My ideal tool for snow removal is mother nature melting it naturally. Of course here a big snow is 8" and usually gone in a day or three. I have lived in snow country temporarily with Grand Island, NY being the worst for major snow and sure would have loved to just have a powered snow blower for the short driveway but since I was only there for one winter, not practical for that. I lived in Northern Alberta Canada for 5 years and only once did I have to hire a machine to remove snow from my short driveway. I came back from Christmas holidays in Houston Texas and found waist deep snow in the drive, no way to shovel it out and no where to put it. A Bobcat was hired to push it to each side of the driveway and it took till end of May for all of it to melt. Most of the time we got light powder about 4" max that I could clear in 15 minutes with a snow shovel.