The Best Leaf Blower or Garden Vacuum?
Take your time choosing the right leaf blower. Sounds a sensible suggestion doesn’t it but we are so easily tempted by the latest special offer in store that sometimes we go for the bargain rather than the best tool for the job. The danger is of course that we end up having to “upgrade” to get a more suitable tool.
Leaf Blower or Garden Vacuum?
The first question perhaps should be whether to buy a leaf blower or a garden vacuum. Garden vacuums are what we very often see for sale in DIY stores. If you have a small garden and not many leaves to cope with annually then these may be fine for you. However, with a larger area to cover you may need a more upmarket model or more likely a leaf blower.
Go to a specialist supplier rather than a DIY store and you will probably hear the words “The professionals blow the leaves into a pile or piles and then take them away rather than vacuum them”. When people do a job on a regular basis they usually find the best and easiest way to do it. This is not to say that garden vacuums cannot do the job in the garden, they certainly can if you mainly have patio paved areas for example, or a smaller garden.
If you have herbaceous and / or shrub borders you more than likely will find a garden leaf blower more practical. Stihl have a model which gives you the best of both worlds, it is a leaf blower and a garden vacuum in one. A great innovation is the specialized shredder blade on the fan wheel of the petrol garden vacuum / handheld shredder that reduces garden waste. This backpack vacuum shredder has a robust rotor blade of special steel as a standard feature to shred the collected material so that fallen leaves, grass and hedge cuttings reduce to less than 10% of original size.
Petrol Garden Blower or Electric Blower / Vacuum?
Having made your mind up as to whether you should have a blower or vacuum, the next question is petrol garden blower or electric? To some degree this is a matter of personal preference, do you find an electric model more pleasant to use than petrol engine driven. What should be borne in mind is the area you are covering. Do you have convenient electric power sockets and enough cable to cover the whole garden? Working in shrubberies can be difficult when electric cable is trailing behind snagging on shrub branches, and it is always a branch well beyond the reach of where you are working. And as careful as you are coming out of the shrubbery the cable will usually manage to get caught up somewhere.
Other Considerations
If the area you have to cover is very large you will want to consider a backpack type. The handheld Stihl blowers are well designed for comfort and may be all you need.
Take a look at the Stihl range, there is something for everyone. A Stihl blower is an excellent leaf blower and the vacuums have a lot to offer the patio gardener.
