Paphos Life

We have parted company with our gardeners and my wife would like to buy a leaf blower in the interim. We have a fair amount of leaves that come down in the garden and I am hoping to find a reasonable cordless (battery-powered) leaf blower with a vacuum to suck up the debris. We have never used one and have only been aware of our gardeners running around, making a hell of a noise, but leaving nothing behind on the ground.

Can anyone offer words of advice to a pair of novices?

I have an electric blower with power lead it also acts as a vacuum but if you have a lot of leaves you spend more time emptying the bag than blowing. This may be of interest to you
https://www.homegardencyprus.com/en/cat ... um-blowers

We've had quite a few and presently have the Ryobi cable type. They are heavy, especially when the leaves are damp. We've had Bosch, Flymo and several other makes but I found Black and Decker to be the best as they used to have a metal impeller rather than plastic like most of the other models.

Happy in Cyprus wrote: ↑Fri Sep 03, 2021 2:06 am I've only ever seen gardeners blow leaves, never suction into a bag.

I'm not sure a battery-powered blower would have sufficient grunt; our guys use the petrol-engine ones. Damp leaves do take a bit of shifting, not that it's an issue this time of the year.

They normally have two modes; blow and suck. The blower has blades inside which chops the leaves up into a mulch. When the bag fills up you empty them.

I've only ever bought the cheap ones you occasionally get in Lidl. They are fine for suction until the bag splits, which eventually happens. You can have issues if you have gravel though, as that will get sucked up with the leaves making an unholy racket. It is easiest to blow them into a pile then bag the leaves up yourself.

Re... "The blower has blades inside which chops the leaves up into a mulch. When the bag fills up you empty them."

I think you mean the suction / vacuuming shreds it into a mulch.
I wonder if like me, you have ever left the zip on the bag open, and it goes everywhere

The trouble once the bag splits it is almost impossible to get a replacement, still if you buy a cheapo it's not much dearer to just replace the machine.

On the cheap ones the bags always split, and the impellers wear out

trevnhil wrote: ↑Fri Sep 03, 2021 10:27 am Re... "The blower has blades inside which chops the leaves up into a mulch. When the bag fills up you empty them."

I think you mean the suction / vacuuming shreds it into a mulch.
I wonder if like me, you have ever left the zip on the bag open, and it goes everywhere

No, I meant exactly what I said. When I said blower, I meant the whole bit of kit. Nobody calls it a leafer blower and sucker.

And yes, I have done. Even more fun is if you omit the bag altogether!

Aargent wrote: ↑Fri Sep 03, 2021 11:18 am The trouble once the bag splits it is almost impossible to get a replacement, still if you buy a cheapo it's not much dearer to just replace the machine.

This is why I now have a leaf blower and a leaf sucker. One iteration of the Lidl Blower was rather cumbersome to switch from blow to suck. You had to use different ends. So now it is permanently a sucker whereas I use the bagless one purely for blowing.

I have never tried it, but if I sat on a swivel chair I could put both of them in blow mode and have great fun chugging up and down the road for as long as the extension cord would let me.

You are right about it being a nuisance to change from blower to sucking up into the bag.

On ours when it is sucking up it is extremely dusty

Having seen our village handymen blow stuff all over the place, I'll stick with my broom, dustpan/brush and bin bag!

Aargent wrote: ↑Fri Sep 03, 2021 11:18 am The trouble once the bag splits it is almost impossible to get a replacement, still if you buy a cheapo it's not much dearer to just replace the machine.

Coincidentally I bought a new blower / Vac from Paphos Home Market this morning, the guy in the tool section tells me he has a contact in Geroskipou who can make new bags for any of these devices for around €25-30.

Ian

My cheapo blower didn't cost much more than that.

Bought ours battery operated blower from Paphos Home Market 2 years ago, used a fair amount and works very well whether sucking or blowing!

Certainly, the bag is the weakest link in the chain.

The guy at HomeMarket gave me the same information as above concerning a replacement.
Basically, the guarantee doesn’t apply to the bag, so don’t bring it back.

I can’t help but think that there are a lot of electrical blower/ vacuum units out there with ripped bags,
I’d be pleased to pay for a new bag, if it was better quality than the original.
there’s a market there for someone who can supply quality bags.

Anyone had a replacement bag ?

Being the proud owner of 2 defunct units, (bags) I’m not going to squander another wedge on another unit
Not long until autumn……

CL

We got a blower from Μr. Bricolage, a DIY store in Larnaca, special offer for about 40 e, electric mains one, I wasn't expecting much for that price, but its the dogs B, powerful suck and blow only problem its about six feet long...and my little wife dose struggle to use it,

@WHL.
Wife doing the gardening……???…what sort of husband are you.??

Make sure that she has the harness in place, and that there is not too much load on her back muscles. All the things that a considerate husband would do. Best not to wander around the garden with a beer whilst this is going on. Stay close to the fridge

CL

Cheshire Lad wrote: ↑Tue Sep 07, 2021 4:59 pm @WHL.
Wife doing the gardening……???…what sort of husband are you.??

Make sure that she has the harness in place, and that there is not too much load on her back muscles. All the things that a considerate husband would do. Best not to wander around the garden with a beer whilst this is going on. Stay close to the fridge

CL

Cheshire Lad wrote: ↑Tue Sep 07, 2021 4:59 pm @WHL.
Wife doing the gardening……???…what sort of husband are you.??

Make sure that she has the harness in place, and that there is not too much load on her back muscles. All the things that a considerate husband would do. Best not to wander around the garden with a beer whilst this is going on. Stay close to the fridge

CL

Good advice, only yesterday I told her off for not wearing a hat in the midday sun, and im always telling her to drink lots of fluids, what every good husband should do

This is funnier than the stuff that has been appearing in the Joke section of late.