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Snow Blower Maintenance: Get Your Machine Ready for Winter
While daytime temperatures have been mild in many parts of the country, once nighttime temps dip below freezing and the annuals have wilted, snow isn’t far behind. Now’s the time to do a little snow blower maintenance, before the white stuff start to fly.
Before starting up your snow blower, flip through the owner’s manual. If your snow blower runs on gasoline, the manual probably says to replace the spark plug periodically. Change the oil too, at least once a year. If you find it difficult to remember what you did from year-to-year start keeping a snow blower maintenance log.
Fuel Matters Most
When fueling your snow blower at the start of the season, it’s important to use fresh gas to which you’ve added a stabilizer. Leaving gas sitting in the engine, especially if it has ethanol in it, encourages gum and varnish buildup that can clog the carburetor and fuel passages. If you left gas in the tank since last season (which we don’t recommend), siphon out as much as you can before adding fresh, stabilized fuel.
What to Keep on Hand
If your snow blower is two-stage—meaning it has a fan-like impeller to throw snow that the auger has scooped up—keep some spare auger shear pins on hand. These bolts are designed to protect the gearbox by breaking should the auger hit a hard object. We also suggest you keep spare belts on hand, though replacing one is a much bigger job than changing a shear pin.
A Few More Checks
For all machines, tighten nuts and bolts, especially on control linkages, which tend to loosen as a snow blower vibrates. The owner’s manuals of two-stage models also recommend that you adjust the auger’s scraper and skid shoes. Doing so helps keep the auger closer to the surface, but not so close that the scraper touches the ground. The result? Less snow left behind to freeze.
After you’ve done all this, turn the snow blower on, run the auger, and drive the machine back and forth at various speeds to make sure it works. You don’t want to get an unpleasant surprise when the first snowstorm hits.
If nothing you do will get it started, and your local shop has thrown in the towel, read our snow blower buying guide and check out our latest snow blower Ratings of more than 85 models, plus our survey-based Ratings of brand reliability. For more snow blower maintenance tips, read “Keep Your Snow Blower Running All Winter,” by Peter Sawchuk, our lead engineer for testing outdoor power gear.
Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this website. Copyright © 2006-2015 Consumers Union of U.S.
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