Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I received the battery-only version of this by accident on my first go, so some of this review will be a comparison of the two. Not much, though since they're identical. What you need to realize first is that you're buying two different snowblowers here inside one case. Let's start with the 'original' battery type. BATTERY MODE: It's the iON18SB. No different, except a fair bit heavier because you're carrying around all the AC bits with you. That's actually good, the original was perhaps too light on the snow. Don't have one of those? Well... The big consumer magazine says not to buy it, it's awful. Several reviews (including the first one for the hybrid version) agree. I don't. It's limited! Very! But it's still a useful tool. Dry, fluffy snow? 3-4" no real problem. Wet stuff, it starts to slow down and bog, and stall. The harder the going, the more you're going to eat the battery faster and faster, and the stalls will get worse, until it's done - in a recent heavy snowfall I completely used a battery in 20 minutes, not quite enough to do the job of a shortish double driveway and a looooong corner-lot sidewalk here in Michigan - and the charge time is long enough to let plenty more build up between goes. Almost but not quite good enough for my needs. I didn't really have clogging problems but such is Single Stage Life anyway, so if you do, I wouldn't be shocked. The headlight (my area's usually lit well enough never to need it) and powered chute rotation are very nice touches. But then, we plug it in. AC MODE: Whole different ballgame. Much faster (there's a decent review video on the 'tubes showing all this, though that guy spent about zero time on the negatives of the unit so, grain of salt), much louder (probably using a motor-generator to make the current for the drive motor? Not sure, we may tear down due to curiosity later) and sounds like the hairdryer of the title. Ate 4" of moderate-weight stuff this morning with zero issue, and plenty of throw. So then I put it to work in an area I didn't complete from the last snow. It went straight up to the top of the housing with little complaint, just kept working. Ice and compressed stuff was less successful. There's a significant flaw in operation, though: There's a warning not to have the battery in while using AC mode. If you do that, then there will be no accessory (light, chute-rotation) power while you have the main motor powered down. Not a huge deal (and I don't know how serious they are about the warning), but something to consider. Cord management is a pain, but that's any AC snowblower, and the usual admonitions about getting a 12 gauge, extreme-weather extension cord apply. The sundry: I like the packaging of these units. They come pretty much done, you just need to slap the chute on and bolt on the handle, 15 minutes and you're ready. Minus charging time of course. I've had some problems where after a heavy battery session I can't charge it without letting the battery sit outside to cool, but hey, it's a snowblower, you should have plenty of cold available when you're using it. So, do you get it? If you're just on the fence about gas or electric and have heavy work to do... maybe you get a gas one. But if you're like me and have a good usecase for it - like me, where I can do my driveway and half the sidewalk on AC, then finish up pretty easily on a battery, this might be the ticket for gas and oil free snow clearing. Plan to keep ahead of heavy snows, too, but if you want to clear 12-18" at a time, you need to be going gas two-stage anyway. Not sure about the long-term yet of course... If the AC motor (or motor-generator) is brush-type, they sure don't mention it, and that could be a future concern. Not nearly the heaviest-duty thing in the world. One thing though - it is of MUCH, MUCH greater utility than the battery-only version and if I were deciding between the two, I would totally get this one. Well worth the extra cash.