DuroStar SD1300 Review

(Rated: 4.3 / 5) Review by Frank Lowery
Noise
Ease of Assembly
Maneuverability
Balance And Handling
Result Quality
Check Price
Related pages: Best Electric Snow Blower, Best Snow Blower, DuroStar, DuroStar Snow Blowers, Electric Snow Blower Reviews, Snow Blower Reviews,

If you do not have a particularly big driveway to keep clear of snow during the winter, it does not make a whole lot of sense to buy the kind of big, expensive snow blower that will be difficult to operate. This is especially true if you live in an area that does not experience the kind of very heavy snow storms that occur in some regions of the country. With a few exceptions, most of the United States rarely gets snow fall that is deeper than several inches, and so you probably don’t need a model that has an overly tall snow cut depth. If any of this sounds familiar, you can save yourself a lot of time and energy by opting for a smaller electric single stage snow blower like the DuroStar SD1300. It has everything you need to keep your driveway clear in a very small package.

Review Summary

The DuroStar SD1300 is the kind of compact, simple snow blower that is perfect for clearing smaller areas of light to moderate snow fall. While this is not a snow blower that is ideal for dealing with serous snow fall, clearing unpaved areas, or dealing with very large driveways, it has a lot of excellent applications. If you are looking for a snow blower that will be able to keep a small one-car driveway clear, the DuroStar SD1300 is perfect. It is also great for clearing walkways, patios and decks. Because it doesn’t weigh too much, you should have no trouble carrying it up a short flight of stairs to clean off your porch as well.

The DuroStar SD1300 runs on electric instead of gas. That’s good news if you are concerned about the impact your household has on the environment. That’s because the DuroStar SD1300 will never produce a single carbon emission at the point of use, unlike a gas powered snow blower, which will spew fumes all over your driveway and yard. And you never have to worry about paying a dime for gas or engine maintenance on a snow blower like the DuroStar SD1300, which will save you money over the long term.

Specifications

The DuroStar SD1300 is an electric single stage snow blower that weighs just 36 pounds and has compact overall dimensions. It has a 9.7 amp motor, which provides enough power to drive it through moderate snow fall. It can clear up to 9 inches of snow at a rate of 500 pounds per minute.

With a clearance width of sixteen inches, the DuroStar SD1300 will be able to clear your driveway fairly quickly. It can throw snow up to 25 feet – far enough to efficiently clear most driveways. Its manual snow chute rotates up to 180 degrees. The DuroStar SD1300 comes with a 1 year warranty.

Description

Once you get the DuroStar SD1300 unpacked and finish putting it together – which involves nothing more than attaching the handle and snow chute and takes a few minutes – you will be impressed b how efficiently designed it is. For a single stage snow blower with a sixteen inch wide clearance, it has a fairly small overall footprint, and it doesn’t weigh very much, either. That means it will be easier to find adequate space for it in your garage or tool shed, and it will also not be at all difficult to lift it over a curb or carry it up and down porch steps.

The DuroStar SD1300 is perfect for taking care of smaller areas that have a moderate accumulation of snow fall. If all you have to take care of is a shorter driveway and a few walkways, this is the perfect snow blower for you. As an alternative to big, noisy gas powered snow blowers, the DuroStar SD1300 is great. It is very user-friendly, runs very quietly and never produces any harmful carbon emissions. But it still can clear an impressive amount of snow per minute, and it can throw snow clear of most driveways easily.

The DuroStar SD1300 is not a snow blower designed for digging out an unpaved drive after a serious blizzard. But if you are like most Americans, you probably have a medium sized, paved driveway, and you probably do not live in an area that gets more than six or eight inches at once. If that is in fact the case, then the DuroStar SD1300 is the perfect snow blower for you. There is no reason to spend a fortune on a big snow blower that is only going to guzzle gasoline. You need a small, efficient machine like the DuroStar SD1300.

Pros

For the right circumstances, the DuroStar SD1300 has everything you need to get the job done. It is lightweight and compact, and perfectly designed to keep smaller driveways clear of snow all winter long. It never produces any emissions and it is more cost effective than gas powered snow blowers. It is user friendly and very easy for anyone to operate. And it is well built and will last many years. Here are some of its best features.

