Briggs & Stratton 1696614 24" 2-Stage Snowthrower, 208cc, Black
- 24-Inch wide clearing path with a 20-inch Intake height
- Powerful 950 snow Series 208cc engine for 9. 5-Foot-pounds of torque
- Friction disk drive system and equipped with an electric start for effortless starting
- Equipped with an electric start for effortless starting and auger diameter is 12 inch
- 3-year limited equipment and engine
Gabrichidze Nodar
Great experience buying a fine snowblower!
Ordered this unit from Amazon in mid-March. Free shipping was handled by Pilot Freight. I monitored the progress of the shipment online, and when it arrived at the local depot, I called to expedite the delivery by a couple of days so I could have the blower for the storm of 3/21. Pilot was easy to deal with, and they agreed to move the date in by a couple of days. Their guys delivered right on time and did a great job offloading the unit and carrying it into my garage where I assembled it. The unit was shipped in a ruggedized corrugated cardboard container. It held up well in transit. The snowblower was in pristine condition. Unpack and assembly took about one hour. The assembly manual was a bit vague in some spots, so I watched the assembly video on the B+S website. It was a big help, despite contradicting the assembly manual regarding the auger cable routing. I stuck with the manual and the unit works perfectly. I added treated fuel and the provided motor oil. The engine started on the first pull. This unit runs smooth, quiet and powerful. It threw the heavy wet snow and slush from my driveway about 30 feet. I expect dry snow will be a cinch for this blower to handle. The controls are intuitive, well placed and easy to use. 1/20/19 UPDATE. Happy to report NOTHING NEGATIVE with this snowblower. Just finished clearing 8" of frozen granular snow from my driveway and walks. Totally effortless. Finished in 20 minutes. GO PATRIOTS!!!
Betty Straub
Briggs and Stratton snow blower
Very happy with my new Briggs and Stratton self propelled snow thrower. Got to use it last weekend on 11 inches of wet snow & it plowed through it with ease. Started on first pull. Delivery was fast and easy to put together .just the handle, blower shoot. So ready for the snow this winter. Though I would rather be in Florida right now.
Audrey Andersen
Great snow blower, clears packed, slushy snow. Just do your research on price before buying.
First, let me just give a general tip to everyone looking to buy this snowblower, and others at any random time. Do your PRICE RESEARCH! For some reason, prices vary on this particular thrower by a LOT. MSRP on this is 729 USD. When i bought it (weekend that Snowzilla, aka mid-atlantic blizzard of 2016 that dumped over 2 feet of snow in the DC area), it was sold by Amazon for 679 USD. It's sold in the past for as little as 649. However, within a few days of the blizzard, the price went up to 749, then 840, and now 979 as i type this. I urge my fellow consumers to not allow such blatant price gauging to be rewarded. This machine is fantastic, but you shouldn't have to pay 250 dollars above the MSRP. Now, about the machine itself. setup wasn't too bad, i wasn't familiar with snow blowers, so it took me a few minutes to know what the heck they were referring to when they mentioned different cables that needed to be attached. But after i put it together, i put it to a test with some packed 2 foot high (and higher) piles of snow in front of my house. This snow had been melting a bit over the week since the blizzard, so it was packed and slushy. This baby churned through it like a champ. I had to go a bit slower, back it up, go again, in order for it to get through, but it made it through. I'm sure that when i get to use this on fresh powdery snow it will be even easier. the only complaint i have is that it's hard to turn it. The wheels don't spin independently, so you kind of have to drag it around to turn it. Other than that though, i've extremely pleased with it. P.S. for those that never heard of this, there's a website called camelcamelcamel dot com (yes, "camel" 3 times). COpy and paste the Amazon URL of the product you want, and it will show you the price over the last 6 months or so. Very handy.
Sally Benitez
Looks good, feels good
Other than dealing with a freight delivery issue/hassle, (not Amazon's fault), I'm happy so far with this machine and the decision to purchase it. I researched many makes and sizes of snowblowers before springing for this one. Even tho it's "made in China" as the box states, like nearly every other machine you can purchase today, I like that this one has a Briggs branded/designed engine, as well as a three year bumper to bumper warranty. To me this made this one a great value for the price. Putting it together wasn't too bad, but the illustrations and instructions in the manual could be better. Like other reviewers, I used better quality bolts from a hardware store to attach the main lower handle bracket. The ones included looked cheap and I read they can strip. Just bring one along to match it up at the store. I had no issues with hardware otherwise. Mine came with oil already in the crankcase, and it fired right up immediately and runs great. Not too loud either. Controls are easy to use and all functions seem to operate as they should. Makes a little racket as the auger is engaged, but that's to be expected. I will update this post upon using it for clearing snow.
Alfredia Hopkins
Very happy with this snow blower.
