been packed in pretty tightly. The snow storm produced a very heavy, wet snow, which also made this snow blower really have to work.

Cons: Struggles in heavy, wet snow. Although I was able to plow through 8 inches of accumulation, it was slow going. The batteries don't last as long in deeper snow. I was able to get about 30 minutes in with the heavy, deep stuff and closer to 45 minutes on easier terrain. The chute the snow blows out of does get clogged pretty quickly, particularly when dealing with wet snow. There is a little tool on the handle to help push the snow down and out the bottom. I probably didn't read the description very well - when I saw it came with two batteries, I assumed that meant we would have an extra one on hand to help keep it running for longer than the 30ish minutes. It actually needs both batteries to operate. They take about an hour to completely recharge when depleted.

Pros: VERY light weight. I would not be able to handle a heavier machine this year so this was a huge deal for us. Easy to operate and does a great job with light fluffy snow. It does a decent job in the heavy snow.

Bottom line - yes, I would purchase this again. But only because of the light weight part. It would be perfect if you just have a small driveway (we don't). If you don't have crazy injuries and can handle a machine they weighs more, I would recommend a bigger snow blower.