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

Finally got some snow like RedOctobyr was saying, about 3" total. Finally got a chance to use the venerable Honda HS621 Single Stage and was not very impressed to be honest. I think I'll have to take a look at tightening the tension on the belt or getting a new belt altogether. It threw the snow but not as robust as I would have expected and got clogged at the base of the chute several times. The snow was very light and fluffy so I did not expect the issues I encountered. It has to be a stretched belt that warrants an adjustment or replacement. Any other thoughts or suggestions???

I think you're on the right track, it's either belt slip or low belt tension when bail is engaged that would cause clogging.  Check to make sure that the pulleys or belt are not coated with some kind of lubricant.  I've pushed my HS621 full bucket height into heavy snow and concrete mix at the EOD and never had clogging issues.  The engine will likely stall out under heavy load before clogging.  3" is light fluffy snow should not cause any clogging, in any machine.

When it would clog, could you tell if the paddles were still spinning? Was anything coming out at all, or still getting flung around up front? If the belt was slipping that badly, I'd expect that the paddles might have stalled out entirely, and maybe you'd be able to see some evidence of that? If they had definitely stopped, then you're definitely chasing a belt issue, and you can narrow down the possible clogging causes.

With the fluffy snow, there wouldn't have been much resistance against them. Could you try pulling the plug wire (or killing ignition, etc), hold the bail down with something, and try rotating the paddles by hand? Can you tell if they can turn without the engine turning over with them? I replaced the belt in my Ariens while getting it ready for action. It did have a belt tension adjustment using the idler pulley, which I had to shift quite a bit to snug it up to the spec in the manual. Just trying to think of ways you can check the belt without opening the machine, as removing the cover on mine was a bit of a pain. Don't know if the Hondas are the same way.

Edit- Another option for checking the belt- With the engine off, hold the bail down with something to engage the paddles (I like zip ties). Stick something (a piece of wood, whatever) into the paddles to jam them up so they can't turn. Now pull the cord, and see if the engine can turn with the paddles stuck. That would let you put more torque on the belt than you could by simply fighting the engine's compression as you turn the paddles by hand. Plus you can't somehow lose a finger

Thanks aa & Red. I'll check it today at some point when I have a chance. Going to be near a Honda dealer today so I may just stop in and get a new belt. I'd rather have one on hand when I remove the belt cover just in case it's needed. I actually meant to do this when I first got it but never got around to it. We're supposed to get up to 3" or so today so I'll be able to put it to the test when I'm done. I'll let you know how it goes.

If you like you can generously spray silicone lubricant inside the chute starting from the base to exit.  If the belt is in a really bad shape, the inside of the belt should be hard and very slippery with burnt black stuff.  I was a bit surprized to learn that it does not take too much engage/disengage cycles to beat up the belt.  Hopefully the belt will do the trick.

I got a new belt and replaced the old one which was well worn and stretched a bit. The old belt came off the pulleys very easy while the new one took some coaxing. It feels much more responsive than before so I'm sure that this was most likely the problem. I cleaned what I believe was the remnants of the old belt from the housing and gave everything the once over. I also did an oil change while I had it up on my bench just for good measures as I never got around to doing that either - I know, I should be ashamed of myself!  

We're getting about 3" or so of the light fluffy stuff this morning into the early afternoon so I'll give it a whirl and report back later today. This is the same type of snow we got the other day when I first used my new to me HS621 so it will be a comparable test.

If the old belt was very easy to come off, stretched belt very likely is the root cause of the clogging. I haven't had problems with it since I usually perform frequent maintenance and replace parts that seems questionable. When I last replaced the belt on the HS621, there were a lot of black dust, tell tale signs that the belts are wearing. Also, if you're running out of holes to adjust the belt tension, it's too stretched out and should be replaced. Also when adjusting the tension, too much will cause premature wear and stretch. I don't spray anything into the chute because I've never felt it needed it.

There was a bunch of fairy dust inside the belt housing so I'm sure it should work better. I also took up a little slack by adjusting the cable one notch down to tighten it up a bit. I did this after I tried it out and it still seemed a bit lackluster in the distance department. Going out now to give it another shot and see how much (hopefully) the distance performance improves.

I'm afraid the HS621 is the old school design where throughput was favored over distance.   On light fluffy snow, it doesn't throw very far.  However, the paddle design and the engine perform well under heavier wet snow.   It is most impressive moving a full bucket height of snow.  Although the auger doesn't pull itself forward very much, you have to push it to feed it snow.  :)

Well the new belt and some adjustments made a BIG difference! WOW is all I can say. After using the HS520 with GC engine I became slightly disillusioned with SS machines in general but that's all changed now. Once I got the HS621 dialed in properly (subject to change without notice) it was really fun to operate and did a great job on my +/- 130' driveway, garage apron area and EOD.

A few notes of interest: The HS621 seem to throw best when the chute is in the zero degree location, not quite as good to the left or the right but acceptable. I was getting a good 15' - 20' feet throwing distance straight on which was really cool. I realized that I had to change my usual course of attack that I would use with the 2 stage in order to get good full bucket, zero degree, straight on runs for it to work the best with the SS machine.

Once I got it figured out (and I'm still learning) how to manipulate this SS machine, it became quite easy and fun to operate. A slight lift to the bucket and you get pulled along nicely - too much of a lift and you're chasing the SOB. Not having to muscle around a 250 lb. 2 stage for less than 6" of snow is a lot less work than usual. I cannot wait to use this bad boy in some heavier snow because I think it's going to kick some serious A$$!!!

I might just have a new "go to" machine for anything less than 8" or 10" of white gold!