Whether you are the one clearing the snow at your home or looking for the best gift to give to grandma or grandpa or an elderly friend or family member, read on to get your questions answered and to find the best snow blower for elderly people.
For an elderly person, clearing the snow from a winter storm can seem like a difficult task, but with the right tools, it doesn’t have to be. Cordless snow blowers are best for senior citizens.
OUR TOP PICK – Best Snow Blower For Elderly People
We recommend the Snow Joe cordless electric snow blower as our top pick for elderly people for the following reasons:
- Lightweight and great maneuverability for the elderly
- Easy to fold and store
- Quick re-charge times
- Maintenance-free, never worry if the engine will start
Read on for more information, or click the link below to read more reviews on Amazon.
- [POWER SOURCE TYPE]: Battery Powered
- [48V POWER]: Included 2x 4.0-Ah batteries offer up to 40 minutes of rechargeable runtime
- [DURABLE]: 4-blade rubber-tipped steel auger clears a path 18” wide x 10” deep in a single pass
- [POWERFUL]: 1200 W brushless motor clears up to 14 tons of snow per charge
Here are the Best Snow Blowers for Seniors that we have included in our review
When you have many inches of snow between you and your car, using a simple shovel to move all that snow can be a tedious and backbreaking job. And for elderly people, the task of shoveling snow can be both extremely difficult and unsafe. For all the reasons below, cordless snow blowers are also great for women.
Luckily, there have been tremendous advances to snow-removal technology, and snow blowers can be the best alternative to shoveling snow. But what types of snow blowers are there? What do you need to look out for? What is the easiest to use? How reliable are these machines?
These are all valid questions that will be answered in the following sections as you will expand your mind to the world of snow blowers and then narrow your choices to the best possible option.
Choosing The Best Lightweight Snow Blower for Elderly People
When it comes to selecting the best snow blower for the elderly, you have to give special consideration to the weight and maneuverability of the product. The lighter the machine is, the better it is for them. You also have to consider the following factors:
Reliability
When it comes to snow blowers, reliability is one of the most important factors. You don’t want a snowblower to work great once but then crash and burn the next time you need it, especially in areas of extensive snowfall or in areas that get snow for multiple weeks or months of the year.
If you want a reliable snowblower, you’ll want to get yourself an electric snow blower rather than a gasoline-powered snowblower. There’s just too much maintenance required for an elderly person to upkeep, and this causes gasoline-powered snow blowers to be extremely unreliable. An electric snowblower will be the best choice because of the much fewer moving parts. There are many fewer things to have to fix or lubricate or have extensive upkeep on like carburetors, spark plugs, starter motors, and gasoline. Electric snow blowers are machines you can rely on.
Maneuverability
It can be quite challenging to carry and push around a 150-pound snowblower. And that’s exactly what would happen if you bought one that is gas-powered. Electric snow blowers again are the better alternative because of the fewer parts needed to make it run. Compared to a 100+ pound snowblower, electric snowblowers can weigh as little as 35 pounds, making electric snowblowers the obvious choice for the elderly.
A battery-powered cordless snow blower is easy to handle, easy to pick up and move, and easy to transport and store away when you don’t need it.
Maintenance
Do you like diagnosing and fixing problems with your car? How about your lawnmower? This may sound fun and exciting to some, but for most elderly people, diagnosing and fixing a gasoline-powered snow blower can be extremely difficult and dangerous. A gas-powered snow blower also comes with a list of tasks like mixing gas, changing oil, cleaning the carburetor, draining the gas in the spring, fixing moving parts, taking apart the engine, and the list goes on.
With electric snowblowers, and better yet cordless snow blowers, the only real maintenance is charging the batteries inside your home or garage. All cordless snow blowers include a charger that plugs into your electrical outlet, and as long as the battery is fully charged, you will be ready to snap your battery into place and press a button to get started with the snow removal process.
Storage
If you were to purchase a gas-powered snowblower, you wouldn’t be able to store it in your home or closet, and in some cases, you wouldn’t want to store it in your garage, either. These snowblowers smell like gas, and wherever you decide to store your gasoline-powered snowblower will smell like gas fumes. As mentioned before, these snow blowers are also much larger, which means you will be losing more storage space compared to an electric snowblower.
With electric snow blowers, you not only save space with how compact they are but because you remove the gas and the fumes that come with it, many people store their cordless snowblowers safely inside a closet in their home.
Cost
Gasoline-powered snow blowers cost more, and this doesn’t even include maintenance costs. With a price point of $500 on the low end and $1500 or more on the high end, an elderly person could be better off spending their money on a snow removal service. On top of the startup price, you must continue to buy gas and oil, and when something goes wrong with your machine, it can cost $100 or more each year for a professional service to fix and maintain your gas-powered snowblower.
Cordless electric snow blowers cost between $200 and $500 depending on a few factors and come with absolutely no maintenance or ongoing costs which make electric cordless snowblowers the obvious choice.
Here is a video showing the basics of this model
Let’s make a quick comparison between gas-powered snow blowers and electric snow blowers to help understand why cordless electric snow blowers are great for elderly people.
Gas-powered snow blowers:
Reliability: Many moving parts, gasoline, extra maintenance required.
Maneuverability: 150+ pounds makes these more difficult to move.
Maintenance: Mixing gas, changing oil, cleaning carburetor, fixing starter engine.
Storage: Large area of garage or shed.
