Ariens is a good quality brand and the price of the units reflect that. If
you are thinking about passing it on to your kids, by all means buy one.
However keep in mind that like most other brands it uses the same Tecumseh
engine. So in reality you are paying premium for the frame. If you have
engine problems (most likely problem in almost all brands as it ages), you
are in no better shape!

Since you do not have a long driveway, you could buy a unit from Sears
around $600 to $700 compared to about $1200 for Ariens. The engine most
likely will be the same.

I have a Sears unit (10 years old) and with annual maintenance, the
performance has been good for a 40 x 20 driveway in the North East.
wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello Group,

As the subject states, I am in need a snowblower. I am hoping that now
is a good time to buy one. I have discovered that Ariens seems like a
very good buy for dependability and quality. ALL the reviews that I
read were positive which almost had me sold right then until I realized
that I was reading Ariens reviews posted at the Ariens website. I did
some searching for more independent, unbiased user reviews and found a
handful of others, 95% of which were positive. The one thing that is
keeping my interest is, many of the independent owner reviews mention
that these people have had their Ariens snowblowers for ten or fifteen
years. One even claimed he had his for 30+ years and only bought a new
one because he gave the old one away to his son. So it seems that
these snowblowers are quality machines. The prices reflect that but I
am willing to pay for quality that is this good.

My first question is: How many of you out there have an Ariens model?
Could you give my your thoughts, opinions or relate your experiences
with this make to me? Also any comparisons that you might have with
other makes that you have used.

I guess that I should also mention that I live in the Great Lakes area.
We get a lot of lake effect snow and quite a bit of drifting from time
to time. I don't have a lot of property (I live in city limits). My
[gravel] driveway is about two car-lengths long and about 3 1/2
car-widths wide. I have to make a path from the back of the house to
the garage, from the back of the house to the front of the house, (both
paths are grass not concrete sidewalks) and the front walkways and
sidewalks.

So please, tell me what you think.


Thanks,

-Lydokane-