Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

Preface: I've have has a HS520. Due to space contraints, etc - I'm not looking at 2 stage. Single stage for the most part is a perfect fit just short of....living on the right side and the plows only plow to the right so I cam constantly getting plowed in... Throw is fine already on the HS520. I was only curios does the 421/221 or even any current models on the market may have a bit more bite on the EOD/overnight plowed snow...

The toro units with the 2 cycle R*Tek easily have the most power.

I'm not suggesting that it is THE most powerful single stage out there, but I must say that I was surprised to see that the Troy-Bilt Squall 2100 (21" wide 10" high intake) single stage sports a 208cc engine.  That is the same engine that they use on their 26" dual stage machines!  I'm sure there are other MTD configurations of this same setup.  A co-worker of mine purchased this unit for $399 at the blue big-box store a couple weeks ago and I must admit, I'm anxious to see what kind of performance he gets out of that setup.  I'm sure there are better machines out there like the Toros, but I thought that this seemed to be a fairly high engine-to-bucket ratio.

Yeah,  I'm too is interested to see how these new Briggs OHV 4 stroke engines do on single stage snowblowers.

chefwong wrote:
I think how well the single snowblower bite into EOD depends on how stiff the rubber paddles as much as the horsepower.  Your current HS520 has a stiff center paddle but it is a little down on power, IMHO.  It throws snows well as long as you don't over feed it and slow down the auger too much.

There's really no magic to EOD.  You need stiff metal augers moving at slower rotations of the 2 stage snowblower to break apart that dense snow.  Open helical augers are good at this without clogging.  Rubber paddles can only do so much.  You can have a lot of hp on a single stage but that thing will just bounce and dance around violently.  Been there, done it.  Best thing to do is to soften up the snow with a shovel, or pony up the cash for a 24" to 26" 2-stage with the largest engine available for that class, and the most aggressive serrated auger.

I don't want to disappoint you, but single stage are good on many aspects but EOD with packed snow or higher than the bucket is always a challenge.  The best you can do is keep ahead of the game by going out snowblowing more often while the snow is fresh and uncompacted.

I hear ya....I was looking/considering the 2 stage due to EOD but the issue is space constaints. If it was not for that, i would have gone 2 stage in a heartbeat.

chefwong wrote:
Come to think of it, Toro attempted to tap into this market with the Snow Commander a few years ago, designing and producing a bad a** single stage snowblower.  You should see their rubber auger.  Impressive beefy hefty frame.  It was costly, expensive, and lost the maneuverability of a single stage.  It's hard to sell a $900 single stage 125 pound snowblower.

Superbuick can tell you about it.  He has actual hands on experience with it late last winter.

AA - read you past threads. Can't seem to figure out based on date but do you feel the *newer - later revisions* of the 520AS has comparable *uumph* compared to the 610... The current routine is to keep ontop whenever the plow comes around and then follow up right him as oftentimes, what get's plowed is the hardened snow or between that and the liquified stuff that just turns into Ice Bricks if you don't deal with it ....and overnight with no activity.

The Honda HS520 does not compare to the Honda HS621 or the Toro 221 at all in my book.  Both the 621 and the 221 have considerable power advantages over the 520, which uses a low-end, honda in name only GC series 4 stroke.  The 221's 2 cycle is 141ccs and known within the commercial lawn mowing industry to be the most powerful walk behind mower engine made (known as the lawn boy duraforce in those circles) and the HS621 uses a commercial grade true honda GX series motor.

I find the impeller design to be a little better on the Toro as well, but I wouldn't turn down a Honda HS621 were one to come my way.

I had a Toro Snow Commander last year (which also uses the 141cc R*Tek 2 stroke) and while it had plenty of power and was big, I found it a bit awkward to use when compared to the 221.  It didn't seem to offer any advantage other than 2 inches more width (who cares) and if anything was slightly less powerful-seeming than the 221 because it had to turn an extra paddle (3 as opposed to 2 on the 221).

The briggs model single stage (seems to be everyone other than toro and honda have bought and badge engineered this model for 2010/2011) looks promising, especially in the auger design, but I can't see that motor being more powerful than the R*Tek, especially when the 8.75 "gross torque" OHV briggs mower engines can't hold a candle to the Duraforce (I would know, I have both).

As far as the squall, no amount of power will help that thing until it gets a better auger design.  The auger like it has is inefficient and prone to clogging - in fact that design is primarily responsible for single stage snowblowers getting a bad name.

I had an MTD single stage with an auger that looks the same as the Squall 2100 I saw some pictures of and that thing clogged constantly.

On the other hand, it was free and was better than shoveling.

When I switched to my 1985 Toro 3521 2 stage blower last year the difference was like night and day.  I had 1 clog all year and that was due to
a loose auger belt.  In fact it was loose enough that it clogged because the impeller completely stopped.

Goes to show that there's more to snowblower performance than just a big motor.