I got this for my 88 yr old dad and 67 yr old mom. We live in Buffalo NY so we get tons of lake effect snow and several storms each year that shut or city down. This year we had 3 and 1 that wasn't bad enough to shut down the city but still pretty bad. I included pics of my fiance's and my cars at our apartment after the 1 not as bad storm, so you can see how much snow we get and get an idea how bad the 3 bad storms were. The shoveled areas I did myself with a normal shovel and it took me 90 min to be able to get my car out (I wish I had this electric shovel for that cause it would've made it alot easier and prolly taken me 10 min or less). My mom especially is very frail and weak. She also doesn't have the best balance and goes down easily. I tried 3 different types of snow melters (salt, calcium, and magnesium) and 2 types of spreaders. However none of them melted the walkway enough to give my mom a clear path to her car. My dad would try and shovel as much as he could be he's almost 90 and while he is in great shape for his age he couldn't clear the 33 ft walkway well enough. So almost every other day this winter I was going to their house to shovel for them. It would always take at least 30 min. I might be 33 but I have 2 serious back issues so I would always suffer afterwards. I discovered these electric shovels and started looking for a good one. At first I was hesitant about this one because of all the negative reviews. However several of them were people who bought it thinking they could do large area which a full size snow blower would be used for. And yes if you are trying to do your whole driveway or large areas it might take a while. But to make decent sized walkway down to the pavement it works amazingly. What use to take me like 45 min shoveling I can now do in 5 min or less and that's not an exaggeration. I found it works great on soft snow and hard icy snow alike which I was worried about. Also just to try I did do our 2 car wide and 3 car long driveway and I was able to do it in about 35 min. It was more difficult then doing pathways but the snow was like 15 inches deep, sticky, and heavy which would've taken me prolly 2 hours+ (that includes like 2 or 3 ten min breaks I'd have to take). Now it is a little heavy and more so with the like 8 lbs battery in the handle. So carrying it isn't as easy as I'd like but when in use it pushes with ease. I saw a review of a guy in a wheelchair using one hand to use it and realized it would be great for my dad. One other minor issue is it doesn't work the best on grass but I doubt many people would need to shovel an area with grass. Also since it's meant to get down to the pavement if you are doing a walkway, driveway,, or patio that has a bunch of sections (cracks, grout,, ect) then it tends to catch on them and you have to lift it up an inch or so as you push. However it is easy to push and the forward handle makes it easy to lift slightly when needed as it catches. The last negative review I read was that the battery slot can warp and make it really hard to get the battery in and out. Now I haven't had that problem yet but I do see the sides starting to bend in so I can see what they mean. Knowing this can be a problem I'm just more careful when inserting and taking our the battery. I've used it prolly 10 times and my dad has used it like 20+ and it's still going strong. My dad also uses it on the back patio to give their 2 German shepherds and 1 chihuahua a place to walk and go potty since when the snow is higher then the chihuahua she can't go outside to potty. He says in 30-40 min he can clear like a 10ft by 10ft area for them (like I said he's almost 90 so I'd bet I could do same thing in 10-15 min or less). He loves it, minus that it can be a little heavy to carry from front door to back door. My dad and I have also used it to clear around their cars and make a path for the tires when the snow was so bad they got stuck in their driveway. Also the street plow tends to put like a 2ft+ hill at the end of our driveway which can get a car stuck or if its icy/hard enough it can tear up the bottom of your car. Usually I would shovel it for 20 min and then get up some speed to burst through it and hope I make it without getting stuck or having a icy hard chunk catch the undercarriage and/or bumper. Now I can take less then 5 min and clear it completely with no trouble. Bottom line it is not a snow blower, so if you are trying to clear large areas of snow then I wouldn't recommend. I got this on sale for like 300$ but it usually is a decent amount more and at that price it'd make more sense to buy a smaller/regular snow blower if you have large areas to clear. But if you are just trying to clear walkways, small driveways, around your car/cars, and clear the bottom of the driveway that the street plow pilled up then this is perfect and I'd highly recommend for teenagers up to seniors.