Customer Reviews

Toro 38361 Power Shovel 7.5 Amp Electric Snow Thrower

5 star:		(177)
4 star:		(108)
3 star:		(38)
2 star:		(35)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

If you go to Target, Home Depot or any of the other big chains that sell the Toro Electric Shovel you will probably find the same thing that I did...that it is SOLD OUT. Why? Because this is one of the most helpful tools to have ever been placed on the market.

It works fairly well on small driveways; don't forget to pick up a nice long outdoor-use electric extension cord. And use this only on paved surfaces...no loose gravel!

But the real benefit of this tool comes with walkways and DECKS.

If you've got a large driveway, pass on this and go for something with a little more power. If you've got a decent size walkway, you'll love this. It clears the snow with ease and it will last forever; my father-in-law has had his since the early 90s.

If you have a deck with a railing, and your deck isn't covered so it builds up with snow, the Toro Electric Shovel will become your best winter friend. The snow is propelled a good 25 feet and easily clears deck railings. Just don't shoot the snow into the wind (duh). No more throwing out your back from lifting heavy snow over railings with this baby.

No matter where you use this...a word of advice: Try not to let the snow get deeper than about 6". Yes, that means you might have to go out a couple of times. But c'mon...it's fun! The Toro still works in deep snow, but it really isn't designed for it. Any deeper than about 6" and you'll need to "shave the top of the snow accumulation," and you might as well not have the electric shovel for the effort that takes.

Happy snow season!

This is review written with Montana winter experience.

The reviews were generally good with this item so I bought one, mainly for the convenience of easily cleaning the drawbridge, walkways, entry, and in front of my garage without a shovel.

This device is pre-assembled, easily carried, easy to use, fast, quiet, and very user friendly. The only drawback is not with the machine; it is getting a low temperature cord that remains flexible in the cold. I suggest the yellow Solar cord that is good to about -50 offered through Amazon. To keep the cord out of the way always completely clean the area closest to the electrical outlet and progress forward; do not go way forward and back-track. I use it like I use a vacuum.

Overall excellent!! It takes the snow right down to the ground and even gets the hard compacted snow from where the cars enter the garage without a problem. Very fast, and you can easily change the length of the shaft so you do not have to bend over. The blade is plastic but seems very durable; it has run into some small objects, plant edges, and small rocks and I notice no wear after several uses. My wife is happy to not shovel, and it is easy on her bad back, and mine.

I give it 5 stars easily, and and am buying one for the office with a low temp. 100 ft. cord. So far I highly recommend this device for the easily accessable areas of traffic when you don't want to haul out the gas driven blowers, or shovel, or snow plow. It will even tackle drifts with ease if you take your time and start waving it across the top. It is fast and simple to use. The Broom model is more expensive but is only needed if you decide to change the blade and use it for summer-time dirt blowing. This model is a great one for just snow and is at a great price. Don't expect it to be durable for heavy slush, ice, deep snow, or large areas like driveways.

Hope this helps.

Update 12-29-07
Excellent overall and still worth 5 stars and the price! I have used it many times now and it has always been very easy to use, even with crusty snow or over 6 inches. I recently returned from holiday vacation and found snow had fallen, melted, frozen, and new snow was on top. It worked as well down to the ground as with light snow and I was finished quickly without working up a sweat, straining my back, or heart, like chipping away with a shovel would. Nice product that sure makes living in snow country easier. A low temperature power cord is a must.

Update 12-21-08:
Still working great, even in -20 degree weather. I highly recommend this product, as well as the Sno-Wovel for deep snow and no back strain.

This is a great product that I've used for the last 4 heavy Minnesota snowfalls. Here are some basic notes:

1)It works best in wetter snow. That snow that is heavy to lift and push with a traditional shovel is where this product shines.

2)It works OK in drier snow. Make sure you know which way the wind is blowing as even a tiny breeze can blow it right back into your face as this only shoots the snow in the direction it's pointed (vs a tradional snowblower).

