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

So, just got the 16" power shovel last night and we just got snow and ice on top of it all day so had a good test case to try the unit. Putting it together was relatively easy and takes about 20 minutes to complete. Provided manual is not very friendly and requires some reading between the lines but I wouldn't consider it difficult overall.Once I got it assembled, I was able to try it on 3" inches of snow with a hard glaze of ice on top of it. Test surface was a wooden deck with pretty even/level pressure treated planks. The unit functioned perfectly and shot the snow quite far away and lot of aggression in it's throw with no vibration effect to the handle/user. Almost felt like using it on 3" snow is an insult to this unit as the official recommendation is a max of 8" of snow. I was able to clear the whole deck with no major effort on my back and within 1/10th of the time it would take me with a shovel. It has two midsize wheel the unit balances on which carries the weight of the unit and makes it easy to move around. It takes a little getting used to with the proper tilt angle where more upright to hold and push it it cuts the snow and fully clears the ground but if there are any uneven surface in front of you, even by 1/8" it will stop you on your tracks. Which was the case I have encounted on my wooden deck where there were few uneven spots. These can be easily addressed by either tilting it back a little to jump over the obstacle or maintaining a tilt permanently throughout. I would love to see a adjustable tilt option which does not exists as the unit purely designed for manual manipulation for angles and directions but no doubt it can be added with a little custom modification. Also, adjustable speed could be a nice option as I don't always want to thow the snow to 30 feet away. Then again for 80some dollars you can't expect too much. I can clearly see the impossibility of using this unit over any non flat and uneven surface. At a minimum you will get interruption or very likely you will destroy your auger which is rigid brittle looking plastic instead of a hard rubber which the bigger cousins of this design uses in the larger units with a chute. There are directional adjustment available to an approx 30 degrees to the left and right, however, they are not more than 50 percent effective. A fair amount of snow still blows forward even when you direct them to the side. After the job is done just left it in the garage for it to release all the accumulated ice/snow on it which wasn't much and next day it was as good as new.Here is the pros and cons I was able to identify:Pro: - Very strong motor: This thing spins like crazy at a very hight speed and throws the snow really far away.Pro: - Light weight: For a snow throwing device that has so much power the weight of the unit is very reasonable however I wouldn't want to hold it in the air to surface cut something like a 12" snow but very manageable to move between surfaces and positions. The two supporting wheels are absolutely a great help where it makes the unit super light weight to push.Pro: Affordable replacement parts: American lawnmover company have a website with available replacement parts with everything at a fix price of $13.09 regardless of you need the auger, belt or scraper. This means the likely eventuality of destoying your auger will not cost you more than $22 including the shipping assuming you can handle the replacement yourself.Pro: - Price: mid 80s price tag is surprisingly attractive.Con: Plastic auger: Due to brittle looking and feeling rigid plastic nature of the auger you will very likely destroy it sooner rather than later if you encounter a store, thicker branch, frozen newspaper etc.Con: Parts price in comparison to whole unit. So, assume you go lucky and used it for a few years without problems and decided to replace the auger, scraper and belts. It will cost you close to $50 with shipping. more than half of the total price of the unit. The whole unit costs 80some. So, is it even worth to replace parts or just trash it and get a new unit.I will update my experience if and when I encounter deeper snow and possible stray stone, rock, branch encounter and the associated damage.. Currently it is a keeper in my book!

Worked amazingly well for 14 months, and then I asked it to clear 4.5 inches of heavy snow, at which point the drive belt must have given way, as the motor continues to sound fine yet the blades no longer spin. Fortunately, replacement drive belts are available through Amazon, so at least it can be fixed by the owner. This item works extremely well for clearing light to moderately heavy snow, but I recommend not asking it to clear much wet snow.

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.

It just stopped working! Lite snow could have done it with the shovel but I wanted to give this a go. Well it started out fine, I was impressed, the snow was flying and then after about 20 minutes of use, it stopped! I checked the plug nope not that, so, back to the house we go, oh it's working, nope it stopped again, oh it's working, nope it stopped again. I change the extension cord, oh it working, nope it stopped again.To bad for me because by the time I was able to use it 30 days had passed. Tried to get an Amazon refund, first yes no problem, the refund never showed. Called Amazon again, nope you can't get a refund, hmm sounds familiar, worked, nope it's not.

First, if you READ the instructions, the unit is relatively easy to put together. The hardest part of putting this together is lining up the handle to the head unit and starting the first screw. To those not mechanically inclined, I suggest asking a second person to assist you in holding the two halves together while you start the screws.The actual operation was not bad at all. It cleared up my driveway fairly well, as the snow was powdery. However, this will not handle heavy, ice-laden snow, as it is only a plastic impeller, so don't even try to plough through the mess left by the city plow. This is not a two-stage snowblower!