Snow Shovel recommendations?

A tool I have found useful in addition to a snow shovel is an ice chopper.

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So many bad ideas in this thread!

Get the aluminum scoop style or a plain plastic snow shovel without riveted on metal strip.

The metal strips catch on cracks in the pavement and are jarring on your body.

The snowplow style would only work if your snow piles melt completely between storms and you don't have to lift your load.

The bent handles meant for saving your back or whatever are gimmicky. They interfere with throwing snow up and over snow piles... maybe not a problem where you live.

A plastic snow shovel is a wear item-- the plasticizers evaporate until the shovel becomes brittle and breaks when you hit some ice. Just a nature of the beast, and not avoidable by buying American, expensive, from Mom & Pop's hardware, etc.

Get this from Ace Hardware or similar. Just enough "scoop" to hold the snow from falling out while you transfer it to the pile.
 
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I like the ergonomic handle ones, but usually keep several around, straight handle included. I view them as a wear item, buy when I find on sale.

A flat shovel, with a short handle, is what I like to cut down through snow that has been driven over. It works also on hard packed snow banks, for when they need to be chopped down. I like to keep one in the car too, in case I need it.
 
So many bad ideas in this thread!

The snowplow style would only work if your snow piles melt completely between storms and you don't have to lift your load.
So many bad ideas in your post!
Snowplow style doesn't need the snow to melt completely between storms.

My friend's dad had an old Chevy Blazer basically just to plow snow in his driveway. The snow didn't melt completely between storms. Too bad someone never told him he should have used a shovel instead.

Even if the piles start building up on the sides of the person's driveway, a snowplow style can still help the person get the snow over there easier in the first place, and they can then use a shovel to throw it over the top from there.

One thing I'd like to compare is a beefy snowplow style with the "sleigh shovel" style. Sleigh shovel is probably not as good at plowing as a beefy snowplow style, but is probably what people would want if they need to get the snow up and over a pile. But I'm not paying $80 for a sleigh shovel just to test it out.

I don't know what some people are doing with a plastic shovel to break them so much. Mine's old, I usually grab it instead of the metal shovel. And to help out my snowblower, I often use the plastic shovel to break up the 2-feet-high wall at the end of the driveway the city's road plow creates which starts solidifying and icing up.
 
My favorite is the "back saver"kind with the bent handle and a metal strip. A wide pusher of some sort could also be useful, especially with drier snow.

Eljefino has a point about having to pitch the snow onto high banks as the season wears on, but that may not be an issue in Kentucky. Compared to lifting with the straight handle, that effort is worth it to me. I spent 3 winters in West Michigan without a snowblower, including a year with 120-something inches of snow. Clearing a 2-car driveway and the sidewalk out front, I wore the blade off the landlord's straight shovel, then an ergonomic one, and most of another ergonomic one. I have been using that last shovel two or three times per year in Virginia for a decade now.

I told a guy in Michigan that I was taking my snow shovel to VA just in case. He said I would be like Odysseus, carrying his oar so far from the sea that nobody knew what it was. I am the only one on my block that seems to own, or at least use, a snow shovel. (I do know parts of VA get substantial snow, but I'm in the part of the state where you have to buy all of the bread and milk when snow is forecast.)
 
I own four shovels that are various designs. The snow is wildly different in coastal NH. Is there any way you could describe the snow you get normally?
 
I might add something else to the arsenal later but I ended up getting The Snowplow "the Original Snow Pusher" 24" Wide Model 50524 as a starter Shovel for clearing the steps.

Looks like I'm going to need to probably add an aluminum scoop type as well maybe.
 
"Ten Year warranty", lol. Save the sticker and receipt somewhere? Or is the warranty void if the sticker falls off?

It's a good basic shovel design though.
 
I recommend YOU get one that YOU like the best. Some are made for tall people... some are made to be easier on your back.... some are made to move more snow....some are metal...some are plastic. etc
 
Got you all beat i have the best shovel ever made Its the ( Wife brand shovel ) had it for over 30 years still works well just a little slower than it used to be. I bet a lot of you guys have one but haven't figured out how to use it , the manual that came with it is VERY vague.
 
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