The 5 Best Snow Blowers of 2023, tested by PEOPLE

Jan 26, 2024

Our winner is the easy-to-use Ariens Classic 2-Stage Snow Blower

Cai Cramer is a Commerce Writer at PEOPLE, covering the best and buzziest products across the beauty, fashion, health, and lifestyle spaces. Previously, Cai worked on the Digital Platforms team at PEOPLE after graduating with a degree in Journalism from Northwestern University. Cai loves to spend time outdoors no matter the weather, and she'll try any craft twice.

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People / Alli Waataja

Picture this: It's an early winter morning, and your neighborhood is frosted in snow. You grab your things and walk to your car, feeling grateful for the modern luxury of car heating. But just as you’re about to pull away, it dawns on you: The driveway is plastered with a thick layer of snow that you must remove before you can drop your kids off at school, head into the office, or go about your day.

Now imagine that instead of hauling out a cumbersome shovel and performing some early morning manual labor, you can simply dust off your snow blower and clear your path with the flick of a button. If that reality sounds as good to you as it does to us, then we’re pleased to share that we’ve taken to our testing labs to find out which snow blower is the best on the market.

According to Cheryl Higley, director of education at the Snow and Ice Management Association, anyone in the market for a snow blower should consider "the type of snow, the accumulation amount they plan to clear, and the surface type they’ll be clearing" when picking the right machine for their needs.

We braved snow, wind, sludge, and sleet to find the snow blower that performs best, rating them on performance, ease of use, safety, and value. In the end, we were left with five top-performing machines. Our favorite was the Ariens Classic 24-in 2-Stage Snow Blower because it was easy to maneuver with non-slip wheels, and it quickly cut through large piles of snow.

Keep reading to find the best snow blower to clear your paths with ease.

Lowe's

Self-propelling feature makes for easy maneuvering

Wheels don't slip

Cut through large piles of snow easily and quickly

Setup took about 40 minutes before first use

Our coveted "best overall" spot goes to the Ariens Classic snow blower, which blew us away (pun intended) through all of our tests. Two thick-treaded wheels lift the base of this machine off the ground, and a self-propelling feature offers six forward and two reverse speeds to help you easily go up or down driveways and sidewalks at an incline without any strenuous pushing.

On the day that we tested this snow blower, we faced 4.3 inches of wet snow covering the driveway and a little over a foot of snow piled at the end of the driveway from the morning street plow. The Ariens Classic snow blower easily cut through the heavy, wet snow down the entire driveway and handled the foot-high pile of snow within just a few minutes.

All in all, this two-stage snow blower cleared a 1,000-square-foot driveway, sidewalk, and large front walkway — all in about 35 minutes. Plus, there was still some gas left in the tank. But while this machine cleared the snow really quickly, it did take about 40 minutes for us to set up. The snow blower comes with both paper and video instructions (we found the video instruction to be more helpful), and it requires you to have a few tools at home to finish the setup.

All in all, we recommend the Ariens Classic snow blower to anyone looking for a machine that's a breeze to maneuver up and down hills and can cut through heavy, wet snow like a dream.

Price at time of publish: $1,149

Power source: Gas | Weight: 187 pounds | Size: 44 in x 26 in x 54 inches | Throw distance: 40 feet | Ideal Snow Depth: Up to 12 inches

Ace Hardware

Excellent value

Very quick set up

Uses rechargeable batteries instead of gas

Small and easy to store

Doesn't have as many features as more expensive options

This snow blower gets the job done — and for a fraction of the price of other machines. The EGO Power + Peak snow blower took just 10 minutes for us to set up and quickly cleared away three inches of powdery snow off of a two-car driveway. It runs on two rechargeable lithium batteries (which means no gross gas fumes), and they promise to clear a 10-car driveway with just one charge.

Powdery, light snow is naturally easier for snow blowers to tackle, so we brought this machine out for a second time after a particularly dense, wet snowfall. This time, we had to adjust the shoot (so that it spat out removed snow further away), and fiddle with the auger (the rotating blades that pick up snow off the ground) speed. We were pleasantly surprised at how well this budget-friendly model cut through the denser snow, though when the snowfall got above 4 inches, we had to go over those patches with the machine a few times to fully clear them.

