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

I'm kicking off my fourth season with my Ariens ST11528DLE snowblower. For years I put up with an inexpensive MTD which had something or other falling apart nearly every time I used it, all the while promising myself that next time I'd spend more money and get a quality machine. I heard an

awful lot of people saying that apart from the super expensive Hondas, the Ariens were the best. So when the time came I shelled out nearly $2500 for this 11.5 HP, 28" Ariens "Pro" model that I was sure would be like going from a Chevette to a Rolls Royce. I couldn't have been more wrong .

First off I will say that the thing does throw the snow a long ways compared to my old MTD. However in three full seasons and the first two storms of this season I've had the following problems with this expensive piece of crap: the metal engine cowling split apart from vibration and had to be replaced only a few weeks after I bought it. The replacement did the same thing so I got that one welded and reinforced. The headlight quit working and the wiring harness had to be replaced. Both of the engagament levers have split open at their pivot points and had to be welded. The tension spring on the wheel engagement cable broke. As if all of this isn't enough on a practically new machine, yesterday the electric starter wouldn't engage and I thought it must be frozen up. On closer inspection the starter has broken clear of the engine, and the ear with the bolt hole has broken off one side of the starter and the bolt is gone altogether. The starter body is just sort of hanging loosely by one bolt. Obviously this is off warranty by now and it looks like a costly repair.

Besides being extremely frustraing I find this sad. Ariens has had a very solid reputation and now it is clear that their priorirty has shifted from maintaining that reputation to cutting their production cost by using cheap materials and parts. For the unsuspecting buyer the feeling of pride of ownership is replaced by disappointment and hostility, and understandably so. If Ariens loses just one sale because of this product review my time in writing it will be made worthwhile.

What bothers me the most about your ordeal is Arien's lack of responsiveness.  I started buying Ariens products in the mid 1980's and have owned and still own a lot of their products...lawnmowers, both front and rear tine rototillers, sno-thro's, etc.   For the first twenty years the company seriously stood behind their products.  I remember calling them to ask where I could buy a can of Ariens orange spray paint becuase the paint was peeling off the top of the deck of my Ariens lawn mower.  They said that what I described sounded like the metal deck wasn't completely cleaned of stamping oils before it was painted.  They explained that spray painting it wouldn't give the right look so they authorized a dealer to put a brand new deck on it free of charge even though it wasn't covered by warranty.   Ariens became my outdoor power equipment company because of that, but now, it's all changed.  They're not the same company.  When I called them about an engine issue I was having with my two month old 2007 Ariens 11.5hp 28" LE snow thrower they weren't interested in talking to me at all.  My dealer just closed and minimally my expectation was that they would refer me to another authorized dealer but I just got the bum's rush. 

Sadly there are no true North American OPE manufacturers, who care about their reputation or product left anymore.   Ariens sold out to the mass merchandisers.  Snapper sold out to Simplicity, who in turn sold out to Briggs, who are rapidly selling out to China.  John Deere just buys Simplicities/Snappers and paints them green. Toro outsources their residential equipment manufacturing to MTD and sells them at Home Depot.   Lawnboy, Gilson, Jacobson...all gone.   I miss the days when we had real choices...today we only think that we do. 

We, as consumers are our own wost enemy when it comes to the slide in quality of much of our mass produced goods.  The reason?  We buy it!

There are still some decently built domestic machines available if we want to pay for them.  Airens and Simplicity Pro serices, and Toros high end machines are still well built. 

Wise consumers will do their homework then spend the extra bucks to get a premium machine.  However, there are not a lot of wise consumers.  Most people who buy a snow blower don't know what they're buying nor what is actually available to them.   From my personal experience, the local dealerships don't do much to keep consumers coming to their show rooms.  Their prices are usually MSRP or higher and they don't deal.  In addition to the initial sticker shock, parts and labour pricing is virtually criminal.   It's particularly bad in this town because Ariens and Toro are sold by the same gouger.  So, if you want to be left with a dime in your pocket, you're pretty much forced to go to the big box stores and buy a watered down version of what you really want.  Fortunately, the local Simplicity dealer isn't as bad for initial price of the machine but is just as guilty when it comes to parts and labour. 

There are a lot of savvy people on this site who are re-powering/refurbishing old Ariens, Simplicity and Toro products that were in decent condition.  I'd be willing to bet that those old machines will do the job as well, be less problematic and much more durable than most of the new offerings available today.  I know that if I encounter any problems with my machine, I'll do the same.           

borat wrote:

My opinion is that with any snow blower, you must be prepared to do your own maintenance and repair.

Although in theory you can go to a good dealer, the reality is that when it breaks, it will break in the middle of a storm, and if you're counting on a dealer driving out fixing it to get you going, then I'm assuming the dealer is your next door neighbor.

Buy a good machine, do the maintenance and learn how to work on it. None of it is that hard, nor does it require extraordinary tools. Mainly common sense and a mail order supplier for parts.

Don't be like my neighbor who had a good MTD track machine and a good John Deere tractor and basically gave them away because "they just stopped working". No joke, bartered about conservatively $5,000 worth of OPE and accessories for a $400 plumber bill. I almost cried when they told me last spring.

borat wrote:

And I guarantee you that I'll be right there with you.  I'm saving my father's old 7hp Snow Bird circa 1980.   Talk about being built like a tank.  Cast Iron everything, grease fitting everywhere, and in 30 years has never needed a repair outside of normal maintenance.  I currently don't have the knowledge on small engines to be as competent as I'd like.  My most ambitious repair to date was changing the points and condenser on my Ariens front tine rototiller.  So a total re-power job may be over my head right now but I started taking an online small engine repair course to fix that.  It's not a money thing...I made my money and can easily afford to buy whatever toys I want to own.  I'm fearful that sounded like bragging but I didn't mean it that way.   I just wanted to make the point that even with significant resources I'm unwilling to pay for junk...no matter how fancy that junk may appear.  So manufacturers can keep on looking for ways to use plastic instead of steel, aluminum instead of cast iron, and engines that don't know what horsepower they are...and I will keep on refusing to buy their products.  Especially so for those manufacturers who forgot what customer service means.  

