Snow blowers: tonnes per hour, not brochure claims (20)

Reading the prices: €199 to €1,199 — and two anchors above

The volume segment runs from €199.99 (Scheppach BC-SNB410-X, battery set, 40 cm) to €1,199.25; above it, Honda HS 750 EA and Yamaha YT1070 (€5,938.25) mark where the scale ends — not what a family driveway needs.

The four numbers on a snow blower — and what they are worth

Every product page throws specs at you. Four of them decide the purchase, and they are worth very different amounts:

Clearing width (34–71 cm) — the one thoroughly solid figure. Centimetres are centimetres, every manufacturer measures them the same way, every buying guide names it first. For a family home the usual corridor is 50 to 60 cm. Wider means fewer passes — but only if the motor keeps up.

Motor output — solid, but only within one drive type. Petrol machines quote displacement (164–212 cc) and output (3–4.4 kW; the Yamaha anchor 7 kW), corded electric machines quote watts (1,500–2,000 W). These figures do not convert into each other: 2,000 W of electric is not “half” of 4 kW of petrol, because torque curve and gearing work completely differently. Compare petrol with petrol and electric with electric — then the figure means something. Among the four battery machines, not one manufacturer states a power figure; that is the most honest hint that the battery platform, not the motor, sets the limit here.

Clearing system (single- or two-stage) — a design trait, not a measurement. Unambiguous, therefore comparable. Single-stage means the same auger collects and throws — lighter, cheaper, for level ground and moderate snow. Two-stage separates intake (auger) from ejection (impeller) and handles deep, wet snow.

Drive type — the real first fork. It decides satisfaction more than any single number: corded for the short stretch with a socket, battery for medium areas where quiet matters, petrol for long driveways and heavy snow.

The brochure figures: throw distance and “clearing rate”

Then there are the two numbers advertised loudest — the ones that do not carry a comparison. We do not hide them: they sit expandable on every machine and in the comparison table. But you should know what you are reading.

Throw distance (6–17 m). It applies to dry powder at full throttle. Wet March snow travels a fraction of it, and no manufacturer states the test condition. How little the figure carries is shown by the Scheppach ST570 better than any argument: the manufacturer’s shop says 6 m, the dealer data table says up to 12 m — same machine, double the value, both official. As rough orientation: below about 8 m the snow lands back on the wide driveway you just cleared. As a ranking between machines it is worthless.

Clearing rate in tonnes per hour. This is the figure comparison portals sort the category by — spans of 29 to 135 t/h are common there. Except: we looked for it at the manufacturers and did not find it. Neither AL-KO nor Hecht list a clearing rate on their snow blower pages. Hecht quotes working width, working height, throw distance, watts and rpm — no clearing rate among them. And even if it were there: tonnes are mass, and the same machine moves a completely different tonnage at the same speed in powder (around 50 kg/m³) versus wet snow (up to 500 kg/m³). Without snow density and feed rate, the value is not reproducible. A figure that does not come from the manufacturer, and whose test condition nobody states, is not a metric to us — which is why it is not in this comparison table. We would rather say what is missing than invent it.

Clearing height — three names for the same field. AL-KO calls it “intake height” (51 cm), Einhell “max. snow height” (20 cm), Hecht “working height” (33 cm). Hecht even alternates between “working width” and “clearing width” within its own line-up. We list every value under its manufacturer’s own label and do not multiply it by the clearing width into a cross-section — that would fake a comparability that does not exist.

Our own calculation: € per centimetre of clearing width

Because clearing width is the one cleanly comparable dimension, you can relate the price to it: the span runs from €4.56/cm (AL-KO SnowLine 46 E, corded) to €19.66/cm in the volume segment, with the anchors Honda (€22.70/cm) and Yamaha (€83.05/cm) above. You will find the value on every machine in the expandable panel.

Two things about it, openly: first, this is our calculation — no manufacturer, no dealer and no test uses this metric, it is not an industry standard. Second, it says nothing about clearing quality: a two-stage petrol machine with self-propulsion may fairly cost far more per centimetre than a corded one, and a battery set price includes batteries that a solo price does not. As a price-shock sort within one drive type, the figure is useful. As a yardstick for the decision it is not — that is what drive type, clearing width and motor output are for.

Availability is its own headline

Few categories see models vanish as quietly as snow blowers. Güde has discontinued its entire programme — the manufacturer’s category page is empty, and we documented that state. Denqbar shows phase-out signals, listed as “under review”, not as fact. And Einhell, still searched for as a petrol brand, currently builds battery models only. Anyone reading 2023 recommendations is partly comparing machines that no longer exist — which is why a dated availability state sits on each of the 18 tradable machines; for Güde and Denqbar a phase-out dossier takes its place, because a stock level has nothing left to report there.

Season timing: the calendar negotiates for you

Snow blowers sell between October and January — at their most expensive in the week after the first heavy snowfall. Compare early and you choose from the full range; order in the December panic window and you take what ships. Our price states carry retrieval dates so movement is visible. What this page does not claim: to forecast a winter. Whether 2026/27 brings lowland snow, neither we nor the brochures know — that, too, belongs in an honest calculation before an €800 purchase.