I sort of agree with the comments that John makes, but I have a hand held leaf blower/vacuum and I use it a lot and find it very helpful. The difference is the context. I think that John does garden work professionally whereas I am doing it in my own garden. So if John has to deal with a garden today and the leaves are wet then he has to get on with it whereas I can put it off for a couple of days until they are drier. So there is less water on me, less weight in the bag and less stress on the bag zip.
I have two of these blower/vacuums. An old Ryobi that came with the house. This has a plastic impeller that the leaves hit and, AFAIUI, this is supposed to break them up. If they are very dry this does happen to some extent but not that much and it seems to have got worse. Hence I bought a new one (last year) that has metal blades and which does chop the leaves up so they will break down more quickly and take up less space.
This is one of
these and I would
not recommend it. Fitting the connection at the top of the bag onto the body is fiddly and that connection is held onto the bag with a shoelace (!) which I replaced with a cable tie. The biggest problem is that the leaves (after being shredded) double back on themselves at 45°, so they clog more easily that is necessary, especially when wet.
However it was cheap and I wanted try one with wheels on the front to see if they helped on the lawn (they do IME) or they got in the way as some reviews say.
The
Screwfix page says that bag is 45L but I don't believe that. It seems to be the same size as others that are c. 20-25L. Whatever the capacity, when working well it will fill up quickly. I have a couple of
these tubs from
Wickes that I empty the bag into as I go along. By putting an empty one on top of a full one, the contents are compressed down and I can get a lot into them.
