I understand now why customers buy power equipment from big box stores

[Brian Elfert]

I have pretty much decided I want to buy a Simplicity snow blower to replace my dead unit. It wasn't until last night that I finally figured out my snow blower has a fatal problem. I have 6" of snow on my driveway that I really want rid of. The only neighbor I know well enough to borrow anything from doesn't have a working unit either.

None of the Simplicity dealers nearby are open on Sunday and not in the evenings either so I will need to wait a week to get a snow blower. I really want a Simplicity. (I called a Simplicity dealer an hour away that is open today, but doesn't stock the Pro models. Wanted to order me one, but didn't want to wait and would go more local if I have to order.) I don't blame the dealers for wanting a day off either.

This makes me understand why a lot of customers simply buy from a big box store because of the convenience. Simplicity has chosen not to sell in the big box world which means they aren't being squeezed for every penny.

[michael langman]

Brian, I have a 25 year old simplicity snowthrower I bought from a dealer near my home. It is well built, and I have always been able to get parts for it.
If you can wait to get to a dealer to get one then it will be worth the wait. I bought mine in the spring when they were on sale.
Get some extra shear pins while there if you can.
If you can repair things craigslist always has some simplicity snowthrowers for sale for a considerable savings.

[curtis woodall]

This is kind of a strange post for me. I am more lurker than participating poster. Here's the funny thing, I live in Houston, TX. Most people down here don't know what a snow blower is. I have a habit of killing time watching Youtube videos, mostly about people building or fixing things. I ran across a Youtube channel by "mustie1". He has hundreds of fix-it videos....and a whole lot about repairing snow blowers that he has picked up here and there, mostly for free. He lives up in the far northeast U.S. I was fascinated and amazed about how simply (most of the time) that he fixes snow blowers people have given up on. Very high quality videos and very entertaining. You guys might want to take a peek and see if any of the ones he fixed have the same symptoms as yours. Might save some money. It was just a thought. Thanks. curtis

[Brian Elfert]

This is well past the easy fix territory. One of the parts that holds the end of the auger to the side of the blower broke. When that happened the auger assembly moved forward and pulled the gear case forward which caused the input shaft to pull out of the gear case. It is probably going to require opening up the gear case to see if it can even be fixed. I just finished separating the two halves of the snow blower and discovered that the main pulley for the auger somehow got damaged and the belt is slowly getting chewed up. The pulley is stamped steel so it is possible to bend it.

This is a bit like an old car. At what point do you quit throwing good money after bad? Maybe $200 would get the gear case fixed by a mechanic, but what breaks next? Does the transmission go out next? The engine works great so not worried about that.

I can get the pulley locally for $52. I have looked at the exploded diagram of the gear case and I am not sure it is repairable based on what I see in the diagram.

[Brian Elfert]

Brian, I have a 25 year old simplicity snowthrower I bought from a dealer near my home. It is well built, and I have always been able to get parts for it.
If you can wait to get to a dealer to get one then it will be worth the wait. I bought mine in the spring when they were on sale.
Get some extra shear pins while there if you can.
If you can repair things craigslist always has some simplicity snowthrowers for sale for a considerable savings.

I have looked through Craigslist for used snow blowers and nothing excites me. At this point I don't want to buy something else I need to fix. I just want something I can depend on.

The Simplicity dealers all close at 5 pm or 6 pm during the week. I get home just before 5:30 pm. The closest dealer is opposite of my commute so I would be lucky to get there by 5:45 pm and they close at 6 pm. We had a really good dealer selling Simplicity that is open seven days a week and until 8 pm week nights, but they decided to not sell Simplicity this season.

[Nathan Johnson]

Brian, do you have a truck or large SUV?
If you do, I'm in Andover and you could borrow mine if necessary. I can help load.

Unfortunately, the blower won't fit in my sedan.

[Jim Koepke]

The closest dealer is opposite of my commute so I would be lucky to get there by 5:45 pm and they close at 6 pm.

