Garden Vac/Blower anyone

[Cheffi]

I know this is a piece of equipment for the pleasure garden but maybe some of you has them as well as your allotments etc.

A neighbours very large Yew tree is right on the boundary and apart from chucking down tons of red berries all over my nice new patio it has been chucking down tons of brown leaves/spines this summer. I am fed up with sweeping them up so thought about a garden vac.

Does anyone have one they can recommend or one to avoid? Any input gratefully received before I put hand into wallet. Thank you.

[Madasafish]

I researched buying a garden vac last year.
My conclsuions were:
1. Petrol is essentail for the larger garden. Electric OK for smaller vut cable lengths can be excessive. Petrol ones and £90 +
2. You MUST read the specifications very carefully. A 10: 1 mulching ratio (cutting up leaves ) is essential or bags fill in no time. Many makers carefully ignore stating it.
3. Most bags split _ I saw a lot s/h on ebay with torn /split bags.
4. Wet leaves are nearly impossible to shift. You need to blow leaves into a pile and pick up. Only the most powerful ( and noisiest ) will handle wet leaves. Read the voilumes an dvelocity of air. Read the reviews. Mots of them especially the cheap electric ones are a waste of time.
5. Stones and sticks if picked up may damage the baldes. Some have pre collection chambers to avoid that so these bits fall into the chamber.


We have loads of leave sin autumn .. I collect approximately 20 cubed metres - pre mulching. And because it's autumn they are all wet.. and they are on flower beds...

I decided not to buy ones: I needed a heavy duty petrol one costing iirc about £150 - £200 .They were not availbale s/h in good condition. I would only use it for about 6 weeks.

Look at the ones on ebay: most of the cheaper ones are rubbish.. and will not cope with the kind of work you want imo...

[Cheffi]

Thank you. Luckily I don't have a large garden, but, I also haven't got the time to sweep the large patio area every time I want to sit out and entertain/barbecue. Went to B & Q yesterday and picked up a 2000w Black and Decker. It had been reduced from just under £70 to just under £50 so we decided to go for it. When we got to the tills I guess they were doing a 20% discount cause it rang up at £39, bargain. I tried it as soon as I got home and it had been raining so not all was dry and it worked a treat. I guess if I'd had a large garden with lots of leaves I'd have gone for a bigger motor, say 2500w but that model was £90. The motor on this sucks well and the bag is easy to empty so now my husband can say 'my wife is so house proud she hoovers the garden!!'.