Heather Lundquist, Senior editor

I'm the senior editor, which means the rankings are mine to defend. A snow blower gets onto a list because its spec sheet and its owners back it up, not because it happened to be on sale the week we updated.

Most of my time goes into width and stages. The clearing width is the biggest number in every listing title, and it's the one people buy on. On its own it says very little. I read it next to the intake height, the auger and impeller setup, the drive, and what owners write about the frozen ridge the plow leaves at the end of the driveway. That ridge is where a lot of single-stage machines give up, and the reviews say so far more often than the box does.

I write the guides on clearing width, single- versus two-stage, battery versus gas and throw distance, and I edit the rest. Before anything goes live I read it the way a buyer would, with the manual open in the next tab.

None of these blowers has cleared our driveways, and I won't pretend otherwise. What we bring is careful reading, side-by-side comparison and lists that get reopened when prices or models change.