Greenworks 80V Snow Shovel
Greenworks 80V 12” Cordless Snow Shovel
Living in the Northeast almost guarantees you a winter filled with 4+ months of snow, sleet, and ice. Owning a good hand snow shovel is an absolute requirement. Owning a gas-powered snow blower is nearly a requirement. Owning the Greenworks 80V 12” Cordless Snow Shovel provides you with the best of both worlds, delivering you the maneuverability of a hand shovel and the power of a snow blower!
Specifications
- 12″ clearing width
- 8″ clearing depth
- Directional vane control
- LED headlights
- 25-foot throwing distance
- Brushless motor
- Battery Recharge Time: 40 min
- Includes: One 80V 4.0Ah Battery and One 6A Charger
- 4-year limited tool warranty
- 4-year battery warranty
- Power 75+ tools with a Greenworks 80V Battery
- Purchase for $359.99 on the Greenworks website
- Another Greenworks Snow Shovel was awarded a “Best Value” award by Popular Mechanics
Opening The Box
The Greenworks 80V 12″ Cordless Battery LED Snow Shovel (model SS80L251CO) arrives in a very large box that might require 2 people to carry it into your house if you are not large enough to lift it. When I opened the box, I was very impressed by how strategically the Snow Shovel was packaged. Greenworks included lots of cardboard and bubble wrap to protect the individual components—a very nice touch from the start.
The Snow Shovel does require some assembly. The upper shaft and lower shaft are not connected initially and you will need to attach them and secure them with the release button and lock knob. You will also need to attach the large auxiliary handle onto the shaft and tighten down the securing knob. The entire unboxing and assembly process should take most people less than 15 minutes.
Form Factor – Length and Weight
When you have assembled the Snow Shovel, you might be surprised by how large it actually is. From top to bottom, the Snow Shovel is 69 inches in length. At almost 6-feet in length, the Greenworks Snow Shovel is not a compact tool. Many tall users will appreciate this extended length since ergonomically it will be much easier to use standing up straight, rather than bent over a much shorter device.
With the 40V battery attached, the Greenworks Snow Shovel is approximately 22 pounds in weight. Both my wife and I found the Snow Shovel to be hefty, though it was still easy to lift, turn, and push across our driveway. Based on its length and weight, I believe some shorter, older, or weaker users might find it difficult to use.
The Snow Shovel includes a padded shoulder strap that you can secure to the shaft to make it more comfortable to carry. I found the should strap especially helpful when I removed my hands from the shovel to take a break–the strap is capable of hanging the Snow Shovel from your shoulder to keep the shovel off of the ground and at the ready.
Being highly portable, the Greenworks Snow Shovel can reach areas that large, heavy snow blowers can’t. I was able to clean off sections of my staircase where only hand shovels could previously reach. The Snow Shovel will also be able to clean off raised decks, walkways, and patios that are inaccessible to unwieldy and weighty snow blowers.
An added bonus of the Snow Shovel is that you can pick it up and carry it in your car to help a family member in another town if they were struggling with the snow. You can’t get most snow blowers inside your car or small SUV. Based on its length, you will probably need a rear 60/40 split-seat so that you can lay the Snow Shovel down inside the car.
Bright LED Headlights Included
The Greenworks Cordless Snow Shovel comes equipped with 2 LED headlights, which are located on the far right and far left sides for better light distribution. The LED headlights are activated whenever the shovel is being used, even during daylight hours. The several times that I used the shovel at night, the LED headlights provided a bright white light that was super useful to work by. In addition to providing me with ample light to illuminate the space in front of me, the LED headlights were also a great safety device since snowplows and other drivers could see me while I was working in my driveway and the roadway in front of it.
Charging The 80V 4.0Ah Battery
Greenworks includes an 80V 4.0Ah battery and a 6A Charger with the Snow Shovel. I was very excited to see that Greenworks included an 80V battery since I have had such positive experiences with the 80V 4.0 Ah battery that I use in my Greenworks Pro Cordless Lawnmower. There are many other companies that ship their snow shovels with smaller 24V or 40V batteries, but thankfully not Greenworks.