Paul7 wrote:

Generally a repower is easier than points and condensor job.  If the new engine has the same mounting pattern and shaft size/height you just unbolt the 4 bolts holding it down and drop the new one in.  Then all you have to do is move over the pulleys and such.  Much easier than tearing an engine apart to fiddle with it.

The problems occur when you use a different size/type engine and have to start moving things around, drilling new holes and making custom covers.

You might have to deal with the electrical for the safetys and kill switches, but most engines come with a kill switch already mounted on them.  I just disconnected everything on mine and use the pre-mounted engine ones.  I probably should hook everything back into the old switch on the handlebars for safety reasons, but I think I'll take my chances and wait.

Paul7 wrote:
We pretty much share the same circumstances and values.   I've been buying used stuff over the last year or so.   Mostly small two cycle equipment in decent shape, needing a little work.  As you said, not because I cannot afford new stuff, but for reasons you stated above.  I also enjoy buying someone else' "junk" and turning it back into useful OPE which I will use myself or just give it to someone who needs it.  I also appreciate the fact that I don't pay HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) on any of it either. 

Getting back to the OP, I suggest he make every effort to isolate the source of vibration before it causes serious damage to the chassis.   Otherwise, it won't be suitable to re-power.

Shryp wrote:
Shryp, that's good to know.  Frankly the only reason I was able to get my engine back together was because I took pictures with a digital camera every step of the way.  It was a big job for me.  I wasn't getting spark because spiders got into the engine and the points were covered with those big white sticky spider cocoons. 

Borat I just bought a well used 1987 John Deere SX75 rear engine rider and I'm refurbishing it back to it's shiny showroom glory...literally down to the decals.  Back in 1987 I really wanted one but was I barely making ends meet and couldn't afford it.  So 24 years later I'm going to have my little rider.  The irony is that it will end up costing me more than the original sticker price when it's all said and done. 

Regarding the vibration I do know that the Tecumseh 13hp OHV engine that Ariens used was counter-balanced and should be the smoothest engine in their whole product line.  Is it possible that the counter-balance is out of whack. 

Just to update my ongoing problems with my Ariens Pro, I spent most of the morning at the dealership and ended up buying a new starter which cost me with taxes, over $170.  I asked the dealer if he'd seen this before and he said it happens quite often and described it as one their weaknesses. ( not sure if he meant a weakness of Ariens in particular, or a weakness of the Tecumseh starters)  They were very busy and while I was waiting I spoke with several guys who were also waiting for service and when I told one guy about how both of the engagement levers had broken and had to be welded he said, " oh don't talk to me about the levers! I've got an Ariens and the levers are broken half the time" .  So it looks like the problems I've had are no great rarity with these machines. I stand by what I believed to be true all along: The older machines that they built their reputation on were solidly built and pretty much reliable. Now, even if you pay the premium price for a " Pro " model like I did, what you get is a machine that has been seriously compromised by corner cutting.  The engagement levers are flimsy and that's why they break. If they were a few thousandths thicker there wouldn't be a problem with them but obviously they'd cost a few cents more to make. Same goes for the engine cowling part that cracked open.

There is another general problem common to all of the North American blowers I've seen and that is a disconnect between the chassis manufacturer and engine manufacturer.  If you buy a Honda blower it is mounted with a Honda engine...same story with Yamaha. To me it makes a lot of sense for the manufacturer to have quality control over every part of the machine they are producing. With Tecemseh out of the picture is there any other choice of engine besides Briggs&Stratten on any of the American or Canadian made machines?  The dealer was helping another guy load a new Simplicity on his truck and got me to translate a warning for the guy not to pull too hard on the recoil starter when the B&S engine is cold. Apparently they're having trouble with the new 'plastic' assembly breaking. More corner cutting.

I can live with paying a bit more in order to have good quality, after all, material cost have gone up and labor costs rise. But what we see all the time now is that prices go way up while quality goes way down. That I have a big problem with.

billywhiskers wrote:
I can't hep but comment again as this is a pet peeve of mine.  I feel that anytime a manufacturer labels a product "Pro" it should be just that...made to be used professionally.  For a snow blower that means by someone who clears snow for a living and runs his/her equipment all day long.  And it should be made to take abuse without breaking.  But no...the manufacturers simply put a "Pro" or "Industrial" or"Commercial" label on a machine that's not much different from a "homeowners" model and jack up the price.

There was a time when that distinction was meaningful.  I own an Ariens LM 21S lawn mowers and an Ariens Pro 21" mower.  The difference between them is substantial.  Steel wheels instead of nylon, heavier gauge steel components, grease fittings everywhere, a Robins engine with oil filter instead of a Briggs, etc.  The "Pro" model mower costs more but was made to last.  Not so with the Ariens "Pro" snow blowers...or those levers would be made out of thicker steel.

Regarding your question of motor alternatives to Briggs I would think that Kawasaki or Subaru would be acceptable options.

That just bites.  When I purchased my machine the difference between the PRO and the LE was Cast iron gear case, OHV engine , 12 volt car type electric start, and much much beefier tires and wheels.  If I had your machine I would get it running good and sell it.  Take the hit and buy another machine after reading touching and talking.  Buy something you will be happy about.   It sucks to take a big hit but sometimes its better to loose a little cash and be happy rather than curse and yell everytime you use it.  Anger will shorten your life.  LIFE IS GOOD so enjoy it while we can