Leaf Blower
Read reviews about leaf blowers - which are best for what? Read about electric hand-held garden blower-vacs, backpack leaf blowers and electric blowers. Add your own review and share your opinion with other users.
Offers
Reviews
 |
Flymo GardenVac 2700
by blissman70 It's gardening time again: Well, when the rain stops long enough for the ground to dry up a bit so that you can get out and cut the grass, trim the bushes, weed the flowerbeds and the rest. For me, as I'm not really a big gardening fan, doing it more out of necessary than pleasure, mainly as the wife tends to go on about how the ... garden needs tidying up so many times it's easier, and quieter, to get out and do the tedious jobs. But one thing I really really don't like about gardening is raking up all the 'dead' grass and leaves that are left behind. So this is were a lovely little gadget has made my life in the garden a lot easier, although when I say little, it's not really that little. Anyway, this gadget I am talking about is in fact called a garden vac, which may sound like I take the vacuum cleaner outside to clean up the debris but it's a special kind of vac that is designed just for the garden and not for your indoor carpets, (although I've not tried it on indoor carpets as yet, but maybe one day). This particular garden vac that I have been playing with recently is actually from that well known company who are best known for the rather bright colour of the casing that most, if not all, of their products come in; that colour being orange... yes you've guessed it, the company is Flymo with this product being the Flymo Garden Vac 2700 turbo. It comes in a long box and when you open it you'll instantly see that it will need to be put together. But in the box there is the main unit itself, being made of a sturdy orange plastic with a little black 'knob' on the top of it, which I will go into more detail about later. Then there's a black contraption which looks a little like a welders mould, only I would weld near it as it's made of plastic and will melt in no time at all. Then, in the box, there is a black bag, which looks a bit like one of those bags for life you get from Asda for a pound, only this one's black. Also, there a handle with two bolts and two plastic covers and finally there's six little straw like cutting blades, plus a strap so that you can carry the entire unit with ease. And there's a leaflet, instructions and the usual bits and bobs so you can register the device to activate the 12 month guarantee. The thing it doesn't have is the little wheel to attach to the front so that you can roll it around instead of carrying it... this is a disgrace as you have to buy this as an extra, which is diabolical really as the image I saw had the wheel attached to it and I assumed that the wheel would be with it... but it wasn't and I'm not too happy as I'm having to carry this now instead of rolling it. Disgraceful and surely false advertising in my eyes for sure. The wheel itself only cost around a tenner but for me it should have come with this vac, even if I had to attach it myself. Putting it together..! This may look a little daunting, with the bits being dropped loosely in the box, the bolts and paper work in a plastic bag. But when you get the few bits out and have a quick look at the destruction booklet, although this booklet could be a bit clearer, you'll see just how easy it is to assemble. The bolts slot into the two grooves on the side, with the adjustable handle slotting over the top and held in place with the two plastic caps. Then it's a matter of getting the black bag attached to the frame which attaches to the main body. This is best done when the frame is not yet slotted onto the main body as I found it simpler to get the little slots on the tops of the bag to fit over the catches on the frame. But once done the frame then locks onto the main unit with a click, pushing it on at the front first then locking it into position at the rear That's it, you're now ready to plug it in and get sucking, or even blowing, or maybe even both if you really want to. The machine itself... The entire orange unit is just over a metre long, from the start of the 'mouth' to the end of the handle, and 140mm wide. The trigger is house underneath the handle, which allows for both and easy reach and continuous pressure to keep the machine going without losing any grip. Also, just inside this handle, there is a little 'gap' with a space for the wire to slide through and catch onto a small knob, which helps keep the wire safely away from anything on the ground. The second handle, which is adjustable by loosening the side plastic locking screws, pushing the handle into the position you want, then relocking the plastic screws, is pretty sturdy indeed, allowing you to move the machine around with ease as you suck or blow the leaves and stuff in you garden. Inside the machine there is a great way to help 'mulch' what ever you're vacuuming up in the garden. This is done using a simple plastic flexible rod which spins away, chomping at the leaves, twigs and grass that is sucked up, chomping it into a finer more compost like material instead of a wheelie bin full of large pieces. These plastic rods are quite strong and can last some time as long as it's only your basic garden waste that it is dealing with, but if it tried to chomp on anything harder, like a can or even a stone then there will be a lot of flexible plastic splitting and flying around inside the bag. But don't worry, you get some spare rods and they are only a few quid for a dozen more. The machine is controlled by the 'T' shaped