Bro... I suspect that when you loosened the cables to make it easier to install, you forgot to tighten then. I can see the loose cables hanging when you were plowing. One is to the auger and the other is to engage the drive. Those were both the mechanical fails.

I just purchased the 26" PowerSmart with the 250cc Briggs and Stratton engine. After assembling and clearing snow I encountered a similar problem with no traction. When I removed the bottom plate I could see somehow melted snow had gotten onto the lever controlled flywheel, not the friction wheel. The water on the lever controlled wheel caused slippage resulting in no traction. I dried off both wheels and then began plugged the 14 holes in the body of the unit with plastic automotive connectors. The automotive connectors allow venting preventing water from entering. Also tightened some of the nuts that were loose while adjusting the throttle and auger cables. Then took the cover off the chute control so I could lubricate the inside using white lithium grease. Changed the oil and spark plug while also applying grease to the axle and gears. During the next storm the snowblower ran very well no problems. Snowblowers have a lot of moving parts and with all the vibration require constant adjustment and lubrication for long lasting high performance. You may have gotten your blower to work properly if you determined why you lost traction which may have been similar to my problem.

You lost drive because of the bolt that holds the drive side bars together came off. This made the cable loose when you squeezed the lever all the way down. Solution, put a new Bolt in and adjust the drive and auger cables and you’d have been off to the races.

I have the Power smart DB7103-24 with a 208cc engine. I bought it in 2018 and it is still going. (HEADS UP) The auger and drive belts that it comes with are garbage. They stretched out in the first 2 years of use. Then I put new belts on and never had a problem since, just the typical adjustments every couple of years. It has been through 6 major snowstorms here in Buffalo NY. The worst was 8 feet of snow, and it worked like a champ! Every 2 years I change the oil, spark plug, clean the carburetor, and grease the drive track and gear bar. Simple to maintain and enough power to do its job.

I'm going to purchase 1 powersmart like this because of the price but after I saw this completely change my mind, thanks for your video.

I have the same unit and used it for one winter so far and I love it even though I didn't have much expectations for a $350 snowblower. I tried to start it this year to get it ready for the winter but it would run rough. Took the carb apart, cleaned everything, put fresh fuel and we are back in business.

Maybe you should have read and followed the directions. There is also a KZfaq video on how to assemble the blower.

I got this snowblower and i'm on year 3 with no issues.

I had no assembly problems at all. No shut issues as mentioned. No drive/belt issues or arguer issues. Plenty of power from the Chinese motor but a longer break in period is needed. Chinese engines, from experience, sound and run better with a longer break in period and two oil changes. All the other issues mentioned in the comments can be solved and or avoided by adjustments and maintenance.. My best advice is when snow season is finished let the engine run out of gas, change the oil and check all bolts. Storing between snows clean the machine off of snow and ice and wipe it dry. If you just put it back in your shed after a storm and expect frozen cables, gears, belts and any other movable parts to work its back to shelving for you. Hope that helps.

The pro tip on adjusting the slack on the cables saved my butt. thanks!

Just a couple of thoughts. I bought this unit three years ago why price I paid $359 delivered from walmart. I am handy so I felt confident that I could keep it running. I don't get a lot of snow BUT. I had no issues with my chute control but I greased it automatically It starts first pull every time. First year had one issue, very heavy snow when I put the Shute lip down the heavy snow pulled the chute up partly off where it sits I got a blast of snow in the face. The lip where it sits is not very tall. I took some PVC pipe pieces and glued them inside no way the shute can come up high enough to come partly off. Even though I drained every bit of gas from it this year first time I started it ran like shit surging no power. Removed carb. cleaned fixed. Also the shute lip cable keeps freezing but that can happen with any brand. Over all I am happy with this unit so far it has earned it's price. One thing that scares me is the lack of parts available on the website, I can fix any thing but I can't make the parts

Don't drill hole I took cover off top the 2 screws load with red grease or marine grease put on gears work back and forth in there works like a charm now

Pretty sure the auger AND the drive problems you experienced were because the cables were not adjusted properly. They don't say anything about it in the manual, but they leave the adjustment loose to make the connection easier. But for use, the cable should be adjusted tight enough to hold the squeeze handles all the way up. Thanks for your review.

