A Woman and Her Leafblower - A Strange Love Story
Written: Sep 26 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Inexpensive; both blower and vacuum functions
Cons: Not very powerful, although good for typical jobs
The Bottom Line: If you want a leaf blower and vacuum at a decent price, check out this one - it isn't perfect, but it's good for the money
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| martytdx's Full Review: Homelite Leaf Vac Attack |
It's fall. Fall means leaves. Leaves mean raking. I hate raking - it interferes with football. So, this year, the wife and I decided to cut my misery and get me something to make the process quicker and easier, leaving the chores done quicker in time for the college and pro schedule. So, off to Home Depot we went to buy a leaf blower.
We wanted not only a blower powerful enough to blow the leaves out of our ivy, but that also included a vacuum function to mulch the piles we gathered. And because of the size of our yard, it had to be gas.
We found several models such as Toro, Echo and Black and Decker (as well as a god-awful PURPLE Poulan). We liked the Echo but at $270, it was a little steep. Others were only blowers, and the vacuum option was a key feature. So, we finally decided on the Homelite Vac Attack at $99.
[• insert tab A into SLOT B •]
We got the blower back home and immediately I started to put it together. Assembly is a cinch - there are only 7 parts that you have to worry about - a main tube for the blower with two attachments (normal and wet leaves); the main vacuum tube, the nozzle and the vacuum adaptor and bag. To attach the blower, you screw the proper nozzle to the main tube and insert into the blower. Tighten the clamp and you're ready to go.
If vacuuming is the goal, open up the side of the Vac Attack and attach the vacuum upper tube and nozzle, then put the vacuum bag and attachment where the blower nozzle had been previously. Again, a couple of easy steps and you are ready to go.
The only thing that held me up was the fact that it uses a 50:1 gas to oil mixture instead of the 32:1 that our trimmer uses. They provided the oil, but I had to get gas to make a new mix. Once that was done, I was ready to go. I followed the directions given for a cold start, and on the first pull, the blower started right up. I revved it up with the throttle trigger, getting a good feel for the force of this thing. It also comes with a throttle lock when you know you are going to need everything it's got for a good amount of time. The grip on the blower is fairly straight-forward: grab the handle for blowing, or use a two-handed grip for vacuumming (more on that later). The vacuum weighs 10.4 pounds, so it's not TOO heavy, although it can be cumbersome after a bit since there is no strap when using the blower.
[• blow me AWAY •]
I hit the front yard first with the wet leaves nozzle figuring that it would give me a better, stronger air flow. The Vac Attack offers a 30cc engine with 200mph/420 cfm worth of force. As I did the front garden, I wasn't very impressed - leaves with the slightest impediment seemed to get caught and not move. But the wife suggested I try the right nozzle, which I did. The effect was impressive - the leaves seemed to get agitated more, losing their grip and flying out from the bushes. Now time for the big test - the ivy.
Here, the blower failed pretty much completely. While leaves sitting near the top of the ivy moved easily, those caught further down - the principal reason that we bought a blower, because a rake can't get to them - stayed nearly still, even with the blower right on top of them. Strangely, however, in areas with thick patches of leaves, they blower seemed to work better - almost as though the air was able to get a better grip and force those leaves up.
As my last task, I started blowing the leaves in the yard around. Here, the blower seemed to work very well. The leaves were easily blown just where I wanted them. Back to the front yard to blow all of the leaves accumulating near the curb. Once again, the Vac Attack performed excellently here, taking large piles of leaves and moving them with ease. It was here that my wife also saw how it did for the first time, and asked if she could try.
I handed it to her to let her test it out. As she got used to it, a smile started on her face. As she moved on, the smile grew larger and she really getting into it. When I told her that I would do the rest, she waved me off, telling me how much fun she was having. "How did I ever get by without one of these?" she asked (answer: you've had me to rake it up, of course). For the next 20 minutes, I couldn't get near the vacuum as she did our property and started walking up the street with it. I finally wrested it away from her because I wanted to try out the other function of this machine.
[• well, it SUCKS •]
I quickly put on the vacuum attachments and went to work on the piles we had put together earlier. While it did very well picking up the smaller leaves in the piles, it struggled with leaves bigger than 3 or 4" across - they would get stuck across the mouth of the nozzle and build up until you shook them loose. Small sticks didn't seem to be a problem but anything larger than a 1/4" or so should be removed from your piles first.
As for holding it, the vacuum attachment is a bit more awkward than the blower. The bag sits off of the machine, under your arm, and comes with a small strap to help you hold it up. And it needs it - the angle you hold this to vacuum is somewhat awkward and takes quite a bit of getting used to. I actually didn't like it, but got used to it since it made certain parts of the job - such as cleaning up the shells around the bird feeders - so much easier and thorough than raking.
The booklet says that it mulches leaves down to about a 1:12 ratio (that is, 1 bag of mulched leaves for every 12 bags worth of leaves you raked). I don't know if that's an accurate ratio - we didn't have nearly that many leaves. But I wouldn't want to vacuum up larger piles - the suction of this unit isn't very good for big piles unless you have a number of smaller leaf types. It was good, however, for cleaning leaves out of bushes surrounded by mulch - it would grab the leaves without sucking up your mulch.
[• tidbits, observations and THOUGHTS •]
I used the machine for about an hour, and it actually sucked an entire tank of gas dry - probably about 1/10 of a gallon - so it will eat up gas fairly quickly. If you have sensitive ears, you may want to grab some earplugs - the machine runs at about 70dB at 50 feet - it is obviously MUCH louder at 2 feet.
[• final THOUGHTS •]
My wife and I both agree that while it isn't powerful enough to get the leaves out of the ivy, it does meet all of our other needs - mostly the leaves in the yard and along the street. The vacuum isn't great, but it does do a fairly good job on the smaller leaves and on birdseed shells.
Although I go to 'break it in', my wife has taken this over. I can just see her running out next weekend to use her new toy, while I get relegated to mowing the lawn. On the other hand, I DO have more time to watch football now...
[• official-type STUFF •]
Engine Type» 2-cycle 30cc engine
Gas Mixture» 50:1 2-cycle oil:gas
Weight» 10.4pounds
Power» 200mph / 400 cubic feet per minute (cfm)
Warranty» 2 years
http://www.homelite.com/products/blowers/compare.htm
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
martytdx
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Member: Marty
Location: New Jersey
Reviews written: 481
Trusted by: 179 members
About Me:
Doing what I can to try new places, restaurants, books and beers.
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