Minute Man Repair

Moved to Arlington into a brand new house, side by side condo, garage under. After winter of 2014 – 2015, decided I definitely needed a snowblower and one that could do the steep shared driveway, small as it is. Found Minute Man Repair one Sat morning just as they were rolling the snowblowers out on the sidewalk. Another gentleman and I arrived about same time, so the owner gave us a soup to nuts demo of the smallest gas, self propelled (to get up that driveway of mine) Troy Bilt. Finding no gas in the tank, he wheeled it into the shop, put a half pint of gas in, put it on a lift so we could examine more closely, and with open doors, started the blower showing us how to enrich the fuel (equivalent of choking) and it started right up. Showed us the driving gear on this American made machine and ones that had broken on the Chinese made sold under the same brand. Brought it back to the sidewalk and showed us how to drive it one handed so we can crank the throw arm to where we wanted the snow to go. Had the two of us try to hold the blower in drive from moving (we could not). Showed us the shear pins and where to keep them and why to make sure we used them. Spoke of the ethynol in gas and how it absorbs water and ruins the fuel. This owner knows his stuff.
I bought a snowblower. The owners delivered this snow blower when they said they would. They pull started it and ran through the forward/​backward, this all works, before driving off.
Not sure where the 1 star ratings came from — perhaps a no-​nonsense approach scares them off. I rate these owners top notch and highly recommend them.

This guy and his wife show up, take one look at my 2 year old snowblower and say, you need a new snowblower. We’ll give you 50 bucks for this if you buy a 700 dollar snowblower from us. I say, let me think about that. Over the next two days the guy calls me 6 times trying to sell me a new snowblower.
My brother and I tuned up my snowblower ourselves.

I read these bad reviews and wonder if this is the same place that saved my butt. I had a bad carb I tried to order one my blower is 20yrs old still strong. Every place kept promising they’d order it after a week of broken promises I happened to stumble on this joint which is 5 min from my house. Yup he’s been there forever and when I got there it was like he told me on the phone the line was out the farkin door. But when it was my turn he new exactly what my problem was with my carb. He even knew I tried to fix it and did more damage. He proceeded to rebuild me a new one and the price was spot on. Also he gave me next small things with it. Did he swear yup, was his talk rough yup, but he knows his stuff and his price was fair. Keep up the good work sir. I’ll be a life long customer.

I was referred to this business for warranty repair on my Troy-​Bilt snowblower. I was rudely told «we don’t do warranty repair unless you bought it from us.» «That’s not what Troy-​Bilt told me,» I said. The answer? «I don’t give a [F-​bomb] what Troy-​Bilt says!»
I can’t understand why a small business would talk that way to a customer who calls them asking for help. If they don’t want to be in the business of doing warranty repairs, they should work that out with Troy-​Bilt, not get hostile and abusive with the customers Troy-​Bilt refers to them. My snowblower may be under warranty right now, but it won’t be forever. I’ll have that thing for the next 20 years, I have a lawnmower, too, and these guys could have been my small engine mechanics and benefited from that long term relationship. Now, someone else will instead. Why anybody would treat a potential customer that way is just a mystery to me.

I’ve used Minute Man Repair for pick up/​delivery of both my snow blower and lawn mower in the past. When my snow blower broke on Saturday I emailed them that nite and they came on Monday to my house. This may not seem remarkable BUT Tuesday was the 2′+ impending snow storm. They came to the house and solved my issue so that I was up and running again with a snow blower in time for the storm.

We called Minute Man Repair last year after getting a not too old hand-​me-​down snowblower from my sister that wouldn’t start. The owner said they’d just left gas sitting in the snowblower too long (apparently this is a huge no-​no and one of his pet peeves since I see it in other reviews here).
They picked up the snowblower, tuned it up, delivered it back, and showed my husband how to siphon the gas out at the end of the season or a month without use. At the end of last winter, we put it away without gas as instructed (enthusiastically). This past November, we checked to make sure it would start up and it did.
So, I can’t remember what the tune up cost — $ 175? I know a new snowblower would probably cost $ 300 or so but I feel like even a new one would need a tune up every so often and why contribute to the junking of the earth when things can be tuned up and repaired.
We will be calling them again since the cord broke in yesterday’s storm (which is what triggered my memory to write a review). Shovels up, people!

DO NOT USE THIS BUSINESS. Called to request a tune up for my snow blower. Was told the first time I called there is a $ 25 pick up fee which is fine. Called back 2 days later and was told it was gonna be $ 50. Told him what changed? And they said that area is hard for them to get to which is weird because google maps says it’s a 5 minute drive. (Rindge ave Cambridge to 111 mass ave Arlington) He said «no it’s not» and when I asked him to look it up, said he doesn’t have time for that. He then said 50 bucks take it or leave it and hung up on me.
Yikes!
If this business is making up prices for things that are not based on any facts, who knows what they’ll end up charging you for.

