Snow Joe Ultra SJ618E 18-Inch 13-Amp Electric Snow Thrower

Top reviews from the United States

• I Don't Dread Winter As Much

  Amazon customer· Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2026

  Verified Purchase

  After three seasons with my Snow Joe, I can finally say this machine has been truly put to the test. While the first two years were light on snow, this most recent storm dropped up to 12 inches of snow with a one-inch layer of ice on top. Honestly, I don’t know what I would have done without it. ​Performance Under Pressure ​This little machine makes a tedious job much more bearable. It performed without hesitation—no stalling, no dying—it just did its job. I was able to clear my patio, the sidewalk, and my entire parking area. I even managed to carve a path to my mailbox, which I hadn't seen in a week! ​Here is the breakdown of how it handled the heavy stuff: ​The Power: It cleared 8 to 12 inches of snow with no problem, though you do have to put some muscle behind it if it's wintry mix. The light, fluffy stuff is a breeze. ​The Ice Factor: It handled the snow/ice mix well before it fully set. Once the freezing rain turned to ice, I had to break it down with a shovel first, but the Snow Joe was happy to blow the chunks away once they were loose. ​Ease of Use: It’s incredibly simple. You just press the blue safety button and pull the handle trigger at the same time to go. ​The Chute: Rotating the chute to change snow direction is extremely easy and intuitive. Assembly: Extremely simple, just follow the instructions that are provided. I had it assembled in less than two hours. Noise Level: It's no louder than a lawn mower. ​A Few "Pro-Tips" for Owners ​It isn't a perfect 10/10 out of the box; there are two things you absolutely need to know to avoid frustration: ​The Cord Situation: Since this is electric, you need a long, high-quality extension cord. Make sure you secure the connection so it doesn't constantly unplug while you’re working—stopping to plug it back in is a total pain. ​The Chute Hack: As other users have noted, the chute can sometimes come undone. I followed some advice another reviewer posted and added three additional screws to the lip of the chute where it attaches to the body. It’s now rock-solid and won't be breaking anytime soon. (I’ll upload photos of this modification next time I have it out!) ​Final Verdict ​It took my son and me multiple days to clear everything due to the freezing rain and sleet, but that was a challenge for everyone in our neighborhood, regardless of what equipment they had. ​The Snow Joe is the "little machine that could." It turned a back-breaking task into something manageable. If you're looking for something reliable that won't quit on you when the drifts get high, this is it. The cost is very affordable. Read more 3 people found this

• Excellent Condo Blower

  Guy Schmidt· Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2021

  Verified Purchase

  I live in a condominium which is supposed to take care of snow removal, but they suck at the task. There are so many units spread around the area that it often takes forever to get to our end of the road. I wanted something that would be affordable, lightweight, effective and easy to store in my very limited space. This snowblower is great for the 2 car drive and 100 feet of walkway which surrounds my unit. I can finish the job of removing 3 to 6 inches of snow in about an hour, which I couldn't have done so quickly the old fashioned way. I should mention that I'm 67 years old and rapidly reaching the "you shouldn't be shoveling" stage. This blower is so light and easy to maneuver that it makes the task much, much easier on these old bones. As I said, this blower is very lightweight and highly maneuverable, though it takes a little practice to learn how to deal with the trailing cord. I could have gone with the battery model, but that would greatly increase the price. Once you develop a pattern for dealing with the cord, the work goes quite smoothly and you're done in no time at all. The unit is light, but it clears the snow cleanly all the way to the ground (with only one pass) and will throw it a good distance away. The trick is to get out there and get it before it gets too deep. This model seems strong enough to plow through fairly deep snow, but I'd rather not spend time fighting my way through deeper and/or heavier drifts, so "smarter not harder" is the best way for me to go. Assembly out of the box is really quite simple, and for the most part, self-explanatory. I strongly suggest you give yourself enough time and room to lay all the parts out and familiarize yourself with everything (and the included instructions) before attempting to put anything together, no matter how tempting that might be. You'll need very few tools and almost no mechanical abilities whatsoever. SnoJoe has done an excellent job of making this unit extremely user-friendly and anyone who has difficulty in assembly has probably ignored step one. There is really only one "design flaw" that I have found, and other users have mentioned it as well. The snow discharge chute is held in place by only one screw and a few "locking tabs" which are really too short and too thin to effectively hold the discharge assembly in place. The chute is designed to blow the snow either straight up (zero degrees), straight out (forty-five degrees) or any angle you choose in between. I've found that what happens when you attempt to blow the snow out at the forty-five degree angle, the snow hitting the chute will pull the discharge assembly apart rather quickly. It's easy to see that the "factory fix" to this problem would be to add an additional screw (or two) to the discharge assembly, or make the locking tabs longer and/or thicker. Short of that, what I have found through trial and error is that keeping the discharge chute set at, or near, twenty-eight degrees keeps the chute in place and the operation running smoothly from beginning to end. The last thing I want to mention is that this is NOT an industrial grade unit. It is a "homeowner" grade device which will (in all probability) not stand up to heavy or careless abuse. It is made in great part of plastic and lightweight metals, much the same quality and dependability as Home Depot's Ryobi homeowner line. I find either one of them to be affordable, dependable and cost-effective at my level of use. Bottom line, I believe that the SnoJoe I've reviewed was a very good choice. I'm actually beginning to look seriously at their line of SunJoe products for gardening as the season begins to change. Watch out Home Depot.... Read more 91 people found this

