I purchased an EGO snow blower since I really liked their lawn care products and wanted to downsize from a 2-stage model. I did some research but like other big purchases now that I have it in hand and looked it over I have some concerns even though I'm only a little bit into my 90 day return window.
- Paddle design - never thought to research the paddle design of the EGO before my purchase but looking at it in the garage maybe I should have. Before I bought a 2-stage a fcouple years back I had a Toro CCR2000. It had the curved paddle design. The paddles on the Toro were designed to touch the pavement if you lifted a bit on the handle. The paddles rubbing the pavement also propelled the blower (these paddles lasted 8-years). After snow blowing I could even see faint swirl marks from the paddles on the pavement. I see on the EGO the paddles seem to be designed to never touch the pavement. Even when I tilt it forward the paddles are a good 3/4" off the pavement.
- Scraper Bar - before purchase I did see a few complaints about the scraper bar but thought this was an easy part for EGO to redesign. But, now that I looked at the machine due to (1) above I'm thinking the EGO scraper is being asked to do way too much work. The scraper bar on most single stage blowers is to protect the metal edge at the rear of the machine. Since the EGO paddles don't scrape the pavement the scraper bar does this and thus the leading edge is very sharp/pointy and looks to be prone to aggressive wear.
- Propelling Assist - since the paddles don't actually touch the pavement I'm concerned more human power will be required to move this machine along as compared to a paddle system that does like my old Toro.
- Metal Sidewall Wear - I read here some put edging on the sidewalls to prevent damage to them. After looking at my EGO since the paddles don't touch the pavement after tilting it forward the next thing to touch the pavement after the scraper is the sidewalls.