Leaf blower

Leaf blowers are really too tall for me. Ours is about as high as I am 5ft, and it's really cumbersome.
I was raking them the other week it was easier. Very good if I had a smaller one. Or if I was bigger and taller. .

We have a lot of trees , therefore a lot of leaves. We have a cordless leaf blower that also sucks. We normally use the sucking facility, and then empty the leaves into a special compost bin. Only downside is that the leaves need to be dryish, which has not been the case this autumn.

I think you already found a lightweight leaf blower, but if not then I would recommend choosing between Ego or Black and Decker as advised on Toolsngoods. Both are cordless and battery powered, so you won't need any gas to refill them.

DEWALT DCM562 is what I use. It is portable, light in weight and not so pricey.

Which are the ones you feel are heavy and cumbersome, though? Do they look anything like these ones?

If so, you might be looking at the wrong type of leaf blower. If you have a small yard then your best bet is probably to go for a cordless leaf blower.

There are some really light models out there. Just make sure to do your research before hitting the hardware store.

I know this is an old thread, but I've found useful info on old threads from recent commenters. Hope this helps someone with the same doubt the OP had!

If you have invested in a leaf blower to keep the exterior of your home and property looking tidy, you undoubtedly want value for your money. So better choose the right warranty for each brand that you intend to buy.

With you there Wobbly!

In a word blowers, suck.

I have one that blows and sucks. It is heavy and cumbersome, but useful in suck mode to clean up around areas that are difficult to rake. hardly ever use it as a blower. The petrol blowers the coucil use look lighter and more powerful. Snow -- I doubt it is powerful enough.

Aldi are advertising one for this Thursday at about £20. It blows and sucks according to the leaflet. I was wondering about getting one.

Also wondered if it would blow snow off paths in the winter??!! (Save shovelling! I hate shovelling snow!)

Lucky girl I would use a pointy stick. Not a quick job obviously but when you get so many on the stick you can put them in a bag for leaf mould. ???

ours is a lithium battery one, works best if I blow and OH picks up at the same time. It has a harness which takes the weight. I usually pick up about 40 bags of leaves a year, can't leave them all on the garden and certainly not on the gravelled area as I don't want leaf mulch encouraging the weeds. I wouldn't mind so much but we only have 4 trees, the problem ones are the other side of our wall, but they prefer dropping their leaves in my garden. Vacuums are not so good as they only like dry leaves - some hope round here.

This lithium battery leaf blower doesn't suck up!

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00GZLFQKM/ref=s9_zgift_hd_bw_b7kxj5_g60_i3?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-5&pf_rd_r=0MG1B4CFE0EARJPCREWD&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=16db59a0-30b2-5b13-bb6f-82e00b80336b&pf_rd_i=114627031

They do suck as well as blow Ana. Ours is a big beast and cost me £3 at a car boot sale. We always have it on suck. It is good on gravel areas. We are raking leaves almost all year round and put them in dumpy bags to rot down.

So we can bag them up or burn them.

Well the two we had, one Flymo the other Bosch had a switch where you blew to gather them into a pile and then flicked the switch to suck them up into a bag. I am under the impression that they all do this. Why would you just want to blow them into a pile?

Bit of a thumbs down coming across here!

Thanks for that link shysal - I will get on to it.

I really did just want a blower to get the leaves into a pile when they are on the gravel and difficult to rake up; but it does look as though there are no products as simple as that! Perhaps I will just take my vacuum out and set it to blow! Or maybe my hairdryer would do the trick!

I thought leaf blowers did just that, blew leaves, not picked them up!?

Sounds like you mean some sort of leaf hoover, J52.

J52 that's exactly what DH does.

In our last garden with 1 ash, 1 oak, 6 silver birches,1 maple, all fully mature, we tried two leaf blowers. Both became heavy as leaves were picked up. Also the leaves were very difficult to pick up when wet, which was most of the time.

Our solution was to set the mower high and mowed them up, it worked very well. The ones on the drive and hard landscape were just raked up, the old fashioned way.
When we moved we left the newer leaf blower, as a present for the new owners.

I listened to Gardeners' Question Time from Belfast on Sunday. Bunny Guinness was saying that she used to hate blowers until she got a lithium battery one, which she loves as it is so light. You can listen to her comments at 40.00 minutes on the iplayer recording.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07vwh0p#play

Don't buy one, even DH gave ours away because it was too heavy, and although they say some are lighter, they are still quite a weight ( and wouldn't work otherwise I guess.)

My gardener uses one to blow his clippings, dead leaves etc. down the drive so he can shovel them in his bag.

As you say, Hilda, there's no point in just wafting the leaves about without actually collecting them.

Sorry....I've never seen the point of them. Watched someone the other day blowing the leaves off a pavement into the road.......Yup a few minutes later they were all over the place again. Let the leaves fall, get a rake and make a pile.....you can make leaf mould by putting them is hessian sacks....or as Monty Don does....bin liners with holes stabbed in. Or you may be lucky as we were a few years ago....a neighbour grew blueberries in containers and she collected the leaves for leaf mould - saved us the bother.