Single-Stage Snow Blowers

A single-stage snow blower does everything with one spinning auger: it scoops the snow off the surface and throws it out of the chute in the same motion. That makes it lighter, cheaper, narrower and far easier to store than anything with a second stage, and for most Canadian suburban driveways it is genuinely all the machine you need.

The auger is rubber tipped and touches the ground, which is what gives these machines their best trait: they scrape down to bare pavement instead of leaving a packed layer for the next storm to build on. It is also their hard limit. On gravel, on dirt, or over an interlock driveway with loose sand, a contacting auger picks up whatever it touches and fires it out of the chute. Single-stage machines belong on asphalt and concrete.

Depth is the other boundary. Most single-stage machines are rated to roughly twenty centimetres, and the honest version is that they will move more than that if you take half width passes and accept a slower job. What they will not do is chew through the compacted ridge a plough leaves across the end of the drive. If you get ploughed in regularly, that one strip is the argument for a bigger machine.

The range below covers corded, cordless and small gas single-stage machines from twelve to about twenty-four inches. Match clearing width to your driveway and your storage space, not to the biggest number available. If your driveway is gravel or your snowfall is consistently deep, read the snow blower buying guides and then compare two-stage snow blowers. For steps, decks and narrow walks a snow shovel or powered shovel is often the faster tool. Take the weight seriously if you are lifting one in and out of a car boot or up basement steps, and see the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety for safe lifting technique.