21 Best Snow Blowers of 2025, Tested and Reviewed—and the Worst
CR tests battery and gas-powered snow blowers, including single-stage, two-stage, and three-stage models. The best easily blast through deep piles of snow.
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Some of the most powerful snow blowers recommended by Consumer Reports can slice through 18 inches of snow, hurling it 40 feet or more. They can clear a path as fast as you can walk and easily handle the compacted mounds of snow left at the end of a driveway.
Simpler, less expensive machines in our product ratings can be great choices for smaller accumulations. A number of snow blowers (or snow throwers) we test aren’t worth buying at all.
The listings below, available to CR members, cover several types of snow blowers, including both gas- and battery-powered models. (Battery-powered models have been improving rapidly, but the best machines that run on gas still clear snow faster.)
Snow blowers also vary by how many mechanical components—or “stages”—are used to move snow through the machine and out the chute. Three-stage machines can generally handle the deepest snow and single-stage snow blowers the least. We also test power snow shovels, which are meant to clear just a few inches of snow from a small area, such as a short walkway or an elevated deck.
Best Three-Stage Gas Snow Blowers
These powerful three-stage snow blowers can tackle the heaviest snow, as deep as 18 inches.
Best Two-Stage Gas Snow Blowers
Two-stage snow blowers are just right for heavy snowfall up to 16 inches deep.
Best Compact Two-Stage Gas Snow Blowers
Many snow blowers are 28 or 30 inches wide. If you want to save space in the garage or get a more maneuverable machine, consider these compact snow blowers, which are 24 inches across. They may require an extra pass or two along your driveway, but they will muscle through piles of snow as capably as their wider rivals.
Best Single-Stage Gas Snow Blowers
These single-stage snow blowers aren’t as powerful as the machines listed above. But they do a stellar job when moving up to about 9 inches of snow.
Best Battery-Powered Snow Blowers
Top-scoring battery-powered snow blowers can work nimbly in a range of conditions, though they won’t clear snow as fast as the best gas-powered machines. The models listed here are two-stage machines. They will easily clear up to 9 inches of snow, but you’ll need some patience to clear deeper snow. (We also rate single-stage battery-powered snow blowers.)
Best Power Snow Shovels
These battery-powered handheld shovels are capable of clearing dustings of up to 6 inches.
Worst Snow Blowers
Snow blower performance varies from machine to machine. The exceptions are three-stage models, which perform uniformly well across brands and individual models, and corded electrics, which perform uniformly badly in our tests. In fact, we think no corded electric snow blower is worth buying because they’re so underpowered.
But you’ll see more variation across brands and models when it comes to single-stage gas and single-stage battery-powered snow blowers.
Case in point: the Power Smart PSS1210M. This single-stage gas model is slow to clear snow and struggles to get through heavier piles, earning poor marks on both measures. You’re better off spending a few hundred dollars more on the top-rated single-stage gas tool from Toro, which earns an Overall Score more than 40 points higher.
Then there’s the single-stage battery-powered Greenworks 2600402. It bombs on several of our most crucial tests, proving insufferably slow during use. It’s also incapable of working through even 6-inch-deep simulated snow or throwing it an acceptable distance. It earns an Overall Score of just 28—but isn’t much cheaper than some recommended models.
How CR Tests Snow Blowers
No two snowflakes are alike, and that presents a problem for CR’s testing protocol. “We need to run our tests with something we can standardize, for consistency,” says Dave Trezza, who oversees our snow blower testing. That’s why he and his team use a mixture of a certain type of sawdust saturated with water in place of snow. It’s a combination that can simulate a standard snowfall or be molded into a mound, similar to a plow pile, like the kind that town plowing trucks leave at the end of your driveway.
In each test, we time how fast a model cuts through the dense mixture and note how far the sawdust is thrown and how clean the surface is. The Overall Score for each model combines results from these performance tests as well as results of our survey of thousands of CR members, which informs our brand reliability and owner satisfaction ratings.
We test single-, two-, and three-stage gas snow blowers from brands including Ariens, Craftsman, Cub Cadet, Honda, Husqvarna, Toro, and Troy-Bilt. And we look at lighter-duty, single-stage, and two-stage electric blowers from brands like Ego and Snow Joe, as well as power snow shovels from brands like Greenworks and Toro. We also test power snow shovels in the same way we test snow blowers, but we use far less of the sawdust mixture because for anything deeper, you’ll want a traditional snow blower.
How We Picked the Best Snow Blowers
The experts at Consumer Reports look for snow blowers that do the job quickly and efficiently—and that will prove reliable season after season. Here’s what our top picks have in common.
They’re capable. All of the models selected here can work through 6- to 18-inch-deep snow, depending on the model’s number of stages.
They throw snow far. The best snow blowers hurl snow a suitable distance so that you won’t have to make extra passes to clear a path or driveway.
They’re quick. The gas models here work through snow quickly.
They can handle a plow pile. All of the best models can tackle a large mound of snow that a snow plow might leave at the end of your driveway.
They’re reliable. Top models are worth the investment only if you can count on them season after season.
When Is the Best Time to Buy a Snow Blower?
Whether you’ve yet to receive your first inch of snowfall or you’re on your third blizzard, it’s never too late or too early to consider a snow blower. In general, you can often find snow blower sales during seasons with low snowfall. In areas heading into that season, manufacturers and retailers look to clear inventory before spring. Keep in mind, too, that a snow blower isn’t a single-season tool. Many last a decade or longer with proper maintenance, meaning you’re not just buying it for this winter but for the next 10 or more.
BEST TIME TO BUY:
