Snow Joe 622U1 review

This is my informal review of the Snow Joe 622U1 snow thrower/blower.

Last year I bought the Snow Joe 622U1 snow thrower for about $228 shipped. Out of the box assembly was very simple using hand tools. Construction wise the 622U1 seems to be ok for the price. The plug for the electrical cord does not have any sort of retention mechanism to keep the cord from backing off due to vibration. This actually caused my extension cord to briefly catch fire while I was using it. Kind of scary. Wrapping the cord around the handle and tieing it off didn't help too much. Snow Joe should have either provided a clamping cord mechanism like most electric leaf blowers have or used a pigtail for the electrical connection. The best I was able to do was to slightly bend the plugs on the snow blower so they held on to the cord tighter.


After the 3rd use one of the bolts for the auger blade loosened and fell out. This caused the blade to spin around wildly and punch a large 4" hole in the main case of the snow blower (the main black plastic core that holds the unit together). It also shattered the white auger drive pulley inside the housing into hundreds of pieces. When I called Snow Joe to get it covered under warranty I was told that the housing is not covered but the white drive pulley and belt were. So Be careful! While they advertised a 2 year warranty, obviously, this does not include the entire snow blower and this may be true for their newer models as well. Had I known that I would have stayed away. The housing is very thin and apparently very fragile. In the back of the owner's manual there is a short blurb that the auger bolts should be checked for tightness after every 5 uses or so. Even though I read the entire manual front to back I still missed it. This warning should have been written on a large red tag in bold letters and strapped to the snow blower. What Snow Joe did was to use nylock nuts on the auger bolts. They work great when they're warm, but get them cold enough and they loose their grip and spin right off the bolts. From the other complaints I've read I'm not the only one this has happened to. I'd recommend checking them EVERY time you use the snow blower.

The wheels on the snow blower are plastic and very small. They are only about 4" in diameter. They're pretty much useless for anything other than wheeling it through your garage. As soon as they hit snow or slush they get frozen and lock up.

When it was operational the 622U1 moved snow very well. Even the deep stuff could be chugged through if you took your time and didn't force it. The unit is very light but I'm a big guy so my definition of light may be different from everyone elses. As far as noise goes it is definitely quite enough. I used mine without fear of bothering the neighbors.

The unit does have a decent amount of power. The motor is advertised as being 13 amps. I used it with a 12ga 100ft extension cord on a 15 amp circuit and it would trip my breaker pretty often when pushing it through deep snow. I'd definitely recommend running it off of a 20 amp circuit or higher if possible.

I'm 6ft and I would like for the handle to be a bit higher. As it is now I feel like I have to bend over a little.

Throwing distance will never be as good as with a 2 stage snow blower but it is sufficient and even under heavy load will throw it about 6 to 7 ft. One problem I had with the discharge chute is that it was impossible to adjust the angle. No matter how low I set it, as soon as the snow hit it, it would knock it back up into the 45 degree position. This happened no matter how tight I turned the lock knobs.

Since my Snow Joe is basically dead I ordered a GreenWorks 12 amp snow blower and will be trying it out once it arrives and we get some snow. This model has a 4 year warranty and looks like it is quite a bit sturdier than the Snow Joe.