Hi Yarbo community — posting an update because I believe I found the root cause.
Summary of the issue (short)
I was seeing:
Very slow auger rotation, even with auger speed set to Level 4
Repeated warning: “Waiting for the auger to reach the required speed.”
Poor snow throwing even in light, dry snow
An odd noise, especially when reversing
Shear pins were not the issue (auger did not free-spin)
What I found today
After opening the unit and inspecting the drive system, I found the timing belt (auger drive belt) is severely worn and essentially shredded. It looks like belt material/fibers are coming apart and there is visible belt debris. (See attached photos.)
This explains the symptoms: the motor may spin, but the belt likely slips under load, so the auger cannot reach commanded speed and the controller keeps waiting / faulting.
Questions
Has anyone else had a timing belt wear-out this quickly (especially after a recent core replacement)?
If you’ve replaced this belt, are there known contributing causes (misalignment, tensioner issue, pulley damage, gearbox drag) that should be checked to prevent repeat failure?
A timing belt should not be destroyed within weeks under light residential use. This indicates a systemic drive or alignment issue. I am concerned that replacing the belt alone will not resolve the underlying problem.
I’ll update again once I hear back from support, but I wanted to share this because it directly matches the “auger won’t reach required speed” behavior others have reported.
We’re really sorry for the inconvenience caused, and thank you for providing such detailed information to support the troubleshooting process. I’ve already contacted the engineer responsible for your case and asked them to review it as soon as possible. We truly appreciate your patience while we work on this.
I believe Yarbo has a belt manufacture problem. Today I discover (while clearing snow) that my belt is complete disintegrated and I only used the unit a few time. I put ticket….
Potentially, this is a common issue on the newer units right now. I think it’s just a bad batch. They don’t manufacture that part. I hope they get you taken care of quickly. Any videos and pictures you can submit in your ticket will help speed up the process.
It happened to me, same, the auger was replaced under warranty & I got such a hard time by support, they didn’t believe something was wrong because they will test hear that it was on, and closed my ticket, (even if I sent 6 videos showing the issue) motor working you can hear it but the auger completely dead, 2 weeks later after completing lots finally got a proper reply. Until the customer service agent thought better than those engineers.
@omardumont Really sorry to hear about your experience, and we sincerely apologize for how frustrating that must have been. I’ve checked your ticket in our system, and I’m sorry that the correct solution wasn’t provided at the initial stage. Thank you for your patience throughout the process. If you encounter any similar issues in the future, please feel free to reach out here—we’ll be happy to help and work through it together.
I have almost same problem. Belt is still almost ok but wearing fast.
The actual issue doesn’t seem to be in the pulleys, nor their orientation, nor even the belt. Rather, the root cause is the axial movement of the motor shaft, which causes pulley misalignment issues and ultimately the belt failure. This is most likely caused by either the motor bearings or the motor axel key. Motor rotor was about 2mm out of its proper position. I press it hard and it went back to original position and now belt is also aligned properly. How ever motor most probably will cause same problem again and again.
Here is picture when motor shaft is at offset.
I suspect that shredded belt could be caused by misalignment as well. You meant the offset in the second pic? motor sit on off position on the stand? would you elaborate further? how could you find out the rotor is off? I am quite curious this offset issue as well.
I spun the motor by hand and noticed that the motor magnets are rubbing against the stator. In addition, it was clearly visible that the belt is riding against the blower-side edge of the motor pulley, while on the large pulley it’s rubbing against the core-side edge. In other words, the motor pulley had shifted toward the core.
I concluded that the only way this can happen is either that the pulley has moved on the shaft, or the shaft itself has shifted relative to the bearings. So I tried pushing hard on the back of the rotor — and sure enough, the rotor moved back down. The gap returned to normal and the pulleys lined up correctly again.
This is of course only a temporary fix, and the shaft will most likely drift again. But at least now I know why the belt and motor started acting up. I ran into a similar issue years ago with a 3D-printed snow blower I built myself.
This is most likely caused by a motor of insufficient quality, and it leads to failures of both the motors and the belts.
Now, I see that gap which seems huge to me compare to my old S1’s picture. When I spun the motor by hand; it rotated smoothly as I recall with previous one and new one (for both). In your picture that gap could be drift from the right position as you mentioned, I agree… Hope we could find the real cause this issue!! oops, not we, I meant Yarbo.
Yes, and in my case that gap comes and goes. It’s hard to reproduce it by hand because the tight belt makes it difficult to move the rotor out of position. However, when it’s running and vibrating, it starts to slip out of alignment, and eventually the overcurrent or “waiting for auger” issue comes back.
I’m not saying your problem is 100% caused by this, but just FYI — this kind of motor issue can lead to belt problems even when it isn’t clearly visible. So if your belt fails again, you’ll know what to check.
OMG… that photo is rough. Thanks for sharing. Yarbo R&D should investigate this issue!!
Honestly, when a timing belt shreds like that, it usually screams something upstream is off (pulley/gear alignment, belt tension, motor/rotor wobble under vibration, etc.) — not just “bad luck” with a consumable belt. If the belt is riding an edge even a little, it’ll chew itself up fast.
Also that metal “skirt/retainer/guard” popping off is… not normal. Makes me wonder if there’s excessive side-load or vibration in the drive train.
Really hope Yarbo doesn’t treat this as “just replace the belt.” This looks like a system-level problem. If you hear what engineering says, please update — it’d help a lot of us.