1. Light and compact : When you have a smaller driveway, you don’t want a big, heavy snow blower that is going to be difficult to find enough storage space for or too hard to maneuver easily. The DuroStar SD1300 is small and does not weigh a lot, which means it will be easy to find space for it in your garage or tool shed. It also means that you should have no problem lifting it over a curb if you need to.
2. Zero emissions : One of the best things about electric snow blower is the fact that they never produce any carbon emissions at the point of use. Gas powered yard machines are responsible for an astonishing amount of pollution every year, according to the EPA. One of the simplest ways to reduce your household’s overall carbon footprint is by switching over to an electric snow blower like the DuroStar SD1300. You get all the power you need with no pollution.
3. Perfect for small driveways : If you have a fairly short one car driveway, there is no reason to spend a lot of money on an overly wide snow blower that is only going to be inefficient and difficult to use. This is also true if you just have a sidewalk and a few garden walkways to keep clear: a snow blower that is too big won’t be able to fit down them. The DuroStar SD1300 is perfect for these small spaces.
4. Easy to operate : Many snow blowers are very difficult for people who aren’t used to yard machines to operate: they have confusion controls and are not ergonomically designed. Gas powered snow blowers often require you to use a heavy recoil cord to get them started as well, and need a lot of maintenance to keep their engines running smoothly. With the DuroStar SD1300, you are getting a snow blower that is user friendly and very easy to operate.
5. Cost effective : The DuroStar SD1300 does not just offer savings up front – and more on that later – but also saves you loads of money every time you use it. Unlike a gas powered snow blower, which costs a lot of money to run (not only in fuel costs but maintenance as well), the DuroStar SD1300 runs on cheaper electricity. And you will never have to pay for repairs or engine upkeep with the DuroStar SD1300, either.

The DuroStar SD1300 really has everything you need to keep a short driveway and walkways cleared of snow all winter long. This is a great little snow blower with lots of outstanding features that are designed to make your job a lot easier. It is well made, ergonomically designed and built to hold up for many years, even under tough conditions. For the homeowner with the right conditions on the ground, the DuroStar SD1300 is a great snow blower.

Cons

Because the DuroStar SD1300 is designed for a fairly specific set of conditions, it is not going to perform as well if you try to use it to clear a huge driveway or deal with more than a foot of snow. These are not drawbacks per say, but limitations on what it is designed to do. Still, you should be aware of the drawbacks that it has before you buy it. Let’s take a look.

1. Short snow cut depth : The snow cut depth on the DuroStar SD1300 is just nine inches high. While this is more than enough to take care of moderate snow fall, when you are dealing with a severe winter storm – or several days of continuous snow – it may not be enough. But if you live in a region that rarely gets more than five or six inches of snow at once, this will not present any major problems.
2. Limited range : The DuroStar SD1300 can only go as far as its power cord can reach. Depending on how long your driveway is, you may need an extra long extension cord to reach the end, or else have to find an alternate power outlet to get those last few feet covered. Again, this is not really a huge Con, but instead simply a facet of all electric snow blowers. Still, it is important to be aware of.
3. 9.7 amp motor : The motor on the DuroStar SD1300 is one of the less powerful ones you can find on an electric snow blower these days, and because of that it limits other aspects of what the machine can do. But it is important to be aware of the fact that the DuroStar SD1300 is designed to take care of a specific set of conditions in which lots of power is not really necessary. So again, this isn’t so much a Con as a design choice.
4. Struggles with wet snow : It can be very difficult to find a single stage snow blower that does not struggle with wet, slushy snow, which tends to be a lot heavier than powdery snow. This is true for electric and gas powered models. The DuroStar SD1300 is no different, and cannot throw slushy snow as far as you might like. Of course, if you clear snow before it has a chance to start melting, this will not be a problem.
5. Small wheels : The wheels on the DuroStar SD1300 are not just compact – they are actually quite small. If you are pushing the DuroStar SD1300 forward through snow while the auger is engaged, this will not present any problems for you, since the auger does a lot of the work of propelling the machine forward. But if you are trying to pull the DuroStar SD1300 backwards – especially over hard-packed snow, the wheels may get jammed and force you to drag the machine.

