OT: Sens Lounge: "Pleeease won't you be.....my neighbour"

[Micklebot]

Which makes me wonder...I thought these new electric motors were all instant torque and wouldn't get bogged down from that.

Why would an electric car accelerate quicker with instant torque even if it weighs more than gas cars, but than that same type of instant power would halt with the slightest bit of weight of snow interfering?

Weird how that doesn't happen with cars, where you add a bunch more weight, and the instant torque handles it well...but add resistance to spinning auger and it stops the motor?

Strange.

With EV cars the issue isn't power, but rather battery life.

But then with these, you can just get another battery that you can easily click in in 2 seconds...so battery life isn't an issue...but now power is?

Why the opposite issues from e cars lol

Is it the motor overheating or the battery? An EV car has sophisticated cooling systems for the battery, I suspect the snow blower doesn't have anything.

My understanding is Cold weather also lowers the voltage of a battery, which results in the motor drawing more current, which results in more heat at the motor, again, cars have sophisticated battery management systems to control for this, idk if it's cost effective to do so with a snow blower

 

[jbeck5]

Is it the motor overheating or the battery? An EV car has sophisticated cooling systems for the battery, I suspect the snow blower doesn't have anything.

My understanding is Cold weather also lowers the voltage of a battery, which results in the motor drawing more current, which results in more heat at the motor, again, cars have sophisticated battery management systems to control for this, idk if it's cost effective to do so with a snow blower

So I guess they will always struggle in any temperature if they're overheating in -20 temperatures until they develop a cheap method of temperature management.

Weird how I can be in +30 and mow the lawn for 45 mins and it will be fine... But -20 and the snow blower overheats in just a few mins lol.

I'm guessing it's the 40V battery is more than enough for a lawn mower but being pushed to its max by the snow blower?

Funny that the models I'm looking at take as many as 4 40V batteries at the same time and still overheat whereas as a single 40v battery in weather 50 degrees warmer is fine for my lawn mower.

Perhaps they need to put bigger batteries in those things if they overheat so much by being pushed to capacity?

Or would a computer/laptop fan not be enough to draw in cold air to cool the motor or battery?

 

[Micklebot]

So I guess they will always struggle in any temperature if they're overheating in -20 temperatures until they develop a cheap method of temperature management.

Weird how I can be in +30 and mow the lawn for 45 mins and it will be fine... But -20 and the snow blower overheats in just a few mins lol.

I'm guessing it's the 40V battery is more than enough for a lawn mower but being pushed to its max by the snow blower?

Funny that the models I'm looking at take as many as 4 40V batteries at the same time and still overheat whereas as a single 40v battery in weather 50 degrees warmer is fine for my lawn mower.

Perhaps they need to put bigger batteries in those things if they overheat so much by being pushed to capacity?

Or would a computer/laptop fan not be enough to draw in cold air to cool the motor or battery?

Honestly I'm not sure. My old gas snowblower would sometimes stall out when I hit the crap the plow pushed onto the end of my driveway, and it had a much bigger engine than a mower. Never had an issue with a gas mover stalling (I guess maybe if I let the grass get way too long?)

Batteries have a sweet spot that like to operate in, I suspect a mower's typical use case is in that sweet spot, so you don't have to worry about it, and since the load for a mover is way less, there's no issue with the motor overheating (they likely would use the existing rotation from the blade assembly to push air through and cool the motor if there was any issue).

I'm sure they could set something up to push sufficient cold air through the snow blower to not have it go into limp mode, they apparently just didn't do so sufficiently for the model in question, which my best guess would be is due to cost.

 

[jbeck5]

Honestly I'm not sure. My old gas snowblower would sometimes stall out when I hit the crap the plow pushed onto the end of my driveway, and it had a much bigger engine than a mower. Never had an issue with a gas mover stalling (I guess maybe if I let the grass get way too long?)

Batteries have a sweet spot that like to operate in, I suspect a mower's typical use case is in that sweet spot, so you don't have to worry about it, and since the load for a mover is way less, there's no issue with the motor overheating (they likely would use the existing rotation from the blade assembly to push air through and cool the motor if there was any issue).

I'm sure they could set something up to push sufficient cold air through the snow blower to not have it go into limp mode, they apparently just didn't do so sufficiently for the model in question, which my best guess would be is due to cost.

Another part of the dilemma is the cost per time saved.

A lawn mower is like $500 or whatever and saves me like 100x compare to a by hand alternative...what would that even be...a scythe? Or I guess one of those rolling push mowers... And we gotta mow the lawn like every week. So that $500 goes a longgggg way.