I was tempted to go with the Powersmart for $500 over the Troy-Bilt at twice the cost. After all, Powersmart has more power, a light, and heated handles, at half the price. I haven't physically compared them side by side, but others have said the steel seems to be thinner on the Powersmart, and parts are hard to get. The Troy-bilt is 40 lbs heavier than the Powersmart, so there must be something to say about the metal being thinner. Seeing your video and reading others' comments, I'm going with the Troy-bilt. Just seems to be a reason why one is twice the price of the other.

I PURCHASE THE SAME ONE YOU HAVE FROM HOME DEPOT. I HAD IT WITH THE SOVEL, THOSE DAYS R OVER FOR ME, LET SEE WHAT THIS SNOW BLOWER WILL DO. I PURCHASE IT BECAUSE OF THE PRICE. WE HAVEN'T HAD ANY SNOW YET. BUT I'LL KEEP U IN MAIN AND SEE IF I GET THE SAME ISSUES U HAVE. THANKS FOR THE TIP N THE VIDEO. I HOPE I DON'T GET ANY PROBLEMS WITH IT. I'LL KEEP U UP TO DATE. HAVE A NICE DAY. STAY SAFEN GOD BLESS

These are on sale thru today 9/24/2023 Direct from PowerSmart USA for $549.99 free shipping. I bought two and will use one for parts, i love thinking outside the box!!.😁

From what I've seen in the past the auger belt and tension pully are aligned fine. That said, ice seen them assembled wrong (Walmart especially) don't have the great mechanics. And sometimes the main secondary pully that control the drive system there's a busting spacer and I've disassembled that same model and the space that's supposed to go on the outside of the secondary pully off the motor they put the spacer in the back of it rather than front of throwing the drive belt alignment from the tension and idlers pullys causing it to damage and wear part of the drive belt causing it to slip. This problem is easily fixed by taking the bolt out of the cover that cover the pully systems, take the 2 bolts on the left side of the Snow Blower full out and only loosing the 2 right bolts to give you wiggle room in order to take you drive pully off sliding the spacer off the crank putting the pully back on with same spacer in front of it and the pully will then align with the tension and idler pully. take and and retighten and put all bolts back in and BAM its fixed!. Hope this helps you out if you decide to get another model like that or anyone else in these comments.

My is use very good for 3 years

Assembling it had the same issue with the chute handle. That shit is gonna break in no time. Mine is a little different model but that issue appears the same.

This is the 3rd year I've had my P.S. 24" Very strong easy to use but the clutch cable broke a week + ago, had a hard time finding a new one the company seemed not too swift they had an answering machine and didn't call me back ,was able to locate what I needed with M&D in Ohio part was reasonable but shipping was Pricey so a got two cables just in case. Just came in mail yesterday.

Very helpful and honest video of this product. I was about to buy it for its price but the comments below and your experience changed my mind. Thanks SK

Unfortunately, I purchased 1 late last year. and NEVER got a chance to put it to use. Now this year I hope it will be different. I do have a PROBLEM with their Customer Service I tried to get in touch with them. I was on HOLD the first time for 23 minutes . I hung up and tried again and was on HOLD for 36 minutes....all I heard both times was music and the second time on a few occasions the phone did ring but, than went back to the music, Had I known theri Customer Service was this BAD, I would have NEVER spent the $$... Also, I did try on the other prompts as directed and NEVER got to talk with anyone... I give this video a 10+..Thanks

How did you fix the belt, got mine yesterday and it worked good. We have about 5” and got about 6” more overnight. I went out this morning and the drive would not work in either direction. Thanks

Auger belt keeps falling off after the first 20 minutes, no matter what adjustments are made. It would help if the Auger pully was slotted to give just a bit more tightness to the belt. I'm almost convinced they gave me a bad belt

Sounds like the belts were slipping… needed to be adjusted.

