INTRO-1: I live up in the Pacific North West, and we are plagued by horrible winter storms. Most of the time we get very little snow, but on occasion, we really get the snow. I chose not to go with a gas blower for 3 reasons. (1) Gas blowers are very expensive! (2) Gas blowers require lots of maintenance, they have an engine afterall! (3) We rarely get enough snow to warrant the power of a gas blower. However, when you look at my pictures, you can tell I could have used a gas blower for the drift alone, but thats what a shovel is for lol. Like I said, most of the time we don't get this much snow, if we get any at all, so it made sense to save money, and go electric.
INTRO-2: When choosing a snow blower, you have to think about the job at hand. How much snow do you get? Are you within 100-feet of an electrical outlet? Perhaps you want to skip corded electric and gas all together and go with a cordless electric? I watched video's online of cordless blowers, and to be honest, I am not really impressed. For one thing, they cost as much as a single stage gas blower, and they perform worse then a corded electric. So for me the choice was simple. I chose the 21" 15-AMP electric snow blower form Snow Joe.
ASSEMBLY: Assembling this blower is very easy, all you have to do is attach the handles, wheels, chute control arm, and chute top, everything else comes already assembled. If your not sure, just follow the directions in the manual. Assembly can be completed within 30-minutes if you are slow at assembling things, or within 10-minutes if your quick.
CORD: Because not everybody knows this, I feel the need to quickly mention that you must match the cord to the draw of the machine. This machine requires a minimum of a 12 gauge 3 conductor electrical cord. I highly recommend you purchase a US & WIRE Extreme cable sold on Amazon, as they remain flexible and easy to manage in freezing and sub freezing temperatures. Also make sure to get the proper length you need. Tiny driveways you can probably get away with a 50 footer. For average size driveways, you want a 100 footer. And don't get anything over 100 feet unless you step up to a 10 gauge 3 conductor cord.
MOTOR: This snow blower uses a 15-AMP motor, which averages around 1500-watts of draw. A standard garage circuit or household circuit, has a 20-AMP max breaker capacity. This motor will draw 1800-watts peak power during motor startup only. Because of this, please make sure there is nothing else running on the circuit, otherwise you might risk tripping your breaker. This motor has lots of power for what it was designed to do, and it sure didn't disappoint me!
BLOWER: The blower has a 12-inches tall opening by 21-inches wide. It is designed to take on no more then 1 foot at a time, however its pretty slow doing that even with fluffy snow. The blower seems to excel at tackling 6-inches to 8-inches at a respectful pace. Like I said, it will handle a foot of snow at a time, but it will be slow going. If the snow is over a foot tall, you will have to tilt the blower up to take off the top layer first, then come back again to take off the bottom layer.
If your drifts are between 2-feet to 3-feet you can forget it, you will never tilt it high enough, and be able to push it through the drift. Your just going to have to grab a shovel if your in that situation and remove the top layer of the drift with a snow shovel first, then come back with the blower after that. I took a picture of the snow blower next to a drift that is too tall for the capacity of the machine. I just needed to shovel that top layer off there, then I could come back with the blower and finish it up.
DRIVE: I want to remind everyone, that this blower is not self propelled. Your not going to find self propelled at this price point. This is a blower that you have to push. If you are a senior citizen, or someone with a disability, you might find pushing this thing difficult. However, if you are healthy, you can push this blower no problem, as long as you are not pushing it beyond its recommended limits.
AUGER: This is a single stage snow blower, hence it has an auger, but no impeller. The auger spins at a blindingly fast rate, which grabs the snow via the rubber paddles, and throws it through the chute. The rubber paddles are replaceable, but I haven't seen any wear after a single use! On the left side of the blower is a panel that you can remove, to give you access to the sealed belt and pulley's, that link the motor to the auger. This was a good design to help keep snow away from the belt! The belt and pully's are also replaceable if they should wear out on you.
CONTROLS: The controls at the operator position are very simple. You have the safety start button, the start bar, the LED headlight, and the chute direction control. In order to start the blower, you have to press and hold the safety button, and then pull back the start bar against the handle, easy! The direction of the chute can be operated remotely via the directional control arm, but the vertical up/down movement has to be done manually at the chute itself. The LED headlight has a on/off switch on top of it, so you can choose weather to run it or not, and the light position is adjustable.
