I’m going to be honest with you. I really don’t know the first thing about snowblowers. What I do know is that it’s winter, I live in the Northeast, and ignorance, blissful as it may be, isn’t going to clear the snow off my 200ft. long driveway.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’ve used snowblowers, a few of them actually. In fact I’ve used the enough to know that there were probably a couple of features I couldn’t live without, and a couple of features I could live my whole life without caring about, but that didn’t mean I had a clue what to buy. So snowblower shopping I went.

After a quick trip to my local Lowe’s, and then Home Depot it was pretty clear that I wasn’t going to be satisfied with any home center grade blower. Most of the superstore stuff either has a plastic chute, a turn crank for the chute, or a fully manually (what I’m told is called a) deflector control. I didn’t have to know what it was called to want no part of a manual one. That’s not how Tony rolls.  Also, Tony likes to speak of himself in the 3rd person when discussing manly things like snowblowers.

Living in the Northeast has comes with the occasional unexpected upside. In this particular case I’m referring to the substantial number of farm and garden type supply stores. Chainsaws, lawnmowers, snowblowers, tractors; you name it, I can get it – all without having to leave the county.

I’ll spare you the details of how I ended up buying where I did, and instead just tell you that my choice came down to a couple of Ariens, and one beautiful $3000 little red Honda. The Ariens were priced between $1100 & $1500. As much as I loved the Honda and its badass tank-treads, I like having another $1500 too, and $1500 more is what it would have cost me to get the Honda, so Ariens it was.

The real choice came down to two models (the 1130 DLE and the 1027 LE). The 3 differences between them (at least the differences I care about) are size (30″ instead of 27″), Full-time Traction Control instead of a finger tip release, and heated hand warmers vs. no heated hand warmers. Strangely enough, I was wasn’t concerned about horsepower, at least no nearly as much as I was about the hand warmers. Figuring that in a few years I’d probably forget about the extra $300 while being enamored by my warm hands, I went for the bigger more expensive model, the 1130 DLE (click for the full specs).

It’s been a brutal winter thus far here in the Northeast, which means my Ariens has seen a lot more use than I originally anticipated. It’s done an admirable job thus far. I can honestly say it has performed equally as well in both dry powdery snow, and the heavy wet stuff. It’s got the power to throw snow as far as you’d ever need to, but the fully automatic chute and deflector controls offer enough precision that you won’t have any good excuse for throwing it where it shouldn’t be (like in your neighbor’s driveway, or your own garage). All things considered, it’s a fantastic machine.

With most purchases the bottom line often comes down to “If I had it to do over again, would I make the same decision”. With the 1130 DLE, the best I can say is maybe. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another Ariens (though if I had a $1500 burning a hole in my pocket, I’d probably buy the Honda). In hindsight I might consider another model. The 1130 DLE is a big, heavy, machine. And while I love the 30″ clearing width, my strong, but petite wife really struggles to control it. I might pass on the hand warmers too. They’re great in moderation, but left on too long, they become less of a warmer, and more of a cooker. This isn’t a huge deal as you can flip the warmer on and off as needed, but a comfortable temperature isn’t easily maintainable.

Ariens makes a great product and they definitely deserve consideration when you’re ready to make make your next snow blower purchase. My advice though, know exactly what features you want, and just as importantly, know who you might want to snow blow your driveway with it. Even with the traction control system, the size of the Ariens 1130 DLE means I’m the only one who is going to be using it.

The Ariens 1130 DLE has an estimated retail price of $1499 and is avialable at an Ariens dealer near you.