*Update 2: I've now used this through most of one of the worst winters that we've had in a while (northern Utah). This has worked great for me. I've seen reviews that this shovel can't handle slush, but there is a bit of a learning curve of how to use, how fast, etc. you can use it, but it'll handle most anything if you don't just plow through as fast as you can. Full sized snow blowers can have the same problem and it's actually a lot like mowing through longer grass. Also, if your batteries are dying, you might have problems. This unit is like the older Ego leaf blowers that eat through batteries. That said, I have a driveway that's probably double the average around here with a pretty long sidewalk and one 5ah battery almost always finishes. I've only done up to 6-8 inches high at the most, so I can't comment on heavier storms, but if you're consistently getting much more than that you'd probably want a real snow blower. For smaller storms this is way faster than a bigger snow blower (ease of use). Again, my biggest complaints are still that this shovel is heavy and the bottom blade is plastic that breaks easily, but my lower back just says thank you!

*Update* Used it a couple of times more and love it even more. I just shoveled through 4 inches of wet slush that compacted very easily. Shovel handled it with ease, threw the crazy heavy stuff with no problem almost as far and only clogged a few times (with the slush) but was way easy to clear.

*As a disclaimer, I've only had a chance to use this once, but here's my experience.* Shoveling a couple of inches of snow when it was powder was amazing. When it got slushy, it clogged a bit, but was super easy to clear and if I just gave it a second to fully ramp up before pushing it into snow, then there was no problems. The shovel is super powerful and can shoot the snow as far as it claims and the directional adjustments are super easy to use. All in all, I love this! Now for some cons that could be a deal breaker for some. The shovel with multi head motor and battery combined are pretty heavy. When you're pushing it's not hard to use and you don't notice it, but if you lift it a lot, it's heavy and I was definitely feeling it in my arms after. The bottom of the shovel is just plastic and with my first use, it already chipped off around a 1 inch piece so I'm not very convinced that it'll last very long so I might reinforce it with a piece of metal or something. My biggest problem that I is that because the shovel is so powerful, if you run over a pebble, it gets stuck very easily. I had to stop and break out rocks quite a few times. Rocks are also pretty hard to get out. At one point I had to take a long screw driver and hammer to a pebble to break it in half just to get it unstuck because it was wedged in there so bad. This is probably an inherent problem of these products, not just this specific one, but it would be super nice to have an easier way to clear obstructions. But despite all those problems, I was able to shovel my driveway and sidewalks in less than half the time and without any back pain so a big win for me.

We have a five-car driveway at our upstate NY house. It snows pretty regularly here in the five months of the snow season. I didn't try the snow blower in anything more than shoe-depth snow, but it did fine, shooting it about six feet. Any talk of 30 feet of snow throwing must be with the wind, one inch of snow, and on a hill, because you're lucky if you get an eight-foot throw.

I start going down the middle and work toward the edges, going over what it didn't throw out of the driveway twice and it handles the extra with no issues. The batteries are more than enough to handle the job.

In wet, sloppy now, it just falls out the side of the chute, but at least it cleans the path one line at a time. Sloppy, wet snow, the chute gets clogged really often, so I turn it off and keep an old vacuum attachment handy to clear it out. Such an attachment should have come with it, in my opinion.

The battery charger is has a pretty loud fan.

Overall, I'm happy, but future models need to throw the snow much further.

First, let me say that I was not expecting too much from this snowblower. I've owned a John Deere compact utility tractor with a 42" 2-stage snow thrower attachment for more than 2 decades, but after a down-sizing move (empty nesters) I had to sadly sell the tractor, so for the past 2 years I've been using a shovel. I finally got sick of that, and started to research snowblowers.

As this is a single-stage snowblower, I was not expecting much, even with the higher price. I definitely didn't want to get one of those tiny 8-12" units; although they are less pricey, I doubt they do much more than shift around light 2-3 inches of snow.

Right out of the box, this was easy to set up; the only thing you have to attach is the auger, which is easy. Honestly, the hardest part was taking this out of the box; it's well packaged, which of course means that it's harder to get out. It took me all of 20 minutes to get this out of the box/attach the auger. The batteries charge very quickly; the charging base is ROBUST and charges the batteries fully within about a half hour, which means that, in the event that you're getting snow storm after snow storm, this is a good tool...I was worried about running out of juice, the one downside to an electric vs a gas model.

