The "old technology" drivetrain is proven to last decades with minimum maintenance and every local dealer can service it. Meanwhile, the self propel motor went out in my neighbor's EGO mower after about a year and had to be shipped off for two months to get fixed. Had it been out of warranty it likely would have just been junked. I'll take reliable and easily serviced "old" technology any day.

Ego's sounds more annoying. Doesn't make any sense though.

What are you talking about? This machine has no gas tank or carb.

@@michaelnelson3469 You are indeed correct sir! There definitely is no "carbatraitor" in this cordless machine! I must have been really drunk when I left that comment. All "CAPS' too. Yah, real drunk that day. I really like the size, weight and looks of the SnowMaster QXE 724 (my driveway:75' x 10'). If Toro made a cordless battery version of this machine, I would be first in line to buy it. Cheers friend!

Was that 45 time frame run on the Ego mode ?

How much does it weigh I need to be able to pick it up off the ground and set it on the tailgate of my truck let me know please

@@amck72 No, on full power the whole time.

Sounds like you have the E24 I return that one the battery's only lasted about 30 minutes with 3 in of snow three car driveway small front and small backyard. Also I assume the E24 came with automatic steering differential means that you can do a zero turn in one spot with the E24 you cannot it was misleading on home depot's website probably not their fault. Home Depot was great in the return I had to run to truck only cost me $28 including gas. The E26 has hand warmers, automatic turning differential, in the bigger 7.5 amp batteries. The claims that the E24 will do 24 parking spots in the E26 will do 30 in 10 in of snow IS A COMPLETE LIE NO ONE'S EVEN COME CLOSE TO THAT MAYBE ONE THIRD. If you get a small driveway like me then they E 26, E24 should be fine, get a big storm with bigger property you'll be running out of both batteries in 30 minutes and then waiting 3 and 1/2 hours to charge again people have done this it took them all day to do something It would have taken the gas equivalent 1 hour!! It's a great product works just as good as the gas equivalent Maybe even more torque but the runtime is horrible when it's in a tough situation when it matters. So I purchased the E26 after returning the E24 did not like how it turned at all It was actually difficult. Had to turn the gears on going a circle. I have small property not going to work for me. The e26 even though it weighs about 15 lb more at 186 versus 172 is much easier to maneuver because of turning differential.. And no joysticks.. All done by gear. Awesome.. Just mad at Toro for being so disingenuous getting people to buy these thinking it does all those cars and it doesn't. They probably use sand to test it out not real world situations.. Kind of sucks but it's the best of its kind out there so. It's just the nature of batteries they don't last long when you get to push them..

@@muzikmon2267 Sorry to hear about your situation. My E24 performs completely the opposite. I have huge driveway and only used 50% of the two 60V 6.0ah batteries after 45 minutes. Maybe you got a defective pair of batteries?

did u get oen

February. These were prototype test units. Very close to production ready but a few small issues to finalize before release to the public.

Of course it can.

Yes

Its the 6 inches of slop...wet snow that I always look for. I think that is the best test. They all throw powder for a mile

@@rogerwhiting9310 yup I go through that stuff regularly. It will throw that type of stuff at least 5 feet. If I go through too much of it it will stuff up the shoot if it's just sopping wet. I can usually make it clear itself by hitting some powdery stuff so that is impressive. Where it struggles is if I have too little like an inch or less of slush. It just doesn't do much with it at that volume. But I think this is typical of any 2 stage snow blower.

I never had an issue with water intrusion.

It takes a lot of extra current or battery charge to bring an electric motor up to speed from a stopped condition. Having the motor idle takes much less in comparison. I’m thinking the batteries don’t need to be recharged as soon this way.

The drive engagement lever is basically like an on off switch. It’s not designed to slip like a clutch. And it only really jumps very quickly and lift the front of machine up if you’re in top gear. In the lower gears it’s pretty smooth.

Exactly, show what it can *_Really Do In A Hard Situation w/ High Drifts & Wet Snow,_* not just the Tony Montana-type stuff.

It really will work well for most residential users. Toro just approved us today to put the videos up.

If I buy a Toro 2 stage, I will likely pull the trigger on the gas powered one, only because I do help my neighbors after a snowstorm and I don't think the battery will last for the amount of work I do. If I was invested in the 60 volt platform and only did my driveway, I'd buy it no questions asked

These are prototypes. Saw shear pins on the model Workshop Addict just did. The bottom battery door I guess falls open, pointed out on both other reviews I saw. Wonder how these folks are getting these prototypes? Wonder what price point they are looking at, and what batteries and chargers they plan on including?

