Snow Joe Ion 40v Cordless/electric Hybrid Snow Blower Review

There are only few times that I'm hoping it snows here in Pennsylvania—Christmas Eve, New Years, and when I go a new toy that requires snow to operate. In October, I got the Snow Joe iON 18SB xl Volt Cordless Snow Blower in the mail to review. Our headquarters is based out of Florida, where it only snows during apocalyptic scenarios, and then I was the simply person eligible to review this auto in a true, winter weather state. In my younger years, I was a snow shovel kind of person secretly laughing at the people using snow blowers and calling them lazy under my breath. With a full time job, 2 kids, and a long driveway, I reevaluated my physical energy consumption. If you lot're in the same boat that I was dorsum then, permit me walk you through some of the basics you'll demand to know most battery powered snow blowing.

The Snow Joe iON looks to be a corking snow blower for the showtime-time owner or the frustrated previous possessor of a gas guzzling, endless maintenance, heavy, loud snow blower of yesteryear. With its not-intimidating looks and easy operation, it should be a perfect fit for your modest to mid-sized jobs.

Snow Joe iON Features

• Lightweight design (32 lbs)
• 40 V 4.0 Ah EcoSharp rechargeable lithium-ion battery
• Upward to 50 minutes of run time
• No pull cords, gas, oil, tune-ups, carbon emissions or tangled extension cords
• Steel auger with 2 rubber blades
• Moves upwardly to 500 lbs of snowfall per minute
• Cuts a path 18 in. wide by 8 in. deep
• 180° auto-rotate directional chute
• throws snow up to 20 ft
• 3 W LED headlight for dark snow removal
• ETL approved; Full two twelvemonth warranty; Energy Star certified

Snow Joe iON First Impressions

The unit of measurement arrived in a box that was much lighter than it looked. The only assembly required was to connect the handle with ii plastic knobs and the directional chute with a rubber washer and two knobs too. Subsequently that, you are prepare to go—cordless! This isn't the first electric snow blower to hitting the market place and also not the offset cordless, but it does have some handy features you won't find on other models out at that place. The battery comes partially charged, equally practise nigh lithium-ion batteries since this is a stable state for them. I decided to charge the battery fully and then I didn't get half style through our sidewalk before sputtering out.

The Snow Joe does provide upwards to fifty minutes of run time, but if you find yourself using information technology for longer periods of time, I would highly recommend purchasing a second bombardment as a backup. I looked over the construction to see how sturdy information technology was and how it was fabricated. To be honest, my first idea was that the plastic seemed a bit thin (1/8") and the parts didn't look like they would hold up over a few heavy winters. The rubber pads that throw the snow are ¼" thick and the driveshaft that they spin on is about 5/eight" metal tubing. As I'm looking at this, I'm thinking of the big snowfall flurries that we've gotten and how taxing they were on my back. So, I'1000 hoping that it holds upward better than my spine did. Regardless of what information technology looks like, I'm only interested in how it performs for now.

A Closer Look at the Snowfall Joe iON Features

1 of the features that I love is the built in LED low-cal. In the wintertime, it seems similar there is simply about 8 hours of daylight, and so this is a very handy feature to accept. Most of my snow removal is done in the early morning time or late afternoon every bit it's getting night and you don't want to be stuck trying to concur a flashlight or parking your vehicle to employ the headlights. The LED calorie-free pivots upwardly and downwards, but does not plow left or right. Technically, you don't need to run into left or right, other than to grumble about how much more you lot have left to remove.

The battery compartment has a door that covers the bombardment to keep it from getting wet and a safety key, which acts as a breaker to run the auto. Much like a treadmill, if the key is not inserted, the unit will not run. I personally don't see the purpose of the condom key and it concerns me that if I ever misplace it or drop it, I tin't run the machine. I'd similar to meet the Snow Joe iON team add together some sort of rope attaching it, so users tin can't lose it as hands while fumbling effectually with gloves in deep snow.

To start the car, you simply need to push button the button on the side and pull the bar to appoint the blades. That's information technology! No pull cords, no fueling up the tank, no oil changes, no chokes or primers—just charge and become.

The Snow Joe iON has a single stage brushless motor, so if you're a tool guy, you know this ways a longer life, more powerful, efficient, and hassle costless performance. The brushless motor design is important for a tool like this that requires different levels of power running through deep heavy snow or very light dustings.

The EcoSharp bombardment and charger autumn into the mid level of battery quality and construction. I don't have whatever experience with EcoSmart, and then I cannot give a total review on its quality other than its performance on the Snowfall Joe iON. If you find that the battery is not lasting long enough for your projects, you tin purchase a 2d battery for $149. on their website. The battery has a visual 3-light guess that tells you when the battery has a xxx%, 60% or 100% charge. The plastic that covers these lights started to fall off of my bombardment the first day. I don't come across it causing whatsoever bug, but given the fact information technology has to operate in wet weather, I wish the construction of the battery were a little improve. It'due south of import to note that if yous have any Sunday Joe products, then you tin apply this battery for them as well.

