Electric leaf vacuum
 

We have leaves all over our property, mostly from our neighbor's trees. We do not have any grass, so I cannot simply mow the leaves into the lawn. I decided to trim our hedge because it is so overgrown I have difficulty maneuvering past it to park. I actually scratched my car at least once.

Personally, I like having leaves on the unpaved areas, but it seems like I have blown about as many leaves under the bushes as I can. I figure that if I mulch the leaves they will fit and decompose better. I bought a trimmer, but forgot a second extension cord, so I did not get very far. I also bought an electric leaf vacuum, which probably works far better as a blower, but I already have one of those, which I picked up new for $4.

The vacuum does not seem to be able to handle any sticks larger than twigs. I at least partially blame the plastic impeller. So, I keep trying to separate the sticks, but I cannot use it on the branches I just cut. Whatever. Separate problem.

The intake tapers, so leaves get stuck, and I need to ram them. A couple of times I have had issues, stopped, took it apart, and there were sticks stuck in there, but sometimes, it stops picking up leaves, and I cannot figure out why.

I stopped trying to use it and came inside trying to figure out if I was using it wrong, but only found instructions on using blowers.

Should I exchange it for a more powerful one with a metal impeller? Is there a trick to vacuuming leaves? I only spent fifty dollars with my military discount, but I would rather not invest too much in something I may only use once yearly.

I thought you meant no Nissan EVs around... :)
 

My leaf vacuum/blower has a plastic impeller too. A blade broke from the impeller, got stuck against the rest of the impeller and the housing, which exploded into plastic shrapnel and cut my trousers and the skin on my leg.

I took the broken blower to the DIY shop where I bought it to file a complaint and get my money back, but all they could do was hand me a replacement.
I took it but have not used it since, not just for fear of a repeat but also because of the noise.
When it exploded I was seconds away from shutting it off because of the noise, job unfinished.

The failure may have been caused by a small stone or shell.

Turns out I was doing it wrong. You need to blow, not suck, the leaves away initially onto a heap, then suck that heap up. That way you won't suck up the bigger hard items.

$5 rake.

Has anyone entertained the possibility of using something like this... on their car exhaust??!??!?! You know, to improve exhaust scavenging?

*ducks* :D

I stopped at the store and asked to speak to someone about leaf vacuums. They sent someone taller, with significantly better hair, and who obviously worked out better, and in a deep[er] voice he said "It sounds like you are doing it right, you just need to man up and get something more macho, that can get the job done!"

I am not too good at listening or remembering, but I am pretty sure those were his exact words.

I am pretty sure you need to upgrade to the six-dollar rake for shredding. Thanks, though!

We used a Billy Goat when I worked at a baseball stadium.

http://www.billygoat.com/Resource_/P...0H_534x575.jpg

The top-of-the-line Toro is the best vacuum/blower that I have used (and I have used a few). It has a cast aluminum impeller that is much better than any other machine. You still cannot work with wet leaves, but it is able to deal with larger twigs than other units.

Vacuuming is better than raking in several ways - the main one is that the leaves get chopped, so they don't blow around when you get them where you want them. They decompose more quickly. And they are MUCH more compact.

I do some areas with the blower, and then switch to the vacuum without the bag, to shift the leaf toward where I am going to let them decompose. If there are so many leaves that I cannot just shift with the vacuum, I use the bag to collect them, then empty the bag on a tarp, and when that is full, I drag it to where I am collecting them.

You know, I'm having a real problem trying to decide whether this post is serious, or a satiric comment on suburban life. Either way, it's sad. IIRC, the OP is not exactly flush with money, yet has bought expensive electric devices (and is considering buying more) to do a job which can be done better, faster, and cheaper - and without subjecting himself and his neighbors to unpleasant noise levels - with a simple hand tool.

Fifty dollars is expensive?
I have $3,000 in my bank account.
Again. Hand tools do not mulch!

How much do you have on credit cards and student loans? :P

Don't let your girlfriends know how much you have in the account, or they will think of a desperate need for a "loan".

And yes, $50 is a lot for an underperforming leaf vacuum.

I paid off my credit card a few months back and have not used it since. I tried to pay it off as fast as possible, while keeping a minimum of actual money in my account, for some emergency that would not accept credit.

Yeah, student loans. They are in forebearance, but I can definitely start paying them off now. I tried to log in the other day to start payments, but it just tried to get me to end forbearance, which is weird because they kept encouraging me to at least pay interest while payments were on hold. That sounded like a great idea, but I was not putting it on my credit card!

By the way, I went back and paid twenty dollars more for the other vacuum. The difference was stunning! I actually look forward to using it in the morning!

Toro makes a Nice leaf vac with a metal impeller, sticks are still rough, a friend used his for vacuuming up blown in insulation, flexible duct on the output to blow it to another area, the same thing could be done with leaves and a wire bin instead of the bag.
I only use the leaf vac where the corded lawn mower with a bag doesn't get everything, the green works lawn mower drops down to 1/4" for clearing sidewalks

$55 model:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1470431729

$75 model:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1470431729

There is also a $99 one that looks just like the $75 one, but it has an attachment that is supposed to make it mulch better, and another to oscillate it from side-to-side, just to make cyberbullies and trolls happy.

I used the newer one this morning briefly, but it started raining. I had a huge pile from the first vacuum, I filled the bag eight times. The cheaper one is supposed to reduce 81% of debris to 1/2" or less, while the more expensive one is supposed to do 88%. That means 19% not reduced to 12%.

It seemed like a dramatic difference, but I am not sure it is compacting much more, which is not important, it should definitely compost better!

The expensive one is supposed to reduce 91% of debris, but it has the same motor and impeller. Then there is the $200 one with racing stripes and stickers for your car because you stopped reading by now.

