Snow Blowers and Snow Throwers
Snow Blowers are designed to be used in areas where heavy snowfall has occurred. They are usually desired in countries that experience extreme snowfall every winter.
The thing is, is the snow usually the issue in the UK? Not really when you think about it, it’s usually the ice which causes the most damage and harbours the bigger danger factor. It is also pretty rare that we experience the extreme snow blizzards that many other European countries do.
So, let’s say you decide you wish to purchase a snow blower. How often do you think you will use the machine? We think the cost is often not warranted for a machine that will only be used a few times a year.
Picture this; you’ve bought a snow thrower, used it a few times and stored it afterwards for next winter. Now if storage wasn’t an issue (a fairly large item to be sitting in your garage/warehouse collecting dust)… For its next use, a costly service would be highly recommended for maintenance and safety reasons. Safety is quite a big concern also when it comes to snow blowers, the area that you’re using the machine on can have hidden surprises under the snow surface and the rotating blades are a major hazard.
Another issue with snow blowers is that you need somewhere for snow to be thrown to; if you blow the snow off your driveway, you will find that the snow builds up as you throw the snow on top of other snow that you still need to clear. This is generally fine as long as the snow can be mounded at the side of the area.
Yet another disadvantage is the fact that snow blowers as standard, do not collect and blow everything right down to the surface, which can result in a thin sheet of ice if left… This makes the ground unsafe to walk on and quite dangerous. The only way to then resolve this is good old trusty sodium chloride (salt); the best way to evenly distribute this is with a tow-behind or a push spreader.
So, you’ve saved up the money to buy your machine, you’ve unpacked it, cleared your 3 inches of snow, salted the ground to prevent ice and put your snow blower into storage until next year… Not forgetting the service costs that you’d need to stump up. Now if you’ve read this far, you may we wondering the point of this blog post? Well, if you think about it, all this cost and effort could have been avoided if you just went for the spreader + salt solution first and prevented the need to clear snow at all.
The Alternative – Consider a salt spreader!
Broadcast spreaders can be purchased for a fraction of the cost of a snow blower and unlike snow blowers; a lot of these garden spreaders are designed for year-round use – Salt in winter, then fertiliser or grass seed during other parts of the calendar when gardening is possible. For the best results you should plan ahead and spread your salt before the snow settles. Salt spreaders are, in our opinion a much more cost-effective option for the UK market and ecology.
There are two main types of spreaders available. Consider the size of the area that you want to cover. If you have a small area to clear then a push salt spreader will suit you. If you have a larger area to cover and have a ride on lawn mower or tractor then you will find that a towable salt spreader will get the job done quickly.
Summary
There is a popular saying that goes “Prevention is better than cure”. It’s better to take care that a problem does not happen than to have to solve the problem afterwards. It’s easier to stop a build up of snow and ice from happening in the first place than to fix the problem after it has happened. We really feel strongly about this. For all the reasons described above, we really feel that it would be in our customers best interests (especially financially) to consider buying a salt spreader and preventing any snow and ice problems in the first place.
