# First Snow and my Toro PowerClear 180 let me down



## Roch_Greg (Dec 9, 2009)

Well last season I was posting good reviews about my new PowerClear 180 from Toro. Yep couldn't have been happier.

That was until I got the recall notice from Toro early this spring and tried to take it in for Warranty Service. Both local facilities wanted to keep the machine for a month before effecting the repair expressly telling me they would not be liable for any damages to the machine while it was in their possession.

So I let it go, figured it was working fine when I put it up for the season why wouldn't it work now. First mistake.

Well here it is the first storm in Rochester, NY of any significant amount of snow fall. I go out to the garage and drag out the machine and begin to fill her up and what do you know. Fuel streaming (not leaking) out of the hole in the primer bulb. Worst yet the machine won't turn over.

Suppose now I'll have to find a authorized service center who can do the work in a shorter time than a month from now.

It get's even worse as I have read on other Web Pages folks have taken their machines in for the Recall Warranty Repair only to have it fail again for the same exact reason.

Quality Control it seems has gone out the door over at Toro. Carbs are produced in China I'm told. Second mistake was buying the first run of a product.


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## BlizzardBeater (Aug 29, 2010)

Dont get downhearted man. Quality has gone down on just about everything. You can still buy quality products, but they are ridiculously expensive. Even john deeres line of fronteir snowblowers had huge issues. I believe it was either the float or the float needle letting fuel leak by, or maybe a check valve? Either way, after use it would fill the cylinder with fuel making it impossible to even pull over, even worse dealers were telling people this was normal! ( not all i'm sure but some around my area). Quality has gone to h*ll in order to sell "cheap". I still have an 86 Gilson ST826 that runs like the day it was bought.


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## acornish (Dec 21, 2003)

yes my JD had the needle/seat problem -- and they told me same thing


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## Roch_Greg (Dec 9, 2009)

Thanks for the support fellas. Dropped it off at the Authorized Service Center Monday. The nice lady said if it's a rebuild they should have the parts and get the unit back to me in a week. On the other hand if they need to replace the carb it'll take longer.

Seems to me nowadays you gotta save money to buy something, then save some more to get it fixed right after you brought it, and lastly save even more money to replace the damn thing after a short period of use, cause the darn thing won't last.


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## Schnabel Plowin (Feb 14, 2010)

^ toro warranties either a needle and seat replacement, or a full carb replacement. I doubt you will have to pay for the repair.


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## Roch_Greg (Dec 9, 2009)

Yup, it was covered under the Warranty. Got the machine back after only three days with a little pressing of the issue. My copy of the Work Order states they used a Toro Needle Kit so I guess they didn't replace the entire Carb,

I brought the Machine in with a printed copy of the Recall Letter Toro sent me and the Recall Notice from Toro's Website along with a copy of my Invoice. This despite the place I took it to supposedly knew about the Recall,

I'm hoping this components of the Kit are of better quality than original parts. Really not looking into going through this again. I still haven't got all the gas smell out of the garage,clothes,boots, and gloves I was wearing.


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## Schnabel Plowin (Feb 14, 2010)

Roch_Greg;1149344 said:


> Yup, it was covered under the Warranty. Got the machine back after only three days with a little pressing of the issue. My copy of the Work Order states they used a Toro Needle Kit so I guess they didn't replace the entire Carb,
> 
> I brought the Machine in with a printed copy of the Recall Letter Toro sent me and the Recall Notice from Toro's Website along with a copy of my Invoice. This despite the place I took it to supposedly knew about the Recall,
> 
> I'm hoping this components of the Kit are of better quality than original parts. Really not looking into going through this again. I still haven't got all the gas smell out of the garage,clothes,boots, and gloves I was wearing.


I've replaced about 15 and in my experience they hold up well. The problem with the original one was that the material the needle was made of deteriorated when in contact with gas.


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