• Works well so far - but has a flaw.

  Amazon customer· Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2024

  Verified Purchase

  We bought this in March 2022 but didn't actually need to use it until Jan 2024. We're in upstate NY and so often wake up to several inches of snow that needs to be cleared before we can go out to work. This is the first snow thrower we've owned and we bought it because it was on sale for very cheap on Amazon.at the time. We have a mid sized driveway and I've used this to clear snow of between 2" to 6" in depth so far. It's worked well and means I can have the driveway clear in 10 mins, less than half the time it takes two of us to shovel it - and much less physically demanding. The snowjoe itself was pretty easy to assemble. It's a pretty compact unit and doesn't take up too much space in our garage. It's very lightweight so it's easy to manoever. It's corded so I bought an outdoor rated extension lead that runs out of the garage power outlet and reaches the end of the driveway. Plug it in and you're good to go, no messing with a gas engine. It took a bit of getting used to to move around with the cord but it's a minor inconvenience. It has performed well so far. It shifts a lot of snow for a thrower of its size and weight. I haven't used it for more than 6 inches of fresh show yet though. I think it we had a heavy snowfall of 12 inches or so we would still need to use shovels to clear at least some of it. But I'm still happy to have this SnowJoe around to use for the more common amounts of snowfall. There is a flaw though as has been mentioned on some other reviews. The outlet chute nozzle assembly popped off the unit the first time I used it, approx 5 minutes into use. It meant that the snow was thrown straight upwards instead of to the side. Annoying, and down to a poor design of the part. The chute is held in place by plastic slots but only secured with one screw. Once the snow hit the chute it popped out of the slots. I've fixed the issue so far by duct taping all around the outside of the chute base (when the unit was dry). It's not pretty but it has held for the time being. I've heard that other users have added extra screws around the base or used adhesive around the base joint - I may do this if necessary in the future. Overall, despite the flaw I'm glad I bought this. Especially for what we paid for it on sale. I can clear the snow much faster and easier with this and it is a lot less physically demanding than shovelling. Read more 52 people found this

• For lack of a screw the snow removal was almost lost!

  Amazon customer· Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2025

  Verified Purchase

  I bought this in Jan 2024 when my gas engine snowblower conked out. I thought this would be fine until I got that repaired. It was fairly easy to assemble (I'm female/72) however you have to make sure to follow directions exactly. First time I did not have the arm that turns the snow chute connected correctly (a second set of hands would have been better but not required). Second time it worked correctly. First use was this year JAN 2025 on approximately 6 inches of snow that had not set completely. If you are used to a self propelled gas blower, this is not SP (however it is also very much lighter) so think in terms of mowing the lawn without a self propelled mower. With 6" of snow you will get a workout. With the first sweep the direction funnel popped off as the snow rose up into the chute and was hanging on by the one screw. OK, maybe I didn't have it seated in the little (yes very little) plastic groves. Unscrewed the one screw and tried again. After about the 5th time of this dance with the screw driver, clearing the snow and reseating everything and several bad words (that my neighbors may or may not have heard) I got my handy dandy dremel and a random screw from a picture hanging kit. I made a hole exactly opposite from the original screw and installed the second screw, it was longer than the first and the first time I "missed" the fixed part of the collar. I just realigned the screw and it went all the way down without interfering with the rotation of the chute. Once the chute stopped popping off I was able to clear my two car driveway, my neighbors two car driveway and both of our sidewalks. I was pleasantly surprised that it handled the snow well and cleared right down to the base with only light snow left in some places (that may have been inconsistent driving from the operator). The chute turning crank was stiff at times and I'm wondering if some graphite or WD 40 may help. Fun Fact: 100 feet of outdoor grade electrical cord is heavy and gets stiff in the cold. Since it's a corner lot, I had to do some rerunning of the cord around trees, bushes, light pole etc to reach the whole way. I gave it 3 stars because I want to get Snow Joe's attention. It would be good if they redesigned the chute with a more substantial hook/groove set up but really all it needs is a second screw hole/screw across from the first one. I did not get the extended warranty (it comes with a two year warranty when you register on their website) and I don't know if they would hold my field expedient fix against my use of the warranty. It did do the job on six inches of snow and the motor seemed to do fine. If you get this be prepared with your drill, random screw and screw driver to make the adjustment for it to work on anything other than the lightest amount of snow. Read more 19 people found this

