Best Snow Blower Covers

Covers fail in wind, not in rain. The fabric is rarely the thing that gives out first — the stitching at the corners does, after a season of the cover being lifted and dropped a thousand times by gusts.

This one is built against that failure. A cinch cord pulls the hem under the machine, adjustable side straps take the load off the fabric, and buckles let you tension it rather than hoping elastic holds. On an exposed driveway that combination is the difference between a cover and a kite.

It is also the largest here — 55 by 35 by 56 inches — which suits a big two-stage with the chute up, and is too much cover for a small single-stage. Surplus fabric flaps, and flapping is what wears covers out, so size it honestly.

Along with the WardWolf it is one of only two covers on this page with vents, and that is the feature worth paying for. Machines go under covers wet; the cover's job is to shed the weather without sealing yesterday's slush against the steel.

If you only read one specification on a snow blower cover, read the fabric weight. Denier — the D number — is a measure of yarn thickness, and it is the difference between a cover that survives three winters against a wall and one that shreds at the corners in one.

At 1200D this is the heaviest here, and it is also the cheapest of the four, which is unusual enough to be worth saying plainly.

The vents are the other reason it wins. Every argument about waterproof fabric misses the real failure mode: the water that matters is already on the machine when you cover it. A sealed cover holds that against the auger and the chute all summer; two side vents let it evaporate.

What you give up is the fastening. An elastic shock cord around the hem is fine in an ordinary winter and less convincing in an exposed, windy spot than buckles and straps. If your machine sits on a corner that funnels wind, the strapped covers are worth the trade.

A snow blower spends about four months working and eight months sitting, and the sitting is what rusts the auger, perishes the fuel lines and fades the plastics. A cover is the cheapest maintenance in the category.

Tough Cover's premium version is the one to buy if your machine lives outdoors under a lean-to or against a wall, because it does the two things that decide whether a cover survives: heavy enough fabric, and a way to cinch it tight. A loose cover flogs itself to pieces against the handlebars in a week of wind.

The size — 54 by 30 by 19 inches — is worth measuring against your own machine before ordering. A 28-inch two-stage with the chute standing up is taller than people estimate, and forcing a short cover over it puts all the load on the seams.

The gap in the specification is ventilation. No vents are listed, and a sealed cover over a machine that went away wet holds that water against bare metal all summer. If you cover a damp blower, this is not the cover for you; the vented ones below are.

Big two-stage and three-stage machines are the ones most likely to live outside — they are too large for a crowded garage — and they are exactly the machines most covers do not fit.

This is the large-format answer, stated to take blowers up to 70 inches with the same 600D fabric and double-stitched seams as the premium cover.

The specification is thinner than we would like: one capacity figure and no width or height. If your machine is genuinely large, measure it with the chute in its stored position and compare against the 70-inch claim before ordering.

The same ventilation caveat applies. If the machine goes under the cover wet — and after a February clear it always does — open it up on the next dry day rather than leaving the moisture sealed in until spring.