My house is in New England and there are lots of trees on my lot and the surrounding lots and lots of leaves to take care of in the Fall. My lot has some ledge and ground cover and shrubs which trap the leaves. I have a decent Hitachi hand held leaf blower, model RB24EAP (441 CFM, 170 MPH). It does a good job but I still have to spend a lot of time blowing the leaves. I have watched the landscapers that use the back pack leaf blowers and they get the job done pretty quickly. OK, time to buy a more powerful back pack leaf blower and would like some recommendations. I have also seen the wheeled leaf blowers but that would not work on the ledge.
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I have an older stihl backpack blower. It will blow acorns out of the lawn.
Mine is a BR 340
I purchased it 15 years ago, after previous experience with hand held electric and gas blowers.
the only issue I ever had was last month, when a mouse made a nest in the output hose, and it took a few seconds to start and blow its nose. I think the current models are a little quieter (which is nice) and still quite capable. I do wear hearing protection when make noise out of gasoline with it.
I would consider one of the four strokes that use gasoline without the oil blended in.
Thank You for your recommendation.
Any particular reason for the 4 stroke engine preference?
A little better for the air, and probably uses less fuel.
Might save you a second gas can if you do not already have one for 50:1 mix.
But I am not sure they sell 4 cycle backpack blowers.
My Stihl backpack blower is over 40 years old and will blow your socks off still! I have a Makita that is much easier to use but doesn't have the juice to pile up leaves and sticks. In its day it was an expensive blower but figured over the years of service I've had it was pretty cheap. Don't get one from a bib box store.
I would like one with a lot of juice. A section of my house lot is hilly with ledge, shrubs, and ground cover and I need a blower with a lot of juice to dislodge the leaves and pile them up. My Hitachi takes too long to get the job done. Do you know the cfm and mph specs of your Stihl?
Thank You
haha! Did you miss the part about it being 40 years old? No idea of either of those numbers but if you get a Stihl go big. The BR800 blows at 240 mph and almost 1000 cfm.
https://www.stihlusa.com/products/blowers-and-shredder-vacs/
All the specs are posted. you can use the site to find a distributor near your zip code.
distributor might even let you try one on for size and walk around the store.
Come to my house tomorrow and I will let you blow some leaves around.
All flights are booked until Thursday. I could come then. Can I stay for dinner if I do a good job on the leaves?
Looking at the specs the one I have looks pretty good so I'll have to upgrade to a pro model to be able to get more oomph.
My wife wants the leaves in their proper place before Thursday.
Now you know what to ask Santa for.
In NH here with about 2 acres of grass, beds, stone walls. Stihl BR700 bought 3 years ago. Does the job well.
Echo released the PB-9010 last year which has more power if you're an echo fan but the price is higher than the Stihl.
The Stihl doesn't make it onto the typical review sites because they can't hyperlink to it and get $.
Found this pretty cool comparison though https://www.popularmechanics.com/home/tools/reviews/g135/backpack-leaf-blower-comparison/
Liking my Stihl BR600. It'll blow the chrome of a trailer hitch. I can't imagine needing the 800, but it would probably blow the hitch off the truck.
I have the echo PB model and it's worked flawlessly for the last 8 years. I always hate doing leaves (lots of trees here) and wish I had more CFM or one of those little wonder machines that the pro's use.
Thank You all for your recommedations. I checked them all out i.e. reviews and youtube videos. I finally decided on the Husqvarna 150BT. Midrange and not too expensive. Not rated as a pro monster but a very good consumer product. Based on my lot size, terrain, shrubs, ground cover etc. I figured that I need more mph as opposed to more cfm. The 150BT has a 150 mph which should do a good job getting the leaves out of the bushes and shrubs. Time will tell.
I am stopping "EGO Power+ LB6504 650 CFM"
With an incredible 650 CFM (cubic feet per minute) air movement capacity, I found it quite comfortable to use.
And it can control the speed while working.
You can try it.