Reply With QuotePetrol, it has to be petrol, the electric ones couldn't blow the skin off a custard, trust me I've been down this road. It's Leafmageddon in my garden in Autumn
The time of the year is coming where my garden will be covered with leaves from trees and virginia creeper. Small garden, many leaves.
Any recommendations from users?
Garden is genuinely rather small (about 200 sqm) so is there an electric model worth its salt? And what about a blower vac?
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Petrol, it has to be petrol, the electric ones couldn't blow the skin off a custard, trust me I've been down this road. It's Leafmageddon in my garden in Autumn
I bought this few months ago, and have been very happy with the power. It’s electric so I had to buy also a 10m extension. My front garden is about 220msq, and it’s perfectly suitable. Have never used the vacuum yet, have been told that if it sucks gravel (which can easily do) will not like it :-)
Bws Franco
Handy THEV2600 Electric Leaf Blower/Vacuum: Amazon.co.uk: Garden & Outdoors
For a small garden electric is fine - don't believe the "has to be petrol" hype. I have a Stihl electric after having had a Stihl petrol and its great for a small garden and large cobbled courtyard (300sqm). Powerful enough for leaves and light enough to comfortably use without a strap. The current model is a Stihl BGE-71 - less than £100 and mine has been going strong for the best part of 5 years. I bought a lightweight rechargeable Bosch for my 80-year old Mum and although it is enough to clear her tiny patio and path it's rubbish by comparison to the Stihl.
I rate Echo Petrol blowers the best, expensive new but can be found on EBay, make sure it’s from someone who does their own garden with it, ex-commercial gardener machines are more worn out!
This may be of some use:
https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-t...-buyers-guide/
Personally I hate the things and would rather rake them up and add them to the leafmould bin.
Another thumbs up for the Stihl electric blower/vac
Easy to use ,does a great job!
Isn't the idea just to round them up with the blower before collecting and putting in compost or whatever?Originally Posted by Onelasttime
Don't worry they don't even suck twigs up (well they do but they drop them out again - nothing reaches the motor.
I have an orchard of lemon and orange trees and they shed leaves all the time.
What you need is power and above all quieteness of operation.
Try these
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-jXNBjQB0
Yes, exactly, but the noise drives me mad. I much prefer an hour of quiet raking to 30 minutes of nerve-jangling torment
^^^ this ^^^ You must be living next door to me!
Stihl is the best tool for the job. Stihl has battery-powered machines as well as petrol machines. I prefer Aspen 2-stroke fuel. https://aspenfuel.co.uk
I use a Stihl BG 86
Menno
I agree, but I use a Vac on areas of the garden which has gravel and use a wide rake for the grass (four oak treesPITA)
I have a petrol Stihl leaf blower/vac. I have never used it as a blower - useless on a breezy day. I have a large garden with lots of trees and the quickest way to collect leaves is with the lawnmower. Yes, I have to empty the collection box frequently but after 10 years living here I've learnt that it's by far the quickest method. Do it as often as you can as leaving it for a couple of weeks will result in a long, long job.
Last edited by Skier; 24th September 2018 at 18:34.
Husqvarna petrol.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Bosch electric blower, blow all the leaves back into the woodland. Sorted.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Petrol, electric..?
Pffttttttt!
Now THIS is a leaf blower.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Stihl Petrol is my weapon of choice. It even has a mini shredder built in to chop the leaves as they get stuffed into the bag. Switching between vac and blow can be a bit of a faff until you get the hang of it.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
I have a stihl petrol blower albeit use an Echo Bearcat for when the leaves come down as 6BHP soon picks the leaves up.
Now if you are only looking for something to use in Autumn, have you considered buying a pressure washer? Yes, I know this is left field but trust me a decent pressure washer will blow leaves into a corner as well if not better than most garden blowers and you have a tool you can use all year round. It doesn't get the area in question particularly wet and will move acorns and other loose debris that a lot of blowers won't shift. Just blow into a pile in a corner and then use some of the plastic grab hand thingies that let you pick up a huge pile at a time and dump into a garden bag, job done!
Good call!
I have a pressure washer. But I am worried water is more powerful than air when it comes to moving gravel. And with the clay underneath it might be a bit messy.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Small garden just buy a £30.00 to £40.00 electric version will do the job without breaking the bank B&Q have a couple as do Amazon.
It's more powerful for sure but you'd just need to take a little more care not to get the nozzle too close to the gravel. If you keep the lance on a flatter angle (i.e more horizontal) and choose a diffuser nozzle then no reason why it wouldn't work well and got to be worth a try before buying a blower. I've got a gravel area close to where I clean the car and I've mastered blowing leaves off that with a 140 bar pressure washer without issues.
I have a GTech rechargeable leaf blower. It works fine in my garden, its quiet, no cable of course, and variable blow with a trigger.
Last edited by alfat33; 24th September 2018 at 22:03.
If you’ve got a few cordless tools (Makita, DeWalt etc) buy one with a compatible battery.
Whatever you do make sure you get one with a built-in shredder (think mine is a 10:1 ratio) otherwise you'll be forever stopping to empty the bag. I rake manually and then hoover up, haven't got the hang of blowing them into a neat pile.