Our first snow was about 5" of a wet, heavy snow. I was concerned about it being so heavy that it would overwhelm this unit. I was wrong! This baby went through it with aplomb, and I was able to do my whole driveway with one charge (we have a 3-car driveway), as well as our front walkway. I'm not going to tell you that it threw this heavy snow 20 feet like my tractor used to, but it threw it a good 5 feet, which allowed me to then throw the snow far enough so a 2nd run blew it into the lawn. So, basically, I did more than just one pass with just the one charge on the batteries. This DID drain the batteries completely. Since then, we've had a variety of snow, from 2-3" of a light snow, to again 6" of heavy wet snow. This unit is best suited for 4-6" of a light snow; in this instance, this unit will throw the snow 20 feet or more when the auger is situated correctly.

Speaking of the auger, this is one of the things that sets this unit apart from others, IMO. It has a lever on the handle that you can adjust on the fly, which makes snowblowing that much faster; we live in an area that's pretty windy, so you have to be smart about how you do the job; it's actually easier to use in windier conditions as you can set the auger to blowing farther up in the air, and let the wind do more work for you. This is when the lever to rotate the auger from right to left is so handy; instead of having to stop and crank a knob or something, you simply pull the lever up or push it down.

A couple things I really like about this unit; You can tell the charge state of the batteries as there's a loop of 6 LED lights on the top (1 for least charge and 6 for fully charged), there's an LED light on the unit that is really handy at night, and the unit FEELS very light (it's actually not...pick it up fully and you'll realize that), because it's very well balanced. Finally, one of the things that surprised me about this unit is that the blades are metal, so this will grind up larger chunks of snow (that the plow leaves behind in your driveway) pretty well, and it gets down to the driveway pretty well, so you're not leaving behind snow that turns to packed ice when you drive over it.

Overall, I'm VERY pleased with this unit, so had to write a review. If you're like me and want to try and be more environmentally conscious, but are concerned about a battery-operated unit not being able to cut it, this unit is well worth the price, IMO. It's midway between those cheap battery units that I've never used, but I feel will just take up space in your garage because it doesn't work, and the larger 2-stage units that cost twice as much. I don't expect this to take down 12" drifts in a single pass, but hopefully you don't expect that, either. For 90% of the snow we'll get each year, I think this unit is the perfect solution.

In my quest to eliminate another gas-powered device from my home, I picked up one of these eGo 2-stage snow blowers after my positive experience going from a gas lawn mower to an eGo lawn mower several years back. I have a large, tracked Honda snowblower that has been working fine for several years that I'm comparing the eGo to. The eGo is small (does't clear as much in each pass) and much, much lighter than my Honda. The light weight is generally a good thing, as it makes the unit very easy to move around. Sometimes I don't even engage the drive wheels and just push it myself. The lack of weight does sometimes mean it takes a bit more effort to push it down into the snow if the snow is crusty enough and the snowblower wants to ride up on top of it, but not overwhelming. The smaller width of the eGo doesn't seem all that bad, as I've found that the unit has the power to throw a full width worth of snow, unlike previous snowblowers I have where I had to offset my runs enough not to overload the intake.

Maneuverability is fantastic. No levers to pull when you want to turn, or no funky clutches trying to figure out when you want to turn. You just turn. As another review noted, there is little resistance to forward motion, which could be seen as a bad thing when going down hill. However, after trying it, I don't find it any worse that a big, heavy snowblower that does hold itself back, as in the end both want to pull you down the hill about the same.

The controls are fine, though could be improved. The chute direction (left/right) is very loose, which at first seems great as it's easy to move, but it also means that it doesn't stay put. I called eGo about it, and it sounds like it's a known issue they are working on a fix for. The chute height control is a bit too coarse for my liking, as it always seems like it's shooting a bit too high or a bit too low from where I want it. I would really like to see this integrated into the stick for the left/right control, as it is with my Honda (and other) snowblowers. It's also nice to have control over the auger speed, which I've never see on another snowblower, but it just means it's a third thing to control with your right hand.

With several inches of wet snow/slush, the eGo performed great. My Honda has never really been great with wet snow, and the eGo did notably better. The throwing distance isn't the best in the world, but does seem to stand up to the claims eGo makes about it. The torque of the electric motor driving the augers really comes through. Battery life was acceptable, given how heavy the snow was, but was certainly not up to the claims eGo makes (without really defining the conditions they achieved those results with). I expect when the snow gets colder and fluffier, the battery life will improve quite a bit.

UPDATE after snow storm that delivered powder instead of slush - With the latest snowstorm, I ended up doing two passes with the eGo. The first was with about a foot of snow, and the second pass was a few hours later with only a few inches.