WHEELS: The wheels on this blower are not the greatest in the world, however, they are not the worst either. While I would have preferred pneumatic wheels, you won't find those in this price range. At least this blower didn't come with those cheap noisy plastic wheels found on kids big wheels. The wheels move over the driveway pretty well, so I am not going to fault them too much. But the reason I would have preferred pneumatic wheels, is because they are superior at moving over terrain.
HANDLE: The handle itself provides a nice foam grip for your hands. It would have been nice if it were heated but again, not found in this price range. If you just wear a thick pair of winter gloves you will be fine. The handle doesn't seem to flex much at all, which really is a surprise considering the cost of the machine. I've actually been quite pleased with the handle, and I can even hang it up on the wall via the handle, so multi-purpose abilities are the way to go here.
CLEANING: Cleaning up the blower is very simple, all you need is a small broom, and you just sweep the snow off of it, thats really the only maintenance you need to do on it! If it were a gas machine, you would have to worry about draining the carburetor of gas, and changing the oil for the next season.
CONCLUSION: In conclusion, this is a very nice snow blower. It tackles everything I need it to do, except for the drifts. It has plenty of power for what it was designed to do, and it gets the job done. I'm actually happy that I didn't go with a lesser 13-AMP 18" model, as that would have been a pain to use in this situation. This 15-AMP 21" model was surprisingly easy to use. And if your concerned with the noise factor, well, this electric machine can be run without hearing protection on, so it won't annoy your neighbors early in the morning either. If your looking for an electric model, I recommend this one!
Snow Joe SJ623E 18-Inch 15-Amp Electric Walk-Behind Single Stage Snow Blower w/ Headlight, 18-Inch
4.1 | 14,722 ratings
Price: 180.24
Last update: 12-19-2024
About this item
[DIRECTIONAL CHUTE]: 180° adjustable directional chute throws snow up to 25 ft.
[VERSATILE]: Ideal for clearing snow off mid-to-large sized driveways and walkways
[POWERFUL]: 15-amp motor moves up to 720 lbs. of snow per minute
[STEEL AUGER]: 4-blade steel auger cuts 18 in. wide by 10 in. deep with each pass
[VERSATILE]: Ideal for clearing snow off mid-to-large sized driveways and walkways
[POWERFUL]: 15-amp motor moves up to 720 lbs. of snow per minute
[STEEL AUGER]: 4-blade steel auger cuts 18 in. wide by 10 in. deep with each pass
Product information
| Brand | Snow Joe |
|---|---|
| Power Source | Corded Electric |
| Product Dimensions | 26"D x 19"W x 54.5"H |
| Item Weight | 34 Pounds |
| Color | w/ headlights |
| Engine Type | 4 Cycle |
| Maximum Throw Distance | 25 Feet |
| UPC | 650076363693 856890003153 031111229219 583082516510 012300987264 807320207955 044924992362 778385466178 719918359697 |
| Global Trade Identification Number | 08568900031538 |
| Item Weight | 34 pounds |
| Manufacturer | Snow Joe LLC - Dropship Only |
| ASIN | B008FV5R2C |
| Item model number | SJ623E |
| Customer Reviews |
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars
16,889 ratings
4.1 out of 5 stars |
| Best Sellers Rank | #117,239 in Patio, Lawn & Garden (See Top 100 in Patio, Lawn & Garden) #9 in Snow Blowers |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
Top reviews from the United States
Arthur Senior
A Cheap Electric Snow Blower That Will Get The Job Done!
Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2019
Arthur Senior
Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2019
INTRO-2: When choosing a snow blower, you have to think about the job at hand. How much snow do you get? Are you within 100-feet of an electrical outlet? Perhaps you want to skip corded electric and gas all together and go with a cordless electric? I watched video's online of cordless blowers, and to be honest, I am not really impressed. For one thing, they cost as much as a single stage gas blower, and they perform worse then a corded electric. So for me the choice was simple. I chose the 21" 15-AMP electric snow blower form Snow Joe.