I got a £120-ish Bosch battery electric one last year and it could blow a full tin of custard a considerable distance on full power. I was pleasantly surprised.
Stihl BG86
Very satisfying, super noisy.
I've bought mine second hand. A local store for forestry machinery (is there another word in English for that?) has the local council as their customer. The council uses this sort of machinery only one year (...). There's always a nice collection to choose from.
My boys were a lot younger when I bought the machine. I even considered buying a larger machine (with the powerplant strapped on one's back). I gave it a try and my oldest son (then 9 or so - safety goggles and air protection on) had it on his back as well. When he pulled the trigger, he started making circles backwards: the power of the air from the nozzle caused him to be a human merry-go-round! So I opted for the smaller machine.
M
(the local forestry store is owned and run by one of my former students. Proud teacher here! https://www.poelonline.nl/nl )
Good thread. As the bottom of my garden is beneath two oak trees and I also have a few pine trees, there's a huge amount of debris to shift. Just ordered a leaf blower from Amazon, looking forward to an easier time this year!
After weighing up the options I bought a 4 stroke petrol Makita blower, I also bought the vacuum kit but haven't used it yet. The 4 stroke motor is considerably quieter than the 2 stroke equivalents and it's got more than enough oomph.
Good choice, as you say the 4 strokes are much quieter, plus petrol power and you're not tethered to a mains cable. My top tip is put Aspen fuel in it, you can buy it in most garden centres, you wont have to worry about the fuel turning to varnish the rest of the year when you're not using it and wrecking the internals of the motor. You can buy fuel conditioner to add to normal garage fuel but its a faff, plus the Aspen stuff smells much better. I put this is my Honda petrol mower as well.
Here https://aspenfuel.co.uk/products/aspen-fuel/#a4
Last edited by Vanguard; 27th September 2018 at 09:14.
Things that are used to blow leaves from someone's drive onto the pavement or road.
I just don't get it. Street's are full of them where I live, constantly moving leaves to a slightly different place.
Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
Bit like golf.
Ditto - quite apart from disliking the noise of most leaf blowers I mostly dislike those users who seem to believe that using one gives them the right to blow crap out of their garden/drive and onto the pavement and road for someone else to clear up...get a rake and barrow.
The city council here puts up large ‘baskets’ for garden owners to bring the leafs.
I live in a part of town that’s more or less next to the Royal Palace. The park adjacent to my house used to be a part of the Gardens. As a result, council garderners make sure all is in tip-top shape. Including leaf removal
Still undecided.....???????
I have one of those. You’re welcome to use it on my gravel.Still undecided.....???????
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
For a garden of your size, I would highly recommend the makita LXT electric blower.
I use mine on a bigger area to great effect. I have petrol and electric garden machines, but Makita LXT are unbeatable.
Among the benefits:
- fast charging li-on (20mins to full power)
- batteries are swappable with a massive range of garden equipment, all top drawer
- batteries arevseappable with full additional range of Makita
Last edited by JGJG; 29th September 2018 at 10:45.
I just thought I’d bump an older thread to say I bought a Stihl BG 56 C-E this week. I’m very impressed with it. It’s so much better than the electric blower I was using.
Bumping this as i notice today Gtech have dropped the price of their leaf blower from the frankly ridiculous £499.99 to £149.99. My question though is whether to go for this or the Matika electric blower. Anyone any experiences of either the Gtech blower or Matika's offering (link below)?
Matika blower:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Makita-DUB3...y%2C207&sr=1-2
I had this thread in mind when I was busy blowing wet leafs last week. I wondered: "Will battery-powered blowers be able to produce enough power to push a layer of wet leafs to wherever I want them?" The Still can!
The 2019 tactics are: blowing the leafs into an elongated, not to high hill on the grass. Then I go over the ridge of leafs with my Sabo petrol mower on the highest position and all leafs are sucked into the grass container on the back of the mower. Safes me tons of time, no hassle with rakes etc and the leafs are chopped into small pieces (stamp-size). The city council has put up small depots made of chicken wire in the adjacent park. Everybody is allowed to put his/her garden's leafs into that depot. Works wonderful. Every fortnight, city council employees empty the depots. With their Still industrial-sized machines + garden tractors with blowers, they clean the whole park in a day. That will go on until early December.
Did mine yesterday with an electric Bosch. It can be switched to a blower or sucker. Good enough for wet leaves. The sucker clogged a few times with the heavy wet stuff though. Either way I was sweating after doing it all as wet leaves are bloody heavy!!
I feel your pain! We have a gravel driveway and 3 large horse chestnuts opposite. And the wind seems to funnel them all our way.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Virginia creeper and gingko biloba. Stunning when they synchronise their internal clock but a pain to clear when they hit the ground. And the hazel doesn’t help.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
We had one of those creeper things on the garden wall of our last place, eventually (quickly) covered the whole wall. Caused the chickens no end of amusement when the leaves dropped in autumn!
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
My dirt cheap mains Macallister ( £40 in B&Q sale) has sucked and blowed reliably for 4 seasons. Minces up the leafsnicely into it's bag then open zip and straight in the bin. Good for blowing off wet bikes after a clean as well.
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