knob in the top of the unit, which has arrows on it to let you know which way is suck and which way is blow, but when you have pulled or pushed the knob back or forwards it clunks into position and stays there. The trigger is on the underside toward the rear, or more the end which is opposite the nozzle area. The nozzle area is shaped like a rectangle on it side, which is half covered by a piece of plastic. This piece of plastic moves up or down when you pull or push the knob, and this is how the blow/suck is chosen. NOTE: If you purchase the wheel for this then you simply slot that onto the front of the nozzle, clipping the side sections of the wheel onto the sides of the vac. What about it's power..? This is has an astonishing 2700watt motor and it shows, especially when it's on the blowing action, managing to send leaves, bits of paper, cans and, god forbid, dry dog poo, flying down the garden at a rate that is near equivalent to a jet fighter taking off, (alright, maybe not that powerful but it doesn't half have a kick in it). Sadly though the sucking, or 'vac' action falls a little short, considering the power under the hood, but it can still suck the eyes out of a midges head if it gets too close. Is it easy to use then..? In a word, Yes. It couldn't be easier in fact. You simply plug it into the mains, put the strap around your shoulder, grab the handle on the top and the handle at the end, then slide the T bar to either suck or blow, then just pull the trigger and away you go. That's it, the machine will do the rest. It can weigh a bit, especially if the leaves and stuff are wet and the bag gets a little too filled, then it can weigh a bit much. The shoulder strap does take a bit of the weight off your arms but as the strap doesn't have any form of comfort, such as a padded section to stop the material digging into your shoulder, the strap can begin to feel uncomfortable after a while. But, if you do what I did and take the padding off something else, such as an old rucksack, or even a guitar strap, then the comfort of this vac strap can be made a lot better. So how do you make it lighter..? You empty the bag of course, which in itself is as easy as unclipping the black catch on the rear, which should release the plastic casing that the bag attaches to. Then simply empty the bag where ever you put your garden waste and simple click the plastic casing back into place, which slots in at the front then locks in at the rear. Once you've done it once you'll see just how easy it is to do and the second time you'll do it a lot easier. So how much will this cost me then..? Well, for the sake of less raking, which leads to less back ache and more time to sit and admire your beautifully manicured garden; or is manicured the right word..?. The cost of this sucker/blower is a mere £60.00, or there abouts, with the wheel selling for another tenner. Is it worth it..? If you have a lot of leaves and dread the autumn season, or maybe you tend to mow the grass quite a bit and hate raking up the grass, then yes, this is worth the money as it should last quite some time. Plus, as it does a great job slicing all the garden waste into what can only be described as 'mulch' it saves on space in your wheelie bin or even your 'composter' at the bottom of the garden. In all, some one said that 'the future's bright, the future's orange' and with this time and energy saving device that saying could go well with this. © Blissman70 2012 Read the complete review |
 |
Flymo GardenVac 2700
by pnpsuknet I have very large leaf hedges, to which picking the leaves up after cutting them down can be a real pain. I bought this from Argos , and paid a lot more for it than their own brand. It was very heavy to carry, and when trying to get the bag attached to the actual unit and you have to kind of force a thin bit of plastic into ... very small slots at the same time. It works by using a very high vac, which then passed through a rotating bit of plastic, the plastic rods were very thin and didn't last very long at all. It did struggle to pick up smallish twigs, although leaves were no issue at all. I bought it in the summer 2010, I came to use it this year bearing in mind you only use them say once and twice. To my horror the unit was sparking and making a burning smell within the unit, it had been stored in a very dry place so cant see a reason for it. In the end I bought a store own brand, it was a lot less and loads better. Read the complete review |
 |
Black & Decker GW3000 Blowervac
by Nar2 When my beloved 8 year old B&Q Performance garden vac finally hit the floor in exhaustion three months ago, I knew it was time to look for a new garden vac. Not so much the motor but the plastic insert that held the bag to the machine had finally snapped off and even with a cheaper (and better made) white bag I had sourced from EBAY ... at Christmas time, it still didn't improve, kept coming off through performance and in the end the plastic tubing replacement was not available from B&Q's "Performance" outsource specialists who suggested that I cut a waste pipe and use that! I think not! Whilst ten years ago there were plenty of alternatives from other brands, the recession seems to have hit brands like Black and Decker, Flymo and even B&Q quite hard to the point that finding a couple of the machines to research and try are proving to be difficult. On the one hand given the utter long life reliability of our existing Flymo lawnmower has given, it would have made sense for a Flymo garden vac, but as the reviews on Argos & DY have turned out to be more negative than positive when looking for actual weight