If the businessman running the store is interested in making a sale, a phone call might get him to stay late one evening.

jtk

[Lee Schierer]

I would get the Simplicity. I have one and it is great. I think it has clogged once in 6 years. It is capable of putting snow into the roof of the house as I discovered the first time I used it. It handles heavy wet snow or the fluffy stuff with ease. Mine sits from when I change the used oil in the spring until the first snow in the fall. I turn on the throttle, set the choke, press the priming button twice and starts on the first pull every year.

[Brian Elfert]

If the businessman running the store is interested in making a sale, a phone call might get him to stay late one evening.


I have to call tomorrow to see if they even have the model in stock that I want and I can ask then.

[Brian Elfert]

Brian, do you have a truck or large SUV?
If you do, I'm in Andover and you could borrow mine if necessary. I can help load.


Thank you for the offer, but a neighbor plowed it with his quad for me today. I have a trailer which is how I will pick my new blower up.

[Brian Elfert]

This is kind of a strange post for me. I am more lurker than participating poster. Here's the funny thing, I live in Houston, TX. Most people down here don't know what a snow blower is. I have a habit of killing time watching Youtube videos, mostly about people building or fixing things. I ran across a Youtube channel by "mustie1". He has hundreds of fix-it videos....and a whole lot about repairing snow blowers that he has picked up here and there, mostly for free. He lives up in the far northeast U.S. I was fascinated and amazed about how simply (most of the time) that he fixes snow blowers people have given up on. Very high quality videos and very entertaining. You guys might want to take a peek and see if any of the ones he fixed have the same symptoms as yours. Might save some money. It was just a thought. Thanks. curtis

I pulled the blower apart today and this is most definitely not an easy fix. The input shaft to the gear case snapped off inside the gear case. The gear case is NLA although I found someone who rebuilds the gear cases who might have an input shaft to fix mine. Still 99% sure I am buying a new one anyhow.

I suspect the easy fixes for a blower would be carb/fuel, spark plug, belts, adjustments, cables, shear pins, and the like not a broken gear case.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

Sometimes, paying extra to buy quality is worth it. Sometimes it isn't. In the past ten years I have had several new/used, etc lawn mowers. One for the barn one for the house. Anything that had a Kohler motor went to crap within 2 years. Against my wishes, my Mrs. purchased a Cub cadet, at a dealer, the motor crapped during the third year. (The casting of the crank case panel was less than a 32nd inch thick and couldn't take the vibration.) Neighbor's identical model did likewise. I would have been better off buying Murrays and junking them every fall. There is no doubt that some items are better built. But not always.

[Brian Elfert]

Sometimes, paying extra to buy quality is worth it. Sometimes it isn't. In the past ten years I have had several new/used, etc lawn mowers. One for the barn one for the house. Anything that had a Kohler motor went to crap within 2 years. Against my wishes, my Mrs. purchased a Cub cadet, at a dealer, the motor crapped during the third year. (The casting of the crank case panel was less than a 32nd inch thick and couldn't take the vibration.) Neighbor's identical model did likewise. I would have been better off buying Murrays and junking them every fall. There is no doubt that some items are better built. But not always.

My snow blower lasted 19 years so I think that is pretty good. I think that is pretty good quality. The casting that broke is full of voids inside the casting. Maybe it would have lasted even longer if the casting had no voids. I like this snow blower well enough that I will likely fix it if I can.

This snow blower had an issue a few years back. I went to the power equipment dealer I bought it from thinking I would get a new snow blower. I dealt with the owner and after he found out what I had he said he would spend $500 to repair mine as the quality is much better than what is sold today. He said I would need to get a Simplicity Pro snow blower for over $1,500 ($1,900 today) to get the same quality. The problem I had was an auger that was rusted to the shaft so I couldn't replace a broken shear pin. I had it fixed as I couldn't figure out how to get the rusted auger off.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Sometimes, paying extra to buy quality is worth it. Sometimes it isn't. In the past ten years I have had several new/used, etc lawn mowers. One for the barn one for the house. Anything that had a Kohler motor went to crap within 2 years. Against my wishes, my Mrs. purchased a Cub cadet, at a dealer, the motor crapped during the third year. (The casting of the crank case panel was less than a 32nd inch thick and couldn't take the vibration.) Neighbor's identical model did likewise. I would have been better off buying Murrays and junking them every fall. There is no doubt that some items are better built. But not always.That is why I do my shopping for a lawn mower at the local dumpsters. Currently have a three Troy-Bilts, one with a Briggs, another with a Honda, and third with a Kohler engine. The Briggs model required a $5.00 replacement safety cable. Other two requiered draining out gas / water fix from fuel system. Ain't ethanol fuel wonderful?

