The 7 Best Snow Shovels

1. How We Picked These Shovels

A snow shovel looks too simple to need a buying guide, but the choices change the job a lot. Blade width decides how many passes a driveway takes. Blade depth decides whether you push snow or lift it. The edge decides whether the blade lasts one winter or ten, and the handle decides whether your back hurts the next morning. We sorted the market by those four things before looking at brands.

We did not run our own shoveling tests for this guide, and we will not pretend otherwise. Every pick comes from published specifications: the manufacturer's product page where we could reach it, and retailer listings where we could not. Each spec in the product cards names its source in plain words. Where two listings disagreed, as they often do on weight and handle length, we used the more conservative figure and said so.

We chose one shovel per job rather than ranking seven nearly identical combos. Most homes need one or two of these, not all seven. A short suburban driveway needs a good 18-inch combo. A long, flat driveway is faster with a combo and a wide pusher. A shoveler with back trouble should start with an ergonomic second-handle design. Anyone digging out cars or clearing a deck needs a scoop that can be lifted and thrown.

We left out shovels whose specs we could not confirm, ones sold only under shifting marketplace brand names, and electric shovels, which have their own guide. If your driveway is long enough that shoveling is a real chore every storm, read our electric snow shovel guide and our electric snow blower picks before buying a manual tool.

2. Pusher, Scoop or Combo: Pick the Shape First

There are three basic shapes, and almost every snow shovel is a variation on one of them. A pusher has a wide, shallow, curved blade designed to roll snow forward along pavement. A scoop has a narrow, deep head designed to carry a load that you lift and throw. A combo sits in between: a medium-width blade with enough curve to push and enough depth to carry.

Pushers are the fastest tool on long, flat pavement because you never have to lift. You walk the blade to the edge of the driveway and tip it off. The catch is that they only work when there is somewhere to push the snow. On a narrow drive hemmed in by a fence or garden beds, snow has to go up and over, and a 36-inch blade full of snow is too heavy to throw.

Scoops are slow on open pavement but unmatched when you have to lift. Decks, steps, the space around a parked car, and the end of the driveway after the plow goes by all need snow lifted and thrown. A scoop's depth also helps in deep, dry snow that would spill off the sides of a shallow blade.

Combos are the compromise, and for most homes they are the right first purchase. An 18-inch combo pushes a light snowfall, carries a moderate one and throws snow onto a bank without much trouble. If you buy one shovel, buy a combo. Add a pusher for a long driveway, or a scoop if you regularly dig out cars or clear raised surfaces.

3. The 7 Best Snow Shovels

We did not lab-test these shovels. Each pick was chosen from published manufacturer and retailer specifications for blade width, blade material, wear strip and handle, and every figure below is attributed to the listing it came from. Where listings disagreed, we say so. Pick by the job first: the badge on each card tells you what that shovel is for.

4. Blade Width vs Snow Weight

Wider is faster, but only until the blade gets too heavy to move. Snow varies enormously in weight. Commonly cited figures put fresh, fluffy snow at around 5 to 7 pounds per cubic foot, while wet, heavy snow can run 15 to 20 pounds per cubic foot or more. The same blade full of snow can therefore weigh three times as much after a warm, wet storm as after a cold, dry one.

Run the numbers on an ordinary 18-inch combo. Imagine a load 1.5 feet wide, a foot long and six inches deep: that is about three quarters of a cubic foot. In fluffy powder that is a load of four or five pounds. In wet snow it is twelve to fifteen pounds, held at the end of a four-foot lever. Do that a few hundred times on a driveway and it is easy to see why shoveling is hard work.

That is why we recommend an 18-inch combo as the default and treat wider blades as a specialty. A 24-inch combo moves a third more snow per pass, which helps in light snow and hurts in wet snow. A 36-inch pusher is excellent on a long, flat drive in powder, but in heavy snow you will find yourself pushing half-loads, which defeats the point.

The practical rule is to size the blade for your heaviest typical snow, not your lightest. If your region gets wet, heavy storms, stay at 18 to 20 inches for anything you lift and use a pusher only on flat runs. If you mostly get cold, dry snow, a 24-inch combo or a 36-inch pusher will save real time.

5. Poly, Aluminum or Steel: Blade Materials and Wear Strips

Most snow shovels sold today have a plastic blade, usually polyethylene or polypropylene. Plastic is light, cheap and slick, so snow slides off it, and it will not scratch decking or pavers. Its weaknesses are edges and cold: a bare plastic edge wears down quickly on concrete, and cheap plastic can become brittle in deep cold and crack when it hits a frozen ridge.

A wear strip fixes the first problem. It is a strip of steel or aluminum riveted along the front edge of a plastic blade, and it takes the abrasion so the plastic does not. It also gives you a harder edge for scraping packed snow. Our top pick, the budget pick and the ergonomic pick all have one, and we would not buy a plastic shovel for concrete or asphalt without it.

Aluminum blades cost more and weigh more, but they stay stiff in any cold and scrape packed snow better than plastic. They are the right choice if you regularly deal with the frozen ridge the plow leaves at the end of the driveway, or if your shovel lives in an unheated garage in a very cold climate. The downside is that wet snow sticks to bare aluminum, so a quick coat of silicone spray before a storm makes a noticeable difference.

All-steel blades are heavy and mostly belong to ice choppers and contractor tools. For ordinary homeowners, they make sense only for chipping ice, not moving snow. On decks, pavers or stamped concrete, skip metal edges entirely and use a plain plastic blade, because a steel strip can scratch or chip soft surfaces.

