Hi John, What you are seeing is actually part of the design of the snowblower. High-capacity machines like this one (and the Toro Power Max HD) move a LOT of snow into the impeller. If they push too much snow in there they are designed to “off-load” the snow back into the auger housing. Other brands that don’t have this feature continue to push snow into the impeller causing the engine to bog down to the point where it won’t throw snow very far, stall the engine, or plug the chute.
Being able to offload the impeller allows the snowblower’s engine to stay at a higher RPM to throw snow farther – even heavy/wet stuff.
– Ariens Deluxe, Platinum and Pro snowblowers offload the snow to the left and straight out the front – usually back into the path that has not been cleared yet.
– Toro’s Power Max HD offloads the snow to the right and then down toward the middle in front of the impeller. Toro’s ACS or anti-clog system is patented but Ariens has found a way to do the same thing.
– Cub Cadets 3X snowthrowers don’t offload the snow. They use brute horsepower to ram the snow into the impeller with the “accelerator” and “hope” it doesn’t plug. If too much snow gets in their system the engine either stalls, the snowblower plugs, or it breaks the shear pins on the accelerator.
– Husqvarna, Honda most other older snowblower designs just don’t have enough capacity to put that much snow into the impeller. That’s why if you watch videos of them – they always throw a long way – but in a race across a parking lot, the Toro and Ariens beats them every time.

Hi MrFreeze, You use a small metal box like this one https://amzn.to/3GhpyAG. Mount it on the front of the handlebars under the dash. Use two angle brackets on each side to keep it level. Or you could mount it where the clearing tool is up on the front auger housing – but I’d go with a box that has a weather seal up there. If you mount it on the auger housing be sure to use fender washers to keep the box from falling apart because there is a lot more vibration up there.

Perfect. Thanks again for your help!

Hi Tom, The Snowmaster uses a scraper bar like the 2-stage machines – and it’s a plastic floating scraper. That means it will clear new snow down to the pavement and ride over cracks well but it will NOT clear snow that has been walked on or driven on.

So I suggest a single stage 721 E or 821 QZE instead. These will easily handle snow up to 10 inches and clean right down to the pavement. You can clean walked on snow because the front paddle will touch the ground by just lifting up on the handle a little bit. The 821 will be just as fast as the Snowmaster and throw snow 30 feet or more if needed.

Thanks for your many informative articles. Much appreciated service and knowledge!

My question: I am interested in the Toro Snowmaster but concerned about how well it will clean down to the pavement. Enough that I don’t need to worry about ice forming (i.e. I can skip salt)? Or will there be a small layer of snow left behind?

I’m located in the Chicago suburbs. My driveway is not especially long but I’m responsible for quite a long stretch of sidewalk.

Hi Scott, The Deluxe 24 will get the job done but I would prefer that you get the Platinum 24 SHO. It will get the job done much faster for you. The Deluxe 24 is designed to handle 40-80 inches well – and yes it will handle more than 80 inches but the Platinum is specifically designed to handle the over 80-inch averages. It has a lot more power and a high output impeller that won’t slow you down. Yes, Ariens like everyone else is having a lot of problems getting all the parts needed to ship all their snowblowers this year. But they are working as hard as they can to get them assembled and shipped. I suggest talking to your local Ariens dealer and asking if he has any info on when he may get the Platinum 24.

You classify this in the “Won’t Clog On Heavy/Wet Snow, Good for areas of the country that get 30-120 inches of snow a year!” category.

I wanted to get something with a little greater capacity, but stock seems low everywhere. Do you think this would do the job for us?

Thanks