Daily Home Renovation Tips

Simple title, eh?

We have needed a new snow shovel for years.  The one which has been my mainstay for what seems like forever, with a black plastic blade, was so used that the blade had worn down to almost the size of a tooth pick; almost.

A few days ago I was was having breakfast in the kitchen and the breakfast show on City TV, with Kevin and Dena, was playing so I could catch up on the morning’s events.

Well, during one segment, the weather Dude, Frank F., also known as Frankie Flowers (because his family runs a garden center of some sort up towards Barrie) was talking about a new ergonomic snow shovel at the Home Depot.

Since I happened to have that day off, I planned to take a peak at it that morning.

For $29.95, it was exactly what I was looking for as a replacement.

First, it is light weight. My mom, in her mid 80’s now, gave me a snow shovel she could no longer use because it was too heavy for her (and she now had a gentleman to shovel her property in the winter). My gosh, this thing had a large metal blade and was way too heavy even for me!

Just as a suitcase should be light weight, so should a shovel; the clothes in the suitcase will be plenty heave and so will the snow on the shovel when one is trying to lift it.

Second, it had one of those ergonomic designs to the handle which have been out now for a few years.

Such a handle, as we have on a much smaller snow shovel, is a God send and certainly makes the lifting of the snow much, much easier.

Third, the blade of the snow shovel was large at the bottom but a bit narrow at the top.

Notice that the blade itself is a little like a small bucket type of design. I think this will help keep the snow in the blade when shoveling rather than seeing the snow go out of both ends of the blade causing redundant repeated shoveling of the driveway.

Lastly, it has what my former snow shovel did not have. See the metal strip along the bottom edge of the blade? I think the theory is that it will not only stop the plastic (yes, the entire shovel is made out of light weight plastic) from wearing down after constant use, but that it will also help to chip away the hard packed snow which will be on the driveway if I forgot to shovel right after a large snow fall.

However, it is not a perfect snow shovel.

Look again at the upper part of the handle in the above pictures. See how smooth the plastic handle is?

What happens when water gets on smooth plastic? Water on a smooth plastic, at least on a smooth plastic snow shovel handle makes it very hard to hold when one is shoveling. So, today, when we had the first major snowfall of the winter season, it was very heavy wet snow. That wet snow soon melted when I got it on the handle, making the shovel very hard to keep a hold of during my winter workout!  There are plenty of plastic type of snow shovels which to have rough plastic handles.

As well, the rounded top of the handle also makes it a bit hard to hold when shoveling the snow. It is, after all, plastic. Surely the manufacturer could have made the mold use for the handle such that it produced a rough, and flat at the top handle.

So, Frankie Flowers of City TV’s Breakfast Television, don’t be so quick my morning friend to recommend this as a perfect shovel. 

It’s close, but only about 3.5 out of 5.