and performance working together in tandem, it seems Flymo haven't really thought about design when it comes to picking up leaves either- without clogging - and that added design problem means taking everything apart when all I need is something instant without having to go through the extra hell! When I called up a local franchise hardware store to enquire about garden vacs, the company responded by bringing in three different models and suggested that I should visit on a day that they arrived. This duly done, I found out of the three models that they had requested, two of them had already been retained and sold! The last model, a Black and Decker GW3000 looked like the best solution despite being the last model that the previous buyers overlooked. At the highest price of £89-99, the Black and Decker GW3000 looked from the picture of the box - that it could actually deal with large clumps of leaves without clogging. It also comes with a 20 or so metre power cord for extended travel and is permanently clipped to the machine through assembly. Meanwhile, back at Planet Nar, the weeds that have been pressure washed out and weed killer applied thereafter, bring out stones and light grit from the Winter beforehand - and let's face it - we've had a heck of a Winter that was relentless to the point that I still have several bags left over of unopened grit! So you can imagine the shock of some of my neighbours' faces when they saw me out in the garden for the week of sunshine using my Bosch Professional vacuum cleaner to suck up dry leaves and bits of stones left over from the autumn period. To put it bluntly, the Bosch was a bugger to use in the home, but outdoors, it seems to be better designed! The short hose, the crevice tool and the flat tool are simply fantastic for picking up DRY soils, the four castors swivel around the garden with ease and the dust bag in board holds loads. Dooyoo suggested recently that I should put photos on their Face book link to show me vacuuming the garden - but I'm no mad cookie at showing off what I do best! You can keep your plea, Dooyoo; no photos are going online at all! So the Bosch and I vacuumed up the soil and the grit from previous work in the garden, but not only that, with the strong winds coming over, whenever I resorted to sweeping up the soil and grit manually, strong winds would blow everything back into the garden or back into the patio sections that had just been swept! Grrrr! Mother nature has a funny way of helping, sometimes! Bosch and I however fought back with a vengeance! Since I've been "hoovering" the garden, the concept seems to have appealed to many from across the street, where others are now venturing outside to pick up stray stones with their own vacuums from their door ways when sweeping and the contrasting winds do not agree. See! I'm not so mad after all! Putting the Black and Decker garden vac together is reasonably easy. Unlike the joy of the last garden implement - the Hozelock "Horror" 2-in-1 reel hose - the user manual Black and Decker supply is ever so easy to glance at and then construct the vac. The GW3000 is also fairly easy to snap open if there's ever a clog. The first assembly point that exists is that of the suction tubes that have to be pushed together with the second assembly being that of the handle/main body and bag mount have to be clipped together and what I found instantly was the plastic quality of this product being slightly scrutinized. After all, for £80 near enough this product screams of cheap orange and black plastic with a real flexibility issue I thought would prove to break off in use. Like other garden vacs, the Black and Decker GW3000 has two seperate parts - one long tapered funnel that slides onto the base where the flexible "eco-friendly" potato sack style plastic suction bag slips onto instead of the bag for blowing, and for sucking, the bag slips onto the bottom and locks on via a spring lock instead. The changeover is simple and unlike my last garden vac, I was surprised and delighted to find that the Black and Decker has 2 suction speeds, which is just as well to justify its massive and very powerful 3000 watt motor. There is a shoulder strap included in the box which I have still not fitted for reasons that I don't think it is well located on the Black and Decker - behind the handle and at the front of the motor. For the fact that it weighed about 11kg in the box, I was relieved to find that this garden vac isn't as heavy as I thought it would be - around 6kg but ever so compact thanks to no hard edges, soft organic curves everywhere and ever so easy to use controls - hold onto the handle, flick the two way suction speed slider (also helped by the fact the numbering is marked permanently on the plastic) and away you go. In use, the GW3000 is a lot more compact than my Performance garden vac ever was and when the bag is unlocked and slides out of its holder, the blower is very simple to use with the added bonus that the blower pipe is smaller and thinner. The compactness however is also down to the general shape and feel of the model. This is because the handle on the B&D feels curvy and comfortable and there's even a guider stub on top, which you can additionally hold onto to steer the suction nozzle for exacting areas of the garden. Not exactly unique I know - since all garden vacs have these - but what the B&D GW3000 has an unique feature, is a built in scraper at the bottom of the suction tube. This makes is so easier to scrape patios and cement of leaves stuck down. The added beauty is that the suction tube is thick to the eye, but very flexible at the bottom, so