Are there any of these that are any good? My wife is considering
an Eckman, which looks plausible, but I am a bit suspicious.
For example, sooner or later, it will pick up a stray stone.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Sat, 29 Oct 2011 13:23:34 +0100 (BST), wrote:


Are there any of these that are any good? My wife is considering
an Eckman, which looks plausible, but I am a bit suspicious.
For example, sooner or later, it will pick up a stray stone.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

I prefer blowing to sucking - I've generally got so many leaves that
I'd spend hours emtying the bag. So at height of the leaf season I use
a petrol blower to get stuff into a corner and then it's easy to
collect and transfer to the pile. The lawnmower, set high, will do a
decent job of pickling up and shredding the leaves at other times
(but, again, emptying the collector's a pain in high season) and, with
the blades at their highest, I don't get grass cuttings mixed in with
the leaves.

I do have a garden vac (Handy brand came as a freebie with something
else but retails about £30-£40) which I'll use for the odds and ends,
mainly on the pavement in front of the house. That has a plastic
grinder. The occasional stone gets sucked up but you hear it straight
away. Simply release the "on" button and the stone drops out. Doesn't
seem to do any damage.

But, as I say, garden vacs aren't much good when you have lots of
leaves as the bag fills up too quickly. Plus they're a bit iffy with
wet leaves which can clog up the grinder.

Cheers, Jake
================================================== ===========
URGling from the less wet end of Swansea Bay where it's about
the same moisture-wise as the more wet end.

The cat's web site is at www.pillie.me.uk.

In article ,
Jake Nospam@invalid wrote:

I prefer blowing to sucking - I've generally got so many leaves that
I'd spend hours emtying the bag. So at height of the leaf season I use
a petrol blower to get stuff into a corner and then it's easy to
collect and transfer to the pile. ...

Thanks for your response.

There's no way that I want the faff of such a thing - a rake is fine
for that sort of use - it's the picking up that causes my wife back
trouble.

But, as I say, garden vacs aren't much good when you have lots of
leaves as the bag fills up too quickly. Plus they're a bit iffy with
wet leaves which can clog up the grinder.

Yes, that's what I heard.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 29/10/2011 13:23, wrote:
Are there any of these that are any good? My wife is considering
an Eckman, which looks plausible, but I am a bit suspicious.
For example, sooner or later, it will pick up a stray stone.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.
If you have a large garden investigate the wheeled leaf vacuums made by
Billy Goat Industries in the USA. Expensive (about £1000) but I believe
some hire companies have them available. Used them at work in a school
with 6 large deciduous trees. Worth their weight in gold in this
situation and very robust (bag about a fifth of a cubic metre)

Malcolm

On Sat, 29 Oct 2011 14:57:06 +0100 (BST), wrote:

In article ,
Jake Nospam@invalid wrote:

I prefer blowing to sucking - I've generally got so many leaves that
I'd spend hours emtying the bag. So at height of the leaf season I use
a petrol blower to get stuff into a corner and then it's easy to
collect and transfer to the pile. ...

Thanks for your response.

There's no way that I want the faff of such a thing - a rake is fine
for that sort of use - it's the picking up that causes my wife back
trouble.

But, as I say, garden vacs aren't much good when you have lots of
leaves as the bag fills up too quickly. Plus they're a bit iffy with
wet leaves which can clog up the grinder.

Yes, that's what I heard.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Might something like this solve the problem (which is presumably the
bending):

http://www.twowests.co.uk/TwoWestsSi...ookie%5Ftest=1

Cheers, Jake
================================================== ===========
URGling from the less wet end of Swansea Bay where it's about
the same moisture-wise as the more wet end.

The cat's web site is at www.pillie.me.uk.

Nick wrote

Jake wrote:

I prefer blowing to sucking - I've generally got so many leaves that
I'd spend hours emtying the bag. So at height of the leaf season I use
a petrol blower to get stuff into a corner and then it's easy to
collect and transfer to the pile. ...

Thanks for your response.

There's no way that I want the faff of such a thing - a rake is fine
for that sort of use - it's the picking up that causes my wife back
trouble.

But, as I say, garden vacs aren't much good when you have lots of
leaves as the bag fills up too quickly. Plus they're a bit iffy with
wet leaves which can clog up the grinder.

Yes, that's what I heard.



Won't a lawnmower pick up the leaves? Then they get shredded at the same
time.
I have a cheap two-stroke Flymo vac/blower which didn't cost much more than
an electric one. Have used it to suck up stuff and it works well although I
am concerned about stones. It's mainly used as a blower.
--
Regards Bob Hobden
Posting to this Newsgroup from the W. of London UK

In article ,
Jake Nospam@invalid wrote:

Might something like this solve the problem (which is presumably the
bending):

Assuming that it's the grabber rake (the reference doesn't work),
no, it won't. We have a lot more leaves than that - and the reason
that I said electric is that we don't have space for a petrol
system, let alone a Billy Goat, nor do we have enough to justify one.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 29/10/2011 14:02, Jake wrote:
On Sat, 29 Oct 2011 13:23:34 +0100 (BST), wrote:


Are there any of these that are any good? My wife is considering
an Eckman, which looks plausible, but I am a bit suspicious.
For example, sooner or later, it will pick up a stray stone.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

I prefer blowing to sucking - I've generally got so many leaves that
I'd spend hours emtying the bag. So at height of the leaf season I use
a petrol blower to get stuff into a corner and then it's easy to
collect and transfer to the pile. The lawnmower, set high, will do a
decent job of pickling up and shredding the leaves at other times
(but, again, emptying the collector's a pain in high season) and, with
the blades at their highest, I don't get grass cuttings mixed in with
the leaves.

I do have a garden vac (Handy brand came as a freebie with something
else but retails about £30-£40) which I'll use for the odds and ends,
mainly on the pavement in front of the house. That has a plastic
grinder. The occasional stone gets sucked up but you hear it straight
away. Simply release the "on" button and the stone drops out. Doesn't
seem to do any damage.

I vacuum up most of my leaves on granite chippings. I must say that the
vac seldom picks these up at all, and I rarely hear them hit the plastic
shredder blade (which is a bit like a single-sided squirrel-cage fan
blade). Yes, the blade has the odd chip,but this cheapo Power Devil vac
has surprised me by lasting 10 years, and is still going strong. My
previous B&D only lasted 4 years, and you had to change the tube
attachment if you wanted blowing rather than vacuuming - not very
convenient. With the current one I just have to push a lever through 90°.

But, as I say, garden vacs aren't much good when you have lots of
leaves as the bag fills up too quickly. Plus they're a bit iffy with
wet leaves which can clog up the grinder.

Agree about the wet leaves (if I had a mower I'd use that for wet
leaves), but not the bag filling up too quickly. A full bag - even if
the leaves are dry - tends to weigh heavily on one side, soon causing
shoulder ache. Emptying the bag regularly also allows stuff which
hasn't been shredded properly to be removed. It's surprising how
inefficient a vac can become when even a small blockage has occurred.
How much is "lots of leaves"? My neighbour uses a vac and one year took
35 large dustbin-bags full of leaves to the local tip (now he can get
quite a bit in the garden recycling wheelie) as a result of living under
a 25m+ sycamore and 20m+ oak.

IMO garden vacs are useful gadgets.

--

Jeff