There are some perennial questions we get asked again and again. Here’s an assortment of general wintertime tips.
1. Plan ahead for the melt
Where to send the snow can be a problem in a residential setting. If your shovelling leaves a long heap of snow beside the sidewalk, you might be creating hazardous ice-making conditions when the melt occurs, flooding the sidewalk only to have it freeze solid come evening. This problem may be better or worse for you depending on how much direct sunlight your property gets (north facing vs south, etc.) and how steep the grade is next to the sidewalk.
2. Shovelling? Consider a snowblower
Sometimes there’s no way around this; the snow has to go somewhere. Here’s a tip– get a snowblower! In most cases, a snowblower will ameliorate the melting problem compared to shovelling, since it removes the snow much farther from the sidewalk.
3. Keep an eye on slippery conditions
Either way, you’d be wise to keep tabs on your sidewalk ice situation and take steps to combat it with sand and/or ice melting compound, as property owners can be found liable for injuries that occur due to slippery sidewalks.
4. Sticky Snow
If you have a problem with snow sticking to your shovel or your snowblower’s chute, try treating either with a silicone spray (or even a no-stick cooking spray).
5. Don’t Cone Your Brush!
When using a power sweeper, alternate the angle of the brush so that it wears evenly, and keep a keen eye on your caster forks. If these become bent due to hitting a gap in the pavement too hard, they need to be fixed right away to avoid rapid, uneven brush wear.
6. Be mindful of wind direction
Push blades are frequently used for snow removal out in acreage settings, but they’re not always the most effective method, and in certain conditions they may be counterproductive. When you push the snow, you create a windrow, and if the snow blows after you’ve created that windrow, it’s going to drift in even deeper than before. This effect will be worst when the plowed path runs perpendicular to the prevailing wind. If your snow removal method leaves a windrow, plan to leave it on the leeward side of your path (if possible) so that the drifting occurs to one side of the path rather than the middle of it.
7. Consider a snowblower. No, really!
Again, it’s so much more effective to use a snow thrower that has the benefit of scattering the snow some distance away, thus avoiding the conditions that worsen drifting.
8. Remember to treat your fuel
The most troublesome cold weather issues are fuel related. Use premium grade gasoline, keep your tanks topped up to minimize condensation in the air space, and use a methyl hydrate based fuel antifreeze that won’t damage rubber or neoprene parts. For Stihl powered equipment, their Motomix fuel is ideal and has a long shelf life.
9. Keep your oil clean
In small motors that lack oil filters, the oil should be replaced every 25 hours of operation. We can’t stress enough just how important this is, and almost nobody does it! During a heavy snowfall, some users can put 25 hours on their machine just in the first few days. For motors equipped with oil filters, that stretches to 100 hours of operation. Some of the larger sweeper units will also require a spark plug replacement at 100 hours.
10. Thaw out your equipment if you can
For any powered winter equipment, the most beneficial thing is to be thawed out and dried off periodically. Heated storage is beneficial, since none of the manufacturers designs equipment for constant operation at -30° or colder. Don’t push a cold motor; instead give it a proper warmup of two or three minutes. The colder the day, the more warmup is needed.
Holiday Gift Season
OK, OK– so it’s not necessarily a “tip”– but we want to remind you that powered equipment can be a great gift idea for the holidays. The most popular gift items are lawn mowers, small snow blowers, and especially chainsaws.
In the coming year Stihl will be putting a bigger push behind their line of Lithium Ion battery powered handheld equipment. This new technology has recently seen steadily improving battery performance along with more affordable prices. In fact, Stihl foresees that within ten years, all consumer level handheld equipment will be running handily with battery power. Any product from this line would be a great gift idea.
Drop By and See Us!
Come to Arn’s, have a chat with Brian, Jeff, or any of our other sales and service associates, and take advantage of their decades of collective experience. We make a point to really know our stuff.