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View Full Version : Hand held electric leaf vacuum/shreaders.



Jim O'Dell
12-12-2010, 11:18 AM
Anyone have any recommendations? Looks like the Toro unit with the steel blade might be decent for the money. ($70.00) Reviews are mostly positive. Want one of the DR Mower trailer vaccum units with the separate hose, but no money for that right now. ;) Just need something to make things a little easier than raking and picking up by hand. Thanks for any ideas you might have! Jim.

Chuck Stewart
12-12-2010, 12:04 PM
Jim, I bought the Toro electric Model 51599 from amazon for $70 and I was amazed at the air velocity this thing has for pushing leaves. My favorite feature is it's dial down knob so if you get in an area where you want less air just dial it down. Can't say about shredder, doubt if I will use that feature. My old 2 cycle with the metal impeller I shredded leaves that were a little wet and when I went to use it the next year it was practically locked up from rusting. Had to keep soaking in WD40 to loosen up just to get started.

Scott Donley
12-12-2010, 2:42 PM
Jim, I bought my 51599 at HD for 70. Only had it about 6 months but real happy with it so far. Have not used the mulching part of it but I did use it to blow dry my truck after washing it once, worked great :) Surprising the amount of air it puts out.

Jim Becker
12-12-2010, 5:30 PM
I believe the one we have is a Toro...works great.

Dave Lehnert
12-12-2010, 7:19 PM
May depend on what type of leafs you are sucking up with it. I have 3 large maple trees. Used the vac for about an hour and packed it away. The bag filled quick and was like trying to empty a swimming pool with a straw.
I use a piece of plywood to cover the discharge shoot on my ZTR and grind them to dust.

Jim O'Dell
12-12-2010, 7:33 PM
Pecan, Oak, Elm (of some sort) and one Bradford Pear. My back is just tired of picking them up after raking them in a pile. I can handle emptying the bag. I have a mulching deck on my riding mower, but there are just too many trees and it can't handle the amount of leaves they produce. I end up pushing them around more than mulching them. I counted when we first moved in...33 trees on about .93 acre. We have cut down 3 since then, one each Elm, Pear, and Bradford Pear. The Pecans are huge. If you saw my address on Google Earth, you don't see the house at all because of the 4 Pecan trees that smother it. Great in the summer time though.
Thanks for the help so far!!! Jim.

Rick Moyer
12-12-2010, 9:25 PM
I have a Toro blower/vac but an older one, not that model. It seemed to work fairly well on smaller type leaves, but for the volume of leaves you have I suspect you will tire of that as well. But for $70 it may be worth a shot. At the very least you can put the blower to good use.
At our new house there is a large sycamore tree that produces an enormous pile of leaves by itself. These leaves are around 14" wide by 12" tall! They don't work well with what you are talking about. In fact I now have a larger chipper/shredder that I still have to raise off the ground to effectively pick these things up better.

Jerry Bruette
12-12-2010, 9:52 PM
I had a electric leaf blower, don't remember the model but I think it was a Toro, got tired of dragging the cord around all the trees in the yard. Bought the biggest hand held blower that Stihl makes. Never looked back this thing will blow pine needles and cones from white and red pine. About the only thing it won't move are the presents left in my yard from the neighbors dog.

I would highly reccommend a gas blower over electric for the simple reason of not having to drag a long, heavy extension cord around behind you.

Jerry

Tom Winship
12-13-2010, 8:49 AM
Jim, I am with you on the DR pull behind vac with hose. Would love to have one, but just can't justify it for a once or twice a year use. You would think the rental stores would have them.

Michael Weber
12-13-2010, 1:38 PM
I have a Sears model electric. Although it has what appear to be plastic impellers it does a decent job of picking up the leaves and reducing the volumn enough to get 2.5 to 3 bags of mulched leaves into one large plastic leaf bag. I blow and rack into a pile and just pass the pickup tube slowly over the pile. Works pretty quickly.