@@seanrice7511 I believe the bolts are not shear pins, just bolts to hold the auger in place. I could be wrong on that.

@@andyslawncareandoutdooradv you are correct, they look like shear pins but they are bolts. Toro has been doing this for many years on various models. These were prototypes and there were a little rough around the edges as Toro wanted to get them out to us for testing prior to the end of winter. They advised me of these issues prior to shipping it. MSRP of the one seen here is $1700, for some reason they showed the price in the 60V section but not in the direct link. As with any product they are not for everyone but will work for a large percentage of residential users. flexforce.toro.com/products/60v-max-26-power-max-2-stage-snowblower/

This was a pre-production unit. I believe the mass produced one was set up different with the key covering the ignition.

I was able to do about half of my driveway, which is much larger than the average driveway. depending on your dealer and where you order from you should be able to order more batteries at the same time without issue.

I actually don’t have this unit anymore because this was a pre-production prototype and it had to go back for liability purposes. They haven’t got me the production electric one yet but I should get it at some point. What I noticed is that because the electric motor so quiet you tend to hear a lot more or auger noise that you wouldn’t hear in a gas powered model. I would give it a good visual inspection and make sure everything is tight and if you don’t notice anything bent rubbing or lose you should probably be fine.

@@EnthusiastsGarage As usual, thank you for your valuable insight! I will do some checking as soon as it warms up here in Colorado

My E26 has yet to blow any snow, but the auger is pretty noisy. My theory is that it's not that it is noisy, it is that the motor is so quiet you can hear noises you'd never hear with a gas engine.

Probably 2nd gear. I usually go pretty slow as I feel it’s a little bit more thorough than trying to go too fast.

@@EnthusiastsGarage Understood, but for KZfaq videos when you are demonstrating a unit's performance it's sometimes helpful to also show what the unit is capable of instead of just how you like to do it. It just made the unit look slow and/or weak to have to go that slow speed which I'm sure it's not! But I understand you are just doing it the way you are comfortable with. Thanks.

@@mellowjammer I recently had 9" of wet snow, and the Toro went through it like butter. It threw the snow clear to my neighbors yard, and I had to adjust the chute so that it wont break his windows. But it was traveling too fast. WAY too fast, and it was hard to control when it hit bumps, dips, ice, or end of driveway piles. I appreciated Enthusiasts Garage video showing that he was ABLE to go slow. Thanks to EG, he also showed me how to adjust the linkage to slow it down, which is far more useful because, like he said, it clears the snow better. Otherwise I had to go over it again anyway to clear the 1" near the asphalt.

that sounds about right for the big 7.5 battery, im only aware of the standard charger it comes with for now.

Faster is not always better.

You need at least 6 amp hours worth of power to drive it. It will run on one battery but it won’t last long and the voltage drop will lower the performance significantly.

1 battery gives the same amount of power as 3. It will die faster than 1/3 of the runtime of 3 batteries because it can't keep the voltage up under load. It will run on 1 2AH 60v battery but runtime is pathetic. Fine for moving the machine around though.

it throws

If it gets overloaded it will shut down. This was actually a pre-production model that toro gave me to test out. The production model the key is actually set up differently and it covers the keyhole. The light is LED so it draws very little current and that really won’t impact the runtime.

@@EnthusiastsGarage Automatic shut off is awesome!! No fear worry headache paranoia when snow blowing anymore. Also no lousy shear pins to mess with. Much less noise is a blessing. Just need to know about their rapid smart chargers. Just found out Toro does make rapid chargers, just not included in the kit unfortunately. I told Toro to change this and get rid of the slow chargers. Thanks 👍😊

If you really want that professional look, I think it’s worth it. It’s not cheap, but it makes the garage look really good, almost like a show room.

Toro 1432

unfortunately toro was not able to get these test units out until the winter was almost over. thats why there are no video of really deep snow storms.

Oh ok, I didn’t realize that. I just bought the EGO 2 stage this year at the end of the season and I have to say this Toro may give EGO a run for the money. Guess that’s why I’m hell bent on seeing what the Toro can do in really deep snow.