ASSEMBLY: Assembling this blower is very easy, all you have to do is attach the handles, wheels, chute control arm, and chute top, everything else comes already assembled. If your not sure, just follow the directions in the manual. Assembly can be completed within 30-minutes if you are slow at assembling things, or within 10-minutes if your quick.
CORD: Because not everybody knows this, I feel the need to quickly mention that you must match the cord to the draw of the machine. This machine requires a minimum of a 12 gauge 3 conductor electrical cord. I highly recommend you purchase a US & WIRE Extreme cable sold on Amazon, as they remain flexible and easy to manage in freezing and sub freezing temperatures. Also make sure to get the proper length you need. Tiny driveways you can probably get away with a 50 footer. For average size driveways, you want a 100 footer. And don't get anything over 100 feet unless you step up to a 10 gauge 3 conductor cord.
MOTOR: This snow blower uses a 15-AMP motor, which averages around 1500-watts of draw. A standard garage circuit or household circuit, has a 20-AMP max breaker capacity. This motor will draw 1800-watts peak power during motor startup only. Because of this, please make sure there is nothing else running on the circuit, otherwise you might risk tripping your breaker. This motor has lots of power for what it was designed to do, and it sure didn't disappoint me!
BLOWER: The blower has a 12-inches tall opening by 21-inches wide. It is designed to take on no more then 1 foot at a time, however its pretty slow doing that even with fluffy snow. The blower seems to excel at tackling 6-inches to 8-inches at a respectful pace. Like I said, it will handle a foot of snow at a time, but it will be slow going. If the snow is over a foot tall, you will have to tilt the blower up to take off the top layer first, then come back again to take off the bottom layer.
If your drifts are between 2-feet to 3-feet you can forget it, you will never tilt it high enough, and be able to push it through the drift. Your just going to have to grab a shovel if your in that situation and remove the top layer of the drift with a snow shovel first, then come back with the blower after that. I took a picture of the snow blower next to a drift that is too tall for the capacity of the machine. I just needed to shovel that top layer off there, then I could come back with the blower and finish it up.
DRIVE: I want to remind everyone, that this blower is not self propelled. Your not going to find self propelled at this price point. This is a blower that you have to push. If you are a senior citizen, or someone with a disability, you might find pushing this thing difficult. However, if you are healthy, you can push this blower no problem, as long as you are not pushing it beyond its recommended limits.
AUGER: This is a single stage snow blower, hence it has an auger, but no impeller. The auger spins at a blindingly fast rate, which grabs the snow via the rubber paddles, and throws it through the chute. The rubber paddles are replaceable, but I haven't seen any wear after a single use! On the left side of the blower is a panel that you can remove, to give you access to the sealed belt and pulley's, that link the motor to the auger. This was a good design to help keep snow away from the belt! The belt and pully's are also replaceable if they should wear out on you.
CONTROLS: The controls at the operator position are very simple. You have the safety start button, the start bar, the LED headlight, and the chute direction control. In order to start the blower, you have to press and hold the safety button, and then pull back the start bar against the handle, easy! The direction of the chute can be operated remotely via the directional control arm, but the vertical up/down movement has to be done manually at the chute itself. The LED headlight has a on/off switch on top of it, so you can choose weather to run it or not, and the light position is adjustable.
WHEELS: The wheels on this blower are not the greatest in the world, however, they are not the worst either. While I would have preferred pneumatic wheels, you won't find those in this price range. At least this blower didn't come with those cheap noisy plastic wheels found on kids big wheels. The wheels move over the driveway pretty well, so I am not going to fault them too much. But the reason I would have preferred pneumatic wheels, is because they are superior at moving over terrain.
HANDLE: The handle itself provides a nice foam grip for your hands. It would have been nice if it were heated but again, not found in this price range. If you just wear a thick pair of winter gloves you will be fine. The handle doesn't seem to flex much at all, which really is a surprise considering the cost of the machine. I've actually been quite pleased with the handle, and I can even hang it up on the wall via the handle, so multi-purpose abilities are the way to go here.
