On Wed, 29 Dec 2010 08:24:57 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Dec 29, 9:22*am, dgk wrote:
I have a little house in NYC so it never really paid for me to get a
snow blower. But I'm getting near 60 and decided that I really didn't
want to be lifting snow anymore. So last month I investigated some
snow blowers and ended up getting a small electric model called a Snow
Joe. Under $200, 13.5 amps, 18" width and around 10" intake height.

We got 18" of snow on Sunday and my little Snow Joe was overwhelmed
but performed heroically. It took a bit to figure out the best way to
approach that much snow, but once I did, Snow Joe did all that I could
ask. It did my driveway, my neighbor's driveway, and the sidewalk in
front of four houses (elderly neighbors).

It certainly wasn't effortless and I can see that having powered
wheels would make things oh so much easier, but really, for that
price, I couldn't have expected anything more.

This isn't to say that a Toro or some gas-powered monster wouldn't
have been better, but they cost a lot more. Nor do I know that this
won't die in the middle of the next storm; I certainly kept fearing
that it would die in this one but each time it was just the plug
coming loose.

And, best of all, the Significant Other has apologized for referring
to it as my "new toy". Ah, sweet victory!

"...but each time it was just the plug coming loose."

That's easy to prevent. See he

http://0.tqn.com/d/homerepair/1/5/5/D/-/-/cord_lock.jpg

Clever, but only for part of it did I need a second extention cord and
that connection never weakened. It was the connection into the Snow
Joe that kept coming loose. There is some sort of flapper thing that
you run the cord through so that it won't come loose:

http://www.pcrichard.com/catalog/pro...?modelNo=SJ620

It's that thing hanging off the handle just above the second
cross-bar. I didn't use it right though obviously. I'll figure it out
before the next snowfall. I hope.