I needed a tune-​up and repair on my lawnmower. They did a great job – and then dropped it off at my house for free. A little advice on fuel and friendly service. Local, colorful, and great. Thanks.

I guess you either love Eddie and Beth (and they love you!) or you hate them according to all the reviews of Minute Man repair.
Well I am in the «Love» camp. Eddie returned my call and picked up both our 24″ snowblower and no-​longer self propelled lawn mower the same day. I was worried about Eddie and Beth lifting the very heavy snowblower into their van, but they did it with aplomb. Eddie said that both devices could probably be repaired in a few days, but I was going to be away and they accommodated me perfectly on the return delivery. They found many problems with both the snowblower and lawn mower, repaired them all — including showing us specifically what they did and how to avoid breaking them again. They also demonstrated how well both were running as well as gave us tips on what to do/​not to do with the mower and snowblower. They also installed a gas switch on the snowblower which will keep it healther in the future.
I think they spent at least 30 minutes explaining the repairs and teaching us how to use the tools better.
I thought they were great, very nice, pleasant, considerate and helpful. And, I really appreciated the pick up and delivery as the snowblower could not fit in my SUV without being dismantled.

A very bad experience. They charged me $ 330 for a snow blower tuneup in September 2012; this was considerably more than I had expected. The thing croaked in February after being used twice. Interactions with them were unpleasant throughout: the guy kept insisting that the engine would immediately croak from exposure to ethanol-​containing gas, then observed that the engine was running just fine, then announced that they need to replace some parts to make things well. I would avoid them like the plague. Cason’s of Lowell was much more pleasant to deal with so far.

There is a reason this is the almost the only dealer in 50 miles and repair shop who deals with Troy-​Bilt and MTB: every other one knows the company makes junk and doesn’t stand behind their equipment. In Minute Man’s case, I think it may be a sure way to guarantee a steady stream of repairs, and they certainly don’t stand by their customers either! Poor service bordering on a scam shop.
I bought a replacement Troy-​Bilt 24″ snow-​blower ($ 600 approx.) a year ago November after the previous one was taken out by coastal flooding (4 feet of salty water) from Minute Man Repair. At the time I hadn’t realized Troy-​Bilt was bought by a Chinese manufacturer with a terrible rep. called MTB. Anyway Minuteman delivered it, started it up for 30 seconds and we parked it in the garage. As Winter 2011 – 2012 we had no further appreciable snow we never got to use it. So I put gas stabilizer into the tank and made sure nothing was left in the carburetor.
Fast forward a year or so this January (2013) and the first big storm: no go. No start regardless of electric starter etc. Checked the spark plug, re-​gapped just in case; still no go. A few days later I called Minute Man to explain the issue and he immediately blamed me and said he was busy but they’d «fit us in» for around $ 250-​$ 350!
As I do most all the repairs in the house, have my own wood and metal shop I decided to look into doing the work myself. In hindsight I should have immediately bought a brand new carburetor and been done with it. In any case I checked the carb out (pulled it) and it was bone dry and had no signs of gumming or anything. I cleaned it with carb cleaner anyway, drained the gas tank and oil and put it all back together with new fuel etc. I also checked all hoses were cleared and the air intake was properly seated. So at this point it started up by would die after a few minutes and decided I couldn’t spend any more time on this project. AGAIN: a year old and never been used!
I called Minute Man and of course he immediately stated it was ALL my fault for even «looking» at the carb and that voided any warranty, was generally rude and acted as if I must be an idiot. Never heard this line of thinking with small engines myself, but he said he could probably do it for less than $ 100. They happened to be in my area for a delivery so he offered to pick it up for free (though I would have dropped it off had they not).
Three days later he says he replaced the carb and it’s $ 155!
And to cap it off, when I went to pick it up, half-​way between the FIVE minutes it took to load the blower in our station wagon (the plastic throw chute needed to be popped off), he turns to his wife who is his assistant and says, right in front of me: «I don’t know why they didn’t just spend the $ 50 to have us deliver it, because this is F###ing ridiculous!» So much for customer service, huh? Lesson learned the hard way– stay away from Minute Man and anything MTB builds!

