I've been using a Toro electric snow thrower in recent years as a concession to a bad back and heavy wet snow. I like the relatively low noise and the plug-and-go convenience of an electric snow thrower, but there are a few inconveniences- mainly involving the cord. You need a heavy gauge cord, and keeping that out of the way of the snow thrower itself is a bit of work. The cord also limits how far you can go, of course. It's hard to do your neighbor's walk when the cord limits you. And that's why I decided to test this small gas thrower.Opening the box you’ll find the almost ready to run snow thrower and a zip log bag with a few parts and three manuals. One is a parts reference for maintenance, the second is the user manual, and the third, the engine manual. The manuals are pretty good, but the photos are tiny, and hard to see, and a few of the instructions are unclear. I managed figure things out with a little trial and error. For starters, I found that the easiest way to unpack the machine is to make two vertical cuts in the back of the carton, at the corners. Once this is done you can fold the rear panel down, and just roll the snow thrower back out.The next step is to remove the two large screws and plastic toggle nuts located in the handle by the hinges, straighten out the handle, and replace the screws. You have the choice of three handle positions, and it's probably best to start with the middle position, as you can easily raise or lower it later. Snug the toggle bolts up by hand.The snow chute is in two pieces: The chute proper, and the handle, which slides in from the rear. The manual has a photo to guide you, but I'll note that you should make sure that the handle is curving up and not down. . To attach the chute assembly to the thrower you start by removing the three screws in the mounting ring, for which you'll need an 8mm socket and an extension. (I recommend you do this indoors, or over a piece of cardboard, in case you drop a bolt.) The bolts have a sort of sawtooth thread (see photo) and take a fair amount of force to turn. If you look at the mounting ring, you'll see a pattern of three screw holes and two posts that stick up from the ring. The chute has five holes that correspond to these, so take your time and make sure you line up the proper holes on the chute with the proper posts and holes on the ring. Insert the screw, and tighten until you feel the force increase. You don't want to overtighten the screws, as the posts they screw into are plastic and it's possible to strip them if you go too far.There's one last piece, which you'll find ion the zip-loc bag that came with the snow thrower. It's a ring with a threaded extension and a plastic toggle nut, and it serves as a support for the pull start handle. It attaches to a hole in the main handle on the right hand side. The photo in the manual is somewhat helpful, but doesn't really tell you if the ring should be above or below the hole in the handle; I installed it below the hole, as that seemed to give better clearance for the rope. Speaking of which, make sure you thread the pull rope through the ring before bolting it in, as you can't do it after.At this point the snow thrower is fully assembled and almost ready to run. Before that, though, you have to fill the oil sump, and for that Troy-Bilt have thoughtfully included a plastic bottle of engine oil. Remove the cap and carefully pour the contents in to the oil fill port. Don’t upend the package. It takes time to flow down the fill tube, and it's easy to accidentally allow the oil to overflow, as I discovered. The last step is to fill the gas tank, and that's pretty straightforward.There are two options for starting- manual and electric. The Squall doesn't have its own battery, so if you want to use the electric start, you'll need to connect an extension cord to the socketed AC plug on the rear of the chassis. Insert the plastic key (don't try to turn it- it doesn't turn), push the choke/throttle lever on the rear over to the right, and give the priming bulb a few pushes to get gas into the carb. Now push the start button, and you should almost immediately hear the engine fire. Release the start button and push the choke/throttle lever over to the middle position. To operate, push the lever all the way to the left, which is the full run position. Pull the clutch handle up and towards you to engage the paddle and start throwing snow. To start the machine manually, do everything you'd do to start electrically; just pull the manual starter handle instead of pushing the start button. I found that the machine started instantly either way.So how does it actually perform on snow? I don't really know, as we haven't had a significant snow storm here in Southeast Michigan yet that would require shoveling When we do, though, I'll put this machine through the paces and see how it compares to my Toro in ease of use and performance throwing snow. So far, though, I'm impressed with the construction, ease of assembly, and ease of starting.Update: Winter finally arrived here in SE Michigan in the form of 17F days, 10F nights, and 8” of snow over two days. The Squall started instantly with one pull of the recoil starter handle and handled even wet snow without clogging up. It was so easy to start I didn’t bother with trying the electric start option, which would have involved running an extension cord to an outdoor outlet. Even though the Squall is significantly larger and heavier than my electric Toro, it was easier to use, as I didn’t have to keep moving the extension cord around. The lack of a cord also made it easier to be a good neighbor and do a few friends’ walks and driveways. Subjectively, it doesn’t seem as loud as similar 2-stroke snow throwers, but I still wore disposable ear plugs.Overall I’m still pretty impressed with this thrower. I still like the simplicity and convenience of my electric Toro, but if you have to get more than 50 feet from an outlet, this is a good choice- albeit at twice the cost.Update: I’ve been using it for five weeks now, the last two in heavy snowstorms and subzero weather. It never fails to start with just one pull, even in the coldest weather. It doesn’t clog, even in heavy, wet, snow that’s left after the salt trucks go by. If it chokes, I just back off and it clears itself.