Speaking of impellers, I just took my 1990 stand up jet ski out for the first time in 6 years, and I don't know why I don't run it all the time.

I bet it would slice and dice some leaves if you could funnel it in.

The Toro I have with the metal impeller was about $80, and Amazon is selling it now for $70.

I have the cheapo model at work.

6 years use, hard duty (vacuuming out a large gravel area full of leaves, it sucks gravel up all the time). Works great.

The major weakness on all those Toro models is where the plastic insert attaches to the shoulder bag. I get 2 seasons out of a bag, then need a replacement. The stitching/fabric around the neck is not well reinforced.

Recommended, with one reservation.

From what I saw on-line, people complain the control knob wears out after two or three years. There might be a minor market for someone who could sell them for $15.

It stopped raining and I was able to vacuum up most of the leaves in the front, but some were still damp. It looks great! I re-mulched eight bags from the other vacuum, which now take up six. We will just say the new vacuum makes them 8.6% smaller and the rest is from mulching them twice.

I am cropping those images, I did not realize how much white space there was!

Your posts are awesome! :D

No, your mom's face is sad.

Xist rightly points out the folly of trying to save money when investing in a[n][ cheap] electric tool. I think the post should have been in Saving@Home, but [I guess] traffic and reasons.

What is being discussed is light-years beyond what I experience on my bicycle going past dental clinics and others using commercial landscapers. They use gas powered blowers to move everything into the street so it's someone else's problem. And you can hear the motor screaming for 2 blocks.

My personal favorite landscaping tool is the grass whip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gq1gNVZNnI

Adequate replacement for a string trimmer. I keep mine sharp enough to cut grass with a 3" stroke. :thumbup:

For blackberries: gloves and a scythe.

Thank you very much!

Cheer her up!

Before I bought a hedge trimmer, a second extension cord, and loppers, I did my landscaping with a machete, but I was always nervous of my neighbors.

No leaves were mulched in the filming of this experiment:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yFMF1sSb2E

Say, can you loan me $3k until payday?

You bet, Internet stranger! As soon as I get it back from a Nigerian Prince!

A girl I know just bought a new Civic. She lives with her parents, but hey! New car!

Which is better, paying rent, or making car payments?

The MSRP of a 2016 Civic is $19,475. Edmunds says the average car loan is 67 months. The blue book of a 2010 Civic is $9,616. For some reason, KBB suggested $4,000 down and a 1.74% interest rate; the car would cost a total of $21,411, losing $11,795, or $196.58 monthly.

I sure hope she is making student loan payments, but continuing to drive her dad's 2012 Versa and paying off her loans faster would make far more sense to me.

But the real folly is in buying an electric tool at whatever price, when the job can be done faster and better with a cheaper hand tool. Which will last far longer, too: I'm still using a rake* that came with the house I bought ~18 years ago.

*And many other yard tools: bought the house from an older woman who was moving in with her kids, so got everything thrown into the deal. Some of the tools might have been in use for half a century.

Well lucky you.

Look I think I know where you're coming from. I had my grass whip in hand earlier today. But the word 'folly' is a little strong, no? Everyone has to make the make/buy hand/power decisions for themselves. Discussing the futility of cheaping out is valid. Last time I was at the recyclers they had a 50+ year old wood-handled grass whip for $3. I passed because I think the modern ones work better, and I already have two.

But once again, as was pointed out a rake doesn't mulch. I'd want something pedal powered like a stationary bike. It could have a grinding wheel as well.

What part of mulching do you not understand? Also, this is the kind of rake you can get for five dollars:https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....L._SL1500_.jpg

It says it is a child's plaything. As I mentioned, I bought my blower for $4, so why pay more for a useless yard tool that is in fact not any faster than the electric one?

Yet neither mulch, which was what I wanted, so I bought a mulcher.

Why do you insist on ignoring the theme the rest of us are discussing?

The part where you let the grass clippings, chopped-up leaf litter, &c build up in the lawn, then pay someone (or buy/rent another expensive machine) to de-thatch it.

You do that !?!

The mulch is supposed to used in your composting toilet.

I don't, but the fact that there are companies hereabouts that apparently make a decent living doing dethatching & aerating suggests that a lot of people do.

Sorry, but no. Grass clippings, leaves, and plant trimmings all go in the compost pile, along with horse manure.

EDIT:

I for once felt bad about the thread jack and submitted this in a separate thread here.

I compost... at the dump. Sure, it might take 10x longer for stuff to decompose when buried along with everything else, but consider it a carbon sink. If it were to decompose immediately, then the carbon would be immediately released into the atmosphere in the form of CO2 and methane. Besides, the US is not running out of places to bury stuff.

That said, I do compost grass clippings by mulching, but that's out of sheer laziness to empty a bag. Other yard and tree debris goes to a burn pile. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

I recycle too, but that's mostly to save space for more garbage (I have 2 roommates and a wife). Metal is worthwhile to recycle, but most everything else likely isn't. If recycling made sense from an energy use perspective (and environmental), then people would be paying me for my valuable recyclables. As it is, I'm compelled by law to pay extra for recycling service if I want curb-side garbage pickup.

As a tangent to the recycling thought, why should every individual have to sort garbage from recyclables? Pay an "expert" minimum wage to be a more efficient and effective sorter of "valuable" recyclable material. The job should pay for itself if the items are so valuable.

Maybe I'll start my own recycling rant thread...

James, by putting your grass clippings on your compost pile, you never need to aerate? It looks like you ignored at least two different points from my original post:

and the aforementioned:

I finally got you to acknowledge the second one! Yay!

https://www.bayeradvanced.com/articl...ds-dethatching