Best cordless snow blower

Snow blowers are the one cordless category where nobody publishes a runtime. Every manufacturer here states driveway coverage instead — how many car-spaces it will clear on a charge. That is a work-per-charge figure, which is a better shape than minutes, and it lets us do something to these three claims that nobody else seems to have done.

The short answer

The arithmetic: watt-hours per car-space

All three publish a coverage claim and a battery configuration. Multiply the packs out to watt-hours, divide by the claim, and you get a figure none of them prints.

The practical use is sizing. If you know your driveway in car-spaces, multiply by about 50 watt-hours and you have the energy the job needs. That method is the same one we use for chainsaw cuts and mower acres — see watt-hours explained.

The three, on published figures

1. EGO SNT2400 — best if you already own EGO packs

Twenty-four inches wide, a 20 inch intake, a published 50 foot throw and independent brushless motors for the auger and the drive, each stated separately. Four LED headlights, which matters more than it sounds for a job done before dawn.

The feature that decides it is Peak Power: the machine runs on any two EGO 56V ARC Lithium packs. If a mower, blower and trimmer already live in your garage, the batteries for this are already bought. No other snow blower in our registry can say that.

The honest cons: EGO publishes no weight for this machine at all, no ingress rating (where it publishes IPX4 on the single-stage), and the 18-car claim is tied to the recommended 7.5Ah packs — smaller packs do less, and EGO does not say how much less.

#ad Check the EGO Power+ 24" Two-Stage Snow Blower SNT2400 price on Amazon — how we're funded.

2. Greenworks SN80L620 — the documented one

Same 24 inch width, same 20 inch depth, same 50 foot throw and same 200-degree chute as the EGO. Where it separates is everything else it is willing to print: 176.4 lb, a 12 inch impeller at 1,800 RPM, 15 inch rear wheels with a stated tire size, power steering with a zero-turn hub motor, and LED lighting with four settings.

It also carries four years on both the tool and the battery, the longest battery term of the three and consistent with how Greenworks warrants the rest of its 80V line.

The cons are real. It does not state a snow depth for its 16-car claim, where EGO states 8 inches. It runs on Greenworks 80V and nothing else — a separate platform from Greenworks' own 40V and 60V lines. And 176.4 lb is a lot of machine to store, which we only know because Greenworks is the one brand that tells you.

#ad Check the Greenworks 80V 24" Two-Stage Snow Blower SN80L620 price on Amazon — how we're funded.

3. EGO SNT2134 — the single-stage, and its one hard limit

A 21 inch clearing width on a steel auger, a 45 foot throw, a 200-degree chute and the only published IPX4 weather rating in this group. It ships with two 6.0Ah packs that also run every other EGO 56V tool.

The limit is published in the spec sheet and it is not negotiable: a 13 inch clearing height against 20 inches on the two-stage machines. That is the single figure that decides whether a snow blower copes with your winter, and we separate the two classes properly in single-stage vs two-stage.

A single-stage auger also contacts the ground, which rules out gravel — see snow blowers for gravel driveways.

#ad Check the EGO Power+ 21" Single-Stage Snow Blower SNT2134 price on Amazon — how we're funded.

Who should skip all three

• A dusting on a short paved drive. A leaf blower moves light dry snow off a hard surface, and you probably own one — the honest limits are in clearing snow with a blower.
• Anyone not already on EGO 56V or Greenworks 80V. A snow blower is an expensive way to start a battery platform, and the packs are a large share of the purchase.
• Storage-constrained garages. 176.4 lb and 24 inches wide is a permanent occupant, and it is used a handful of times a year.

What we cannot tell you

We have not run any of these machines. Nobody publishes a runtime in minutes, EGO publishes no weight for either of its snow blowers, Greenworks states no snow depth for its coverage claim, and none of the three publishes a decibel rating or a cold-weather derating for the packs.

What is published: two clearing widths, two intake heights, three throw distances, three coverage claims and three battery configurations — and the arithmetic that turns those into about 50 watt-hours per car-space.