The best snow blower

By Doug Mahoney

This post was done in partnership with The Sweethome, a buyer’s guide to the best things for your home. Read the full article here.

After 75 hours of research, including interviews with two snow blower manufacturers and a consultation with an expert who has personally reviewed more than 350 snow blowers, we’re convinced that the best snow blower for most people is the Craftsman 88694 Quiet 208cc Dual-Stage Snowblower. It’s easy to maneuver, simple to start, and quiet, and it has power steering and a four-way chute control. No other snow blower offers the same combination of features at such an excellent price.

Who this is for

A snow blower is a big investment that not everyone needs to make. If you have a small driveway, see only infrequent snowfalls of less than 6 inches, and enjoy a physical workout, you would be happier with a snow shovel, a pusher, or a sleigh. We’ve researched those tools thoroughly, and we offer several recommendations in our snow shovel guide.

That said, a lot of people do need a snow blower. These machines are faster and better for handling deep snows, and they’re also easy on the body, causing minimal muscle and back strain. And as expensive as snow blowers are, over time they’re cheaper than a hired plow. The drawbacks? Maintenance and storage. Maintenance mostly consists of oil changes and belt tightening, but not everyone wants to deal with that. As for storage, a two-stage snow blower takes up as much space as a bulky lawnmower, so you should plan for it to occupy a corner of the garage in the offseason.

Our pick

The controls of the 88694: The chute-control joystick is on the left, and the deflector cap is in the up position. If you shift the joystick forward, toward the front of the machine, the cap will tilt downward.

If you regularly get 6 inches to a foot of snowfall, and you have to clear a two-car driveway up to about 80 feet long, we recommend the Craftsman 88694 Quiet 208cc Dual-Stage Snowblower. We know it isn’t cheap, but it comes with premium features that you usually find only on competing products that cost hundreds more. It has power steering, four-way chute control, and an engine so quiet that both Consumer Reports and MovingSnow’s Paul Sikkema say it requires no hearing protection, which is convenient for you and courteous to your neighbors. It’s also self-propelled, so you don’t have to push it, and like all quality blowers, it has an electric start and no-mar skid shoes, which make it easy to get running and safe to use on a deck or patio without leaving scratches.

The 88694 doesn’t have a headlight, but a good headlamp is much better for snow blowing anyway because it allows you to direct light anywhere you want, not just in front of the blower. Sometimes it’s more important to see where you’re blowing the snow, and a headlight can’t help with that.

Popular snow blowers sell out each season, so if the Craftsman isn’t available, we have a runner-up in our full guide.

For smaller properties and less snow

The Toro Power Clear 721 E.

If you regularly get only 6 inches of snow or less, and you need to clear a small, flat paved driveway at an urban home or townhouse, we recommend the Toro Power Clear 721 E. Our main pick is a two-stage blower, but some people can get by with a less-powerful single-stage blower like this one. It can toss snow about 15 feet, and it has a convenient electric start—not a standard feature on blowers this size. But the big drawback of any single-stage model is that it will also throw gravel, so it’s really suited only for smooth surfaces.

For the biggest jobs

The Troy-Bilt Storm 3090 XP.

If your driveway is more than 100 feet long, or if you’re constantly getting hit with 15- to 20-inch snowfalls, we recommend you either move somewhere else or get the Troy-Bilt Storm 3090 XP 357cc. It offers the same durability and reliability as our main pick, plus many of the best features, but it can finish big jobs in half the time. It has a massive engine, trigger-operated power steering, and a cool electronic chute control that uses a small thumb-operated joystick. It also has heated handles.

Wrapping it up

After 75 hours of research, we can say that the Craftsman Quiet 208cc Dual-Stage Snowblower is our pick for the best snow blower. It’s easy to maneuver with power steering and on-the-fly chute control, it’s simple to start, it operates quietly, and it has the best combination of premium features for its price.

This guide may have been updated by The Sweethome. To see the current recommendation, please go here.