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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 162 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
198 of 202 found the following review helpful:
 Well worth feeling a little silly Dec 21, 2009
By Sheldon
Today's 8" storm officially heralded in my second season using the Wovel, and I was reminded exactly how remarkable this silly-looking contraption is.
My house is one of four homes on a very small private street. Since we're responsible for our own snow removal, we co-own a large snow blower and take turns clearing the street. My three neighbors also use the blower to clear their driveways. As for myself, I don't particularly like the loud, polluting blower. Since I've always looked at shoveling as excellent exercise, I would typically reach for the shovel to handle my own driveway.
Although I'm pretty fit, I do suffer from occasional acute lower back episodes. For this reason, my wife picked up a Wovel as a holiday gift for me last season.
The first time I used it, I was amazed at how large a swath of 8" deep snow I could clear with a single scoop. I estimated at that time that the volume of snow I was clearing with one Wovel scoop was equivalent to around 5 scoops of a normal shovel. The factors that make this possible: 1.) the shovel portion of the Wovel is huge; 2.) the lever action of the Wovel allows you to lift and toss *a lot* of weight with minimal effort. The combined effect is that the shovel portion of the Wovel, which is large to begin with, can be used to lift and toss a pile of snow that is not just wide, but is also piled much higher than you would ever attempt with a conventional shovel.
I've seen some reviewers state that the Wovel is more effective than a snow blower. In my opinion, this depends on the snow blower in question, the area you're clearing and the snow conditions.
The street I have to clear is several hundred feet long. The Wovel is pretty cool, but at the end of the day, it's still a shovel; you have to stop clearing momentarily as you toss a load. Since the snow blower can clear and toss simultaneously, it can clear a path down the length of the street without stopping (i.e. it has a superior "duty cycle"). If I were dealing with perhaps 5" or less of lighter snow, I could probably clear the street faster with the Wovel than the blower ... but this is probably true of a conventional shovel as well, since you can "plow" light amounts of snow with a conventional shovel. But once you start getting into larger accumulations or wetter, heavier snow, the blower is going to win: the heavier the snow, the greater the blower's advantage.
Now it might be a different story if we're talking about a typical driveway instead of a street. My driveway is maybe 40 feet long. Although the blower has the advantage I described earlier, it also has overhead: it has to be physically turned around, and the "blast gate" probably needs to be rotated to throw the snow where you want it. My driveway isn't long enough to significantly exploit the blower's superior duty cycle. If you combine this with the fact that the Wovel is more nimble, then I would say that I will probably clear the driveway faster with the Wovel, perhaps even with heavier or deeper snow. *But*, if the snow is heavily crusted, packed, or slushy, then the blower again starts to gain the edge.
The Wovel does have some limitations. For example, you won't be using it to clear the stairs on your front porch. Also, you cannot effectively thrust and "slice" into snow. So, if you allow the snow that gets piled at the end of your driveway by the passing street plows to sit long enough to become hard, you'll probably need a conventional shovel to tackle it. (If you get to it right away though, the Wovel is an absolute God send. I cleared a knee-deep pile such as this from the end of our private road today in 30 seconds flat.)
Also, there is a slight learning curve in determining the most efficient pattern to use on your driveway. The Wovel is most effective when the snow can be thrown directly ahead of you. For this reason, it isn't practical to move in long straight lines, nor do you want to have to pivot to throw the snow off to one side. The best approach is to move in diagonal lines relative to the length of your driveway. I won't attempt to describe this further, but the Wovel includes a video that covers this concept in detail.
Lastly, although the Wovel does provide you with the mechanical advantage of a fulcrum and lever system, you are still using muscle power. If you decide to push yourself, you will find that you'll be getting a workout. That said however, it is still much easier than using a conventional shovel (I estimate I can clear a typical snowfall from my driveway in roughly one-third the time), and it is far, FAR easier on your back. I might have fatigued lats and shoulders after finishing with it, but I never experience any back discomfort whatsoever ... and as I mentioned, I have chronic lower back issues.
Oh, one more thing that is very minor ... and maybe this is just me: The Wovel might look a little gimmicky to some ... perhaps even downright silly. I do feel a little like the neighborhood "geeky eccentric professor" when I'm using it. Passers-by do often cast wry smiles, or make amused comments. But trust me, any initial skepticism disappears rapidly when they see it in action.
135 of 141 found the following review helpful:
 Better than a snow blower Dec 20, 2008
By M. Roberts
Pros:
The Wovel makes for fast, easy and efficient removal of snow. I can clear my drive faster with the Wovel than my neighbors can using their snow blowers (and it seems that they work harder trying, wrestling their snow blowers!). The folding design of the Sno Wovel is wonderful! It only takes a minute for me to disassemble and hang on my garage wall (so it also saves floor space over a snow blower). It works so well that I've started letting my 6 year old daughter clear away light snow (1-2").
