Hand held rotary brooms?

[JCurtis]

Hand held - Gas powered rotary brooms anyone have any experience with them?

[Chuck Smith]

Wait until Eric ELM sees this thread! Yes, according to him, they work great in light snow up to 4" even. Dino uses them as well. They are also good for getting gravel from plowing off grass areas in the spring. They don't damage the grass at all.

~Chuck

[Eric ELM]

They work OK for small amounts of snow and are great in landscaping.

[Alan]

I've used our Powerbrooms in light snow and they seem to work fine. Limiting factor is depth, once you get past an inch they fall off in efficiency real fast. But you can hold them angled and clear an inch as fast as you can walk. It takes several passes to do a sidewalk that way but they clean right to the concrete. Once you get to 2" a blower is faster. We use two stroke powered blowers, 21" I think they are, with rubber tipped impellors and they will clear 2" and up as fast as you can walk.

[plowking35]

Power brooms are great, but not for snow removal. With 2-3" of powder we use back pack blowers. Any more the honda 621 single stage 4 stroke snow blower.(in case anyone forgot what I like to use)
But they are great for sand removla and getting gravel and sand off grassy areas. They wont damage the turf.
Dino

[Aspen Snow]

We use power broom in the winter. If you get an inch of snow they are great. Any more than that a shovel works better.

[Prime Seasons]

Has anyone tried using the optional deflector with powerbroom? My Pb270 is limited just like the others beyond 2" of powdery snow. Then the snow blows back and over the blade fins.

Please post if you have results with the optional deflector!!!!

[steveair]

hello,

I'm familiar with the power brooms and will say that they are great for landscaping, but wonder if they are really worth the trouble for snow removal.

It seems a plain old snow shovel will push a inch of snow just as easily as a power broom will. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm into any tool that stops me from busting my back with a snow shovel, but for the 600 dollar tag on most of them, and the thought of having it clainging around in the back of a truck going to job to job, and the fact its getting soaking wet, dropped, etc. out in the middle of a snow storm, make me think a shovel is still the way to go.

for spring, however, it may work great. We have a lot dirt, gravel drives, etc. Maybe signing contracts for 'clean-up of snow de-bris' after a winter of plowing may be profitable. Could see a use for it in that it does work great for raking all that sand/rocks/etc. off of the edges of people's lawns. Then again, if you only want to plow, why get into spring clean-ups when a landscaper can do that.......it ain't as much fun as plowing, thats for sure.

steveair