I will rake no more. Yard is not huge but I have 25 trees along the rear of my property line. I want to get a vacuum chipper thing.
While gas powered Stihl is my general go to, it will be used twice a year and don’t feel like dealing with something gas powered.
So I am looking at the B&D unit. Yeah cords suck but it will only be twice a year

BLACK+DECKER BEBL7000 Back Pack Leaf Blower Vacuum and Mulcher https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072...cp_api_paBpAb0MSBPVT

Any other suggestions?

Mulch em. I use a zero turn with gator blades and it turns leaves into little pieces and a lot of dust. First rain they are gone.

I used something similar by Toro only the bag went over the shoulder. That thing would shred anything and rarely clogged.

The issue was the time...it took hours of shredding and then emptying the bag into lawn-waste bags.

So now I shred leaves with my tractor. I got the mulching kit and use it all year.

On the heaviest weekends in fall with max leave drop, I "may" have to double mow to get everything tidy.

It saves me a load of time.

If you don't have too much, that rig should be just fine...

This is what you need.
http://www.sears.com/craftsman...ockNo=1&blockType=G1

I tried an electric one and it sucked. Don't know what I paid for it or what brand it was but it went to the dump after one attempt of using it.

I use a Worx Trivac (WG509) with the metal impeller.

The problem you will find is that the collection bag will fill quickly. I got the hose with the dust cover that goes over a thrash can. That will hold a lot of mulch. I collect some for compost. they rest I will just leave the hose on the ground and let it blow back into the grass. 8:1 mulch ration. Works for me

I use the Toro
225 mph 330 CFM Electric Super Leaf Blower with Vacuum Shredder. Love it, took a couple hours of steady pace to fill up 4 big garden debris bags.

As others have stated you will spend less time mulching your leaves with a mower. Before starting to mulch I would typically set out 39-45 Lawn Bags full of leaves every year and tried every gadget out there. Have a Sears Lawn Vacuum in the garage I haven't started in years 12 years or so because it took longer to empty the bag into the Lawn bags that simply raking the leaves and bagging took. Also tried leaf blowers and combined blower/vacuums and they all were noisy as hell and took longer than raking and bagging.

Now I just putt mulching blades on the tractor, close off the outlet for the mower deck and triple cut the leaves into dust. BTW, while that sounds time consuming it is actually faster than any other method I've ever tried, so it's the only way I deal with leaves nowadays.

I wouldn’t consider that thing with 25 trees in the near vicinity. I have something similar and it’s fairky time consuming with my single large tree and a small Japanese maple. And that’s if they’re bone dry... a little wet and nope.

The last few years (except this year) I just hit the fallen leaves with my typical home push mower and collect in the rear bag. Yea, I have to run over the lawn twice and stop to empty the bag multiple times but it’s way easier and faster.

quote:

Originally posted by doublesharp:
Mulch em. I use a zero turn with gator blades and it turns leaves into little pieces and a lot of dust. First rain they are gone.

Same here but just with regular blades, no mulching kit. Most important... do it when they are crunchy dry, and don't wait until they get real deep. You'll need a dust mask. I usually do the last run over in December, so what if my neighbors think I'm crazy! Works very well. I have 3.5 Ac. and a more trees than you it sounds like, including 5 huge Tulip Poplar trees that produce a large amount of large leaves.

I don't know if your yard is large enough for something like this, but it is what I have. I use a hand held blower/vac for the areas I can't get to with the tractor.


This is what the yard looks like after one pass. You can see up by the road how heavy the leaves were before I started.



You should be able to find a Trac-Vac in your area.

The only problen with mulching the leaves with a mower, is once they are smaller pieces, you track them inside more after walking around in the yard.

I tried a similar electric vac with a collection bag and it was useless. We have a lot of mature trees (about 15 over 25-30' tall) and leaf clean up is a major project. Even though it would mulch up the leaves, the bag filled up very quickly and it took more time emptying the dang thing than vacuuming them up. Plus, you can't use it in shrub beds or you vac up mulch which clogged up the mechanism.

The last time I did clean up my self, it took over 10 hours, but not using the vac. I blew, mulched and bagged. I can't imagine how much work it would be with the 25 trees you mentioned.

I now have a landscape company do it. It takes 4 men about 2 hours and they pretty much use the method I described except with industrial grade equipment. Costs me about $160 and worth every penny.

quote:

Originally posted by qxsoup:
This is what you need.
http://www.sears.com/craftsman...ockNo=1&blockType=G1

I own that unit. It does what it says it does. It takes up a lot of space. Don't get too excited about the chipper thing if your branches are not string straight or flexible.

I haven't unloaded it but I would not replace it. The mower does about 80% of what it does. It may well be perfect for your needs though.

You need a large bag to save time.