Snow Joe ION8024-XRP iON Series Snow Blower, blue

Really GREAT product. So easy to use. Effortless. Astounding. Purchased last fall. We got a lot of snow here and this thing was amazing!. Push Button Start. NO Cord to pull. Self Propelled & It really throws the snow too! Got ice chunks at the bottom of the driveway? Just push the button for lower gear and BAM, it cuts right through it, grinds it up and throws it out (2 stage) Easily cuts through 6 inches. No Gas NO spark plugs to change & no oil to buy. You can keep it in the house if you are worried about someone stealing it (unlike gas powered) it is light weight too under 100 pounds.. Really QUIET! you don't have to worry about waking anybody up. You can use it any time of day or night. Only problem is FINDING an extra set of batteries. Battery lasts 20 -30 min in heavy snow. A service station in Michigan would be nice too. over (in case I have any problems), it exceeded all my expectations. DOWNSIDE The heavier the snow the quicker the batteries go down. We kept the headlights off to save the battery.

This is an incredible concept, and many of the pieces of a great snowblower are there, but the execution is a bit lacking.First the good:--It works really well in light snow, and throws it a decent distance. If you live in CO/MT/WY/ND/SD/IA/KS etc you've got a great machine here. If you live in more coastal snowy areas, keep looking.--It's very light weight and easy to move around--The batteries last long enough to do our 80' long driveway and neighbors 20' driveway, as well as all walkways.--The motors both have plenty of power--The metal construction and auger can chew through a plow berm as well as any unit I've used.Now the bad:--In heavy snow, the Snowjoe far underperforms other units. Snow gets jammed in the chute and in the second auger, even when under continuous movement. I think this is probably due to a "feature" that slows the auger when not under heavy load, but it creates far more problems than battery it saves. All snowblowers get it stuck in the chute when stopped, but this one happens all. the. time. It's infuriating. Even 3 inches of wet snow are going to be a constant dance between snowblowing and clearing the chute.--The chute direction control is prone to freezing, and the buttons are impossible to use with large gloves on. If you use thin gloves they're usable until the chute mechanism freezes and then you have to pull the chute around manually while pressing the button. There's something to be said for the old crank style mechanisms.--The controls are generally flaky. If you're used to the simple reliability of cable-based controls on a gas snowblower, these will drive you mad. It sometimes takes 3 presses of the levers to get the motors to engage.I've used gas 1 and 2 stage snowblowers in the past, and some family members use EGo. None of those other options provide the trouble this one does. It's a great concept, but it needs nicer switches and fewer features (powered chute control/auger speed control) to really make it work. Wait for Gen 3 and see what they come up with.Update after 2 full seasons:My discontent grows with each use of this machine. It cuts out more than it used to, battery life has already significantly diminished. Best to avoid it.

