Comments

  • 1-6 of 6
  • Raymond Di Tucci

    Joe, I feel your pain.  You should mail that piece of crap directly to Husqvarna postage due and have them deal with you directly. It’s truly shameful that they treat the paying public like fools.  The amazing thing is that they’re still selling this crap as if nothing was the matter. 

  • Raymond Di Tucci

    All I can say is good luck to you and your husband.  I had replaced my belts 4 different times with original husq and then replacement belts from Gates that are Kevlar.  The issue is in the design of this machine that keeps burning them.  Not sure if the pulleys or clutch are the culprit but I've never experienced anything like this in my 53 years life. The company should have informed all of its customers of the issue and done the right thing.  I don't have the time to deal with this issue so I went out last and bought an Ariens.  Just used it for the first time on Tuesday with about a foot of heavy wet snow, it was throwing it across the street, with no effort at all.  The belts didn't break and it worked as you would expect from a snow blower. 

    Again I wish you good luck! 

     

    Ray Di Tucci

  • Raymond Di Tucci

    Oscar, I'm not surprised at all.  They don't believe in customer service, its a "love them and leave them" attitude.   They literally screwed me with this product, I wasted $1,150.00 on this product with nothing to show for it other than angst and grief.  

    Their products had a good reputation in the past, but that has changed and not for the better unfortunately.   Lets think for a minute, here we are posting on "their" website "the Husqvarna Answer Army" has anyone from Husqvarna reached out to you or even bothered to read these posts?   This is crazy, and its truly shameful.    The last post I read talked about a class action lawsuit and I'm starting to think that's the way to go here. 

     

     

     

  • Raymond Di Tucci

    Sounds like your on to something! if this isn't a design flaw I ask you what is?  To have literally hundreds if not thousands of customers and users experiencing the same belt issues, I'm not aware of any other brand or any other model that this occurs on. Go to Amazon and look at all of the reviews and comments on this issue.

    This is truly shameful where the customers have to post this on the Husqvarna answer army site and yet no one from Husqvarna has the courage or decency to follow up on this issue with the users. This warrants an investigation at the very least.  Its bordering on fraud, perhaps their thinking is if we don't respond then we cant say we know about any machine issues.   Do yourself a favor and buy something good, anything is better than this piece of crap. Chalk this up to a lesson learned.  Sure it looks great but it cant hold a candle to anything out there, what good is a machine you cant rely on to do what its supposed to do. An old Latin proverb comes to mind; "Caveat Emptor" let the buyer beware. 

     

     

     

  • Raymond Di Tucci

    I just want to respond to the last two entries and be very clear that the snow blower is kept in a heated garage, and I take particular pride in making sure the machine is cleaned after each use, I like to take care of my stuff.  As for the belt failure, it manifested itself under various different circumstances. The first time it broke a belt I was trying to clear snow at the bottom of the driveway that the plows threw on the mouth of the driveway the piles were heavy wet snow, and about 18 to 20 inches high and was moving at the slowest speed on 1st gear.   A machine of this size and at approx. 11.6 horsepower as the ST230P is, it should be able to handle that with minimal effort, but the belt failed.  The second time I was removing snow from the driveway, the snow was medium weight, not fluffy but not super saturated either, this time I wasn't going any faster than 2nd gear. The third time it failed was when I was clearing a sidewalk, again at 2nd gear and the snow was somewhat heavy but less than 6" in total depth.   I don't know if the belts are designed and sized too small for this machine or if they are just poor quality, I'm not a mechanic or mechanical engineer, but there is definitely something there.  I do know that something is a miss with this machine and I suspect its a design flaw when it was engineered. It's truly a pain to have to replace belts on this thing constantly.   I wish I could get my money back and go with something else to make my life better, and not have to waste time, money and effort on what  should have saved me time, money and effort in the first place.   Its my sincere hope that someone at high up at Husqvarna reads this and takes an interest because its truly sad otherwise. 

         

  • Raymond Di Tucci

    I can only describe myself as one disappointed customer, I bought the Husqvarna ST230P last year in December 2015 to use in the Greater Boston area. I purchased it because I needed something better than my 5 hp Murray snow thrower that I had been using for the last 20 years.  Thus far I have replaced 3 shear bolts and 3 auger belts. Husqvarna support is non-existent.  I paid $1,150.00 for what I thought was a good quality machine, but was I ever wrong.   I have to say that never replaced a single belt or shear bolt in the 20 years I had that 5hp Murray and, I regret giving it away, but I needed something stronger which the ST230P is, but definitely not a quality product when you need to be at its constant beckoning replacing auger belts at break neck pace. My regret is that I should have listened to my neighbors and gone with an Ariens, they are built tougher and don't have this flaw.   The other thing that pisses me off is their supply chain, I was able to pick up one belt at Lowes when I bought the machine but after that I wasn't able to find them anymore as they were all sold out.    I had to order auger belts through Husqvarna as their local distributer near me was out too and wouldn't be getting more for months, go figure.  So I ordered directly from Husqvarna in January and the belts arrived in August, what that tells me is they have poor customer support and don't really care. Lets think about this for a minute, what good is a snow blower that doesn't work in the winter? What good is a snow blower in the summer for that matter?   Who needs a heavy, $1,150.00 paper weight taking space in a garage. While the machine was down which was a good portion of the winter, I had to physically remove the snow by hand in a 100' driveway.    When my frustration reached epic levels, I had my mechanic take a look at the machine and he set me up with the best fix so far, he used a "Gates" high speed rated Kevlar "V" belt. The size was a 38" x 1/2" model number 6838 - 4L380. This appears to be an exact fit on the machine and the same size as the original Husq auger belt, but maybe better made.   So I ordered a bunch at approximately $9.00 each, so far they have worked fine but no telling how long they will last before they too get eaten up by this horribly designed albatross.  I too will never buy another Husqvarna product for as long as I live, and I intend to voice my unhappiness with this product and the company at every opportunity.