[Nathan Johnson]

Thank you for the offer, but a neighbor plowed it with his quad for me today. I have a trailer which is how I will pick my new blower up.

Glad you got it cleared.

[Rick Potter]

Do none of those dealers have delivery service? If so, you could take care of it with a phone call.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

There only 2 reasons I ever buy from a Big Box store, (1) immediate availability because the situation demands immediate solution or (2) significant difference in price if the needed item is available locally at both at a Mom and Pop retail store and a Big Box store.

[Roger Feeley]

I always try my corner hardware store first:
1. The owner died recently and, having no heirs, he put the store in a trust for the employees.
2. The store pays a living wage. The employees have been there for years and they know stuff.
3. They are really nice. It's a bit like Cheers when I show up.

Big box has it's place. The corner store doesn't carry lumber.

[Brian Elfert]

I am just going to drive over the snow for the rest of this year and look for a snow blower in the fall. I have called every Ariens and Simplicity dealer within 100 miles and nobody has any of the high end models left. Some of the dealers said I should have bought one in the fall before it snowed. My snow blower was working fine in the fall so I wasn't looking for a new one in the fall. Several Ariens dealers said I could order one and have it in February.

Several dealers said they stopped carrying Simplicity due to issues with them. The recommendations say to get an Ariens Professional instead.

[Jim Koepke]

There only 2 reasons I ever buy from a Big Box store, (1) immediate availability because the situation demands immediate solution or (2) significant difference in price if the needed item is available locally at both at a Mom and Pop retail store and a Big Box store.

With a mom and pop shop my question is how close can they get to the big box price? If it isn't too much higher, they will get my business. After all, it will likely be a call to them if service or a part is ever needed.

jtk

[Brian Elfert]

Do none of those dealers have delivery service? If so, you could take care of it with a phone call.

I don't want to just order sight unseen. I want to actually look at the snowblower before I spend a bunch of money. It seems to be a moot point since nobody has what I am looking for in stock.

Prices for Ariens snow blowers seem to be the same between Home Depot, Lowes, and power equipment dealers.

[Stan Calow]

I want to avoid them too. But couldn't get a refrigerator delivered from local store for a week. Lowes could deliver the next day - a Sunday. Went to local Toro shop to buy a mower. Waited about 30 minutes for the good ol' boys to finish their coffee and conversation. Gave up and went to Home Depot and rolled one out the door. Running out of options until Amazon starts delivering the big stuff by drone.

[Jim Koepke]

Waited about 30 minutes for the good ol' boys to finish their coffee and conversation.

This is one of my big peeves. A customer comes in ready to spend money and the hired help is too busy with 'personal time' to even say hello.

jtk

[Jim Becker]

It seems to be a "natural law" or something that resellers of "more professional" equipment and brands with controlled distribution all stick to weekdays with daytime hours and are often only open on Saturday mornings on the weekend. That really keeps the "working world" from being a customer and I absolutely agree that it unfortunately forces many folks to buy at the box stores and that often means lesser quality and/or less capability, etc., since it's most common for gear offered in the big retail stores to be specified for price points. I've even asked some of the local equipment companies about this very thing and 100% of them looked at me like I had two heads. While I was fortunate to have worked from home in a virtual office situation for a couple of decades and could actually get out while these places were open, I know a lot of people who have had similar needs to me that were forced to either take a day off from work or settle for something that wasn't the best choice from "more available" sources.

