Kobalt 80V Max 22" Snow Thrower ... yep, bought one

[dougmacm]

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Kobalt-80-v...ded/1000486349

They still showed 5 in stock, so I went to Lowes today and picked one up.

Reg $499.00 … clearance @ $399.00 and I used the 10% off OPE coupon (good thru 5/8) and got it for $359.10 + tax.

Came with 5Ah battery & Charger.

States 60 minutes recharge time for the 5Ah (or 30 min 2Ah / 75 min 6Ah), which is pretty crazy considering my Greenworks 40V 4Ah take 120 minutes.

The GW 40V Snow Thrower weighs 34.6 lbs. this Kobalt 80V weighs 57.9 lbs. (w/o batteries). GW is a toy compared to this beast and I thought I paid a decent price for it last Spring on clearance from HD ($256.25+tax w/ 4Ah bat & chgr).

40V 4Ah battery weighs 2.88 lbs. this Kobalt 80V 5Ah weighs about 6 lbs.

These Kobalt 80V MAX batteries are not cheap !!
2.0Ah … $129.00
2.5Ah … $159.00
3.0Ah … $199.00
5.0Ah … $299.00
6.0Ah … $359.00
Replacement charger is $41.18 which is not much different then a GW 40V Charger.

Certainly hope we don't get anymore snow this season for me to try it out !!

Doug

 

[Mark Widmer]

Between the clearance sale and your coupon, you got the price down almost to the cost of a new battery :laughing:

The 80V - 5 Ah battery has 2.5x the energy of the Greenworks 40 V - 4 Ah one (400 watt-hours vs. 160 watt-hours). Amazing that it charges in half the time!

Good luck, can't wait to hear how it does but guess we'll have to wait.

Mark

 

[tom3]

I'd be curious to see how that machine works up in your area too. No real auger and a single stage thrower. Down where I live (So. Ohio) the battery would probably go bad before I'd get to use it. Gas is good for this area, usually a thick wet snow, but not too often.

 

[dougmacm]

I've always had a 2-Cycle single stage snow blower at my house and I'm the last house on a dead end. First had an MTD with a Tecumsuh Snow King engine and have had a Toro 21" 221QR with the Lawnboy Durforce engine on it for the past 10 years. The MTD did good but if the snow got too wet / heavy it would burn through belts. The TORO is a much better design and is a beast … it has a flat belt (instead of a v-belt like the MTD), and I've not trashed one in 10 years. When I bought it, dealer told me that he sells very few Toro belts because they just don't fail like a v-belt … and I've proved that. The Toro Auger Paddle design is far superior the MTD as well so it will practically throw WATER with fresh rubber. The Kobalt Auger Paddle design is similar to the Toro, so that is a definite plus.

I bought the Kobalt for my wife's office where we only need to do the sidewalk out front, a walk along the side, and clean up from the plow that does the parking lot. That "clean-up" work is what the 40V just could not handle, so we were still doing that with shovels. Anything but light & fluffy, we needed shovels for everything else too.

I don't expect this 80V Kobalt to match the performance of my Toro 221QR, but from the reviews I've read it might be close !!

Here is a pic of the office lot:

 

[dougmacm]

It appears that Greenworks Pro actually does have a version of this Kobalt Snow Thrower in their line up.

No mention of it on their own site, but it is on amazon (tool only) for more than I paid for the Kobalt with battery & charger:

https://www.amazon.com/Greenworks-2...way&sprefix=greenworks+80v+sn,aps,153&sr=8-20

There are a lot of GW items on amazon that are not listed on the GW site, so nothing new there.

Doug

 

[dougmacm]

Just like everyone else, my Snow thrower came without the plastic SKID PLATES that pretty much every reviewer on the Lowes site claim are mandatory. They went so far as even putting stickers over them in the manual and on the outside of the box (date code on blower 08/25/18).

Well it seems Lowes blew out all the old reviews but there was a NEW one dated 8/18/19 complaining about them still being missing and the "Kobalt Team" replied stating "The skid plates make this unit much easier to push as they help the unit glide easier across rough terrain. If you would like us to assist you in obtaining these parts, we would be glad to help."

So I contacted Kobalt and I said they were missing and based on the diagram I needed TWO of them. Well, they sent me "TWO KITS" consisting of the pair of skid plates, mounting hardware, and instructions … so definitely worth my while making the call.

The skid plates are much more HD / substantial than shown in the parts list, which was a good surprise. Being made of plastic and had they matched the drawing, I would have thought they would wear through pretty quickly and would have wanted to add some S.S. wear strips to them. They are just over 3/4" wide, so I may still do this after I wear a pair down about an 1/8" or so.

This is really the only complaint and reason this snow thrower gets poor reviews. Instead of the effort they put forth to eliminate them, I think it would have been much wiser to just start INCLUDING the kits with all snow throwers. The minimal cost savings can't be worth all the bad reviews.

Doug

 

[Scrubcadet10]

4 cycle or 2 cycle electric motor?:laughing: :laughing:
Carburated or EFI? :banana:

 

[Kennykenny]

I found a brand new one online that someone was getting rid of for $200. I felt that it was too good of a deal to pass up. Help me ease my mind that it was a good deal. Ha!

I was told by the seller that the unit came with 2 batteries but alas it really only had one battery. Too bad. Speaking of batteries, looking online for second batteries, do I need an 80V 6.0Ah(like came with the unit)? Online I have seen numerous people selling 80V but with 2.5Ah. Does the difference in Ah make that big of a difference? Will that power of a battery work on this snow blower?

Also, there was a part on the blower, quick release lever on the middle handle. that was broken by the previous owner. I called Kobalt about getting a new piece. Much to my surprise I was told that they don't carry that item in stock so they couldn't help me. My only option was to attempt to take the entire unit back to Lowes and hope that they would let me exchange it(the entire unit). Really? To replace one part? Has anyone else had this scenario happen to them or suggestions on another way to get this part replaced? Thanks!

 

[MowerMike]

I was told by the seller that the unit came with 2 batteries but alas it really only had one battery. Too bad. Speaking of batteries, looking online for second batteries, do I need an 80V 6.0Ah(like came with the unit)? Online I have seen numerous people selling 80V but with 2.5Ah. Does the difference in Ah make that big of a difference? Will that power of a battery work on this snow blower?

Batteries are rated based on capacity, which affects runtime, not power. So, a 6 Ah battery will provide more than double the runtime of a 2.5 Ah battery. The problem with using a lower capacity battery is that it will provide a very short runtime, such that you will need a lot of them to complete the job.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Ah , Amp hours is the measure of how much energy the battery can store.
It is exactly what it sounds like so a 6 Ah battery will provide
1A for 6 hours, or 6A for 1 hour or 12 A for 30 min etc, etc
However this dose not relate exactly to run time because when the motor starts or is under heavy load the current draw will increase so the run time will reduce.
So if you tape the trigger closed with a 2.5Ah battery and leave the mower siting on your driveway it will run for much longer than if you stood there turning it on & off all the time.