Whereas the snow blowers I'm looking at are $2,000-2,500 and we often only have to use them 3-5 times a year...and it only saves me a few minutes from the alternative, the shovel....and also the shovel gives me a good workout.

It's hard to justify spending $2,500 to save you a couple hours a year of work when you're used to spending $500 to save you dozens of hours a year.

 

[Micklebot]

Another part of the dilemma is the cost per time saved.

A lawn mower is like $500 or whatever and saves me like 100x compare to a by hand alternative...what would that even be...a scythe? Or I guess one of those rolling push mowers... And we gotta mow the lawn like every week. So that $500 goes a longgggg way.

Whereas the snow blowers I'm looking at are $2,000-2,500 and we often only have to use them 3-5 times a year...and it only saves me a few minutes from the alternative, the shovel....and also the shovel gives me a good workout.

It's hard to justify spending $2,500 to save you a couple hours a year of work when you're used to spending $500 to save you dozens of hours a year.

Well, time vs effort is a factor too, mowing the lawn takes a bit of time, but is pretty easy. Shoveling snow, particularly the crap the plow puts up, can be a pain. It's also far more highly corelated to heart attacks as you age, so there's that too... so yeah, good workout but not without risks as you age.

The other thing is you can put off mowing, but if you need to get to work, and the plow made a mess at the end of the driveway, you might not be able to make it out without shoveling first.

Honestly. at 2k+ I'd just hire a service, you can get 4 seasons worth of plowing for that price...

 

[branch]

Another part of the dilemma is the cost per time saved.

A lawn mower is like $500 or whatever and saves me like 100x compare to a by hand alternative...what would that even be...a scythe? Or I guess one of those rolling push mowers... And we gotta mow the lawn like every week. So that $500 goes a longgggg way.

Whereas the snow blowers I'm looking at are $2,000-2,500 and we often only have to use them 3-5 times a year...and it only saves me a few minutes from the alternative, the shovel....and also the shovel gives me a good workout.

It's hard to justify spending $2,500 to save you a couple hours a year of work when you're used to spending $500 to save you dozens of hours a year.

Just get a snow removal service, they're sweet. Shovelling/snow removal sucks and is a big waste of time. Probably around $500 for the season

 

[jbeck5]

Just get a snow removal service, they're sweet. Shovelling/snow removal sucks and is a big waste of time. Probably around $500 for the season

Yeah, that's even more money thrown out the window though.

My issue is I'm good with money, and spending money on things I can do with a solid workout, when I need to work out more in fact to get in better shape, is not in my plans.

Last year, we had a rental and shared a driveway with other people and they wanted us to go 50-50 on removal...like $250-350 each or something...it never really snowed more than 10-15 cm and only 2-3 times. Basically paid for a quarter of my performance summer tires for my sportscar by putting in 30 mins of work spread out over the whole winter.

I can't ever justify paying for that until I'm too old to be physical active.

 

[jbeck5]

Well, time vs effort is a factor too, mowing the lawn takes a bit of time, but is pretty easy. Shoveling snow, particularly the crap the plow puts up, can be a pain. It's also far more highly corelated to heart attacks as you age, so there's that too... so yeah, good workout but not without risks as you age.

The other thing is you can put off mowing, but if you need to get to work, and the plow made a mess at the end of the driveway, you might not be able to make it out without shoveling first.

Honestly. at 2k+ I'd just hire a service, you can get 4 seasons worth of plowing for that price...

I'm in my 30s so I have a couple decades to go until heart attacks become a risk.

Also, that sounds like an even bigger waste than a $2,000 snow blower.

The options are:

$30 shovel already paid for....will probably last a decade or more...provides a workout.

$2,000 snowblower...probably lasts a decade or more...all I have to do is kind of slowly walk this thing that already propels itself...

$400 snow removal that lasts a year, but I don't have to do any work myself...unless I have to go to work and they haven't come yet, so then I would be shoveling or snow lowing anyways.

I actually saw plenty of neighbours with snow service have to shovel because they didn't come when they needed them.

Like they would come do their driveway...but 20 mins after, the plow comes...but snow removal doesn't make it back for like 2-4 hours or something...so all these people that needed to get places shoveling heavy snow while they have those bright plastic poles on both sides of their driveway.

That seems like the worse option, unless you're retirement age or something.

Especially if it's $500 a year for the next 50 years of my life...that's $25,000.

That's two and a half times as much as I paid for my sportscar.

I'm all about saving money where you can to be able to afford the fun things in life that other people otherwise can't afford because they spend on all these little things.

 

[Micklebot]

I'm in my 30s so I have a couple decades to go until heart attacks become a risk.