I would highly recommend this machine. I found the assembly relatively easy....and I have no mechanical abilities. The snow blower started right up and runs very well, very quiet but powerful at the same time. I like the placement of the controls and the fact there is no external crank sticking out of the side of the machine for the directional control of the snow shute....makes it easier to store as well. The light which comes on automatically is also a great feature during night snow blowing. I think the optional electric/pull start is a fantastic feature and wish my old blower had that, especially when i pulled the cord to start my old one during a blizzard and it and snapped off due to wear. The machine itself seem solid and well made. The only cautionary comment would be to make sure the unit has oil before starting it and using it. My machine was shipped with oil, but apparently could have been shipped without it as well.....so check the dip stick before starting for the first time and look at it carefully because the fill line is very small and hard to see at first.
Foziya Khan
A beast that gets the job done!
I ordered this taking a chance because of only 1 review. I was not disappointed. This snowblower is a beast! It starts easily and plows through all of the heavy stuff. I live on the benches in Utah and we get heavy wet snow. This thing does the trick. I have bought a Toro one stage blower in the past and it works well, but it can't clean the end of the driveway where the city snow plow dumps several feet of ice chunks. This blower powers right through it! I also live on a rather steep hill and so I can attest that the traction on this is great. It has the power to blow the snow and go up a steep hill. Yesterday, I plowed through 16 inches of heavy wet snow with no problem. Setup was not too bad. The pictures could have been more detailed. It took about an hour to get it all put together. Start-up is simple; just a pull or two and you're good to go. My daughter likes to use the electric start. Metal chute and heavy gauge metal shovel. I also like the three-year warranty on everything. I would certainly buy this again.
Jerry Wickizer
I'm totally impressed, this thing is a unstoppable beast !
Like others this thing is a beast !! I bought this on a whim ( Received a Great deal ) to replace my Husqvarna st121. I was not sure at first how happy I would be. I have always been used to my Husqvarna Single Stage cleaning right down to the bare ground. I weighed my options and decided to keep the scrapper low. I initially set it up to be a quarter's thickness. Meaning, I took 3 quarters placed them left, center, and right under the scrapper and adjusted the skids. I figured I'd rather replace a scrapper once every 2 years or so then to have to deal with snow and ice left. By adjusted this and using this on my Not so smooth asphalt driveway, It worked great !! there were a few times the it hit a crack and stopped but, hey that was/is my choice. One thing that totally impressed me was even after driving over the snow pulling into the driveway, usually ours cars pack the snow down my Husq. would never touch it. This Briggs scrapped it right up without even a slight hesitation. LOVE IT. My only complaint's would be the manual of putting it together. I'm not a manual reader, but I wanted to do the right thing. My issue came to which bolts to use to attach the chute. My cute and holes were not even close to what was printed in the manual. Even after going to the Brigg's site and looking at all revisions, I still could not find the exact cute assembly. But I got it all figured out. The second problem was with the bolt that is basically the stopped for the chute flapper. It was stripped and the nut was on the bottom of the box. I just ended up replacing the lock nut, with a slightly smaller threaded nut and also replaced the Washers with a nylon washers. Lastly I sprayed everything down with Lubricant/Corrosion Inhibitor, 11.75 oz.. That I bought locally at Lowe's. I think with all the right care this will last me a lifetime !
Traci Moore
This unit clears the snow!
The order was received a week early just in time for a series of snow storms that brought about a foot over three days! I clear about a 250' long gravel driveway, with about 1/4 having to be cleared to one direction only. The product was easy to assemble with the sole exception of a extremely tight skid plate bolt! With help from neighbor we were finally able to loosen the skid plate bolt without stripping the bolt! The snow blower needs to regularly be checked to ensure vibrations are not loosening the skid plate. I have to clamp the top of the blower with vise grips to keep it up so I can get the snow blown away far enough, otherwise it keeps coming loose no matter how tight the clamps are tightened. This unit clears the snow! That's the important thing and why this unit gets five stars!
Mariella Busuttil
This is an excellent snow blower and I would highly recommend it
This is an excellent snow blower and I would highly recommend it. It only took about 30 minutes for me to assemble as the instructions were pretty clear on what to do. It is extremely powerful - I have used it 4 times now and it has made easy work of clearing the driveway and my large sidewalk. The only little issue I had with it was all over the instructions it says that the product does not come shipped with oil in the engine - however the dipstick told a different story. Since the instructions said it did not come shipped with oil but the dipstick said it was full of oil, I decided to follow the instructions for emptying out the oil and poured in my own oil, and yes - it did come shipped with a full supply of oil.
Rita Grech
Surviving Northeast blizzard bc of this tank of a machine!!
Delivered right in time-thank you Amazon Prime and Pilot Freight. This snow blower is worth every penny and has given my family such peace of mind during this blizzard. Our previous snow blower never worked consistently. The only thing to look out for are the terrible assembly instructions. You really have to study each image in order to follow them. The biggest parts are already together which is a huge plus, but you will need to do smaller tasks, like the chute installation, deflector cable installation, etc. Having said that it still only took 1 hour to put it together.