CLEANING: Cleaning up the blower is very simple, all you need is a small broom, and you just sweep the snow off of it, thats really the only maintenance you need to do on it! If it were a gas machine, you would have to worry about draining the carburetor of gas, and changing the oil for the next season.
CONCLUSION: In conclusion, this is a very nice snow blower. It tackles everything I need it to do, except for the drifts. It has plenty of power for what it was designed to do, and it gets the job done. I'm actually happy that I didn't go with a lesser 13-AMP 18" model, as that would have been a pain to use in this situation. This 15-AMP 21" model was surprisingly easy to use. And if your concerned with the noise factor, well, this electric machine can be run without hearing protection on, so it won't annoy your neighbors early in the morning either. If your looking for an electric model, I recommend this one!
Images in this review
JPN850R
Works well but quality control in China needs improvement
Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2021
JPN850R
Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2021
So, I did a research and battery-powered unit was out of the window because they are ridiculously expensive (you could buy an entry-level gas-powered blower) and you'd need at least 2 batteries no matter what. I was afraid of going over the wire with this unit, but for the price (was about $170 when I bought it) I clicked "PLACE ORDER" right away. Upon opening the box, I was shocked of the "height", which was roughly half as tall as average gas-powered blowers. It was also missing a washer that goes on the shoot, but I have assortments of hardware so I just installed a stainless steel washer. However, quality control in China still has a long way to go.
OK, the performance. I measured the depth of snow, and it was 12-14", slightly wet/heavy snow. I was surprised that this small unit actually works, and if the snow is not wet or deep it can throw snow about 5~7 meters away (about 20ft). However, if the snow is deep or wet, the number drops to mere 2 meters or less. I knew this, so I was not unhappy. For 12-14" accumulation, I had to make 2 passes to clear my driveway. The biggest challenge was the heap left by the town plow. It was not easy, but as I repeatedly "hit" the heap gently but firmly, I could eventually clear it. There were some small tree branches under the snow, but this unit chewed them up & threw them away with the snow. It can also break thin sheet of ice under the snow. Mind you, I sprayed silicone spray inside the shoot (I wouldn't recommend WD40 as it could erode the resin; silicone is the best for resin/rubber).
Long story short, I was pleased with the performance. I used under-rated extension (I know I shouldn't have), but bought a 100ft 12-AWG extension immediately. The handle bar could be more robust, so do not force it and like I mentioned above, "be gentle but firm". It took me about an hour to clear my driveway as I had make 2 passes. Was I tired? Of course, but NOT nearly as tired as shoveling. It does make noise, but for me it is a sign that the motor is strong and is not annoyingly loud. The LED lights are weak as they do not come with focus lens. I believe this unit would most benefit those who cannot decide whether to go with gas-powered unit (which is a LOT more expensive than this) or electric, or just need any blower NOW. For mere $170, you can't go wrong with it and you would be happy saving your muscles & bones. Gas-powered unit requires extensive care & preservation, which I wanted to skip. Even if you do want a gas-powered unit but cannot afford one now, I would get this unit anyway just to buy time to do more research & save money.
In the next few years, I believe there would be larger electric blowers. If the time comes, I might consider getting a larger unit and keep this one as a spare.
Pros:
-Lightweight
-Has enough power to take care of moderate accumulation
-Reasonably priced
-Durable for the material (resin) used
Cons:
-Struggles on wet/heavy snow
-Have to deal with extension cable
-Becomes a decorative object during power outage
-Quality control in China is still questionable
UPDATE 2/26/22
This is the 2nd winter and Mass has had 2 snow storms so far. During the 1st storm, the drive belt has snapped but luckily I had a spare belt (thanks to one reviewer) so I could get it back on service in a half hour. The spare belt, if Snow Joe is out of stock, is AC Delco 3L245. To change the belt, UNPLUG the unit, remove the left plastic cover (there are 2 hidden screws on the aft edge) and install the belt on the drive pulley (the smaller metal) first, then onto the driven pulley (the larger plastic).
Once a while, the circuit breaker trips due to higher load, and I'm not sure how long the motor can last (the motor is not listed as a replacement parts), but so far I'm very pleased with the performance for the price.
Images in this review
