Damned snowblower…

My millions of loyal readers will recall this entry from just over a month ago, which was about spending too much money on repairs for my garage sale snowblower, and then almost killing myself getting it out of the back of a pickup truck. I said then that it had damn well better snow. And last night, I got my wish: plenty of snow here, enough to close down all the schools, including EMU. So I got myself bundled up and went out to put this thing to the test.

The snowblower did pretty well, at first. I plowed our sidewalk and the neighbors with no problem. Then I started working on the driveway, down by the street where the city had already plowed. Now, it was a wet and slushy snow to begin with, and it was a lot heavier and more slushy down by the street. The snowblower kept jamming. I stopped to clear it a couple of times, or I tried rocking it a bit to get the jammed parts to spit out of the chute. I finished my side of the driveway and then I started on my neighbor’s. The engine strained, but it was still going strong.

And then it wasn’t.

It never stopped running entirely, but it started to run a great deal more slowly, just barely idling, and it started to produce quite a bit of smoke. I’m no small engine mechanic, but I don’t think this is good.

Damn you snowblower.

So, what happens next? Well, I called the place that fixed it before (to the tune of $95, which, combined with the money I spent for the thing at the yard sale in the first place, puts me almost halfway to a freakin’ brand-new snowblower at this point), and they said they’d come pick it up and take a look at it. In fact, while I was typing this message, Annette called me and said that they came and picked it up.

My hope is they’ll fix or adjust something at no cost and it will work again, at least for a while. But if they want to charge me more money, I think I’m going to try to get a refund on the original work (I wouldn’t have spent that kind of money had I known the rest of the thing was in danger of just blowing up) and/or tell them to keep the evil thing.

Damn you, snowblower….

Update:

Mr. Snowblower, he dead.

As I mentioned, I called up the folks who fixed my snowblower– Congdon’s Ace Hardware here in Ypsi– and they came by and picked it up for me. Well, a few hours ago, I got a call from them with the bad news. Essentially, the carburetor blew and its too old of a snowblower to find a replacement part. And besides, there are apparently other issues with the engine.

Now, while the folks at Congdon’s couldn’t fix the snowblower, they did come out here to pick it up, they fully refunded my money, and they agreed to dispose of it, too. In my book, that’s great customer service– I’ll be back there again.

Alas, oh snowblower, I hardly knew ye! Well, other than the near-death experience a month ago, it was fun for about 45 minutes. Maybe I can get a real snowblower one of these days….

2 thoughts on “Damned snowblower…”

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