Cons:
While clearing some snow I hit a patch of ice, that unfortunately has chipped a 2" chunk out of the middle of the shovel. This has also caused a 2-3" vertical crack. I would definitely recommend buying the available wear strip, which in my opinion should have been included with the shovel by the manufacturer. Very disappointingly, Structured Solutions II does not sell any accessories on Amazon so I would have incurred additional shipping costs buying the accessories from a different vendor (which I should have done, because I now have to buy a new shovel blade & a wear strip). I'm sure that there is some reason that the Wovel uses a plastic shovel (cost?), but a metal option would have been nice (at least that's how I'm feeling right now, looking at my broken shovel head).
Other notes:
1. Buy the accessory Wear Strip. You'll be glad you did.
2. Buy the accessory Ice Blade.
3. After you get your Wovel, put it together right away. Assembly can take a little while, so don't wait to put it together when you actually need it.
32 of 34 found the following review helpful:
Love our Wovel Feb 14, 2008
By N. Nerdin
"Lightranger"
We got our Wovel last week and the weather has been pretty good, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to try out my new toy...until yesterday. We had a pretty heavy snowstorm yesterday and there was plenty to shovel. So I grabbed the box and put it together in less than a half hour and went out to shovel, umm, wovel, the driveway.
It was amazing. within one or two scoops I had the technique down. I cleaned off my drive way within 10 minutes in the middle of the snow storm.
When my wife got home I had her come out and see how easy it was to use. I finished our drive way and was doing the walks in front of our house and two other neighbor's houses. I decided to do my next door neighbor's drive and started doing it. His young daughters were watching me from the living room window and then he came out and asked it he could do it. He was quite amazed with it's ease of use. So then I did the sidewalk to the end of my other neighbor's driveway and then did her driveway.
Of course that was a lot of work but not as much as just doing my driveway with a regular shovel. When I came in the house I had only been out for about 35 minutes...WOW!
I love our Wovel and feel like I am contributing to my health and not contributing to pollution with a combustion engine.
Everyone needs a wovel!!!
41 of 45 found the following review helpful:
Mom Dec 12, 2008
By Alexandra S. Lawer
"smart mom"
i bought two of these last year. Initially one for my Dad for Christmas and then one for me. I literally clean my whole front walkway with just one push. This actually feels like it tones my upper arms and helps my back, unlike my shovel which always hurts it. My Dad loves it. You scoop and throw. Once I watched the video, of how not to use it...I was tipping to the side...I realized how simple it is. I clear my driveway in half the time it took to shovel...and my back doesn't hurt.
35 of 38 found the following review helpful:
The Best Approach to Snow Dec 18, 2008
By J. Allen Day
The wovel comes together remarkably easily. The included instructions (with additional installation tips on DVD) are accurate and thorough. It's an easy, one man job requiring only a screwdriver and crecent wrench. All items were clearly indicated, making it the easiest "some assembly required" experience I've had. The parts are well made and tight fitting. I anticipate it to last many years with proper care.
After finishing my initial run with the Wovel there were three primary things that were very clear to me.
First, which was a shock for me, was the fact that it could forward plow in a single pass every bit as much snow as the big scoop shovel I'd previously used--quite possibly more. I expected it to be quite the opposite. The Wovel blades vertical orientation, allows it to move a great deal of snow at a time with less snow spilled over the sides than I'm accustomed to. This translates to far less going back over already cleared parts afterwards to clean up.
Secondly, I finished up extraordinarily faster than I'd ever before. No exaggeration, I finished in less than half the time it usually takes me to clear the same amount of snow. The wovel easily plows through the snow and afterwards throws it effortlessly up onto or over the piles. In contrast to the pained plowing of the big scoop and excruciating process of forcing the snow up onto hills, I am absolutely smitten with the wovel. The quality of my driveway clearing is the same as before and the resulting hills are pretty much the same, too. I did the same job faster, easier. While I won't attempt to compete with expensive multiple cycle blowers, I feel comfortable saying I could clear any reasonable sized surface faster and better with a wovel than a single cycle snow blower could.
Finally, the way I felt when I finished. A previous shoveling session left me drained, exhausted and sore. My initial shoveling session with the wovel left me feeling satisfied and invigorated. I worked my lower and upper body a bit, obviously, but nowhere near the point of fatigue. There was absolutely no strain on my trunk or neck.
The contrast between woveling and shoveling was, for me, nothing short of staggering. Short of expensive and complicated machinery, the Wovel is by far the best tool for snow removal. Added benefits are physical exercise, you don't emit toxic gasses into the atmosphere, no trouble starting it in cold weather, no need for fueling it or oiling it. For anyone who has snow to contend with and finding their current method less than perfect, I cannot strongly enough reccommend the Wovel. I conquered a winter of nearly 200 inches of snow in northern Maine last year with mine.
See all 162 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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