Another helpful feature of this machine is an attached headlamp to light your path through the dark, just in case you need to clear your path at night or before the sun comes up. Even on a -25 degree day, we were able to easily start this blower with a push-start button. While it might not have as many bells and whistles as the more expensive options, the EGO Power + Peak snow blower has everything we needed to clear away both light and heavy snow with no clogging, slipping, or dead batteries.

Price at time of publish: $649

Power source: Battery | Weight: 60 pounds | Size: 45 x 35 x 22 inches| Throw distance: 35 feet | Ideal Snow Depth: Up to 8 inches

AE Outdoor Power

Easily clears a path over two feet wide in seconds

Choke and electric start options

Great extra features like LED headlights and auger-control grips

Very large machine might be hard for some to store

Heavy-duty snow piles were no match for this tough snow blower. The gas-powered machine easily cut through tall end-of-driveway snow piles, and though the machine itself is quite heavy, the self-propelling feature made it feel light and easy to maneuver, even around tight turns. The Ariens Deluxe machine clears a 28-inch wide path through the snow so that you can get the job done faster and waste less time freezing in the process.

We tried out both the electric start and choke-start options on this snow blower and found that both turned the machine on quickly and easily. The electric-start option might come in handy during colder temperatures because it doesn't require the tugging of a choke start. The machine's shoot has a handy lever on the side that made it easy to direct the snow away from our path, and it comes with an ice scraper to remove any possible clogs in the machine (though we didn't experience any in our tests).

Another handy feature that comes with this deluxe snow blower is an auger-control option on the handle grips that allows you to keep the self-propelling function going without the auger, so that you can easily glide over areas that you’ve already plowed. This machine also comes with LED headlights, so you can feel safe plowing away both night and day.

Because it has the capability to clear 28-inch paths at a time (as opposed to our top pick's 24-inch clearing abilities), this machine is bigger than most others that we tried. This can be a really good thing if you have a lot of space to clear, but it might make storage difficult if you’re short on garage or shed space. Overall, this machine was easy to set up and use, and we recommend it to anyone who wants a machine that can easily tackle big jobs with minimal effort.

Price at time of publish: $1,699

Power source: Battery | Size: 45 x 30 x59 inches | Throw distance: 55 feet | Ideal Snow Depth: Up to 14 inches

The Home Depot

Very easy to maneuver with steering assist

Multiple speed options

Tires have great tread and don't slip

Takes a bit of time (and some tools) to assemble

One of the trickiest parts of clearing snow from a driveway is maneuvering the snow blower machine. While they make it easier and faster to clear the road and get you on your way, they’re also much larger and more cumbersome than a shovel. But the Cub Cadet 2x snow blower was shockingly simple to maneuver thanks to steering assist, and the multiple speed options allowed us to plow through varied thicknesses of snow with no trouble. It turned on a dime with barely any effort on our part.

We tested this machine through 7 inches of powdery snow on a -5 degree day and had no trouble turning it on with the helpful electric start. The choke was easy to adjust, and the tires had plenty of grip on ice, slush, and snow and never slipped. Even on a day with thicker, wetter snow, we had no trouble guiding this machine to clear it all without needing to adjust anything.

This machine came mostly assembled, but the tube frame that all the controls are mounted onto needed to be unfolded and levered into place, and then secured with bolts. Some of the control wires that run from the handles to the various systems had to be shifted around so that they didn't catch on anything. But through all of our tests, this machine never faltered.

Price at time of publish: $1,299

Power source: Gas | Weight: 227 pounds | Size: 35 x 28 x 48.5 inches | Throw distance: 40 feet | Ideal Snow Depth: Up to 12 inches

Walmart

Rechargeable batteries mean no gas, fumes, or smell

Batteries held up through our 45-minute test

Took a bit of adjusting to make it work on different surfaces

Rechargeable batteries are to thank for the Ego Cordless 2-Stage Snow Blower's power — which means no gas, no fumes, and no smell. This model is more expensive than the other Ego cordless snow blower that we tested, but for good reason — it can handle 10 more inches of snow than the cheaper model. The batteries lasted through our 45 minutes of testing without needing a recharge. We were able to successfully clear a 10-foot wide one-car driveway and 35 yards of hilly sidewalk with this snow blower in about 40 minutes.

