Snow brings us such joy when we’re young, but the charm doesn’t last. It really starts to go when we have to start shoveling the driveway and digging out our cars. When that time comes, we grab our shovels and gloves and head out to make sure we can get to work and our kids can head off to school. However, we’re spoiled for choice when it comes to snow shovels. Do we get one with a straight or ergonomic shaft? What about plastic versus metal? Plow or scoop?
To satisfy our curiosity and to help you pick the best shovels, we decided to put some highly-rated snow movers to the test. After hours of scooping, maneuvering, and pushing, we reckon that the Forest Hill Homeowner Aluminum Scoop Shovel (available at Amazon) is the best pick for most people. Not only is this model good at moving snow, but it can serve as your year-round shovel when Spring eventually comes.
Here’s how the best snow shovels we tested ranked, in order:
Forest Hill Homeowner Aluminum Scoop Shovel
True Temper Aluminum Combo Blade 20-inch Shovel
How We Tested
What You Should Know About Snow Shovels
Other Snow Shovels We Tested
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The Forest Hill not only works as a snow shovel, but can serve in the summer as a garden shovel as well.
The True Temper has a lower price, but is more difficult to use than the Forest Hill.
I’m Dan, a Reviewed contributor, who has written about subjects from the best cordless drills to the best windshield wipers to the best starter toolkits. I live in Massachusetts and have moved a lot of winter precipitation after 17 years at the same address. All that snow and slush experience has taught me a thing or two about what’s important when it comes to snow shovels. I’ve had my share of straight shaft and ergonomic shovels, scoops and plows. Not all shovels are created equal, and some are better to use than others. It turns out I have a lot more feelings about shovels than I’d expected.
Temperatures hadn’t yet fallen enough for snow in Central Massachusetts, and even with the tools and materials in hand to whip up a homemade snow gun, the weather just wasn’t going to cooperate. Instead, we simulated light, powdery snow by using fine pine shavings normally used for livestock bedding. Its weight and consistency are similar to the kind of snow you get when temperatures are in the 20s or below. Wetter, heavier snow was simulated with a yard of wet mulch. I shoveled myself and also had assistance from my 10-year-old son, who may represent the bulk of snow-shoveling labor in many households. His feedback about what was heavy or unwieldy proved valuable.
Because stand-ins can only ever be approximate, we also went and found some real snow out behind a local ice rink where the Zambonis are emptied. This snow was wet and heavy because ambient temperatures were in the high 40s and there had been some recent rain, but it did help adjust our impressions and expectations to work with the real deal.
The best way to test a snow shovel is to shovel some snow.
In all cases, the ground was covered first to a depth of a few inches, and then piled up more like a snowdrift, a foot or more deep. Our main driveway surface was well-worn suburban asphalt with cracks and imperfections. We also tested shoveling off deck stairs to get a sense of how easy it was to use each shovel at varying heights. When testing with the actual snow, we spread it out on the ground to a depth of a few inches. In doing that, we were shoveling into a larger drift that was 3 or more feet high, which also helped us understand how easy each shovel is to use at varying heights.
Clean up of all the pine shavings, especially after they blew around in the wind, provided ample opportunity to test how the shovels could be maneuvered around obstacles and objects. In the end, we found ourselves reaching for just a couple shovels when it came time to get some tasks completed, and those are the winners of the test.
The idea of a snow shovel is simple, but start shopping for one, and the choices pile up. Options boil down to just a few things:
Blade Material—The age-old question, at least for the last 50 years, has been plastic or metal? Plastic is, of course, lighter. Depending on the type of plastic, it’s also just as durable as metal, and not prone to rusting or denting, either. You’ll see more plastic-bladed shovels than anything else, mostly because its biggest advantage is cost, and it’s significantly cheaper to make a shovel out of plastic.
Wear Edge Material—The business end of the shovel, the wear edge, is where it contacts the ground. Here, a slice of steel that’s been riveted to the blade can be a real boon to getting through icy precipitation and minimizing the work you have to do. Metal will effectively get down to the pavement better than a plastic wear edge. It also stands up to abuse, such as chopping at ice on frozen surfaces. A plastic wear edge may be durable, too, but metal stands up better to the rigors of shoveling. Steel is the best metal for wear edges. Aluminum is more malleable, so it will deform more readily under the sometimes-rough challenges of clearing winter’s fury. If you want to be able to pound away, a steel wear edge is a must.
Blade Design—Some shovels are like a teaspoon—a good scoop meant for picking the material up. Others are like miniature versions of the plows that clear your street. These look more like a section of pipe. The two different designs have overlapping talents. If you have a large area of flat pavement to clear, a plow-type shovel is going to be very efficient. It’s almost like mowing the lawn—start at one end, walk the shovel all the way over to the other. Snow piles up in front of the blade and gets pushed along. On the other hand, the best type of shovel for stairs, tight areas, and undulating pavement is your typical scoop-type snow shovel. These are more versatile, allowing you to deal with clearing any area of any kind of snow. The plow shovels become a workout if the snow is wet and heavy.
Ergonomic (or not) Handle—Because the bend in the ergonomic handles looks less than graceful, they’re not the most widely-loved shovels. On the other hand, the idea actually works. An ergonomic handle is designed so you keep your back straight. Shoveling with a more upright posture keeps the strain off your back muscles and makes your biceps and shoulders do most of the work. That’s as it should be. These shovels are a little bit more of a hassle to store because of the funky shape, but the ergonomic handle does have its place. You can consciously remind yourself to maintain good posture while using a straight-shaft shovel, but it’s most likely you’ll eventually assume the typical hunched-over form, and your lower back will become angry at you.
Ergonomic shafts help the shovel work with your body.
The head, the joints, handle, and blade are all failure points on a snow shovel.
The best advice we can give for shovel-shopping is to consider the type of storms you typically experience. Light, fluffy snow is easy to move. Heavy, wet stuff is more miserable. Your terrain is also important: a plow shovel is going to be a challenge on a narrow walk paved with pea gravel or bricks. If it all sounds too confusing, you can do what I did: get one of each.
We use standardized and scientific testing methods to scrutinize every product and provide you with objectively accurate results. If you’ve found different results in your own research, email us and we’ll compare notes. If it looks substantial, we’ll gladly re-test a product to try and reproduce these results. After all, peer reviews are a critical part of any scientific process.
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