3)You'll need a good extension cord. This unit has a snag which holds the cord in place and actually is quite good. However, dealing with an extension cord means that you'll have to do a little bit of pre-planning as for a route. You don't want to shovel over the cord, nor do you want to face the wind, nor do you want the cord dragging through the snow and causing more of a mess. After a couple uses, I got the hang of it.

4)This is a kid friendly product (with supervision, of course). Our 7 year old girl and 9 year old boy wanted to try it out and they had little problem holding both buttons and cleaning the sidewalk.

5)The best way I've found to use this product is to use it as a vacuum cleaner. Short strokes forward and then side to side due to the fact that it shoots the snow forward.

6)Best of both worlds when it comes to stairs, an easy lift and blow.

7)I called this a shovel enhancer as there's one part where it just doesn't work that well. You know when you've just been dumped upon by the snow gods and you have lots of foot or car traffic? That part of the snow where it's compacted and becomes that horrible ice? That's where you'll still need an ol' fashioned shovel as this one doesn't do much.

All in all, I'm very happy with this purchase. We live on a corner lot and it has a lot of sidewalk and a smallish driveway. Last year, my back was aching after shoveling, but this power shovel has helped in getting the job done without that pain. If there were a wider version sold by Toro (let's say 2 feet) that didn't signifcantly increase weight, I would upgrade immediately. Other than that, this is a great, surprisingly solid, device.

It's embarassing to say this, but when you try this out,make sure that it's right side-up. I had it reversed, and actually was going to return it until my wife showed me how to use it correctly! It does throw snow up to 25 ft. There are 2 competetive products on the market. One of them (I think by MTD) has a higher amperage. However I chose this model due to it's light weight. I strongly recommend buying low-temperature cable for use with these electric snowblowers. 16 guage is sufficient for this amperage. You want something that remains real flexible in the cold. !4 guage is really too big ,and 12 is out of the question. By the way...I live in Syracuse N.Y...if it works here it will work anywhere.

As other reviews have said, this is a great unit. We got it from Amazon last week, and our first big snow of the season hit yesterday. We got 14 inches of snow. The power shovel, you will notice, is rated at 6 inches or less. So it was useless, right?

Nope! First, we didn't wait until all the snow came down; we hit it in pieces. Even so, at one point we were dealing with 8+ inches. As other reviews have said (and as the manual tells you), just take it in layers: pick up the power shovel and get the first few inches, then get the rest on the next pass. At some points I'm sure I was pushing it into more than 6 inches, but it never complained.

This was nasty snow -- wet on the bottom, light on top. The kind that sticks to your shovel, so that you pick up 10 pounds of snow only to have 5 pounds sticking when you try to dump it. But the power shovel ate it all up. And didn't clog -- I noticed my neighbor, with his more powerful (and much more expensive) snow blower had to periodically stop to manually unclog his chute.

The next day, after the plows went through, we had a different type of snow to deal with; not icy, but in big heavy chunks that the plow had thrown on our driveway and sidewalk. Again, the key is to take it in layers. Even though the snow was compacted, the power shovel handled it until we got to pieces that had started to freeze up. At that point, I could hear THUNKs coming from the unit, so I stopped before I broke a blade. It handled 95% of what we asked it to do, though, and a lot of that outside its design specs.

