Workshop

The EGO Ecosystem — How a Snow Shovel Became a Philosophy

May 7, 2026

Ego_snow_shovel

Ok, this might give away the type of climate that I live in, but I think it's important to understand why I make the decisions that I make. I have a big deck and large walkways. When it snows, it sometimes snows BIG. I don't want to lug around a walk-behind snowblower onto my decks or walkways for a couple of reasons — most specifically I don't want to damage them with a heavy machine.

So, in my infinite wisdom, I decided to buy a snow shovel. My process is:

  1. Browse Amazon forever looking at reviews and prices
  2. Select a few that might be interesting — price is absolutely an object
  3. Try and find forums (real peoples reviews) or videos that show the items I am interested in

Here's where the trap is that I sometimes fall into:

  1. I can never really discern with 100% surety that the reviews I read are real and not sponsored
  2. I buy a snow shovel that is battery operated and seemed to get good reviews
  3. It gets delivered, I set it up and start using it
  4. It's a POS and works about as well as a 3 wheeled car
  5. I go back to the one that I should have bought but was more money

If any of this sounds familiar, you are in good company.

So, I decided on the EGO brand snow shovel — a power head and tool separately. With more research it turns out that my Milwaukee ecosystem could in fact work with some MacGyvering the Milwaukee tool power head — someone on Reddit already figured this out, naturally.

It's not a cheap EGO system (pun intended). BUT, the fact that I can buy other attachments to do other things around the yard was a plus. The biggest plus — no gas required. Now I already know the limitations of electric powered vs gas. I can fix most things that are gas operated — well, the new electronically controlled gas stuff pissed me off (right to repair and all) — but charge and go works for me.

Side note: the electric big snowblowers look fantastic btw.

Anyways...so I get the EGO snow shovel and start using it. Fantastic little machine. Has the ability to direct the snow, throws it pretty far for a little thing. The only downside is it is a little heavy for a small machine, but it's also built like a tank.

I will try and update this once I go through another season and use it on my deck, but so far with 1/3 of a season under my belt, it performs way better than the one I originally bought (and returned).

One other downside to consider — the batteries are expensive. But with all downsides there is an upside — the ying and yang of things. Whatever EGO product I buy uses the exact same battery, just in multiples.

The EGO kit

Power Head — PH1420 The brain of the operation. Buy this once, attach everything else to it.

Snow Shovel Attachment — SSA1200 The reason I bought into the ecosystem in the first place. Does what it says.

The bonus attachment I did not expect to need

Where I live we sometimes have storms that wreak havoc on my trees. The right thing to do is trim the branches to ensure the tree stays healthy — there are real reasons for this beyond aesthetics, and it just looks better. Being a caretaker of nature helps ensure that living things do not get sick.

10 Inch Pole Saw — PS1001 Same battery. Same power head. Different attachment. That is the whole pitch and it works.

One third of a season in. More to follow.

Spotting fake reviews:

  • Fakespot — analyzes Amazon reviews for authenticity. Paste any Amazon product URL and it grades the reviews
  • r/BuyItForLife — subreddit for genuine long-term product reviews, no sponsored content, real people who actually own the things they write about

The EGO ecosystem:

  • EGO Power+ full attachment lineup — everything the power head can run. Worth looking at before buying in to understand the full scope of what one battery platform covers
  • r/lawncare and r/Tools — community reviews of EGO products from people who have used them across multiple seasons

Right to repair:

  • Repair.org — the actual right to repair movement referenced above. Worth understanding if the electronically controlled gas equipment situation bothers you as much as it bothers me

Electric snowblowers — the aside that deserved more:

  • EGO 56V two-stage snowblower — if the snow shovel attachment is not enough and you want to go full electric without gas. The technology has genuinely caught up - and the reviews have been pretty positive for small and large driveways

Tree care:

If you want to know exactly what to buy and where — the shopping list lives in The EGO Ecosystem — What To Actually Buy.