[Help] Leaf Blower advice

[AlbionBro]

My friend's leaf blower has decided to stop working over the weekend and is seeking to buy a new one

Any recommendations?

The Milwaukee cordless is fantastic. Takes seconds to blow the leaves from next door tree straight into their garden while on the tree, hence saving us hours with a dustbin and brush in our garden.
You can use it on two settings, tortoise or hare, my neighbour always gets the hare job.

 

[AK74]

I own two:

- Ryobi (battery)
- McCulloch (petrol)

Both do exactly what's needed, as our house is surrounded by trees with preservation orders on them, and the amount of leaves that descend on the driveway and garden paths during Autumn is ridiculous.

 

[albionalba]

The Milwaukee cordless is fantastic.

It is super-powerful and I can imagine it does that intercept job well but as others have said not very useful for tidying as goes everywhere. The Milwaukee lawnmower is the best ever and has a leaf collection setting that I have used on every kind of surface (grass, uneven paving, gravel etc). And it has headlights! It really is the best electric lawnmower ever imho, highly effective at climbing steep slopes too.

 

[Anger]

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I can recommend the Oliver Arblaster

 

[Weststander]

I have something far better than a leaf blower. You only have to go over it once, it picks all the leaves up, chops them and puts them into a container ready for mulching or composting, and it takes up far less room in the shed.

It's called a lawnmower and it has higher settings perfect for this purpose when the grass doesn't need cutting

Same here. I did own an expensive Toro leaf blower/vacuum, in hindsight a silly purchase when the lawn mower does it from paths too. If the leaves land on borders, great for wildlife and mulching.

 

[peterward]

Yes. Buy a brush instead.

Leaf blowers are inefficient, environmentally unfriendly and unnecessary.

Yep. I've got one and it's pants.

 

[AlbionBro]

It is super-powerful and I can imagine it does that intercept job well but as others have said not very useful for tidying as goes everywhere. The Milwaukee lawnmower is the best ever and has a leaf collection setting that I have used on every kind of surface (grass, uneven paving, gravel etc). And it has headlights! It really is the best electric lawnmower ever imho, highly effective at climbing steep slopes too.

The trick with a blower is to workout where the wind is blowing from and make sure it is at your back and then blow material to a wall, fence, shed or something into a pile, it can be done in a fraction of the time as doing it by hand.
That is a great review of the mower, I think the lights are a bit of a gimmick, but the rest is impressive, I have thought about getting one but I'm not sure they quite have the battery time for a 3000 Sqm of grass yet.
How much do you feel they can cut on one charge?

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

The one I've got is reversible - blow them into a pile, then suck them up. It shreds the leaves into an attached bag, my neighbour uses the mulch on his plants

This!
Pointless just blowing them as they'll likely reappear next time the wind gets up.

As the saying goes:
Just suck it up .... (the leaves)

Leaving them on your lawn all winter is not good for your grass either as it deprives it of what little sunlight is available.