• Perfect for PNW Snowfall levels...should have purchased this years ago!!!

  Amazon customer· Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2020

  Verified Purchase

  I purchased this after "Snowmageddon 2019" in Seattle...we had close to 3' and after shoveling all of that over a week of storms, I vowed to make my life easier in the future. As luck would have it, it never snowed again after that big snowfall so I didn't get a chance to use it until today - Jan 2020. I assembled it last year and that was a snap, maybe 15 minutes. With 6" last night, I grabbed the Joe and plugged it in to the recommended 12/3 100' cable. Perhaps I should have taken 16 minutes last year assembling as I was either negligent in installing the catch screw for the chute or maybe there wasn't one - but the result was that the chute would come off ever pass or two. I noticed the chute had a hole that was designed for a screw, I found one that would work and didn't have any issues the rest of the hour I spent blowing snow. This little guy works great. The snow was wet and heavy and with the near melting temperatures, even a bit slushy in places. Where there was no slush, I was throwing snow about 8' and even with slush it was going 3-5'. More than enough to get everything clear in about half the time it would have taken to shovel everything myself. Changing the direction of the chute was simple with the handle and the Joe is light enough to work with for all that I needed to do...certainly it was much less effort than the shoveling I have been doing for years. (Sigh..) Watching how it handled really heavy and packed stuff, I don't think it would handle more than 8" of wet snow without a couple of passes but I suspect with light fluffy stuff, the Joe would easily handle deeper snow and throw it further to boot. Zero regrets on the purchase, suspect I would get tired of moving the extension cord around if I had to do this every week in the winter but for Pacific Northwest snowfalls (1-3x/year) this is perfect. Save your back, just buy the damn thing... Customer Service Post Review Update - I managed to break one of the pins on the discharge chute...which means it will pop out when using. SnowJoe online chat support was great to work with on getting a replacement sent out. I uploaded a picture and they got it in the mail to me the next day. That's great customer service... Read more 22 people found this

• spent 40 years building machines

  Kindle Customer· Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2019

  Verified Purchase

  I have had this Snowjoe SJ618E for all of this winter in Wisconsin. The last snow was 8 inches of medium heavy snow on a 85 foot 22 foot wide drive. Very good packing snowball type of snow. I have spent 40 years designing and building machines for industry. It really makes me mad when things don't work as they should. This little machine is great. Not perfect but I love it. I use a 14 gage 100 foot cold weather cord (they recommend 12 but I think it is an overkill. 14 can handle 13 amps just fine) and it works fine. Put it on a floor standing cord reel for storage. pull out what you need, plug it in and go. You get use to pulling the cord behind you in short order. Not a problem. I made a few changes to mine ASAP. on the knobs that hold the shoot in the angle you select I removed the knobs and put two small fat O rings over each of the bolts and put the knobs back on. you then tighten the knobs just enough so the shoot can be moved up and down without turning the knobs at all. The O rings act like springs. I put a small extension on the shoot to direct the snow down just a bit more than what it was, because in the wind the snow would be blown back at me. The safety button is a bit of a pain with heavy gloves on. Do something about that if you want. Remember it is there to protect you. From what I don't Know. It throws snow 20 feet. The review where the person said 3 feet, I don't understand. In snow that is 1 or two inches you need to walk fast to get enough snow into the machine to get it to work. Packed snow where the plow piles it up you need to take it easy and work a little to get through it. I have pushed it pretty hard and no problems. Parts if you ever need them: The belt $8 a new auger is only $14 ! A extended warranty is like $5 Do I recommend the machine. You bet ! I bought one for my daughter. She text me after a storm and said " I LOVE YOU SO %&##&% MUCH". for the snow blower I guess .. PS.. I have a 26 inch two stage blower I may never use again. Watch Ebay for a deal on it. :) Read more 8 people found this