The charger is also a full size 6A model that is capable of much faster charging speeds. The charger also includes a power cord that is 6.5-feet long so you have the extra length necessary to access hard to reach outlets. Upgrading to an 80V battery and a full-size charger definitely increases the value and usefulness of the Greenworks Snow Shovel.
Greenworks advertises that the battery will charge in 40 minutes, but I found it did even better than that. A totally depleted battery charged in 28-32 minutes. A battery with only one bar of power remaining could charge in 22-25 minutes. These charging times were impressively fast, especially when you consider the size and the capacity of the battery. Even if you didn’t have a spare 80V battery, charging this battery in 22-32 minutes allows you to get back outside again after only a short break.
The charger itself has a built-in fan to help cool down the battery while the battery is charging. The fan will run for a couple of minutes after the battery is fully charged, as well. The noise the battery charger’s fan produces is considerable, and for this reason, I often charged it in a room where I could close the door.
Greenworks emphasizes the importance of not storing or charging the 80V battery outside, so keep that in mind when finding a location to store the Snow Shovel.
Extended Battery Runtime
The actual runtime for the 80V 4.0 Ah battery obviously varied based on the snow’s height and consistency. When the snow was a light powder in consistency, the battery averaged 42-45 minutes of runtime. This was enough time for me to clear my 400 square foot patio, 2 walkways, and my 4-car driveway, including the opening of the driveway where the plow had deposited snow.
The battery’s life-span shortened some when the snow was a heavier “snowball consistency”. Throwing heavier snow usually gave me 33-36 minutes of battery life, which was still enough time to clean my patio, 2 walkways, and 75% of my driveway.
If you have a 6-8 car driveway area to clear, I am confident the Snow Shovel will give you the power and runtime necessary to clear the snow left by most storms.
The beauty of a battery-operated tool like the Greenworks 80V Snow Shovel is it doesn’t require oil or gasoline and the messy maintenance associated with those fluids. When I was done clearing snow, I didn’t come inside my house reeking of the emissions produced by a gasoline snow blower. Battery power also means you never need to worry about having oil and gas on-hand, nor do you have to worry about polluting your neighborhood with fumes. Noise pollution is also avoided because the Snow Shovel operates at only 74 decibels, measured at approximately 6 feet off the ground.
Battery Insertion and Location
As is true for most battery-operated tools, the battery pack resides at the rear end of the Greenworks Snow Shovel. I did find the battery required a firm push to fully secure and lock it inside the compartment—an audible click indicates when it is locked in place. To remove the battery, you need to push and hold the black battery release button on the right side of the compartment area.
The battery compartment does not have a cover to protect the battery from snow and other moisture. While I didn’t have any issues with falling snow causing difficulties for the battery, I found it unusual that Greenworks didn’t include a cover for the battery. However, without a cover, you do have immediate access to the battery’s charge-level button.
Adjusting The Speed And Direction Of Thrown Snow
The Greenworks 80V 12″ Cordless Battery LED Snow Shovel operates with a brushless motor. The benefits of a brushless motor are obviously higher energy efficiency, a longer lifespan, and better performance in a lighter package. This brushless motor also offers a speed switch located right above the trigger. In position 1, the motor operates at a high speed and in position 2 it runs at the low speed. I used both speeds and did notice a slight difference in the speed of snow removal. I tended to use the high-speed setting most often since the snow’s height was considerable and I wanted maximum power to remove it. I believe the low-speed setting would be perfect for smaller snow events when only 3-5 inches of snow were present.
Greenworks also included directional vanes to help steer the thrown snow. Directly above the impeller, there are 3 plastic directional vanes that move in unison. Atop the shovel’s head is the large green knob that controls the direction of the vanes. The vanes can be pointed straight ahead, or moved 30-degrees to the left of the middle position or 30-degrees to the right of the middle position. The knob provided good resistance and it securely locked the vanes in place—no matter how heavy the snow was, the vanes always remained in the place I set them to.