So as you can see, none of the Cons I could find for the DuroStar SD1300 are serious design flaws, or point to anything lacking in the manufacture of the machine. Instead, they simply indicate what the DuroStar SD1300 is designed to take care of. If you are using this snow blower to clear moderate snow fall from an area that is not too big, I do not expect you to have any serious problems with it.

Product Comparison

Because the DuroStar SD1300 is designed to take care of a fairly specific set of conditions, it can be hard to get a sense of what it is really capable of unless you compare it to some other, similar models. This kind of comparison shopping is really the best way to get a good sense of whether or not a particular snow blower is in fact the best model for your needs. The following table compares important product specs of the DuroStar SD1300 and two similar models.

	DuroStar SD1300	Worx WG650	Power Smart DB5011
Dimensions	43 x 17 x 35 inches	45 x 19 x 37 inches	42 x 19 x 40 inches
Start	Button push	Button push	Button push
Motor	9.7 amp	13 amp	13 amp
Clearing Width	16 inches	18 inches	18 inches
Snow Cut Depth	9 inches	9 inches	9 inches
Capacity / Minute	Up to 500 pounds	Up to 650 pounds	Up to 650 pounds
Throw Distance	Up to 25 feet	Up to 30 feet	Up to 30 feet
Drive	Manual push	Manual push	Manual push
Handle	Ergonomic	Ergonomic	Ergonomic
Chute Control	Manual 180°	Handle 180°	Handle 180°
Wheels	Compact wheels	Compact wheels	Compact wheels
Light	n/a	n/a	n/a
Weight	36 pounds	29.6 pounds	38 pounds
Warranty	1 year	2 years	1 year

As you can see, the DuroStar SD1300 is the smallest of the three models. While the other two snow blowers may be better at clearing larger spaces, the DuroStar SD1300 is perfectly designed to take care of shorter driveways and narrow walkways. Depending on the conditions you are dealing with, this could be just right for you. Best of all, the DuroStar SD1300 is less expensive than the other two snow blowers – and is below average in price for single stage snow blowers.

Conclusion

The DuroStar SD1300 has a lot to offer to the homeowner with the right conditions on the ground. If you aren’t already convinced that it is perfect for a household that doesn’t get a lot of heavy snow fall and has a smaller area to keep clear, I think you may want to take another look at the Pros and Cons lists.

Conclusion Pros

1. Light and compact.
2. Zero emissions.
3. Perfect for small driveways.
4. Easy to operate.
5. Cost effective.

Because it is so lightweight and compact, the DuroStar SD1300 is not only easy to operate, but also perfectly designed to handle smaller driveways quickly and efficiently. You will never produce a single carbon emission when you are using it, and you will save a lot of money you would otherwise spend on fuel and maintenance as well.

Conclusion Cons

1. Short snow cut depth.
2. Limited range.
3. 9.7 amp motor.
4. Struggles with wet snow.
5. Small wheels.

While the DuroStar SD1300 has a short snow cut depth and a limited range, that is mainly because it is designed specifically to take care of light accumulations of snow on a smaller property. And if those are the conditions you are dealing with, then it is probably perfect for you.

Final Word

When you own a modestly sized property in an area that does not routinely get blanketed with heavy snow fall, there is no reason to spend a lot of reason on a big, expensive snow blower designed to deal with blizzard-like storms on giant areas. Instead, you can save a lot of money – both up front and over the long term – by getting a compact, efficient electric snow blower like the DuroStar SD1300.

The DuroStar SD1300 has everything you need to keep a short driveway cleared of moderate snow fall all winter long. It is efficiently designed and well made, and it won’t ever let you down. It can handle up to nine inches of snow – which is more than most areas in the United States get in a single storm. And it can move up to five hundred pounds a minute. Best of all, the DuroStar SD1300 doesn’t produce any emissions.

Best Price

The fact that it is great for the environment isn’t the best part of the DuroStar SD1300. That would be the price tag. The DuroStar SD1300 is much less expensive than the average single stage snow blower. It has the kind of extremely reasonable price that makes it almost more expensive not to get it. That is because the DuroStar SD1300 is not just going to save you a lot of money on the front end. You also will save lots of money over the long term because it is so inexpensive to own and operate it. This is a great little snow blower at an excellent price.