Ariens Compact 24 vs Honda HS720AA

The body of this snow blower is almost entirely built from metal, therefore, the machine is both tough and strong. The only exceptions are two non-metal covers, used for chute and belt protection (those are, in fact, heavy duty plastics).

This machine supports a lot of useful optional accessories provided by Ariens. For example, you can buy optional heated handlebars, ‘Sno-Thro’ cab, and even Ariens ‘Sno-Thro’ tire chains. The complete list of optional accessories is available in Ariens' catalog.

With its handles folded, this snow blower will require only 29” x 34” x 35” of storage space. In contrast, you'll need 50% more storage space to store a 24" Husqvarna's snow blower.

The solid cast iron gear case is one of the most reliable components of this snow blower. It is used to transmit the force from the impeller shaft to the auger, basically being a simple 2 gear system. The majority of competitors offer a symmetrical gear non-iron gear cases, such gear cases are particularly prone to breakages and oil leaks. The Ariens Compact series snow blowers, on the other hand, have a top loaded gear case, therefore the oil leaking problem is almost fully eliminated (note, that the oil leaking is directly related to the failure of a gear case).
The manufacturer, in fact, provides an additional 5 Year gear case warranty, additionally to the standard 3 Year warranty of the machine.

At its price point, this reliable single stage snow blower can do almost anything a bigger two stage unit could do as it can easily remove up to 12" of snow on a single pass.

The 187cc Honda GC190 engine of this machine is very reliable. The GC line engines are used to power Honda’s snow blowers since 2005, when the legendary HS520A snowblower (now discontinued) was introduced . These machines dominated the market for more than 5 years, in fact, there are still a lot of HS520A units in working condition.

This snow blower is powered by Honda’s 4 stroke 187cc engine. Compared to the regular 2 stroke engines, used by the competitors, the Honda GC190 is by far more advanced. The maintenance of such an engine is very simple, as there is no need to add any oil to the fuel.

Compared to large and bulky 2 stage snow blowers, this machine is much easier to control. This is caused ,mainly, by to the low weight of the given unit (only 89 pounds). This snowblower is perfect for maneuvering between cars in a small (2 to 4 car) driveway.