Never buy a larger piece of garden machinery than your wife can handle! (Flymo GardenVac 1500 Plus)

Member Name: SueMagee

Product:	Flymo GardenVac 1500 Plus
Date:	30/05/01 (787 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Saves using a rake to gather leaves, Takes the debris, but leaves the soil, Not expensive for what it does

Disadvantages: Cumbersome, Heavy

This wise advice was given to my husband just before we got married and he followed it assiduously for many years, given that the only thing he wishes to know about the garden is roughly where it is, in case anyone asks, but no need to be too precise. Then he made a mistake. He bought a Garden Vac..

It seemed like such a good idea at the time. I thought so too. Our garden isn't strong on producing flowers or vegetables, but it is good at debris, and it's regular debris. There always seems to be something that needs to be cleared away. A machine that would gather it all up, and shred it ready for composting seemed to be just what we needed. In its box it didn't even seem very heavy, and, of course, there was the strap that would help to take the weight.

That's the first thing you find out. Yes, the strap does take the weight, but where does it take it to? It takes it to your shoulders, and round your neck. So you dispense with the strap, and take the weight in your hands. Then your arms start to ache. It's rather like some obscure torture designed in a gym. "Just hold this cumbersome weight in both hands, hold your arms out in front of you, and move them back and forth, back and forth...."

One solution is to blow the debris into a pile and then vacuum it up, but that really takes more skill than I've got. The nozzle is also rather wide and it's quite difficult to get it into those areas where leaves tend to congregate. It's useful to have the debris shredded, but I always found that it rotted down quite happily without shredding, and I'm left with the feeling that the shredding mechanism must add substantially to the weight.

There is another problem, but this might well be peculiar to me. In the garden I tend to wear drawstring trousers, and I have caught the drawstring in the motor several times, which leads to a strange noise, a lot of cursing, and a deep feeling of vul
nerability.

So what's the solution? Well, you've just got to get a man to do it haven't you?

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