'Glad you got your snow cleared. I'm hoping we don't get any. :)

[Brian Elfert]

While I got the snow cleared from last week's storm I still need a way to clear future snow. It feels like snow blower retailers cut way back on orders this year. December 15th and many of them are cleaned out already. One power equipment dealer had more push mowers than snow blowers in stock. I called all over and a number of dealers said they were completely sold out on everything right now. The two snows we got this year so far were not that bad. Several dealers said that fall is when they have a huge inventory, but my blower was working fine then.

I found an Ariens Professional blower that is what I want 250 miles away. I don't know if I really want to drive 500 miles and 8+ hours or not. One dealer looked and said Ariens is completely out of Professional blowers and not making more so no more stock until next fall.

[Dave Lehnert]

I use to sell lawn equipment.
Something like a snow blower is hard to guess how many I could sell in a season. No snow, no sales. And that is a lot of $$$$ tied up in inventory for a whole year.
Another risk to stocking up on inventory is if the manufacture comes out with a new model. Then I owned old inventory.

I agree with you on banker hours at local places. I sold most of my equipment on Saturdays and Sundays. If I owned a small local shop I would be closed on Tuesday and Wednesdays and open on the weekends. Yes be nice to have the weekends off but if you want to be in retail........ Kinda like wanting to be a preacher but wanting Sundays off.

[Brian Elfert]

I ended ordering a snow blower with kinda a hybrid approach. I really wanted an Ariens Professional, but I ended up ordering a Toro Professional instead because I can actually get the Toro reasonably quickly without a 500 mile round trip. The research I did had people saying you can't really go wrong with Toro, Simplicity, or Ariens when you are buying mid to high end.

Toro has a website where you can buy parts and actual power equipment online. Toro still had the snow blower I wanted available online so I ordered it from there. Toro actually ships the unit to a local Toro dealer of my choice who assembles the unit. I assume the dealer gets credit for the sale basically the same as if I ordered a unit in store. Toro says the blower should be deliverd in 7 to 14 days. The dealer I chose is open seven days a week and evenings. I was there last night and they didn't have a lot of snow blowers left and nothing I was interested in.

[Dave Lehnert]

I ended ordering a snow blower with kinda a hybrid approach. I really wanted an Ariens Professional, but I ended up ordering a Toro Professional instead because I can actually get the Toro reasonably quickly without a 500 mile round trip. The research I did had people saying you can't really go wrong with Toro, Simplicity, or Ariens when you are buying mid to high end.

Toro has a website where you can buy parts and actual power equipment online. Toro still had the snow blower I wanted available online so I ordered it from there. Toro actually ships the unit to a local Toro dealer of my choice who assembles the unit. I assume the dealer gets credit for the sale basically the same as if I ordered a unit in store. Toro says the blower should be deliverd in 7 to 14 days. The dealer I chose is open seven days a week and evenings. I was there last night and they didn't have a lot of snow blowers left and nothing I was interested in.


I own a Toro zero turn mower. One reason, I have always been able to get parts for Toro equipment quick. I can order parts from J Thomas on line and get them next day.

[Brian Elfert]

I own a Toro zero turn mower. One reason, I have always been able to get parts for Toro equipment quick. I can order parts from J Thomas on line and get them next day.

Toro is pretty good with parts for stuff that was first sold over 20 years ago. I also have a 2004 Toro Groundsmaster mower and the majority of parts are available from Toro, but they typically aren't stocked at dealers due to the age of the unit. I often order my parts from sepw.com as they are 28 miles from the Toro parts distribution center so they can have the part in a day or two and then two days to me. SEPW is often the least expensive on Toro Groundmaster parts by a fair bit. $500 for a Toro hydraulic cylinder locally and $360 from SEPW. (No generic available.)

I expect with a new Toro snow blower that one of my local dealers will have any parts I should need in stock unless I break something major like the gear case.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Very timely thread....

I have a John Deere D110 lawn tractor. (please -no jokes it's served me well since 2014) ;) .

Every year or so, I've been having them (local John Deere service center) come and pick it up to change the oil, sharpen the blades, change spark plugs & whatever else they do for a couple hundred dollars.
This past year the place changed hands.

In the past, if I called in December - they had free pick up and delivery.
I called today & the guy said they can't pick it up until January - so - I have to pay 50% of the pup/delivery charge .