For the second pass with only a few inches, the eGo did fantastic. It cleared the snow quickly, and the battery drain seemed very acceptable. I often found myself not even using the drive wheels, and it was still easier to use than the traditional gas snow blowers I've used with their drive wheels engaged. The unit was very quiet too, at one point I thought the thing had died because I couldn't hear the auger going with my headphones on, but it was going just fine.

For the first pass with the foot of snow, things were a bit more mixed. The eGo was certainly powerful enough to clear the deep snow. However, it did burn through batteries, and even though I have 3 pairs of 7.5Ah batteries, and two rapid chargers, I wasn't able to keep going. I do have a long driveway (several hundred feet), but I wish the batteries were able to recharge within the time it took me to use up a pair. I've found that adjusting the auger speed didn't really change much in terms of how much or how far the snow was thrown, but higher settings really used up the batteries, so I learned to just leave it at the lowest setting. The minimum drive speed is also too high, and in deep snow this ends up forcing you to do a pretty small pass or doing a double pass. Several times I just stopped using the drive wheels and pushed it myself, but that was a bit challenging in the deep snow. Perhaps a slower minimum speed would also help with battery usage. The top speed of the drive wheels isn't all that much faster than the slowest speed, so a wider range on drive speeds would be a big improvement. I would really love to see a display of some kind on the unit that told you how much power you were using at the time, to help gauge when you're trying to attack too much or too little snow in a single pass (to a lesser extend this could also be useful on the eGo lawn mowers as well).

In the end I'm not quite sure how I feel about this as a replacement for a gas snowblower in deep snow. With another set of rapid chargers I believe I could keep going for as long as the snow kept falling, but that's really getting pretty expensive between all the batteries and chargers.

I live in Minnesota. I have a 3-car garage, so my driveway is of average suburban length, 3 cars wide tapering to two at the bottom. It's a little steep at the bottom -- be careful when it's icy. Santa gave me one of these for Christmas. I'll share my thoughts.

I got the two-battery option with 5-AH batteries. I thought the difference between 1 battery and 2 would be longevity of a charge, but I think 2 might also have a little more power. I'm not sure.

We've had one significant snowfall, and I was out of town. It was 4-6 inches of powder but compacted down to about 2 inches of crunch, crunchy snow by the time I plowed it. I'll update this review after we get a serious storm.

This guy did great, for a 1-stage blower. When aimed ahead and not blowing into the wind, yes, it will make it (estimated) the 35-feet advertised. It does not throw that far when diverted to the side. I'm guessing I lose about half the range. This meant instead of going up and down the driveway like I do with my monster 2-stage, I went side to side. The blower handled that just fun, clearing the driveway easily.

It does not clear as well as a shovel, but it probably did a little better than my two-stage and didn't take any longer. It was way, way faster than shoveling, and I didn't put my back out. And it's not remotely as hard to move about as my 2-stage, but as I said, that guy's a monster (larger than necessary for the size of my driveway).

Assembly was trivial. There's almost nothing to do. It took me 15 minutes. Operation -- well, if you actually read the manual, also trivial. The batteries are huge but go in easily To start, "press and hold the button and squeeze the handle". Then it's like your lawn mower -- release the handle and it stops. You must press and hold the button first, or it won't run.

There's a fairly nice headlight if you're out at night.

Compared to any gas-powered device, this guy is a lot quieter. It's not silent. There's a definite whir, and it sounds crunch against the crunchy snow. But I didn't feel like I needed hearing protection. It might be quiet enough not to wake the neighbors; I'm not sure. Maybe I'll ask them.

It comes with a single-battery charger, so you have to charge one at a time. The charger is huge. This isn' t and electric drill, after all. It can be mounted on the wall. I put it downstairs -- they'll charge faster when they're not out in a cold garage.

This is reasonably light. After I finished my driveway, I hauled it through the house and did my deck, too. I don't even try with the gas guy.

There's a lever to rotate the discharge chute, although you have to step to the side of the machine and use a handle on the chute if you want to change the up/down angle. Up for further distance, down if it's windy and blowing back in your face. I forgot the lever was there and was rotating it side-to-side by hand. Silly me.

I am estimating batteries will last 4 or 5 seasons before needing replacement. If so, this might cost me $100 in batteries a season. Compared to paying for a service -- or even taking the two-stage for annual tuneups -- that's either cheap (compared to a service) or not bad (tuneups). As long as I don't let the batteries get to old, it will always run, which is a nice bonus.

So far, the only downside would be if I wanted to also plow my neighbor's driveways, which I would frequently do with the two-stage. I don't think a single charge would last through two driveways. And I'm not sure if they'll last through one with a significant snowfall, but if not, I'll just take a break and let them charge. It doesn't take all that long.