This winter has been a great test of this new snow blower, and it's been interesting.My Driveway: Approximately 1500 feet long. (Yes, I'm a bit crazy for wanting to use an electric snow blower on a quarter-mile long driveway, but hey ... I also mow 5 acres of grass using an electric riding mower. :) )Location: Ohio, not in the snow belt. A typical largish snowfall might be 6 inches, so really we don't get all that much, but it tends to be heavy wet snow. It can drift pretty badly if the wind blows strongly out of the North.What I've done in the past: I've lived here 10 years, and have always had a gas snow blower. Big, noisy, obnoxious, irritating to maintain, but powerful as all get out.How I use it: Surely you're wondering about this. I have three sets of batteries and two chargers so that I can rotate through them.This winter: We've had 3 snow falls significant enough to need to use the blower - more than usual. It's performed remarkably well. In particular I was surprised how well it did with the 2nd one, which had 2 foot drifts, and 300-400 feet of driveway covered in 8-10 inches of drifted snow.Good:- It works! Generally speaking, it will blow the snow just fine. Even deep snow.- Generally easy to operate and of course very easy to maintain.- Appears to be reasonably well built.- Can handle really deep snow too, but not quickly.- Unlike my gas blowers, no shear bolts broke! (Wow. It's not unusual to encounter sticks and small rocks on my driveway.)- Three forward speeds plus reverse. It'll also let you know when you're in the wrong speed. (In speed 3, if it starts to get bogged down, it'll actually pause briefly ... Go down to 1, and it'll behave.) Speed 2 is the least useful.- Electric motor to rotate the chute. (This is also listed under bad though.)- Headlights are nice and bright, adjustable, and useful.- Tires are nice and grippy, and the balance of the blower is good.Neutral:- The super heavy stuff left by the plow at the end of the driveway gets blown all of 2-3 feet. My old gas blower (a 14HP monster) didn't do much better though.Bad:- They added an electric motor to rotate the chute, which is nice. The switch for that has a plastic cover over it (for obvious reasons) but the plastic gets hard when it's cold out (erm - it's a SNOW blower) making the button really hard to press. So hard that I'm probably going to end up cutting that cover off and just try to be careful to not get too much snow on it.- The battery charger is super slow.- The battery charger's "battery too hot" detection circuit works very strangely. (What I mean: Put a set of used, hot, batteries in. The light flashes indicating they're too hot to be charged. So far so good. Just leave them there - they'll cool off. Come back later, and the LEFT battery is charging. The RIGHT battery is still flashing too hot. Pull the right battery off, put it back on, and it'll now charge - it really wasn't too hot anymore. Both chargers work this way, with all three sets of batteries, and it doesn't matter how long you wait. The batteries for this blower aren't bad, but the charger needs some work.)- XPort speed is only very slightly faster than speed 3. (I'm actually not convinced it's any faster. It's faster to just turn it off and push it with the auger lifted up. But then, I'm potentially moving it a quarter mile, so others with shorter driveways might find the speed just fine.)- Shipping box/packing: The box wasn't beat up at all, but one of the feet that adjusts the height of the auger was bent. I just ordered a new set - not a big deal. There was literally no protection though. If the box had been beaten up more, there could have been a lot more damage.Notes:Batteries: I didn't list battery life as either good/bad above. Battery life is what it is based on current battery technology, and the quality of these batteries appears to be pretty good. How long the batteries last will vary drastically depending on how bogged down the blower is. (If it has to work harder, it will consume energy faster!) For me, they've lasted anywhere from 20 minutes (for the heavy two foot drifts where the blower was being operated at it's limit the full time it was in use, and the batteries came out hot) to about an hour and fifteen minutes for a lighter 4" snow fall that wasn't drifted (and the batteries came out cool). It's easier to tell that the batteries are getting near the end of their life just by how much force the blower has, than using the lights on the control panel.How to handle drifts: Go slow. Turn off the forward speed entirely and just push it by hand. Push it in far enough that it starts to bog down, pause while it blows out the snow, then push it in a little more, and so on. The snow above the auger housing will just go over the housing and fall down behind it. Periodically pull the blower backwards, then push it forward to blow that snow. It can be slow going for really big drifts, but that's true with any blower. If you get a lot of heavy tall drifts your best bet is a plow.Verdict:It's not perfect, but then no blower I've had is. I do prefer it (by far) to my old gas blower though. It's a lot easier to maneuver and handle, no gas to spill or run out of, no oil to change, much quieter (but not silent of course). If you're interested, give it a shot! Electric's time has come.

Snow Joe Blower assembled easily. After charging the batteries I tested the blower's forward and reverse speeds and found then plenty fast enough, for various depths of snow. The push button chute rotator works great. The headlights seem quite bright for night time use. Although we do not yet have any snow the auger system was tested and performed well as the auger really revved up. The adjustable height for the handles is a good feature due to my tall stature. I also liked the ergonomic handles which makes squeezing the control switches and holding the handles more comfortable for extended use. Overall this is a nice looking blower and I found it relatively easy to move around. Now we are waiting for our first snowfall to see how well it will perform.

The media could not be loaded.  I purchased this machine for the convenience of not having to go gas operated, unfortunately I made the mistake. Battery operated snow blowers are not on "par" with other gas powered machines. I was very disappointed in the fact every 3-5 feet I would have to pause and let the shoot clean out. If not it would shut off, every time while the neighbors laugh at me.... After the 5th snow fall the Auger stopped running as well as the 2nd stage. Something is spinning inside, but not running the Auger, probably the drive. Usually I would take this machine apart to fix it, but based on the performance of this machine it's not worth my time. For $1500 I paid for this, it holds no torch compared to other $1500 gas powered snow blowers with electric starts. I learned my lesson, my advice is fix the auto shut off when it's under a workload. It's to weak of an electric motor to handle a real snow fall.

I am a 59 year old Widow and got tired of relying on help with the shoveling...I used my Snow blower today in about 8 inches of snow and the end of the driveway double from the street plow...this new best friend of mine made a 3 hour job into 30 minutes!!! I love my Snow Joe...very reliable which seems to be in a bit of a shortage lately.

Bought the 6 AH batteries and still doesn’t have enough power to complete my 2 car driveway. Only finished one side. Not happy.

Easy to operate, love it!