• Great Product with Wonderful Customer Service

  Kamaaina· Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2021

  Verified Purchase

  I purchased the Thrower on February 16, 2019, and used it for the remainder of the 2018-2019 Winter. After that I used it for the 2019-2020 Winter. So far I’ve only used it once during the current 2020-2021 Winter. When I used it a second time I encountered the only a problem I’ve ever experienced. Prior to that it had performed flawlessly. Our driveway is 35’ long and 30’ wide. What makes it challenging is not its size but its uphill slope which I estimate to be around 30 degrees. Prior to purchasing the Snow Joe I tried using heavier gasoline-powered throwers and while they worked well going downhill they cannot be pulled uphill. We recently had a 4” snowfall. After clearing the driveway and sidewalk I noticed the auger wasn’t turning. Following the instructions in the Owner’s Manual I started to remove the left side plate. When it was partially removed I noticed the area behind the plate was full of slush and the drive belt had started to come off the pulley that’s connected to the auger. At that point I called Customer Service and spoke with Esther. As soon as I described what I saw she knew what had happened. I was prepared to purchase a replacement belt but she wouldn’t let me do that. Instead, and at no cost, she sent me a new belt and a new pulley. Her knowledge and helpfulness were exceptional. Following our conversation I re-read the Owner’s Manual and noted the following words of caution on Page 15: NOTE: Heavy wet snow puts a load on belts, thus requiring more frequent belt replacement. After reading that I realized I often cleared wet snow at the base of our driveway and the street entrance to our driveway. Now I understand why doing that may be the cause of the problem I encountered. Based on my experience of using this snow thrower countless times over the past two years I can honestly say Snow Joe is an excellent product that’s reasonably priced, well designed and very well made. What makes it stand out even more is its wonderful customer service. I know that because I experienced it first-hand. Read more 28 people found this

• Run now and get this. It’s amazing.

  Your Mom· Reviewed in Canada on December 13, 2025

  Verified Purchase

  I bought this in 2019 on a whim during a Black Friday sale. It’s now almost 2026. Every time it snows my husband thanks me for being the best wife ever and getting him this. He has done a few VERY minor repairs- reattach the wheel twice and replace the pin on the chute when he lost it. This machine is amazing. It gets through the hard packed snow the snow plow leaves at the mouth of the driveway. He doesn’t let the snow pile get crazy- in a snowstorm he’ll go out twice a day. But we have a longish double wide driveway and this machine takes care of business. The best gift is the reduced stress knowing you don’t have to go out and shovel for hours. The snow Joe will take care of it. I have recommended this to everyone who will listen. This is great for everyone that can’t afford thousands on a snow blower. I’m back to say more mid January 2026- horrid winter. The worst. So much snow. The snow Joe takes care of us. We have a double wide double long driveway and it takes my husband 15 minutes. The people across the street have a big heavy duty gas blower. It struggles. The snow Joe blasts the snow through the air higher than the gas one. GET YOURSELF ONE!!!

• Works great!

  Amazon customer· Reviewed in Canada on December 23, 2022

  Verified Purchase

  To give some context, I got this a few days after a 30cm snow fall. When I ordered it I was advised of a delivery of 10 days. I live in the GVRD and it was shipped from Richmond so it showed up in 2. Because I ordered it a few days after a snowfall, the snow had sat for a few days and some of it was powder and some of it was icy. It came in a box that did not look very big at all and I started to question my purchase. As I assembled it (10 minutes) I thought ok, this is pretty sturdy but it looked a bit short. Well, I'm 5'10" and it was just right it does have some length adjusters but if you're over 6'2" I wouldn't recommend this unit. So I take it outside tonight and at first, I was skeptical if this thing would even work because some areas of snow were actually deeper than the unit itself but, to my surprise, I have to say this thing was pretty awesome! It handled the snow quite well. Would I recommend it? Yes but I do have a couple things to note which is why I give it a 4. 1) deep snow will bog this thing down. Even snow as deep as the snow they show in the video will bog it down. It will handle it but you may have to go back and forth a bit or tilt it to go up and over then come back over the spot again. 2) It does not like wet snow. it will manage but it will also get bogged down. 3) do not tilt the chute, at all! If you tilt the chute (even thought it is adjustable) the snow will plug it up or pop the chute off so keep it open full and it will work just fine. Read more