Garden vac, electric or petrol?

I am looking for a garden vacuum and wonder if anyone could advise as to what sort to go for. Electric or petrol motor.

 

Unless you have acres of leaves I suggest going for an electric one. Petrol ones are heavier and need serviced from time to time. One thing you need to watch if you go the electric route is that you don't use it on wet leaves - it took two burned out motors before I learned!!!

 

I have found in my experience that it is quicker to rake up leaves than to go through the ritual of filling and emptying the bag of the vacume.

On the other hand used as a blower this is priceless,you can clear a large area in no time at all..........If you have a lot of leaves or a large area a petrol Stihl is perfect and will last forever.

 

If there's a lot of leaves, I use a brush and shovel. I've a Flymo Gardenvac. This will pick up clumps of wet leaves, it'll even pick up some floating leaves out of a puddle, but it will take longer to do the whole garden than sweeping and you have to keep emptying the bag.
It comes into it's own when you've got rid of the bulk, as you can start at one end of the garden and blow the leaves down to the other. The trick is to stop before you reach the end as otherwise the leaves you've blown will "go everywhere." Then it's just a case of switching it from blow to suck and collecting the leaves in the last ten feet of the garden. I find it's also very useful for blowing leaves to the back of the borders.

As someone else said, unless you're using it every few days, petrol blowers can be a problem. The worst that can happen to a Gardenvac is that the motor will wear out. I think mine's about twelve years old, or maybe more and I fitted a new motor about five years ago. Not difficult to change.

 

What is the best buy electric blower/vac?