I told him I never had to do that in the past & he took my name and phone number and said he'd look into it and call me back.

So much for customer service I guess......

Nothing in the literature they sent mentioned anything about their inability to pick it up - just that if the call was placed in December the pup/delivery would be free.

Edit to add - - well looks like the manager got involved & they are picking it up Dec 27th - but - can't give me a time other than between 8 and 5...

[Jim Becker]

Yea, policies sometimes change when a business changes hands. One of the three local Kubota dealers...and the place where I actually bought my first tractor after moving into this property...turned out to have a 10% markup on MSRP for parts. They also were not considerate with pricing and trade-in when I wanted to move to a more capable machine. I got $2K higher trade-in and $2K better pricing on the more capable tractor from another local firm. The original place changed hands this past year and the new owners don't mark up MSRP on parts which is consistent with the other two dealers And since they are more conveniently located, I can once again go there when I need something for maintenance or service rather than driving further or ordering from somewhere online. Still the same inconvenient hours, however. LOL

[Brian Elfert]

I am in the process of cancelling my snow blower order. Toro didn't ship my unit this week and a holiday closure of the warehouse means I wouldn't see my snow blower until maybe third week of January. It was supposed to be two weeks.

[Jerome Stanek]

I would look at the power care unit from home depot it should get you through the next few years and is only $399. I was walking by and saw that they had reduced it but didn't really look at it there were other people looking at them and one commented that he was going to get it

[Edwin Santos]

Acme Tools?
You happen to live in a place where they have a physical store nearby in Plymouth.
They have an extensive selection of snowblowers and I speak from experience that they ship immediately.

[Brian Elfert]

I would look at the power care unit from home depot it should get you through the next few years and is only $399. I was walking by and saw that they had reduced it but didn't really look at it there were other people looking at them and one commented that he was going to get it

It appears they aren't carried locally and are listed at $599 on the website. I hate buying cheap crap that doesn't work well and goes into a landfill prematurely.

[ray grundhoefer]

lawnmowers, snowblowers anything bigger I buy green . does'nt matter how old it is, john deere dealer has parts on hand usually or only a day or 2 away.Equipment is made well and runs a long time if taken care of.

[Jerome Stanek]

lawnmowers, snowblowers anything bigger I buy green . does'nt matter how old it is, john deere dealer has parts on hand usually or only a day or 2 away.Equipment is made well and runs a long time if taken care of.

John Deere doesn't make their own snow blowers as of 2011 honda made them for John Deere for a while MTD does make some of the John Deere line according to my niece who works there

[Brian Elfert]

lawnmowers, snowblowers anything bigger I buy green . does'nt matter how old it is, john deere dealer has parts on hand usually or only a day or 2 away.Equipment is made well and runs a long time if taken care of.

John Deere quit selling walk behind snow blowers a number of years ago. I don't believe they ever actually made them in house. They used a variety of manufacturers over the years.

[Ronald Blue]

Brian you are correct. Not everything that is sold with the John Deere name on it is manufactured by John Deere. Many push mowers, and small mowers were produced by other companies for them. There is no guarantee of parts availability just because it says John Deere on it. Here is a link to a Chicago area company that might be worth at least viewing.

snowblowersdirect.com/throwers/walk-behind-snow-blowers.html (https://www.snowblowersdirect.com/throwers/walk-behind-snow-blowers.html)

[Brian Elfert]

I am in the process of cancelling my snow blower order. Toro didn't ship my unit this week and a holiday closure of the warehouse means I wouldn't see my snow blower until maybe third week of January. It was supposed to be two weeks.

It turns out that Toro did ship my snow blower. It shipped last Wednesday the 18th even though their website still showed my order as processing until today. The local power equipment dealer apparently got my snow blower Friday although somebody was out so they didn't contact me. I called Toro Monday afternoon to ask about my request to cancel and they told me my order shipped and should be at the dealer already.

I picked up my snow blower today and it is awesome! I didn't know a walk behind snow blower could blow snow that far. It could literally blow snow over my house if I wanted to.