These directional vanes were designed really well and absolutely made a difference as I steered the snow to different locations in my yard. Since the directional knob is several feet below the motor’s trigger, you need to stop the impeller in order to reach and adjust the knob.
Excellent Snow Removal Performance
This winter was like many others in the Northeast, meaning we didn’t have many snow events where I could use the Greenworks 80V 12″ Cordless Battery LED Snow Shovel. In the end, I used it two consecutive days in January and February for 2 different snow storms, one of which was the February 23 blizzard. I wish I had more smaller snow events to test the Snow Shovel, but the 4 days of testing still provided me with a lot of time to use and evaluate it.
The Snow Shovel’s motor started instantly each and every time I depressed the main trigger; there is also a built-in safety mechanism trigger that needs to be depressed first. Pushing the shovel across a hard surface is very easy to do, even without any wheels to assist the user. I found the large handle helped me maintain my grip and move the shovel both forward and to the side with ease. Since it’s a manually “pushed” device, you are totally in control of the speed and direction and you don’t run the risk of it taking off, like many 2-stage snow blowers can sometimes do.
The scraper at the base of the unit rides on the hard surface and removes the snow down to the surface of your driveway or patio. I liked that a lot since it didn’t leave an inch or two of snow on the driveway like some competitors I have seen in action.
Greenworks designed the shovel with a 12” wide clearing path, which definitely helps you get the job done faster. Working in unison, the wide clearing path and the directional vanes really increased the efficiency and the effectiveness of the Snow Shovel.
The clearing depth of the Greenworks Snow Shovel is 8 inches. I absolutely tested those limits the morning of the blizzard in February when we had more than 10 inches of snow on the ground. In some cases, I had snow to the top of the unit and it still cleared it without any troubles. When the snow was too high, the Shovel was thankfully light enough to lift and take the top layers of the snow off before getting to the ground-level. I would certainly advise clearing the snow before it reached more than 8 inches, but it was good to know you could lift the unit up to clear taller snow totals.
Greenworks advertises a 25-foot throwing distance and I saw that to be true consistently across the 4 days I tested it. I easily hit 25 or more feet in distance when the snow was lighter in weight. Heavier and more densely compacted snow was thrown 20-25 feet in distance consistently. I found the snow was thrown so far by the Snow Shovel, that I had to adjust the angle of the shovel’s head to control how far it was throwing the snow so that I wouldn’t throw it into my neighbor’s driveway.
To see a short video of the Greenworks Snow Shovel in action, please CLICK HERE.
Remember It’s Not A Metal Snow Blower
The Greenworks Battery Snow Shovel is not a 2-stage gasoline powered snow blower, and that is oftentimes a good thing. However, you do need to respect that Greenworks designed the directional vanes and impeller from durable plastic. I found that the solid, large icy chunks of snow left overnight by the plows were too difficult for the Snow Shovel to clear. There was just no way I was getting through these snowy icebergs without a metal shovel or the metal auger of a snow blower. It’s important to know its limits and respect that the Greenworks Snow Shovel is best designed to remove freshly deposited snow.
After several lengthy tests of the Snow Shovel, I found almost no wear and tear on the scraper, impeller, and directional vanes. I learned from reading the manual that you can purchase a new impeller and a new bottom scraper when and if they need to be replaced—I really appreciated Greenworks making these components available to prolong the longevity of your initial investment.
Final Thoughts
I’ve always disliked shoveling snow—a sentiment I frequently joke about with my neighbors after a storm. However, the Greenworks 80V 12″ Cordless Snow Shovel actually made the process easy, and dare I say, almost enjoyable. The LED lights improved visibility while keeping me safe from snowplows during late-night clearing. I was impressed by how fast the 80V battery charged and how long it lasted, all while producing zero emissions. Most importantly, this tool saved my back from the physical strain of lifting and throwing mountains of snow. I’m officially ready for the next big snowfall.