Our one complaint with this two-stage snow blower was the manual adjustment required to position the skid shoes (the plastic shims that govern how far the snow-sucking mechanism is lifted from the pavement). The sidewalk that we tested this machine on was uneven, and this required us to go back and adjust the skid shoes a few times so that it would remove enough snow without dragging on the pavement. Once we were able to adjust the skid shoes to the sweet spot for our surface, this snow blower was easy to maneuver and turn.

Price at time of publish: $1,548

Power source: Battery | Weight: 150 pounds | Size: 45 x 26 x 49 inches | Throw distance: 50 feet | Ideal Snow Depth: Up to 8 inches

Traditionally, snow blowers (much like lawn mowers) relied on gas and oil as the sole source of power. Nowadays, you can also find a handful of electric-powered options on the market. Both gas and electric snow blowers have their own pros and cons: gas-powered snow blowers are often more powerful than their electric counterparts but also give off fumes that can ultimately smell bad and negatively affect the environment. While electric snow blowers are more eco-friendly, SIMA educational director Cheryl Higley tells us they’re only recommended for light, fluffy snow because they’re less durable than their gas-powered counterparts.

While snow blowers can be used on concrete and asphalt driveways without worry, Higley says gravel driveways are a different story. "If you're clearing a gravel driveway, you will need to choose a two-stage blower," Higley says. "The paddles on electric and one-stage blowers make contact with the surface, so you risk throwing rocks and gravel with these machines." Our top pick for a two-stage blower is the Ariens Classic 24-inch 2-Stage Snow Blower.

The right snow blower for you is highly dependent on the climate that you live in — whether you get lots of snow or just a sprinkling (or if the snow tends to be moist and dense or light and powdery). If you live in a climate that tends to get a lot of sun and snow during the winter (such as Colorado), you should keep in mind that melted snow that freezes over can turn into icy sludge that might require a tougher machine. Each snow blower is rated for different depths and types of snow, so it's important to keep that in mind when choosing the right machine for your local climate.

We tested the best snow blowers on the market to narrow it down to the five best of the best. We rated each on design, performance, ease of use, value, and safety.

We began our tests by removing the snow blowers from their boxes and thoroughly reading any included instructions and safety information. Using a stopwatch, we timed how long it took to assemble the snow blower. Once the snow blowers were charged or filled with gas, we waited for a snow day to put them to the test on our driveways and sidewalks. We started our stopwatches again and timed how long the snow blower took to clear each area, then wrote notes on the ease of use, maneuverability, and overall performance of each.

Yes! While not all snow blowers work well on heavy snow, many machines are created to handle heavy, wet, or deep snow. For that kind of snow, Higley recommends going with a gas-powered snow blower because they "have the engine power to clear heavier accumulations of snow." We recommend our top pick, the Ariens Classic 24-inch Gas Snow Blower, for all types of snow accumulation.

There are a few different varieties of snow blowers, including gas-powered, electric-powered, single-stage, and double-stage machines. Gas and electric-powered snow blowers are pretty self-explanatory, but single- and double-stage snow blowers take a bit of explanation. Single-stage snow blowers use an auger to both pick up and propel the snow out of your path. They usually can't handle quite as much snow as double-stage machines. Double-stage snow blowers use an auger to pick up the snow and a separate fan-like mechanism to throw the snow away from your path. Double-stage machines can typically throw the snow further than single-stage machines.

While most double-stage snow blowers are in the $1000-$1,700 range, you can find less expensive singe-stage models for around $600, including our pick for the best budget snow blower, the EGO Power+ Peak Power 21-inch Snow Blower Kit.

Cai Cramer is a commerce writer who covers the beauty, fashion, health, and lifestyle spaces. To compile this article, she consulted our testers for their opinions of a range of slow blowers, considering design, ease of use, performance, and safety. While researching snow blowers, we spoke with Cheryl Higley, director of education at the Snow and Ice Management Association.

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