Cost: Starting around $500 and up to $1500+
Electric cordless snow blowers:
Reliability: Less moving parts, no gasoline, no maintenance required.
Maneuverability: As little as 35 pounds makes these easy to move.
Maintenance: No maintenance is required besides charging the battery.
Storage: With no gas and a smaller unit, you can store it in a closet in your home.
Cost: Starting as low as $200.
Top Snow Blower Recommendations for Seniors
Electric snow blowers are the obvious choice, especially for the elderly. But with the array of various electric snow blowers on the market, what is the best option?
The best choice will depend on a couple of factors, and we’ve compiled choices that include the size of the machine as well as price. Here are the best selections of snow blowers for the elderly.
For Smaller Snow Blowing Jobs:
For smaller snow blowing jobs, there are a couple of choices from Snow Joe that are called “cordless snow shovels,” but technically work as snow shovels on wheels that blow the snow up and forward up to 20 feet away. These electric snow shovels have an average of 27 minutes of run time and can move about 2,000 pounds of snow per charge. Each unit comes with a battery and charger, but you can purchase additional batteries and chargers for jobs that require more time.
- Battery-operated Earthwise snow thrower with 16" clearing width, 8" clearing depth, 32' snow throwing distance
- Powerful shovel machine with a quiet and reliable 40v brushless motor; 4Ah Earthwise battery and charger Included
- Efficient snow blower motor that moves 300lbs of snow per minute
- Comfortable and ergonomic snow blower handle; Features 6" rear wheels, and dual blade auger
At less than 10 pounds, this cordless snow shovel is the best cordless battery-powered solution for clearing snow. It will clear snow up to 10-inches wide and 6-inches deep per pass. This also has a durable plastic scraper blade at the base of the unit, which is essential to avoiding damage to your driveways and pathways.
For Larger Snow Blowing Jobs:
For more substantial snow blowing jobs, we have narrowed your search to the best option for electric cordless snow blowers. As powerful as gas-powered snow blowers can be, we have to consider the fact that elderly people need something that can be easily set up and maneuver.
And we believe there’s no better snowblower for the elderly than the Snow Joe 24V-X2-SB18. This machine has a powerful 1200-watt brushless motor that plows through up to 14 tons of snow per charge or up to 700 pounds per minute. It can even help you remove any type of snow from heavy to wet snow.
- [POWER SOURCE TYPE]: Battery Powered
- [48V POWER]: Included 2x 4.0-Ah batteries offer up to 40 minutes of rechargeable runtime
- [DURABLE]: 4-blade rubber-tipped steel auger clears a path 18” wide x 10” deep in a single pass
- [POWERFUL]: 1200 W brushless motor clears up to 14 tons of snow per charge
If you have a lot of snow coverage and larger areas to clear, we recommend getting the Greenworks PRO. This 100-volt battery for this powerful machine gives you up to 45 minutes of run time, and you can purchase additional batteries for the rapid charger to extend the length of each snow blowing job especially when you have to deal with heavy snow.
- ULTIMATE EFFICIENCY: Experience superior performance with the 80V Li-ion system for maximum efficiency.
- QUIET BRUSHLESS MOTOR: Enjoy quiet operation and maintenance-free use with advanced brushless motor technology.
- EFFORTLESS SNOW CLEARING: Clear driveways, sidewalks, patios, and more quickly with a 20-inch clearing path, and tackle up to 10 inches of snow depth effortlessly.
- CUSTOMIZABLE SNOW DISPLACEMENT: Easily adjust snow direction with the 180-degree rotating chute.
This snow blower is perfect for larger jobs because it can clear snow up to 21-inches wide and 10-inches deep on each pass. You can also rotate the snowblower output shaft 180 degrees to blow the snow in whatever direction you want. Like the recommended cordless snow shovels, this snow blower will throw snow up to 20 feet in any direction and comes with dual LED lights to allow you to clear snow into the night.
You might think storage to be a problem with a little bit larger of a unit, but the folding handles on this unit make it easy to store in the garage, shed, or even a closet. If you want to get the job done right, this is your best bet.
Conclusion
It doesn’t have to be a colossal task removing or clearing snow from your driveway, patio, or walkways. As you can see, you can get the job done very efficiently with the right tools. Electric cordless snow blowers are the way to go, and these recommended units make the best snow blowers for the elderly.
Thanks for this review, It is very informative and helpful to me.
Is there are data on how low those plastic blades will last because we know plastic degrades, gets brittle and breaks so … ? One year ? 2 years ? 3 years ?
Hi
I’m not 100% sure that being light-weight is the key metric for “best snow blower for seniors”.
Single stage blowers ( light ones and heavier ones) are great; but, they are
“human propelled”.
We just had a large , wet and heavy, snow, and I ( age 60) found it to be VERY difficult to push through the large 2 foot drifts and
the end-of-driveway snow left by the street plow trucks with my mid-size Honda single stage machine.
Good 2 stage snow-blowers ( like Honda HSS724 ) are self propelled ; so, no pushing.
These machines are not easily carried about ( they weigh > 250lbs) ; but,
if you don’t plan on lifting your machine about ( I don’t ), the weight is not an issue.
Next year, I’m going to get rid of the one-stage machine and try a 2 pronged snow strategy.
For light snows : use a wheeled shovel ( the Sno-Wovel )
For heavy stuff: I’m getting a good 2-stage ( let the machine do the hard work )
Andy