even if it lacks the "added benefit" of wheels that Flymo make on some of their garden vacs, the Black and Decker's main weight is the motor and once you have control of that, it is fairly easy to whip or swing the machine around and suck up anything that you see in the way. There's even a handy cord hook so that the power cord is with you at all times. Our old oil tank for example is a main factor for a garden vac. It sits between a boiler house and another garden shed, so getting into the corners are really tricky and thanks to autumn, the leaves are piled high, with a wet, sticking together consistency but, unusually wonderfully preserved! The Black and Decker just sucks up the leaves effortlessly, no clogging and no time wasted or worrying that anything is going to fall off! The ONLY downside is that if you happen to suck up small branches or anything else than leaves that are in the way. The Black and Decker's motor changes suddenly, the suction is cut and clogged branches have a way of sounding like they are knocking on the plastic from inside saying, "help, let me out!" Once the motor is switched off, any clog just falls to the bottom, or a slight tap from the top ensures you get to see what the thing is that gets stuck. But when it comes to sucking up leaves without anything else to get in the way, the GW3000 just does it without fear and what a way to find out when I looked at blackened leaves that were wet - much relief discovered when I found out this model can handle wet leaves too and later on found that it can pick up sweetie wrappers without clogging, should you ever discover them in your garden! Now, the noise level of the motor is fine in the first setting and whilst it isn't too noisy, the pick up is quite fast. Select the higher speed and the motor whine is a bit too much to contend with; 93 decibels. It is however the usual decibel level for most garden vacs and the B&D isn't on its own here - the Flymo Scirocco 3000 Electric Garden Blower Vac seems to have copied Black and Decker with the GW3000 on many aspects, right down to a similar way the dust bag on the bottom slides in. It has a decibel rating of 99 to 100 decibels, so even the copied design isn't as quiet as the Black and Decker and weighs 1kg more. Pick up with the Black and Decker therefore is ferocious when the higher speed is selected although it is simpler to use when the blow attachment is fitted, as it is lighter on its own at 3.4kg. The only downside, performance wise I find so far is that the bag on board fills up really quickly! It has a general capacity of 35 litres, yet manages to mulch up to 350 litres of powdered leaves. For a standard 80 litre to 90 litre dustbin bag or garden sack, I find you're looking at three bag fills of the stuff that comes out of the Black and Decker before the bin bag has to be tied up. But then what goes in is a definite surprise to what comes out! When the leaves are sucked up, they are mulched by the Black and Decker finely and end up looking like Weetabix flakes, due to the "10 to 1" shredder ratio! The bag itself is a well designed soft plastic coated net style hold all though - there's even a webbed plastic strap at the bottom which makes it easier to grab onto when reversing the bag into a garden sack or any other vessel your intended collection goes - home made compost is ideal for example - and the bag is also damp cloth washable should it get dirty in use. In many respects it is easier to go with a brand name like Flymo when they should be able to deliver on large garden equipment. Save for the name like "Scirocco," the more original Black and Decker GW3000 is worth considering if you need a versatile garden vac that delivers great performance but is also lightweight and doesn't clog up. The shoulder strap for example is next to useless for all the weight that the Black and Decker has and is really only suitable for those who may need it. For the fact that the list price has recently been slashed to £39-99* makes the whole product unbeatable value and it does pay to shop around. Regardless of the price change however, this is a super product that belies the light plastics involved, because it isn't until you use it that you realize lighter plastic means far more flexibility when it comes to actual use and a lighter weight means instant relief compared to general larger gardening equipment that usually employs a strong hand. Thanks for reading! ©Nar2 2011 www.blackanddecker.co.uk * See www.amazon.co.uk Read the complete review |
Leaf Blower |
||
|---|---|---|
|
2 reviews Brand: Flymo / Type: Garden Vacuum and Leaf Blower / Specifications: 2700w 240v |
|
|
3 reviews Leaf Blower / Brand: Flymo - Electric Garden Vacuum with a non-clogging leaf shredder |
|
|
1 review Brand: Tesco / Type: Leaf blower |
|
|
1 review Leaf Blower / Brand: Power Devil |
|
|
1 review Brand: Black & Decker / Leaf Blower / Product Type: Blower-Vac - Power: 3000W / Bag: 35L |
|
|
Manufacturer: Black & Decker / Leaf Blower / Consumed Power: 1800 Watt / Features: Blower |
|
|
1 review Brand: Champion / Leaf Blower / Product Type: Blowvac |
|
|
Manufacturer: Makita / Leaf Blower / Product Type: Garden Blower |
|
|
Manufacturer: Makita / Leaf Blower / Product Type: Garden Blower - The Makita UB1101 Blower has the following features / Variable speed trigger / Double insulated / Technical specifications : Air flow : 0 - 2.8 m3/min / Maximum sealed suction (column of water) : 0 - 560 mm / Air speed : 0 - 51 m/s / No... |
|
|
Manufacturer: Makita / Leaf Blower / Product Type: Garden Blower |
|
| Leaf Blower recommendations 1 2 next | ||
| dooyoo Results 1 - 10 of 16 | ||
