Craftsman  28 In 277cc* Dual-Stage Snowblower w/ EZ Steer

I bought this snowblower after I spent more time digging out my previous blower than actually blowing snow. Sears delivered it already assembled, which is a huge plus as I am a single woman living alone with limited assembly experience. We got between 4-5' total of snow this past winter, about a foot at a time. This blower moved all the snow fantastically - it didn't matter if the snow was dry and powdery or wet and heavy. It even blew the gravel from my driveway and smoothed out the muddy ruts previously in my driveway! (The snow had started to melt and we received more snow on top.) This blower has also chewed through a ridiculous amount of ice with no problems. I've never had to go over the second gear (there are 6) and use both reverse gears (there are 2). Overall, this was money WELL spent and I'd spend it again. I'm very pleased with my purchase and would highly recommend this blower to anyone!

Was not difficult to assemble from out of the box, just added fuel and it started up easily and ran smoothly. This is a very good snow blower, i have put around ten hours on it and really gave it a workout. We have a lot of snow this year, i cleared the snow away from my homes foundation and my yard at the lake, in many spots the snow was higher then the blower's inlet. This blower will move a lot of snow, especially if you have it in second gear the engine's governor kicks in and it goes to work. The easy steer is a nice option, the individual wheel brakes make it very easy to change directions. The only downside is that the chute control is under engineered, once you have the blower working and the chute is under load you have to stop and let the chute clear to take the pressure off of it to change the direction you want to throw the snow, not a huge problem in my eyes, other then that, up to this point this unit is a great buy at the sale price i picked it for.

I was pleased with the customer service I received from the authorized hometown Sears where I purchased this snowblower. I ordered it online and when I went to pick it up the snowblower, it was already put together. When we found that it would not fit in my vehicle, he took apart the shoot and placed the bolts etc. back where they went for easy reassembly. It was also filled with oil. As far as I am concerned the heck with the big Sears store, I am sticking with this hometown Sears in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. Will write more on the snowblower after I had a chance to use it a few more times.

All features of this machine are as listed.The only drawback is that the impeller needs to be reworked,Since when using in heavy wet snow the chute bogs down and becomes clogged.

Although a few feature have changed over the years, I?ve owned this Craftsman brand snow thrower model for the past 7 winters. Same dimensions, same engine, steering, speeds, etc?.I always burn premium gasoline in all my power equipment and use top shelf oil, (Castrol GTX/Valvoline Premium) plus keep them clean after every use and stored inside a workshop out of the elements. With that said, this snow thrower has never let me down. It starts first time, every time, first pull even after sitting all summer. The only time I use the electric start feature is when the temperature drops in the teens, but regardless, she fires right up. Yup, it?s got a plastic shoot, controls and levers but they have never gave me a problem. The shoot controller swivels back and forth, up and down with no issues. The steering works fine as well as it?s ability to eat through deep snow and easily discharge it 30 feet or more. 2013 is it?s seventh year of service and this last snowfall was working

I bought this unit because I didn't want to spend the extra $250-$300 on the Ariens equivalent, which has a Briggs engine now anyway. Yes there is a lot of plastic but has held up fine. It does struggle on the first cut with 8-10" of wet compacted snow because it tends to plow it out front if you go to fast. The only cure for that is a bigger unit($1500+) or wait until some of the moisture evaporates. Normal snow is no problem. Lots of power. Like all snowblowers, reverse isn't very fast, but it pulls back manually pretty easy, at least for me. It has electric start but I don't use it. With three pumps of the primer, it always starts on the first pull. I would not go any smaller than this unit for my needs here in Michigan. I have been very pleased with it and would buy another Craftsman.

We purchased this snow blower about a month ago. What a great job, easy starting. Ez steer made it so much easier to maneuver in that deep snow.

I would highly recommend this snow blower as it made moving the snow from blizzard nemo 2013 in nh easy. On less then 1 tank of gas I was ale to do my drive plus 4 others with ease. All of my neighbors want this unit as it put theirs to shame.

This MTD-made (one reasone I bought it) snowblower has great features -- I especially like the EZ-Steer and, once adjusted right, the chute control is excellent. However this snowblower must be run on the slowest speed F1 -- which is literally a creep) to throw 6" of wet snow. Even using F1 it pushes snow up in front of it -- unacceptable especially on first pass. Had to return it for this reason. My hunch is it's the rotor configuration that leave a 2+ inch gap, hence preventing the augurs from feeding wet snow to the impeller. Will move up to the 30" 6-auger which has no gap.

Takes some practice to get used to it. Havn't run it past 2nd speed.Steering is tricky!