Essential Features to Look for in a New Snowblower
By: Billy Whitmire
Submitted: 2009-10-30 11:28:52 | Word Count: 714
When you finally decide to give up shoveling all that winter snow, and are shopping around for a snowblower, keep in mind that price is not the only consideration. Another important consideration when buying a new snowblower is its features. In fact if your snowblower has certain features it can make your snow clearing jobs easier, simpler, and hassle-free under many different weather conditions.
Starting the Snowblower
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Easy Chute Control
One-handed Drive
Engine Type & Size
Electric Start: The basic model of snowblower usually doesn't come equipped with an electric starter, but a crank starting system similar to a lawnmower. What this means is that on those cold winter mornings when you need to clear the driveway, you'll possibly have to crank the engine half a dozen times just to get it running. This may be alright for the men in the house, but others who use the machine may find this method of starting the machine difficult. Newer snowblower models however feature electric starters which makes starting the snowblower much easier for every one who has to use it.
A snowblower with an electric starter can make starting the machine much easier for all household members.
Easy Chute Control: Having a simple method for changing chute direction is important for smooth operation of a snowblower. The enhancement made to snowblower chute control now makes changing the direction of thrown snow much simpler. Instead of having to crank a rod located on the chute itself, new controls make changing chute direction much more streamline, and convenient. Instead of having to reach over the handlebars of the snowblower, chute controls are now located on the handlebar control panel.
New control panel chute controls, enable you to change chute direction without interruption to operation, and snowblower control.
One-handed Drive: Many snowblowers require the use of both handgrips in order to control the automatic drive, and the snow auger. This can make steering the machine, and making adjustments to these functions difficult to say the least. Most people usually have to stop, or slow down the machine to make these adjustments. But, now models are available that feature drive, and auger control from a one-handed levered control stick. Being able to control both the drive and auger with one hand frees up the other hand for steering, or for making chute adjustments.
One-handed drive makes it simpler to control the snowblower by allowing single hand control over the drive, and auger.
Engine Type & Size: A snowblower is going to have either a two or four stroke engine. The size is dependent on whether it is a one, or two stage snowblower. A two stage snowblower features a four stroke engine, and not only clears, but crushes snow with an auger. The one stage snowblower model has a two stroke engine, clears snow, and throws it as well. Two stroke engines use a mixture of fuel and oil, but a four stroke engine has a separate oil system which requires regular maintenance.
Two stage snowblowers feature a four stroke engine that provides the machine with the horsepower to clear, crush, and throw snow.
Author Resource:-
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