Keep in mind some of these are just personal opinions. All I can compare it to is my 20 year old Craftsman 26" 9hp blower. Which has served me well for 20 years. It was just time to get something bigger.
The GOOD: Nice and big. I can get through deep snow and cut wider paths. I love it. It throws the snow far. I now have to watch for cars coming down the street so I can stop, otherwise I would be hitting them with snow. It's much quieter than my old one even though it is a much bigger engine. She's a pretty looking machine. It runs and starts flawlessly. Plenty of power. The controls are nice. The chute rotation is about 190 degrees and is done with about a 1 1/2 turn of the chute control knob. My old one took 9 full turns each time I wanted to rotate my chute left or right. The speed of the machine is fast. 1st gear is like 3rd gear on my old blower. Since this machine can handle more snow, it is nice to be able to go a little faster at times.
The BAD: (my opinion) The handle controls are clumsy. Even though this is the style that all snow blowers seem to have moved to, I do not like them at all. My old blower had the lawnmower style handle and these new blowers have the bicycle style handles. It makes it much harder to pull the blower backwards. It makes it harder to push the blower forward when it needs a little shove. The power turning works just as advertised, but again it's just something I don't like. Maybe if I get use to it, I'll appreciate it more. The tires traction. Don't like them at all. My 20 year old blower had outstanding tire traction. It would literally keep pushing into a snow bank. The tires on my Cub Cadet love to just spin. As soon as I get into any deeper heavy packed snow they will spin.(which brings me back to the bicycle style handle bars and not being convenient when you have to push the blower). These tires will not allow me to back my blower up onto my front and back decks. The tires just won't catch the stair tread edge. They just spin. My old blower would easily back up the steps. I ended up having to go out and buy a $300 cordless snowblower to do my decks with. All because of tires. Then there is the speed concern. I know I talked about it as a good, but there is also a bad to it. My first gear is too fast. When I get into some deep hard packed snow, I want to be able to go slower. With the way the tires spin, the last thing I need is this moving too fast.
The UGLY: The unit came to me in a cardboard box on a pallet. That is good. Yet when I opened it and start assembling it, it turns out the bottom edge (scrapper blade?) of my brand new blower was bent down (I can't figure how that was even possible). It formed a "V" shape and made adjusting the cutting depth impossible. I did not complain because I did not feel like having to have this shipped back to the seller, then wait for a new one to arrive. Would have taken weeks. I just took a hammer and beat it back into shape.
