Troy-Bilt 21-Inch 179cc Single-Stage Gas (31AS2S5GB66) Review

Here's the honest backdrop: the best gas single-stage snow blowers — Toro's Power Clear 721 E and 518 ZE — are sold almost exclusively through dealers and big-box stores, and neither has a clean Amazon listing. Troy-Bilt's 21-inch 179cc machine does, and it's a credible alternative. It shares the same basic architecture as the Squall series that's been clearing Midwestern driveways for years: a 4-cycle OHV engine, a rubber-edged auger that both throws the snow and pulls the machine, and a remote chute you aim from the handle.

The reason to pay gas money for a single-stage is wet snow. A 15-amp corded motor is roughly 1,800 watts; a 179cc engine is about three times that, and in the heavy, near-freezing stuff that falls on the coasts and the southern Great Lakes that difference is whether you throw the snow 25 feet or watch it dribble off the chute. The 13-inch intake also means a genuine foot of snow is a one-pass job. At around 90 pounds it's heavier than a plug-in but still a machine one adult can tip into a truck bed or carry up a couple of steps.

Own it like a small engine: stabilized fuel from the first tank, an oil check before each use, and either a dry carburetor or treated gas before summer storage. This particular listing is the recoil-start version — if you'd rather push a button, Troy-Bilt's 179E electric-start variant exists, as do the battery single-stage machines in our cordless picks that start in any temperature. And as always for single-stage: pavement only.