6. Handle Shape and Length

The handle decides how much you bend, and bending is what hurts. A straight handle forces you to stoop to keep the blade flat on the ground. A bent or ergonomic handle puts a kink in the shaft so the blade sits flat while your hands stay higher, which keeps your back straighter. The True Temper aluminum combo uses this kind of bent shaft.

A second handle goes further. Snow Joe's Shovelution puts a spring-assisted grip partway down the shaft, so your lower hand does the lifting while your upper hand steers. That turns a long lever into a shorter one and lets you lift with your arms and legs rather than your lower back. For anyone who has hurt their back shoveling before, this is the single most useful feature on the market.

Length matters too. A shovel that is too short makes you hunch, and one that is too long is hard to control when you lift. There is no universal formula, but a common rule of thumb is that, with the blade on the ground, the top of the handle should land somewhere around your chest. Taller shoppers should look for longer shafts or telescoping handles, and shorter shoppers should avoid long pusher handles they cannot control.

Finally, look at the grip. A D-grip on the end gives you a firm hold with a glove on and helps you steer and tip the blade. Shafts with a steel core or fiberglass resist bending and rot better than thin aluminum tubes or unsealed wood. Wooden handles still work well when they are kept dry, but store them indoors so they do not split.

7. How to Shovel Without Hurting Your Back

Shoveling is heavy exercise, often done cold, early in the morning and by people who do not otherwise lift weights. Safety organizations such as the National Safety Council publish the same core advice every winter: warm up first, push snow instead of lifting it where you can, lift with your legs rather than your back, take small loads, and take breaks. The American Heart Association also warns that shoveling can strain the heart, especially for people with heart disease, so anyone in that group should talk to their doctor before doing it.

The biggest single habit is to push rather than lift. Pushing uses your legs and body weight. Lifting and throwing puts the load at the end of a long lever and twists your spine. Plan your path so snow goes forward and to the side, not up and over, and use a pusher on long, flat runs.

When you must lift, face the snow, bend at the knees and hips, keep the load close to your body, and walk the snow to where it is going. Avoid throwing snow over your shoulder or twisting to toss it to the side. That twisting throw is the motion most associated with shoveling injuries, and an ergonomic shovel does not make it safe.

Shovel early and often in a big storm. Clearing four inches twice is far easier than clearing eight inches once, because the snow is lighter and has not compacted. If you know heavy, wet snow is coming, clearing partway through the storm can make the difference between a manageable morning and an impossible one.

8. Do Wheeled Shovels Work?

Wheeled shovels, sometimes called rolling pushers, mount a wide blade on two wheels with a tall handle, so you walk the blade forward without carrying its weight. On smooth, flat pavement after a light snowfall they work well, and for people who cannot bend or lift much they can make clearing a driveway possible again.

Their limits are clear, and sellers of these tools generally say so. Deep snow piles up in front of the blade faster than you can push it. Wet, heavy snow becomes too much to push even with wheels. Packed snow and ice defeat them, because the blade rides on the wheels rather than scraping the surface. Gravel driveways and steps are out of the question.

They are also heavy and bulky. The Outsunny pusher we picked is listed at 22 pounds, several times the weight of a combo shovel, and it takes up a lot of garage space. If you live somewhere with frequent heavy storms, that money is usually better spent on an electric shovel or a small battery snow blower.

Our view is that a wheeled pusher is a good second tool for a smooth driveway in a light-snow climate, and a back-saver for some people. It is not a replacement for a combo shovel, which you will still need for steps, walks and the end-of-driveway plow ridge.

9. When to Stop Shoveling and Buy Electric

A manual shovel is the right tool for walks, steps, short driveways and occasional storms. It stops being the right tool when shoveling takes more than about half an hour per storm, when you get frequent heavy snow, or when physical strain is a real concern. At that point a power tool is worth considering.

For steps, decks and walks, a cordless electric snow shovel is the natural upgrade. These are small one-stage throwers about a foot wide that clear a few inches of snow without lifting. Our cordless snow shovel picks and our electric snow shovel guide cover what they can and cannot handle.

For a full driveway, an electric or gas snow blower does the heavy work. Single-stage battery blowers clear moderate snow on paved driveways, and two-stage machines handle deep snow and the plow ridge. Our electric snow blower picks and overall snow blower picks compare both, and our self-propelled snow blower guide explains when a driven machine is worth it.

Even with a blower, you will still want a manual shovel. Blowers leave a thin layer behind, they do not do steps well, and they will not reach tight corners around cars and doors. For a full list of what belongs in a winter kit, see our snow removal tools guide, and keep a compact car snow shovel in the trunk for getting unstuck.

10. Care, Storage and End-of-Season

Snow shovels need very little care, but a few habits make them last. Knock off snow and ice after each use, and store the shovel blade-up or hanging, so meltwater does not sit on the edge. Plastic blades last longer kept out of direct summer sun, which slowly makes them brittle.

Check the wear strip each fall. Rivets can loosen over a season of scraping, and a strip that flaps or catches is worse than none. Tighten or replace the rivets if you can. A blade worn through to the plastic behind the strip is due for replacement, because the plastic will wear away quickly from there.

A light coat of silicone spray or car wax on the blade before a storm helps wet snow slide off, especially on aluminum. Avoid oily products that leave residue on pavement. Wooden handles benefit from being kept dry and occasionally wiped with linseed oil, and fiberglass or steel-core handles need nothing beyond an inspection for cracks.

Keep one shovel near each door you use in winter, not all of them in the back of the garage. A combo by the front door, a pusher where the driveway starts and a compact shovel in the car covers most situations. Our guide to preparing a driveway for winter covers the rest of the fall checklist.