Should I get a 24 or 28 inch snow blower?
Choose on engine and intake height rather than width. A 28-inch machine saves passes on a long or wide drive, but the firmest owner advice is to buy the biggest engine rather than the widest bucket.
Width sets how many passes you make. It does not decide whether the machine copes with a deep storm or the plow berm; intake height, engine and throw distance do. Troy-Bilt's own guidance puts both 24- and 28-inch two-stage machines in the same band — longer drives with heavy, wet snow — and reserves 20-inch models for smaller drives seeing up to 12 inches.
The owner consensus in an Ariens Deluxe 24 versus 28 versus 30 thread is the clearest single piece of buying advice in this report: buy the biggest motor and do not worry about the width. That is why the Deluxe 28 SHO is the top pick — its value is the 302cc engine, 14-inch auger and 55-foot throw, not the extra four inches. Among the 26- to 28-inch two-stage machines in this report, engines run from 243cc to 302cc, plus Honda's GX270.
No source found gives a cc threshold for a given snowfall, and engine size is not comparable across brands that rate power differently, so this report does not publish one. A narrower machine is worth choosing when it has to fit through a gate or a crowded garage; otherwise the step up to 28 inches is usually bundled with the engine you want.
Confidence: multi-source · Based on 6 cited sources.
Products discussed
- Ariens Deluxe 28 SHO
- Toro Power Max 826 OHAE
- Cub Cadet 2X 26 IntelliPOWER
Sources
- How wide of a snow blower do I need? · Troy-Bilt
- 26 in. Power Max 826 OHAE Two-Stage Gas Snow Blower · Toro
- 2X 26 in. IntelliPOWER Two-Stage Snow Blower · Cub Cadet
- Ariens Deluxe 28 SHO Snow Blower (921072) · Mowtown Equipment
- Honda HSS928AW and AWD 28-inch Two-stage Snow Blower · Honda Power Equipment
- Ariens deluxe 24 vs 28 vs 30 · Reddit r/Snowblowers
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How Much to Spend on a Snow BlowerBy Purchasd Research. We used manufacturer and dealer product pages for prices, specifications and warranty terms; manufacturer sizing guidance and an independent buying guide for stage selection; manufacturer service documentation for wear parts; an independent tool review for battery performance; owner forum discussion — one Garage Journal thread and twelve Reddit threads read in full — for real-world preferences and failure points; and a used-value reference for resale. Manufacturer material established identity and specifications. Owner evidence was used to identify decision factors and failure modes, never to estimate defect rates. Prices are manufacturer or retailer prices observed on the dates given, before tax, assembly and delivery. Purchasd received no manufacturer payment, review units or affiliate consideration for this research. Most sizing guidance in this category is published by companies that sell snow blowers, and the used-value reference is an unattributed aggregator; each source is labeled by bias. Purchasd has not run any of these machines in snow.