Illini

We got hit with the same storm system as Eric this past weekend. It was a good 10 inches of fairly heavy snow with drifts that went over a foot in some places. I have the equivalent of an eight car driveway and the Ego two stage snowblower was able to clear the driveway and piled up gunk at the end of the driveway from the snow plows before the batteries died. I did a good job clearing the snow and it had plenty of power, which was one of my concerns. While I would have liked to of been able to clear some snow from the yard so the dogs actually had a place that they could walk without waiting the hour and a half or so for the batteries to charge, it wasn’t much of a hassle to wait and I didn’t end up smelling like exhaust when I came back into the house. @JronmanI hear you about the speed of removing the snow with a single stage, but I’m getting older and the single stage I have been using is a real pain when trying to clear the packed snow plow gunk at the end of my driveway. It takes little more to maneuver the two stage, but it is well worth the trade-off as it makes removing the heavy stuff so much easier.

2 1/2 years later and the brush cutter still hasn’t made it to the US. I just got the two stage snowblower and I was looking at converting the rest of my OPE tools to the Ego platform, but I may have to wait and use my Stihl gas brushcutter a while longer or use Makita for the brush cutter. I was really hoping to stick with one platform.

I really appreciate all of your feedback, Eric. Especially when it comes to the battery life as that was one of my concerns with taking the plunge. I got the Ego two stage snowblower just a bit ago and I’m pretty excited. I’m right here on the Illinois/Wisconsin border and we are supposed to get a good deal of snow overnight, so we’ll see how it handles. thanks again for your help.

For those of you who have used EGO products before, how would you rate their quality? I’m looking to get into a battery platform for a push lawn more this summer and I’m potentially looking for a two stage snowblower for the winter. I like Makita and the quality of Makita’s products so I was going to go with one of their mowers, but my snowblower has taken a turn for the worst and ego is the only company that offers a two-stage electric snowblower (that I know of), So I was thinking about going with their platform instead. Just looking for some real world experience before I sink the cash into the EGO platform.

I’m just A DIY guy, but I couldn’t tell you the last time I set foot in a Lowes. It would be nice if they stepped up their game so as to give me another option other than making the haul down to HD.

I find the backwards compatibility of the Dewalt Flexvolt very compelling and I hope that Makita at least offers some sort of adapter for their new XGT batteries so they work with some of my LXT tools.

The finished product looks really good. And speaking as someone with next to zero experience with kaizen foam, I appreciated seeing how you provided step by step photos.

I just read Eric's review of this thing. I really don't need any more tools, but I can totally see it being of use for smaller, quick fix items around the house. For $250 at Home Depot (and I'm sure cheaper elsewhere), I might just pick one up.

I always enjoy your videos, Dwain. Keep them coming!

Not that I am in the market for a jigsaw, but some of the folks commenting on Toolguyd say it doesn't have a blower lever / switch, but that it does in fact have a blower. Has anyone here heard definitively one way or the other?

Buffalo range shooting park is located in Ottawa, so that might work for those in the Western or Southern suburbs: http://buffalorangeshootingpark.com/range/ A couple of guys from work were talking about a place in the Western suburbs, so I'll have to ask when I get in the office tomorrow. There is a membership range in Racine (Racine county line?) that is a membership range, but I know a member and I can ask if they rent out for groups.

I know we have a bunch of people on the forum from the Chicagoland / Northern Illinois area and a number of folks who shoot (I believe this includes Dan & Eric). So I just wanted to see how many people from the crew might be interested in getting together for a day at the range. Now I haven't looked at the ranges in the area (Bristol,WI is the closest to me and their rifle range rules suck - 1 round in the magazine at a time), but I'm sure we could find something that would accommodate us. Thoughts?

I wish you weren't so far south of me, Jimbo. Your local HD seems to have a decent selection of the clearance stuff. The stores in far north IL get picked over quickly.

For $5 you can't go wrong. I'm going to have to hit up my local HD and see if they have it there for that price.

I'm feeling a bit impatient myself. It seems to be taking forever for these to be released here.

I'd love to get this, too, but the last thing I need is another battery platform.

Makita also has an oil impulse driver (along with a large number of tools on the 18v platform). If you check out toolpig on Instagram, he has done a number of comparisons with the oil impulse driver versus other drivers. It actually performs very well despite its low torque specs.

Thanks for the info, Jason!

Nice job! I like the color.

Thanks for the heads up, Comp!

Actually, you are much better off using a credit card rather than a debit card. Besides limiting your liability to $50, you aren't out any money directly while the credit card companies figure out what was going on, issue a new card, etc. The problem with debit cards is that it your money that is in the bank which is being stolen. So while your bank should eventually reimburse you if you lose money out of your account due to fraud (depending on how soon you identify and report the fraud), for the time it takes them to get it straightened out you may not have enough money in your account to pay your bills that are due, which just brings on more headaches.

I'm waiting on the brushless recip from Makita. Both of the brushless models look awesome, but the single 18v looks like it will be more than enough for my purposes.

Nice find! I hav the work stand that Ricky posted, but if these new models are only $36, I might have to pick up a pair.

Congratulations to all the winners and a big thanks to Eric and Dan. I belong to several other forums unrelated to tools and nobody treats their forum members as well as they do.

Thanks for all the replies guys. I did try using Drano that night and it didn't do anything. I ended up having to have a professional come out and he was able to get it unclogged in fairly short order. Going forward we are going to be putting a lot less down the garbage disposal as that tied into the same pipe and was probably the culprit. I'll also be putting on a lint filter on the washing machine drain tube. Thanks again for all the feedback!