Performance of the Snow Joe iON

The Snowfall Joe iON sabbatum in my garage for 3 months while I waited and waited and waited for a snowfall. We had a few light dustings, simply not enough to accrue. Finally the other day we got most 3-4", so I fired up the Snowfall Joe iON and went to piece of work. When I say "fired up" what I mean is that I pushed a push and immediately got to work.

My starting time impression using information technology was how quickly you tin get out of the garage and removing snowfall—no extension cords to worry most, pull strings, trips for gasoline, etc. I but had almost 15 minutes earlier I had to get out the house, but I was so excited to see how it performed. I chose a department of my concrete driveway where nosotros park the cars that's about fifteen' wide. If y'all want avoid most people's first rookie fault, be sure to showtime from the center and work your fashion out to the edges. Otherwise, yous'll be throwing snowfall dorsum onto the line you already cleared.

Equally I was moving forwards, I noticed it was simply throwing the snow virtually 2-3 anxiety to the side. This is considering the action of a snowfall blower actually needs some mass to be able to really throw information technology. To get some momentum going, I started on the lower half of the driveway where there was some deeper snow. As I striking those spots, the engine roared (or maybe it was the current running through the brushless motor) and it threw the snow about 8-10 anxiety. I was much happier with the results on my second run.

The Snow Joe iON works all-time with four-10" of snowfall. If yous are using it on less than 4", so you should push faster so it loads more snowfall into the chute at once. Basically, the more than snowfall you have, the ameliorate performance you will see—up to a certain betoken. For me, I was unable to expect for a ten" snowfall to see the difference, just there are a lot of user videos online that show the Snow Joe iON clearing 8" of fresh snow with ease. Snow Joe iON'due south website offers some helpful tips for new owners to make the all-time of their feel.

Because my wife and I had driven over the snow, I was unable to become all the fashion down to the concrete on some places. The scraper bar underneath was definitely a aid to elevator up some of those sections. I wasn't able to "dig in" the same way you can go a better bending on a shovel for compacted areas. I found myself lifting the tires off the ground to endeavour and achieve a improve angle, but it appears the well-nigh efficient angle is when the wheels are apartment.

My driveway is pretty rough, and I noticed that after simply thirty minutes of utilize, it was already starting to show some wear. I can see why they sell replacement scraper bars because I don't call up this would last for two seasons if you are only using information technology on concrete surfaces. That's going to be a common event with any abrasive cloth scraped against plastic though. I did try to go over a department of gravel and immediately threw some rocks, but afterward a few adjustments, I was able to stay higher up them and still remove plenty snow.

My favorite feature was the electronically controlled 180 degree chute. This made information technology a breeze when switching sides and adjusting for the strong winds blowing the snowfall dorsum on me. The knob was placed in a great spot and then there wasn't whatever unnecessary bending over to achieve it. The motor rotates quickly and smooth so you aren't standing in the cold waiting for it. The vertical angle of the deflector is withal controlled manually by loosening the knob and moving the top function of the chute to the desired position. Brand sure that you tighten downwardly this knob enough because when you reach some heavier snow, it tin push the deflector up and change the angle from where you lot set information technology.

Conclusions

I was able to clear my driveway off in less than thirty minutes. While it wasn't able to remove the compacted snowfall where we drove over it, I am nevertheless satisfied with information technology'due south performance. If you are the kind of person that wants your driveway without any snowfall, you might need to lay down some salt or grab a shovel for the heavily compacted areas. I too realize that trying to remove snow that has been driven over is a lot harder to do.

I didn't run into any issues with bottleneck or the unit slowing down. The battery life was plenty to do the job and I didn't take any loss of power toward the end. I did run into an event a few times where the door to the battery compartment came open and got snow all over the battery. The protective door on mine does not have a positive click to lock it in place, but simply hinges up and covers the battery. I would like to meet information technology click into place to secure the battery a little better from the moisture.

Depending on how much snow mass I could get into the feed, the Snow Joe iON would sometimes throw the snow 10 feet and other times it would flop out of the chute a few feet. Information technology was plenty to get the job washed without too much frustration, simply I would like to see a more consistent throw. That's likely amend when the amount of snow is in the recommended range.

While information technology didn't perform as powerful equally the gas blowers out there, I institute that it was enough for my application equally a homeowner. The Snow Joe iON is very light and piece of cake to motility around, just the plastic is pretty thin and I can encounter that being an consequence over a few difficult winters—especially the scraper as I mentioned earlier. The Snow Joe iON does come up with a 2 twelvemonth warranty, and then make sure you keep your paperwork if you want to take information technology covered in those two years.

I would say this is an ideal unit for the homeowner who wants to clear off decks, patios, sidewalks and small driveways. If you have a really rough exposed amass on your driveway, it will work fine, but you may be replacing some parts each season. At $399, it's priced higher than the other cordless snowfall blowers out at that place, but also has more features than they do. If you're thinking nigh getting an electric snowfall blower for the applications I listed above, then I would recommend the Snow Joe iON for you.

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Source: https://www.protoolreviews.com/tools/outdoor-equipment/snow-joe-ion-18sb-review/13175/

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