Hi Brian, The SnowJoe uses a rubber paddle – just like a gas-powered single stage so it will grind off driven on snow. It works better than the Toro or EGO for cleaning up snow that’s frozen the next day.
The Toro and EGO use a plastic scraper to clean down to the pavement but the Toro works a lot better because the high-speed metal auger throws the snow farther, handles wet slop better, and “sort of” assists to pull the snowthrower along.
I actually don’t recommend the EGO at all. It’s just a cheap, plastic paddle snowthrower that uses EGO batteries. (AND you have to have two batteries installed for it to work as advertised)

I don’t want to hijack an electric thrower thread, so I’ll post my question about the Ariens in a separate comment. Thanks

Hi Corey, I normally recommend a 2-stage gas for the Philly area because most homeowners tell me they get drifts deeper than 10 inches. But if you live in the city and the snowplows don’t leave piles in front of your driveway a single stage could work. Since you want a single stage I’ll give you three choices.

1. My first choice is the Toro Power Clear 721 E 21 in. 212 cc Single-Stage Self Propelled Electric Start Gas Snow Blower. It doesn’t clog on heavy/ slushy snow and it throws the snow farther than the cordless electrics. It will clean driven on snow down to the pavement and it can chew through the frozen snow.
2. The Toro Power Clear 21 in. 60-Volt Lithium-Ion Brushless Cordless Electric Snow Blower with 7.5 Ah Battery/Charger Included will handle wet slushy snow but it won’t clear down to the pavement.
3. The Snow Joe 21 in. 100-Volt Brushless Lithium-iON Single-Stage Cordless Electric Snow Blower Kit with 5.0 Ah Battery + Charger is as close to a gas powered single stage as you can get right now. It will clear down to the pavement and chew through the frozen snow. It has a run time of about 30 minutes per charge so you might consider two batteries if you have a larger area to clear.

I don’t recommend the Snow Joe 24 in. 80-Volt 5.0 Ah Cordless 2-Stage Electric Snow Blower unless you have a very small area to clear and you don’t care how long it takes you to do it. It is agonizingly slow. It has less run time than the Toro or Snow Joe single stage above, and it won’t handle wet/slushy snow very well at all.

Hi Edward, The Toro has a scraper underneath so it cleans snow right down to the pavement. The scraper is easily replaceable if it wears out.

Hi Scott, I’m a little partial to the Toro because the battery also fits the best self-propelled cordless mower on the market and a bunch of other yard tools Toro is coming out with next spring. I haven’t had the chance to try out the SunJoe/SnowJoe mower yet to see if that’s also a good second reason to buy the Snow Joe.

I just purchased the Ryobi 21 in. 40-Volt Brushless Cordless Electric Snow Blower with Two 5.0 Ah Batteries and Charger Included to compare a “less expensive” cordless to the Toro and Snow Joe. With the two 5AH, 40 volt batteries I can tell I’m going to get about 40 minutes total run time and then it will take 5 hours to charge. It won’t clean driven on snow and it won’t throw snow very far.

The Toro will clear snow down to the pavement and throw it a long way but since the paddles won’t touch the ground it won’t scrape off driven on snow. I have a square point shovel that I use if I really want that packed down snow cleaned off.

So if you don’t want to do the shovel work I have to suggest the Snow Joe for you. It has the rubber paddles and you can lift up on the handles to “grind” that driven on snow off the pavement like a gas-powered single stage.

Hi Paul, The 1800 Corded is a toy. It will only throw snow a few feet and even less than that if the snow is wet. Toro claims the 60 volt cordless will throw snow as far as their single-stage gas snow throwers (up to 35 feet) but I won’t be able to test it until we get snow. I’m pretty positive about the cordless though because the auger spins really, really fast.
If you want to go with a 2-stage don’t buy a cheap one. They won’t throw snow any better than the Toro 60 volt cordless. I suggest the Toro 824. (Home Depot Link). It’s a good snow blower and will throw your snow were you want it. It’s built to last you a very long time.

Hi Byran, Thank you for commenting. I’m glad you like the EGO. I spent some time last week with the EGO engineer in charge of the snowblower. He stated that yes, you don’t HAVE to use two batteries but the snowblower was designed for two batteries and works best if you have two batteries in it. Why? When you are ramming the snowblower into that snowplow drift or other heavy snow one battery does not provide enough current for the motor to run at it’s peak power. The two batteries, wired in parallel, give the motor the power it needs. Running one battery may also cause the battery to overheat and shut down because of thermal overload.
Right now there are more YouTube videos from owners complaining about how hard it is to use on a sloped driveway, snowplow drifts and sidewalks with packed down snow than there are videos of how great it is. I’ll get a chance to use it side-by-side with the other two models listed in this article this winter and I’ll gladly revise the article if the snowblower works better than what I’ve seen from other users so far.