Thread: Blower / Vac

I bought a cheapie- Electric GMC $49 jobbie from Bunnings. For what I use it (Picking up grass clippings from pebble garden beds after edging), works fine. Has a simple lever to switch from blower to vac.

I hate em all - the noise drives me nuts. I have a 12V battery powered lawn mower that I use to mow the paving with on a low height setting. It picks up 99% of all the grass and leaves with about 10th of the noise. Not much good at picking up grass from pebble gardens but!

Yes, I definitely want one, where you just flick a switch and it converts from blower to vac.

Any suggestions?

I have the GMC $49 blower/vac and a Homelite petrol B/V.
The petrol one is only used as a blower due to the pizzing around to convert it to Vac.

The GMC has not been used since getting the petrol blower.

Thanks guys

I have just read reviews in the Bunnings Handyman Magazine and also on choice.com,.au

Basically they all have good and bad points, mainly bad points

hmmmmm

I just want a lightweight petrol blower/vac that converts with the flick of a switch

You think there would be a good one on the market but from my research it seems not

I have a 7 year old 2 stroke Ryobi with lever flick action change from vac to blow. It's a reasonable compromise, blow is about 85% of an equivalent dedicated blower, vac is adequate for most things, bark, grass trimmings, dry leaves etc.

Issues to date, one visit to repairer with blocked carby due to muck in fuel, vac bag zip started to peel open at the fixed end a month ago. Reset the zip traveller, peeled the faulty teeth off, and stiched the section closed, then washed the bag to get rid of the fine dirt clogging the fibres. Working like a dream again now, but the zip openning is about 2in shorter.

Could get the same unit last year with an included 'head unit' that spreads the suction zone to cover about 16 inches and has a couple of wheels. Haven't worked with that cos I bought mine about 18 months before they started including it.

Unit works at home and at family property (0.5 and 1 acre) plus has done a load of cleaning parking areas and kerbing when mulching commercial landscaping jobs lately, so it gets a fair workout.

Originally Posted by malb

I have a 7 year old 2 stroke Ryobi with lever flick action change from vac to blow. It's a reasonable compromise, blow is about 85% of an equivalent dedicated blower, vac is adequate for most things, bark, grass trimmings, dry leaves etc.

Issues to date, one visit to repairer with blocked carby due to muck in fuel, vac bag zip started to peel open at the fixed end a month ago. Reset the zip traveller, peeled the faulty teeth off, and stiched the section closed, then washed the bag to get rid of the fine dirt clogging the fibres. Working like a dream again now, but the zip openning is about 2in shorter.

Could get the same unit last year with an included 'head unit' that spreads the suction zone to cover about 16 inches and has a couple of wheels. Haven't worked with that cos I bought mine about 18 months before they started including it.

Unit works at home and at family property (0.5 and 1 acre) plus has done a load of cleaning parking areas and kerbing when mulching commercial landscaping jobs lately, so it gets a fair workout.

I contacted a local mower shop today and he said that he has a 12 year old Ryobi and it works flawlessly.

The thing he told me is that they USED to be good and USED to be made in Japan. Now they are made in China and are apparently complete rubbish or so he said....
Everyone that I have ever known who owns Ryobi equipment would never buy it again.

Sounds like yours maybe Japanese made.

Originally Posted by Arry

Sounds like yours maybe Japanese made.

I'm not sure where it came from originally, as I said I have had it 7 years, probably getting closer to 8 now. Bought it soon after it was released in OZ cos I had the two properties (both long and narrow). Previously I had a weedeater electric that took ages to swap over from blow to vac and vv, and my uncle had an elec version of the Ryobi for the larger place, but no external power points. Hence I bought the petrol Ryobi, more noise but no need for power cables.

Unfortunately, many items that used to come from reliable manufacturers are now being jobbed out to get the absolute lowest price, and quality suffers severely in some cases. I figured that it worthwhile discussing my experience with the Ryobi because it had lasted so long without grief. If you are getting reliable advice to steer clear of the current ones, I would take it. Sorry I can't help further because I haven't been looking, but I don't recall seeing anything other than a Talon clone in anything like a similar configuration.

i bought a Ryobi 30cc petrol one, and i think it does its jobs very well.

though my expectations were bit high, as i never used a blower/vac before in my whole life.

btw if someone is interested in buying one, there is a shop in Campbellfield which sells these units for $88 with one year warranty. they called them ex-demo units.

i personaly think its vac feature is very hard to use (due to interchange procedure). i found similar sort made by Talon in BigW for $199.

I use a broom.....nice and quiet

The honda 4 stroke blower gets good reviews...

I have had one of the GMC blower/vacs for about 6 months.

Works fine for my needs.