Originally Posted by Virtus_Probi
We had a wet, heavy snowstorm a while back and I left my snowblower's engine running full blast to help it throw the snow/muck a little farther...I was pretty surprised that it actually overheated on me. I normally dialed it back at least a bit after starting to keep the noise down somewhat (for my own ears more than the neighbors') and not because I was worried about it getting hot, but that taught me to only use 100% throttle on a snowblower for short periods when I really needed it. To be fair, though, it was about 35F, not super cold at the time.
Newer snowblowers, like most newer OPE, do not have an adjustable throttle; they run at a fixed speed. I've never had a snowblower overheat, but I can see where it would be possible with heavy wet snow with temperatures above freezing.
All in all, 5w-30 synthetic seems to be the way to go for snowblowers. They shouldn't need anything above SAE 30 for normal operating conditions, nor anything below 5W unless left outside below minus 20 F. I can't speak for the rest of you, but personally I keep my snowblower in the garage so that I don't have to dig it out just to use it.