Since electric motors typically have a lot of torque I don’t think snow depth would be an issue. The issue is going to be the run time when you get into really deep snow.

@@EnthusiastsGarage Perhaps that’s true but again I would like to see it demonstrated.

Or two feet of snow, like we had in Massachusetts a couple of weeks ago. Sorry, but who the hell wants to worry about whether or not you have enough power to finish your driveway in a heavy storm. Imagine having to go out multiple times during a blizzard. Losing power is another thing to consider. How do charge a battery if your power is out?

It’s pretty comparable to most two-stage snowblowers. I think it was between 150 and 200 pounds

Weighs about 185 pounds… not sure if that includes battery weight. Shipping weight in the box is 214 pounds.

@@r.stanley1049 ok thank u

Never experienced that. Get the serial number off it and call toro customer service.

@@EnthusiastsGarage I tried running the toro with the augur engaged, it ran for as long as I kept it engaged. When I let go of the handle it stopped running after 45 seconds. I did it again, let it run for several minutes and disengaged the augur, but after 30 seconds I engaged the augur and it did not stop, it kept running. I am thinking this is a safety feature, and not a flaw. I would be curious to know if you let yours run for 45 seconds standing still without the augur or gears engaged, if it will stop. Would love to know. Dan

This is normal operation. If the motor is left running without the auger engaged, it will automatically shut down after about 45 seconds, followed by a short audible beep. To restart, just turned the key switch completely off then back on again, same as when you first start. This feature is documented in the newest version of the online operation manual.

I think ego is a pretty good brand but I feel like toro stuff tends to be a little more heavy duty when you compare apples to apples. Toro didn’t want the info on this revealed until now for the upcoming 21-22 winter I assume to ensure they would be able to get them out with all the supply chain issues.

They announced 9/1/2021 as the release date.

Agree 100%, something this size with this many batteries should. Maybe the next generation.

Yea can't really do that with lithium. Doesn't charge good below freezing temps. Maybe next gen like he said.

@@WatsitTooyah What if I kept my charger(s) in the un-heated garage? What's the difference? You are right though... I just googled it: Lithium batteries rely on chemical reactions to work, and the cold can slow and even stop those reactions from occurring. ... Unfortunately, charging them in low temperatures is not as effective as doing so under normal weather conditions because the ions that provide the charge do not move properly in the cold weather.

@@MrMbaines13 Lithium batteries don't charge well at all below freezing temperatures. This is due to reduced diffusion rates on the anode. This results in plating and permanent degradation of the cell. Advanced chargers would need to heat the battery up before charging. Another option is to greatly reduce the charge rate but the charger would have to be capable of doing this.

Can confirm the E24 can chew through 18 inches of snow from today with no trouble.

Check the toro website for your local dealer, Home Depot also sells them. It’s $1800 right now.

Toro claims that everything in the auger system has been hardened the point where if you hit something big enough to jam it that the engine will stall before it will bend any components. This was actually a demo unit that was pre-production toro gave me to do some testing on. what I like about this unit is it uses a lot of metal and a lot of Toros existing features. Some of the other ones seem kind of gimmicky and very plasticky and I’m not sure how they would hold up in more rigorous conditions. The drive system basically uses a small mechanical differential and it’s similar to a cars but obviously much more compact.

You can adjust the length of the drive rod to change the speed

@@EnthusiastsGarage really!? Where is the drive rod? If it is the rod that is connected to the left lever, doesn’t that just slip the clutch? Thanks

@@mwong000 No it doesn’t slip the clutch it change the distance in relation to the fly wheel. These units don’t have clutches you won’t damage anything. Essentially it’s that metal rod that is underneath the speed adjustment lever. You have to pull out that pin and turn the piece that connects it to the bottom of the lever clockwise to make it shorter.

@@EnthusiastsGarage That did it!!!! You are THE MAN. Thanks for your help. On an aside, if I barely engage the traction lever (on the far left), I can also slow it down without changing the auger speed/power. But, does that damage the machine?

@@mwong000 It’s not the worst thing to do but I try to avoid doing it because this is a friction disc transmission you’re basically dragging the tire on the engagement wheel sideways on the fly wheel.

There are several different configurations available but this model with the larger batteries right now is $1800.

Is that bad? Real question. I'm in Canada, and thinking of buying one of these.

Not an appropriate comment in so many ways. Please think before typing.