It isn't even Thanksgiving yet and I've been able to put the Ariens 624 through 4 pretty good workouts here in Erie already. Overall, I have to say this is an excellent snow blower, I am very satisfied with its initial performance.
The 6 HP Tecumseh Snow King engine starts easily with 4 pushes of the primer and one pull. It is kept in an unheated attached garage, so it's not in a super cold area, but not a heated area. I have not been inclined to try the electric starter, and doubt I'll bother with it. I imagine it would be more necessary if the blower was kept in an unheated garage. The engine has good power and runs smoothly, although it has what I consider a noisy valve train, the OHV setup ticks more than comparable engines of other makes. All the snow I have been removing has been super-heavy wet stuff thus far. The engine will bog slightly when being pushed to its limits and bogs slightly with a small puff of black smoke from the exhaust when the auger is engaged. But short of that it just runs right along. I like the large capacity gas tank this blower has. After about 2 hours of total running, It's still on the original tank of gas. I have been informed by a reliable source that Tecumseh unfortunately will no longer be producing small engines in the USA, so the era of the good Snow Kings is coming to an end. Guess I'll just do my best to make this one last.
The blower is easy to control and operate, it's actually a lot of fun. Even with the very heavy snow, the wheels never spun and the chute never clogged. Some snow built up in the chute, but it did not hinder its operation at any point. To say it kicked azz with this snow is an understatement- I'll never shovel again! There are six forward speeds and 2 reverse. I did not go beyond second for the initial runs, as the snow was heavy and I wanted it to clear it completely, which it did. The speeds 3-6 are great for the light stuff or going back over areas while it's still snowing out. The reverse speeds, even second, are WAY too slow. I'm sure they do that for safety, but it's easier and much faster to just disengage the drive and pull the blower back. This blower is small and light enough that doing so is very simple.
They sell this nice 624 puppy at Home Depot, but I would not buy it there. My local Ariens dealer sold mine to me at the $799.00 Home Depot price, set up and tested the blower, gave me a crash training course, and would have delivered it if I needed that, but helped load it in my truck instead. 3 year factory warranty, the only snow blower manufacturer that has that now.
-Fordlords-
The 6 HP Tecumseh Snow King engine starts easily with 4 pushes of the primer and one pull. It is kept in an unheated attached garage, so it's not in a super cold area, but not a heated area. I have not been inclined to try the electric starter, and doubt I'll bother with it. I imagine it would be more necessary if the blower was kept in an unheated garage. The engine has good power and runs smoothly, although it has what I consider a noisy valve train, the OHV setup ticks more than comparable engines of other makes. All the snow I have been removing has been super-heavy wet stuff thus far. The engine will bog slightly when being pushed to its limits and bogs slightly with a small puff of black smoke from the exhaust when the auger is engaged. But short of that it just runs right along. I like the large capacity gas tank this blower has. After about 2 hours of total running, It's still on the original tank of gas. I have been informed by a reliable source that Tecumseh unfortunately will no longer be producing small engines in the USA, so the era of the good Snow Kings is coming to an end. Guess I'll just do my best to make this one last.
The blower is easy to control and operate, it's actually a lot of fun. Even with the very heavy snow, the wheels never spun and the chute never clogged. Some snow built up in the chute, but it did not hinder its operation at any point. To say it kicked azz with this snow is an understatement- I'll never shovel again! There are six forward speeds and 2 reverse. I did not go beyond second for the initial runs, as the snow was heavy and I wanted it to clear it completely, which it did. The speeds 3-6 are great for the light stuff or going back over areas while it's still snowing out. The reverse speeds, even second, are WAY too slow. I'm sure they do that for safety, but it's easier and much faster to just disengage the drive and pull the blower back. This blower is small and light enough that doing so is very simple.
They sell this nice 624 puppy at Home Depot, but I would not buy it there. My local Ariens dealer sold mine to me at the $799.00 Home Depot price, set up and tested the blower, gave me a crash training course, and would have delivered it if I needed that, but helped load it in my truck instead. 3 year factory warranty, the only snow blower manufacturer that has that now.
-Fordlords-