Things I learned:
- This is a great unit, but it's not necessarily the best for 60-year-old grandmas. (Yes, I know there are 60-year-old grandmas who could kick my butt, but I'm talking stereotypes here.) Lifting the unit to do layers takes a fair amount of upper body strength; a 20-something athlete would find it easy, a 52-year-old who does daily light exercise [that's me] found it tiring after a couple hours.
- The safety grip get fatiguing after awhile. I used my right arm to hold the front handle (easier to maneuver) so my left hand was having to hold on tight to keep the safety engaged. After a couple hours my left hand was having trouble holding on. That's not a design flaw -- if you don't have the strength to hang on, maybe that's a good point to take a break -- but it's something to be aware of.
- It's electric. It shuts right down, it starts right up. I was letting it run when I didn't need to, just out of habit from gas-powered units.
- I started out using it like a shovel, going down one row of the driveway then walking back and fighting the cord. Bad method! Use it like a vacuum cleaner. That also give you better control of where the snow is going.
- You need to be aware of the electric cord. And sometimes you need to put the unit down and spend a minute moving the power cord to a spot where it stays out of the way. That vacuum cleaner thing again.
- The wind is your worst enemy. Sometimes it felt like I was walking into a blizzard when I was trying to shoot snow directly into the wind.
- The wind is your best friend. Don't shoot the snow into the wind, watch where the wind is taking it and adjust your angle accordingly. (I know, that's obvious, but it took me a little while and several face-fulls of snow to realize it.)

So far, a great investment, and one I recommend, with the above clarifications.

ADDITION (Feb 11, 2010) Since I wrote the above, we've been through two more major storms, each over two feet of snow each. Because the Power Shovel can throw over the mounds that built up on the sides of our driveway and walks, and because it handles the wet glop at the bottom of a snowfall, we made it through just fine. By staying ahead of the storms we were mostly dealing with 8" or less in each pass, and the Toro handled it all beautifully. (Until the township piled massive ice mounds on our driveway and sidewalk when they plowed. As noted, the Power Shovel doesn't do ice.) Still a Very Happy Customer.

first of all, let me say it works just fine; throws the snow a good ways. it's a truly "plug and play" product.

BUT-for me there are 2 things that i was disappointed with:

1. you have to hold the top button down constantly to keep the power on-it really needs a lock like many other appliances have so you can lock it on to "on" and just pull the trigger to make it go. that gets very tiring on your hand

2. it is non directional. it throws the snow-straight ahead. no way to turn it like on a regular snow blower. this made it so i have to retrace my steps and always head in the same direction.

finally, i'd love to see it come in a rechargeable battery format. Like the small vacuum cleaners do. it would be great not to have the wire to deal with.

This product was purchased for my 82 yr. old mother who has back problems and can't shovel snow. Living in Indiana shoveling snow is a part of the winter season. She has used the shovel several times since receiving it and has only good things to say about it. She is most impressed with the ease of use and the thorough cleaning the shovel does and that she does not have to lift and toss the snow after it is on the shovel as in past years. We would recommend this Toro Power Shovel to anyone with back problems and a willingness to shovel when there is not more than 2" on the walk.

Ready to go out of the box. The unit can be a bit misleading with how to properly operate it. From the primary picture here at amazon (look at the second picture, this is the position in which the unit should be operated) and the lack of a picture in the owners manual, you can easily (as I experienced) have the unit upside down when trying to operate it. If you do this, you'll experience what the 1 star review says happened to them. Snow everywhere. Once I figured that out and flipped the unit right side up, this little thrower has plenty of power and chews right through the snow on my deck. It doesn't appear to scratch the deck either. I'm very pleased with this purchase.

Like some of the other reviewers this blower's major flaw is the lack of a directional option. The snow is blown quite a distance straight ahead so one has to think about where the snow is going to end up. It handled wet thick snow very well but only up to about 4-5" in depth. I had some drifts and simply held it so that it skimmed off the top 6" and then pushed it through to throw the rest of the 6" of snow. I thought that holding the 13 pound device to accomplish this was about the same as shoveling a equivalent amount of snow and throwing it aside. It has a nice edge at the bottom that allows the blower to get down to bare concrete. Overall a very nice machine, adequate for small jobs. My wife used it and felt it was much easier than shoveling. I would have rated it 5 star except for the lack of directional fins. I used a standard outdoor extension cord with no issues, and a couple of times hit a loose stick and the blades simply stopped with no damage.

This great tool reduced the time it takes to clear our deck after a heavy snow from 1 1/2 hour to 10 minutes. Wonderful time saver and especially wonderful for elderly who have decreased endurance.