Toro
Toro SnowMaster 724 QXE
The SnowMaster is the line Toro built to answer a specific complaint: two-stage machines are slow and heavy, single-stages are too narrow. It takes a 24-inch bite like a two-stage but uses one in-line auger spinning roughly ten times faster than a conventional one, so snow goes straight out the chute instead of being handed to an impeller. The result is a machine that clears a two-car driveway at walking speed and still lifts onto a truck tailgate. The trade-off is honest and worth understanding before you buy: the rubber-edged auger contacts the ground, so this is a paved-surface machine only, and it will not touch a gravel drive. Against the Power Clear 821 QZE it clears three more inches per pass; against the Power Max 824 OE it gives up the ability to handle a packed end-of-driveway berm.
Single-stage machines scoop and throw in one motion, and the rubber auger touching the pavement means they scrape cleaner than anything else. Paved surfaces only, and they bounce off a refrozen plow berm rather than eating it.
Price and availability on Toro’s site may differ.
Specifications
Highlights
Pros
- ✓Clears a 24-inch path at a walking pace most two-stage machines can't match
- ✓125 lb means one person can load it, hang it on a garage wall bracket, or turn it around without effort
- ✓Personal Pace removes the speed-lever fiddling that slows a conventional two-stage on a mixed driveway
- ✓Quick Stick chute control moves rotation and pitch in one motion
- ✓120V plug-in electric start, so it fires in January without a pull
Cons
- ✗Paved surfaces only — the auger touches the ground and will throw gravel
- ✗No heated grips at any price in the SnowMaster line
- ✗18-inch intake is shorter than a two-stage, so a deep plow berm has to be taken in layers
- ✗At $1,199 it costs more than the Power Max 824 OE, which is the more capable machine in deep snow
Owner Insightssummarized from owner forums and reviews
The SnowMaster 724 QXE is Toro's answer to a real question: most people buying a two-stage do not need one, they just need to stop taking four passes with a single-stage. The In-Line auger-and-impeller setup sits in one narrow housing, which lets the machine stay light and short while still throwing like a staged machine. Owners describe it as the fastest way to clear an ordinary paved driveway, and the comparison they reach for is a self-propelled mower rather than a snow blower.
In use, the Personal Pace drive is what people talk about - there is no speed selector, you simply walk and the machine matches you. The Quick Stick chute control earns consistent praise for changing throw direction one-handed mid-pass. The honest limits show up in three places: depth beyond about fifteen inches, dense wet snow, and the compacted wall the plow leaves at the curb, where the floating scraper skips rather than bites. It is paved-surface-only, without exception, because the auger contacts the ground.
This is the right machine for a one- or two-car paved driveway in a region with frequent moderate snowfalls, especially for someone who wants a machine they can move around the garage without planning it. It is the wrong machine for gravel, for slopes, for lake-effect depth, and for anyone whose street gets plowed into a berm that refreezes before they get to it - all of which point at a conventional two-stage instead. Against its own sibling, the 824 costs modestly more for meaningfully more engine, and that is the comparison worth making before checkout rather than after.
What owners like
- +The In-Line two-stage system is the whole point: owners consistently report it clears a paved driveway noticeably faster than a conventional 24-inch two-stage, because you walk at your own speed instead of the machine's
- +Personal Pace drive means no gear lever at all - push harder and it goes faster, ease off and it slows, which owners coming from a self-propelled mower find immediately familiar
- +At roughly 125 lb it is far easier to wrestle in and out of a garage than a 250 lb two-stage, and owners with limited storage repeatedly name this as the deciding factor
- +The single-hand Quick Stick chute control changes direction and pitch in one motion, which owners rate well above crank-and-lever setups at this price
- +The rubber-edged auger contacts the pavement, so it scrapes cleaner to bare concrete than a two-stage riding on skid shoes
- +The poly chute is rated for deep cold and owners report it resists the sticking and cracking that plagues painted steel chutes in wet snow
Common complaints
- −Paved surfaces only - the auger touches the ground, so gravel drives are off the table entirely and the machine will fling stones
- −Rated to 18 inches but the practical ceiling is closer to 15, and the light weight costs traction well before that in dense snow
- −The floating scraper protects pavement but cannot bite a refrozen plow berm the way a rigid two-stage scraper does - the end-of-driveway pile is where this design gives up
- −Heavy wet snow is its known weakness: owners in coastal and lake-effect regions report bogging and clogging that a heavier two-stage would push through
- −On sloped driveways it can struggle climbing and run away downhill, so hilly properties are a poor match
- −The 212cc engine is the smaller of the two SnowMaster options, and owners who chose it over the 824 sometimes wish they had taken the extra displacement
Common Questions
Is the SnowMaster actually a two-stage machine?
Can it handle the pile the plow leaves at the end of my driveway?
How deep can it really go?
724 or 824 - is the bigger engine worth it?
Will it work on my gravel driveway?
Compare the Toro SnowMaster 724 QXE
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Toro SnowMaster 824 QXE
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The 824 QXE is the 724 with a 252cc engine in place of the 212cc and six more pounds on the scale, and that is genuinely the whole difference. Same 24-inch in-line auger, same Personal Pace drive, same 18-inch intake. The larger engine is the answer to the SnowMaster's one real weakness — wet, heavy, late-season snow, where the smaller motor has to be driven slower to keep the auger spinning. For $50 more it is difficult to argue for the 724 unless the machine is going to live somewhere the extra six pounds matters.
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