AVALANCHE! DB550 Drift Buster 550 Snow Rake with Shield

It works in removing layers of snow from the roof. It was fairly straightforward to add and remove segments to adjust the length in order to make things less unwieldy. The installation was ok but could have been a little better: I believe I installed the slide backwards and forgot to install the shield before attaching the slide.

It can get heavy at full extension and the slide could be a little thicker as it got a little tangled now and then. Also, snow falling from the roof gets packed down pretty tight so shoveling that from the front steps was quite a chore.

It feels expensive at over $100 but with the aftermath of snowpocalypse 2010 and the ice dams building up, it was probably worth it.

This product does in fact function as described, but with some significant limitations. It can best be described as a modified snow rake with an edged cutting frame, wheels on the bottom (to enable it to roll up and over shingles), a hinged gate (to let snow through frame) and a rolled-up plastic slide (to allow snow to slide to the roof edge). I have used this product for approximately 2+ hours and have the following observations:

It is NOT useful for breaking up piles of hard-packed snow on roofs. A regular snow rake was needed to get things "started". However, once the "hard" snow is broken, the product does a credible job breaking up soft snow and crust, and the cascade of snow down the slide is occasionally impressive. It worked best on exposed soft snow and was able to whittle away edges of some harder crust.

Much of the product is plastic (except primarily the cutting frame and pole connectors), so I'm not optimistic for the product's long-term...Read more

The snow rake works well and performs as described. I have only two issues with the product. The drift busting blade broke at the hing during the second use. It obviously should be desinged with a steel hinge, because the plastic will not hold up to repeated impact into crusty snow and drifts. The long plastic slide/shield is useful, but will tear along sharp edges (gutters, shingles, etc.) so be careful. It takes a little bit of practice (and muscle) to get used to manuevering the rake, but once you got have the technique down, the snow will come sliding down in blocks from the roof. The rake works just as well without the blade, so I recommend the original version over the drift buster version.