Great for sucking up leaves from plant beds. Well made, powerful, backpack rules!
This leaf vacuum vacuumed up magnolia leaves from around my ground plants without pulling the plants from the ground. At this price, it was a good deal, and also acts as a powerful leaf blower. Backpack style bag holds a cart full of leaves!
Magnolia leaves are very sturdy and large, so if it can suck these up, odds are it will do even better with smaller leaves.
Does it jam? Not really. On occasion, a larger leaf will wedge in the intake tube. But if you shut it off, the leaves will drop out of the tube by itself. I have NOT had to disassemble it to clear a jam or clog.
Does it shred? Yes, and fairly fine, too. The impeller is plastic,but it does a good job of chopping up the leaves.
The backpack part seals the deal. I had a leaf vac many years ago with a bag that dangled from the blower. Not only did it not hold a lot of leaves, it got heavy and awkward to use very quickly. That model had a zipper that clogged with leaf debris, too.
THIS MODEL has a huge bag, and since it is on your back, it is easy to carry and it holds a lot of leaves without being awkward or getting in the way. No zipper to clog, either, but rather a fold-over snap mechanism like they use in waterproof kayaking bags.
The thing is really well made and high quality and the price was certainly attractive. Yes, it would be better if it ran on battery power, but then again, it would cost twice as much if not more and probably not have as much power, which you need in a vac more than a blower.
It's not for everyone. I needed it because the leaves fall between my ferns and other plants and it is impossible to rake them up. I would NOT use this for general leaf collection on my lawn, as it would simply take much longer than raking or running them over with my mulching mower (with bagger).
But if you have plant beds and they get clogged with leaves, this is a perfect solution, at least for me.
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