On 18 Nov 2003 08:23:00 GMT, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:

~
~In article ,
~Janet Tweedy writes:
~| In article , Richard Kerry
~| writes
~|
~| I have been told it's best to go for a blower and not a shred and vac type
~| blower......
~|
~| Why? I was thinking of getting a vacuum and would be interested to know
~| why the larger ones wouldn't be better than blowing the leaves around.
~
~Well, having seen blowers used in parks etc., I shall stick with
~a rake! It is quicker, cheaper and needs less storage space.
~Except for people with serious back problems, I can't see the
~objection to a decent rake, even relative to a garden vaccum, but
~I agree that they are relatively hard on backs.
~
~I can't imagine any blower capable of handling wet leaves that
~wouldn't blow loose soil into the air and damage plants. If one
~can't handle wet leaves, then it is of pretty restrictive use in
~the UK!

Upsides and downsides of my own experience...

I have a cheapo electric Black and Decker which can be a blower or a
hoover. As I've said oodles of time before I've three pain-in-the-bum
sycamores from the council side of the boundary, hanging over my front
garden which is only 20'x30', and mostly my alpine-filled rock garden. At
this time of the year you end up literally wading through leaves to get to
the door and thanks to the uneven paving stones in the access path, rain
and the dark nights, it's rather lethal! I tried cleaning the paths etc
with a broom for the first couple of years here which was a backbreaker
then the sister out law gave me her old slightly dodgy B&D as she was
emigrating.

Converted in a day. When it died I took it to bits (physicist in me strikes
again) . Motor brushes gone. I went straight out and got another as new
motor was only a fiver less... plus postage!

This way I can get all of them up in a few hours, the sycamore leaves get
shredded so rot faster and I don't have to bend. Also, I can hoover the
rockery (!) and I've not lost so many alpines to the wet since. It does
happily cope with wet leaves, though it's essential to listen to the pitch
of the motor. As soon as it goes off the original sound, you stop and clear
out a) the bag (sound goes higher) b) the spout and c) the leaf-mud mix
from the inside of the in-pipe around the shredding thingy. b) and c) can
burn out the motor if clogged. I think this is what happened to the first
one as it was in bad nick when I got it.

Yes you have to empty the bag a lot, but one bagful is about 3/4
binlinerful so it' a fair number of leaves. It's easier on the lumbar spine
to shake leaves out into the binliners while standing upright than to keep
on bending over! And I defy anyone to clear a rockery with a rake or broom
without damaging things.

jane, almost over her slipped disk now *phew*


--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

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