Recommended Leaf Blower/Vac

I'm looking at buying a handheld petrol blower/vac. Any advice would be welcome. I do tend to buy semi-professional equipment.

I've seen some with handles at right-angle to the unit which seems a bit contrary for comfort.

 

I've used an old Stihl which was reasonably comfortable & good quality as you would expect.
A few years ago I bought a cheap yellow plastic one (skint at the time :rolleyes: )which was a pain to start, uncomfortable to use, the fan wore away & the fan casing wore through. :(
If I were to buying now, I would go to my local chainsaw dealer & try some first.

 

whoops double post

 

Which? did a report on these recently- they tried a McCulloch petrol and a Ryobi petrol and weren't impressed. Their best buy was the Black and Decker at only �£60.
Blower vacs review
Flymo Garden Vac 2200W Turbo

BEST BUY
* Type: Electric

This blower vac is unusual because it has two parallel tubes ââ?¬â?? air is blown down one tube and leaves are sucked up another one into the collecting bag.

This means the leaves don't come into contact with the fan blade ââ?¬â?? which is just as well as it sucked up more gravel than the other electric models.


Performance in vacuum mode
Lawn (vacuum mode) 2 out of 5 stars: poor

Gravel 3 out of 5 stars: satisfactory

Performance
Shredding 3 out of 5 stars: satisfactory

Ease of use 4 out of 5 stars: good

Weight (Kg)
Weight in vac mode. For some you remove the vacuum tube and bag and fix a blower tube (blow mode
Flower bed weight in brackets).
Includes speed, effort and controlling direction.

Paving
Includes speed, effort and controlling direction.

Lawn (blow mode)
Includes speed, effort and controlling direction.

Lawn (vacuum mode)
Includes speed, effort and weight collected.

Shredding
Very poor ratings mean material not shredded, to an Excellent rating which means material shredded finely.

Hope this is of some help. My gardener mate uses this one and has been pleased with it, particularly the way it minces leaves- much quicker composting.
For removing leaves from lawns and compacting them, I've found a rotary mower as good as anything.

 

Stihl BG 85 around �£200 ish. I use this machine almost five days a week and it has served me well for the past 5 years always starts on the first pull and will shift the wetest leaves also good throttle control so easy to vary the speed eg blowing off gravel.

The advantage of the BG 85 which is the pro model is it has vibration damping, a real advantage as you get no tingiling fingers after using it even for 8 hours on end. An important consideration as you dont want vibration white finger.

I never use as a vac as I find it farr quicker to blow leaves off borders/lawn into piles then rake them up. However stihl sell the pipe and bag kit to convert it to a vac.

 

Thanks all, a trip to the local Stihl is the next step