January 04, 2011
Jack
Stillwater, MN
 
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Good and Bad --- New Professional 36" Blower..............
Decided on the biggest/best/largest Ariens walk behind I could find after John Deere 420 with 48" blower died. Ordering was efficient. Delivery was good. Fairly simple assembly went well. Local Toro MN brand was first on my list but too narrow of a chute.
Order came in September--- all set. Starts wonderfully. Hand warmers are great. Speed options are very good. And, the enclosed cab I got was better than I expected, especially in the wind. Controls are good, but, not as easy as old JD machine. The 'auto steering/turning' feature is overrated and can be a pain if all is not perfectly aligned. Minnesota had it's biggest snow fall (s) of all time this past December. ( 250 foot driveway with very large turnaround, all flat ).
First issue: the scrapper 'bar' was at least 12 inch off of level, no matter how much I worked on the pads etc. So one side cleared snow, while the other side left a layer of snow. Very hard pulling to one side (likely due to misalignment of scrapper). Emailed your firm for advice. Buck was passed to me to contact the vendor, instead of just sending them my email. Simple, but more work for me and time delays (snow was a coming ! ).
Emailed Customer service at Ariens. Waited four days,then, sent my email to some Ariens officers. A few hours, and Lee W. called. Very helpful and asked many questions. I was advised to loosen two large bolts on the chassis and 'jiggle' the frame. And, check the tire pressure. Lee's guidance worked very well for the 24 inches of snow that arrived that week. His call was perfect. And, in time for next snow fall. I asked him to let manufacturer know of the assembly issues. Or add this to the troubleshooting manual area.
More snow (now I have about 4 hours on the machine). 20 F. Auger control spring snapped and broke. Was set to almost no tension on release and loaded with lever was used to activate the auger. Was done right. Worked well until failure. Snow is a falling. Jeez. Looks like metal fatigue/failure where the cable spring passes though the level to control the auger. Likely too sharp inside radius?? I fixed it with fence wire. Sent email to Lee in customer service. No reply, yet. I guess another officer level cc will be needed. As you can see, I am a bit ticked off with this $3000 machine.
So, my point: For an alleged Professional Model grade machine , one should not have to deal with these issues. And when one does have them, a better, faster system is needed. I am somewhat handy with tools and fixing things. I am sure about 50%+ of the customers would have to get this to someone else (it weighs 370 lbs.) for help. A small collection of issues, but, should be more reliable. Can't tell you what issues might arrive in the next hours of use. Other reviews suggest I will be OK.
In fairness, this is my first walk-behind snowblower and don't have any experience with these machines. I do, however, have many, many cars, atvs, collectibles, tractors, chain saws, wackers, tillers, etc. All high-end gear. Reliablity and service can be better.
If you have problems, you need a better connection process to help your customers with these brand new machines - ie: never got a call from you after you said, "... call the manufacturer..." to see if I was OK, and satisfied. Kudos, however, for sending out the generic forms for 'review' stories. Decided on the biggest/best/largest Ariens walk behind I could find after John Deere 420 with 48" blower died. Ordering was efficient. Delivery was good. Fairly simple assembly went well. Local Toro MN brand was first on my list but too narrow of a chute.
Order came in September--- all set. Starts wonderfully. Hand warmers are great. Speed options are very good. And, the enclosed cab I got was better than I expected, especially in the wind. Controls are good, but, not as easy as old JD machine. The 'auto steering/turning' feature is overrated and can be a pain if all is... more
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