Also, that sounds like an even bigger waste than a $2,000 snow blower.

The options are:

$30 shovel already paid for....will probably last a decade or more...provides a workout.

$2,000 snowblower...probably lasts a decade or more...all I have to do is kind of slowly walk this thing that already propels itself...

$400 snow removal that lasts a year, but I don't have to do any work myself...unless I have to go to work and they haven't come yet, so then I would be shoveling or snow lowing anyways.

I actually saw plenty of neighbours with snow service have to shovel because they didn't come when they needed them.

Like they would come do their driveway...but 20 mins after, the plow comes...but snow removal doesn't make it back for like 2-4 hours or something...so all these people that needed to get places shoveling heavy snow while they have those bright plastic poles on both sides of their driveway.

That seems like the worse option, unless you're retirement age or something.

Especially if it's $500 a year for the next 50 years of my life...that's $25,000.

That's two and a half times as much as I paid for my sportscar.

I'm all about saving money where you can to be able to afford the fun things in life that other people otherwise can't afford because they spend on all these little things.

Having experienced snow removal services, I find it is well worth not having to deal with shoveling, imo, but ymmv. It's obviously a luxury, not the cheapest option, but to each their own. You also don't need to worry about storing the blower, or maintenance which is nice.

Idk about your situation, but I can't fit both my car, and a blower in my garage without having to shuffle things around every time I need to use the blower. It often ends up being more work than it's worth most of the time, so I'd just shovel anyways. Where the blower was nice was when I also wanted to clear a big chunk of my back yard (we had a big area with interlock). Doing a double wide driveway, then about another driveways worth of my backyard, along with the path along the side of the house wasn't something I'd bother with if I was shoveling.

If you're just looking for the cheapest option, but hate dealing with the plow, electric shovels might be a decent compromise, take up very little room, easier on your back than shoveling, and can be found from $100-250. Not sure how well they do with the remnants from the plow though.

 

[FunkySeeFunkyDoo]

My teenagers do the bulk of the snow shovelling for me. Works great.

So, best solution I can put forth is to have kids and wait 15 years.

 

[Masked]

My teenagers do the bulk of the snow shovelling for me. Works great.

So, best solution I can put forth is to have kids and wait 15 years.

I suspect a snowblower is much cheaper.

 

[jbeck5]

Having experienced snow removal services, I find it is well worth not having to deal with shoveling, imo, but ymmv. It's obviously a luxury, not the cheapest option, but to each their own. You also don't need to worry about storing the blower, or maintenance which is nice.

Idk about your situation, but I can't fit both my car, and a blower in my garage without having to shuffle things around every time I need to use the blower. It often ends up being more work than it's worth most of the time, so I'd just shovel anyways. Where the blower was nice was when I also wanted to clear a big chunk of my back yard (we had a big area with interlock). Doing a double wide driveway, then about another driveways worth of my backyard, along with the path along the side of the house wasn't something I'd bother with if I was shoveling.

If you're just looking for the cheapest option, but hate dealing with the plow, electric shovels might be a decent compromise, take up very little room, easier on your back than shoveling, and can be found from $100-250. Not sure how well they do with the remnants from the plow though.

Both cars are in the garage and a snowblower would fit in the middle ok.

Also plan on eventually doing the backyard too to use the barbecue and future hot tub...but I think shovel the deck would be easier than getting a snow blower up on it.

I've seen those shovels but apparently they suck at doing the heavy slushy/icy stuff plows leave.

Great for walkways though.

I think shovel is the way to go until I find a killer sale on a snowblower or until E snow blowers improve their technology to the level of other E tools which I find great.

My teenagers do the bulk of the snow shovelling for me. Works great.

So, best solution I can put forth is to have kids and wait 15 years.

Train them younger. I was watching home videos to see my baby self recently to compare to my newborn. Later on in the videos, my dad recorded me shoveling their driveway at 8 years old with a full size shovel and was doing it very well and getting all the heavy stuff and launching it over our snowbanks into the middle of our lawn, no problem.

I'd start training them at like 5-6 with toy shovels. They go out and help every time I go out and shovel. Then within a couple years I'll let them take over the family business

 

[DrEasy]

My teenagers do the bulk of the snow shovelling for me. Works great.

So, best solution I can put forth is to have kids and wait 15 years.

And who do you hire to clean up their mess?

 

[jbeck5]

And who do you hire to clean up their mess?

My wife. Free of charge. Lol

 

[bicboi64]

My teenagers do the bulk of the snow shovelling for me. Works great.

So, best solution I can put forth is to have kids and wait 15 years.

My parents agree. Jokes on them, I'm never moving out