I love this video. You're living my life brother...get going and the plan goes to poop...and you have to go about old school. Murphy's law, keep on keepin on.

I have the same problem, l will tighten cables per comments of some viewers. If l have to return it, do l have to dissemble the unit and put it on the package? Please answer my question. Thank you.

This unit is great. You simply needed to assemble or correctly. The cables need adjusting and you have to make sure you TIGHTEN THE NUTS CORRECTLY! Simple human error was your issue.

Got me nervous, I just assembled mine last night, same unit, hopefully when the snow comes mine works fine and u did end up just getting an lemon. We'll see...

Need step by step instructions

Spend the thousand to fifteen hundred bucks and just cry once. Spend less...cry more.

Mine had issues too bought mine in summer too safe money Instead of winter now um stuck with the machine that has issues.

menards use to sell this but 6 months after i bought one from them they no longer sell it. they dont sell any parts for it at all.

I got this delivered 1 month ago, we haven't had much snow so I only used it a couple times and the at first it worked fine, the third time however the auger wouldn't turn at all and there was a burning smell. I was told by Home Depot I couldn't return it because it was past 30 days (Dec 7 to Jan 16, so 35 days 🙄) and was told to call the company for the warranty. I tried to call all day, I wait on the phone line, and then when it's my turn I get 'there is no one to take your call, goodbye'. Even if I get through and they fix it, I don't know how long that's going to take to fix and I'm going to be blower-less for the snowiest part of the season. Absolute garbage. One month. This thing lasted one month where we didn't even get that much snow. Extremely frustrated with the product, and also disappointed with Home Depot.

Great video. But people, don’t expect a Porsche for the price of a Toyota Yaris. You get what you pay for, and after 53 years on this planet, there’s been very few cases where that expression was false. Good luck! ⛄️

Kida rickity mechanism on that chute. Cheap.

I purchased one of the first models powersmart blower years ago. Had way better build quality with LCT engine. New ones look extremely cheap and cheap Chinese engines.

Not going to lie I would NOT recommend that blower. It's build quality is trash and there's no excuse for that rattling chute and that's something that QC would have caught early on but QC is most Chinese made machinery is very hit or miss. I hope you returned that.

Not a lemon. that is how they are. You buy a knockoff you better be good with a wrench. I have same model. Some of the issues LIKE: Shoot you just had nut to tight. it is made to be adjusted. I had same drive issue. Bolt that holds disk to wheel when you hold trigger on one side broke making disc work half time if at all. New bolt fixed that. I also had other issues like Auger belt pulley needed washer moved/removed to have pulleys in line for Auger to work and to not keep throwing the belt. When I unpacked you can tell it fell in shipping. Hood bent up all over. I just fixed it. AND YES Home Depot , WalMart,

Your model is weird I had none of these problems

Bought a power smart 1232 to replace a beat up old 350cc snapper. Do yourself a favour, something I should had done and will now that I have use the power smart; rebuild your old snow blower. They don’t make things like they use to. While the joy stick seemed like it could work, it doesn’t. No where near as good as an electrically control chute. The unit pulls continuously to the right,which most likely is due to being a 32” box on uneven surfaces. A smaller one probably be easier to handle. Lousy sales person. Lousy traction with the tires it comes with. Handle warmers don’t work from day one. Positive? It does throw the snow, even wet snow far . My take is this when it comes to engineering and marketing a product like this; if a women has difficulty operating the machine, then it shouldn’t be sold. My old snowblower had none of the issues except for how far it could throw and only because it needs a new impeller and a new drive belt and auger belt. It was bad timing, therefore I had to scramble. I’m completely worn out after using the power smart.

Welp, saw this in the flyer on sale this morning. No way I'm buying one of these after googling reviews and finding this video. Even when you had it running, the throw looks SUPER WEAK and that engine sounds awful trying to pull start it. Sounds like alot of metal to metal contact even for a small engine on start up.

Check the cable adjustment that’s why I lost your self propelled