Snow Joe SJ618E Electric Snow Blower

I live in a condominium which is supposed to take care of snow removal, but they suck at the task. There are so many units spread around the area that it often takes forever to get to our end of the road. I wanted something that would be affordable, lightweight, effective and easy to store in my very limited space.This snowblower is great for the 2 car drive and 100 feet of walkway which surrounds my unit. I can finish the job of removing 3 to 6 inches of snow in about an hour, which I couldn't have done so quickly the old fashioned way. I should mention that I'm 67 years old and rapidly reaching the "you shouldn't be shoveling" stage. This blower is so light and easy to maneuver that it makes the task much, much easier on these old bones.As I said, this blower is very lightweight and highly maneuverable, though it takes a little practice to learn how to deal with the trailing cord. I could have gone with the battery model, but that would greatly increase the price. Once you develop a pattern for dealing with the cord, the work goes quite smoothly and you're done in no time at all. The unit is light, but it clears the snow cleanly all the way to the ground (with only one pass) and will throw it a good distance away. The trick is to get out there and get it before it gets too deep. This model seems strong enough to plow through fairly deep snow, but I'd rather not spend time fighting my way through deeper and/or heavier drifts, so "smarter not harder" is the best way for me to go.Assembly out of the box is really quite simple, and for the most part, self-explanatory. I strongly suggest you give yourself enough time and room to lay all the parts out and familiarize yourself with everything (and the included instructions) before attempting to put anything together, no matter how tempting that might be. You'll need very few tools and almost no mechanical abilities whatsoever. SnoJoe has done an excellent job of making this unit extremely user-friendly and anyone who has difficulty in assembly has probably ignored step one.There is really only one "design flaw" that I have found, and other users have mentioned it as well. The snow discharge chute is held in place by only one screw and a few "locking tabs" which are really too short and too thin to effectively hold the discharge assembly in place. The chute is designed to blow the snow either straight up (zero degrees), straight out (forty-five degrees) or any angle you choose in between. I've found that what happens when you attempt to blow the snow out at the forty-five degree angle, the snow hitting the chute will pull the discharge assembly apart rather quickly. It's easy to see that the "factory fix" to this problem would be to add an additional screw (or two) to the discharge assembly, or make the locking tabs longer and/or thicker. Short of that, what I have found through trial and error is that keeping the discharge chute set at, or near, twenty-eight degrees keeps the chute in place and the operation running smoothly from beginning to end.The last thing I want to mention is that this is NOT an industrial grade unit. It is a "homeowner" grade device which will (in all probability) not stand up to heavy or careless abuse. It is made in great part of plastic and lightweight metals, much the same quality and dependability as Home Depot's Ryobi homeowner line. I find either one of them to be affordable, dependable and cost-effective at my level of use.Bottom line, I believe that the SnoJoe I've reviewed was a very good choice. I'm actually beginning to look seriously at their line of SunJoe products for gardening as the season begins to change.Watch out Home Depot....