In anticipation of this weekends snow storm I needed to have some repairs to my snow blower (the handle to the pull cord had come off). My friend and I removed the cap and found that it couldn’t be re-​threaded so I took it to Minute Man Repair in Arlington where Eddie and Beth — my new friends — at Minute Man Repair.
As to be expected they were swamped with repair jobs for all sizes and types of snow blowers but promised to look at my cord and call me within the hour. A little less than an hour later they called to say it was re-​threaded so we went to pick it up. On returning home we replaced it and then tried to clean out the carbaretor but ran into problems — back again to Minute Man Repair where Beth listened to us as we explained out problems, found us the parts we’d need and off we went. On returning home and trying again the nut that held the carb aretor on broke so back we went again to buy a new nut.
This time Eddie listened to us and said ‘Ok, Ladies, why don’t you just bring in the machine for me to take a look at it. I think you can do it yourselves but a couple of things could go wrong and then you’ll be in BIG trouble’.
So home again, loaded up the snow blower and then back to the repair shop. Eddie was Finishing up one machine and there was another one to be worked on. Beth was very concerned that we not feel ignored and promised us that we’d be helped asap. We were just so grateful that they had decided to take us under their wing and help us not get into deeper trouble that we didn’t care.
Anyway, in less than 30 mins they put my snow blower up on their niffy little lift and gave it a good looking over. As it turned out the spark plug which was black and needed to be replaced, the washer and carberator cap were shot plus the new nut and washer for that — a large result of the additional ethanol in gas now (up from 2% to now 10%) which eats washers and produces ‘skunk piss gas’ (Eddie’s phrase).
We never ever would have known or been able to fix on our own.
An very important thing was that they installed a gas on/​off switch which my snow blower didn’t have making it a much safer and more efficent machine. I also recieved a good lesson on how to run my machine smarter and a very helpful warning about never using ga that is more than a month old.
I have a really strong feeling that they stayed late to accomidate us (after, what I’m sure was an extra long day to begin with. The charge for all this time effort and work was far below what I would have charged in their shoes, never mind that they could so easily, and understandably, turned me away on such a busy day.
I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend Minute Man Repair!!! Eddie and Betth were beyond kind, even after repeatedly disturbing them for more of the day, went out of their way to help me and also gave me tips to save costs of needless repairs.
They also have a (pay for) pick up and drop off service which is great if you own a larger blower and you don’t have pick up truck

I have been going to him for quite some time after getting ripped off at another repair shop in Arlington. Eddie is honest, knowledgeable and actually took the time to show me (in the freezing cold) just how to run our snowblower PROPERLY to aviod future repairs. That was 3 years ago… As a female I am always wary but this blue collar guy has my vote.

Called and left a message about my lawn mower and no reply. I emailed and got a reply! Went to the store, no-​show for 45 min. Sign on the door says open at 1230. WTH! So I dropped it by Farina’s in Belmont, much happier! Nice guy. So if ya want to waste yer time. Drop by the mom and pop store! If ya want to get something fixed, take it anywhere else!
As a side note, the employee in the glass place next to «wait a few more –minutes man» said he has funky hours and sometimes doesn’t show up. I’m sure it’s great service when, if, they are open.

I bought a used lawnmower here yesterday. It came with a full tank of gas, a quart of oil and an instruction on how to use the machine, along with a lot of hilarity.

The business name is accurate–
I called to have them repair my snowblower, and they were there that night to pick it up (would have been there a half hour later, but I was our running errands) They checked it over in my driveway, told me what was wrong with it, what had to be done, and took it away. They had it fixed by the next morning, and returned by the next evening. I got a complete course on proper snowblower maintenance, which should help the machine run better in the long run. Husband and wife team definitely know their stuff inside and out.

In the end I was quite happy with Minuteman. Everyone has a bad day I suppose and when I picked up my mower the gent was very friendly. The price was fair as well. I highly recommend.

I called them about doing a simple tuneup for my snowblower. They were having a $ 75 tuneup special. I thought this was great. We had a hard time setting up a time for them to pick my snowblower up and I ended up just completely leaving it outside for them in my backyard. I was not happy with this but I felt like I did not have a choice. The arranging of getting my snowblower back from them was also difficult and the guy was very rude to me. They did not take down my cell phone number correctly and ended up leaving a note on my door to tell me that it was ready. When I talked to him, he said that they have been trying to get in touch with me for a couple days because I did not give them a correct number and if they did not return my snowblower tonight, I would be charged $ 25 fee for storage. I have had my cell phone number for 8 years and I would not have told them an incorrect number like he said I did. Finally, they dropped off my snowblower and gave me a bill for $ 268! They did not talk to me about repairs that supposedly needed to be done and just gave me the bill as they were dropping it off! What a sham! They need to learn some manners and about customer service. Definitely going to someone else next year!

I brought my lawn mower in this past Saturday because it was increasing my carbon foot print a little too much with a nice Spy Hunter smoke screen. They had it all fixed up for me within a half hour and running smoothly. They are extremely passionate about their work as well. I learned more about lawn mowers in 30 minutes with these two than I had learned in previous 34 years of life. I will definitely be bringing my mower here for regular tune-​ups. Thanks guys!