Leaf Blower/Garden Vac Replacement Bag

[Hysteresis]

I have a GardenLine Garden Vac, The original Collector Bag failed Very Quickly with a Hole in it. A manufacturers replacement suffered the same fate. I think the Manufactures Bags are not worth replacing as they Hole very quickly. I Purchased a so called equivalent Universal replacement, I managed to manipulate its fitting to the Machine. The construction of the replacement Bag looked good in that the material from which it was constructed had the appearance of being water resistant for the occasion when damp leaves are encountered.
When I tested it, the collector bag inflated like a balloon, but the suction of the Vac became very limited and useless at picking up dry leaves. If I opened the zip on the bag, air flow immediately re-established and suction at the pick up nozzle returned to normal. Pretty useless really as the leaves being picked up just discharged from the collector bag.
The problem is that as we all know the collector bag acts as a filter to let the air flow through the machine whilst the bag retains the leaves. Inspecting the material from which the replacement bag is constructed it appears to be incapable as acting as a filter as there appears to be a water resistant coating on the inside surface of the bag as such not allowing any air flow through the machine and as such suction at the pick up nozzle becomes virtually zero, making the Machine useless at picking up leaves. Obviously the bag does not act as a filter and is identical to just strapping a Polythene bag to the machine discharge and blowing it up like a balloon
The only possible solution my simple mind can dream up is to use something like a Knitting needle to puncture the bag in several places such that the air flow is
re-established and hopefully keeping the Filter function of a useable pick up bag. Obviously if my half brained Idea fails the bag becomes useless.
Has any 'Smart Guy/Girl' any better ideas to try before I embark on what maybe total destruction of this useless collector bag. The suggestion of buying an original manufacturers replacement bag is not practical as they are good as a filter mechanism but not a good design because any small amount of moisture renders the bag useless.

 

[foxhole]

Bag needs to be a fine mesh .

 

[jj4091]

Just leave the zip open a little as near to the inlet as possible. It will blow dust out but should give you the vacuum facility back.

 

[Hysteresis]

Bag needs to be a fine mesh .

Clearly I know that, but I am unable to locate such a construction and I have tried for a few years. The fine mesh needs to be water resistant to be of any use.

 

[Hysteresis]

Just leave the zip open a little as near to the inlet as possible. It will blow dust out but should give you the vacuum facility back.

Tied that, the zip needs to be open a round 4 inches to establish a reasonable Air Flow to enable the suction required at the pick up nozzle, and with that sort of opening the leaves just fly out of the bag.

 

[jj4091]

Tied that, the zip needs to be open a round 4 inches to establish a reasonable Air Flow to enable the suction required at the pick up nozzle, and with that sort of opening the leaves just fly out of the bag.

Piece of net/mesh and self adhesive velcro across it.

 

[StephenOak]

Bag needs to be a fine mesh .

Clearly I know that, but I am unable to locate such a construction and I have tried for a few years. The fine mesh needs to be water resistant to be of any use.

Anything in the everyday meaning of a fine mesh would not be appropriate. Garden vacs have an impeller and the leaves that are sucked in pass over that and are broken up (to a greater or lesser extent) which is deliberate so as to minimise the volume of the leaves in the bag. Some even have metal blades to make sure that the leaves are broken up.

So a mesh will let out a lot of dust. The bags for these machines are made of a woven material which is sort of a mesh but the holes are very, very small, and so trap most dust..

Wanting something that will let the air out but also be water resistant is basically a contradiction. The only fabric like that would be something like Gore-Tex. That is breathable and water-proof by virtue of have absolutely tiny holes, so small that water vapour can pass through but water droplets cannot.

Even if you made a bag out of Gore-Tex I suspect that it would not work as it is designed to let out a small amount of water vapour (from sweat) and not the large amounts of air that a garden vac will suck in.

I think that the bag you have, with a water resistant coating on the inside, is U/S as it does not allow air to exit at a rapid enough rate. The idea from @jj4091 of opening the zip several inches and covering that with mesh may work but I am sceptical. Under air pressure the zip will tend to open further. Even if you solve that, with all the air exiting from that one gap there will be a lot of leaves there which may knock the mesh off or completely block the mesh.

When I use a garden vac to suck up leaves I simply accept that, at times, the bag will get wet and when that happens the wet bag will make my clothing wet.

 

[foxhole]

My vac had a fine mesh .

 

[stevie888]

Mine is a meshy sort of a fabric: it doesn't impede the dust, nor would I expect it to. It doesn't like wet leaves and I don't like using power tools in the rain.

 

[StephenOak]

My vac had a fine mesh .

As I said, it depends on what you mean by a mesh. In the everyday sense, a mesh has holes clearly bigger than bits in between them. If you have holes that are a few mm across then loads of dust will come out when you use it on dry leaves. You might be happy with that, I wouldn't

 

[foxhole]

As I said, it depends on what you mean by a mesh. In the everyday sense, a mesh has holes clearly bigger than bits in between them. If you have holes that are a few mm across then loads of dust will come out when you use it on dry leaves. You might be happy with that, I wouldn't

They all allow fine dust through .

 

[StephenOak]

They all allow fine dust through .

Yes that is why I said "The bags for these machines are made of a woven material which is sort of a mesh but the holes are very, very small, and so trap most dust", most, not all. The bigger the whole the more dust that comes out.

What exactly are you calling a mesh? How big are the holes?

 

[foxhole]

Yes that is why I said "The bags for these machines are made of a woven material which is sort of a mesh but the holes are very, very small, and so trap most dust", most, not all. The bigger the whole the more dust that comes out.

What exactly are you calling a mesh? How big are the holes?

What you are looking for does not exist , garden vacs are high volume low suction , any thing fine enough to prevent dust will be useless in one.

 

[StephenOak]

I am not looking for anything.

I said that the fabric for one of these bags has to be a closely woven fabric to let air out but keep as much of the leaves as is reasonable in, and that a mesh won't do that as it will let out loads and loads of dust.

You are saying that a mesh that is fine but are refusing to say what you mean by a mesh. As you suggested that the OP use a mesh that is very unhelpful.

 

[Hysteresis]

There is an awful lot of 'waffle, ' appearing on this thread.
All that is required is a Nylon (or similar) Fine Mesh zipped Collector bag, but no one manufactures them.