Moved into a new house and there are 3 trees in the front yard with desert landscaping aka rock. Trees are some oak variant dropping enough acorns to plug up an 36" sewer line.

I'd prefer a vacuum as I dislike the dust that gets blown everywhere but will get a blower if the acorns (football shaped; about 1/2" diameter & 3/4" long)" are going to destroy the mulching teeth or whatever they're called.

Preference is corded but not a deal breaker if it's cordless or gas.

In no particular order: Home Depot, Lowe's, Tractor Supply are relatively close. Also have Amazon Prime. I'd also be willing to visit a dedicated landscape supply warehouse or buy from one of those on line. Just need something that's going to last.

A million errands to run but will check in tonight.

Thanks all,

Dan

I have a Stihl cordless blower and am
Happy with the performance. Depending on your lot size you might want to
get a second battery.

I once had a home on 4 acres & 100 trees. I waited until the wind blew them onto the neighbors land! He in turn waited until they blew down the street into a pasture fenceline. The pasture owner was thankful to keep the weeds down.

Stihl BG50 @ $139.99 is my choice for light work. Gas 2 cycle.

stihl.

Get a gas model. Stihl would be my pick and the more power, the better.
See if your local dealer has a loaner to try out. Once you have a proper blower you'll never be happy with one of those toys.

For a vacuum, get a Billy Goat. It's the Shop Vac of the landscape.

Ryobi 40volt blower (rechargeable battery). You can get them at Home Depot. Excellent blow power. I use mine to blow stuff off my rock landscape with no problem.

How about a nut gatherer? Also called an acorn rake.

Take a hard pass on the vac for several reasons. The nuts will jam the shredder inside the housing and stall the motor, if you trying to vacuum on rocks you will suck them up at some point and they’ll destroy the impeller in the housing, finally the dust ends up actually being worse when you go to empty the bag which is now filled with ground up leaves and nuts.

Go get yourself a higher end back pack blower (top of the line home use or the entry level commercial model) by any of the big manufacturers be it Stihl, Redmax, Echo or Husqvarna and you’ll be much happier with the results. Blow everything off to the side and shovel rake etc it all into the big paper leaf disposal bags. Trust me I’ve been through all of this. As far as the blowers I prefer Redmax and I do have a small handheld Husqvarna that I use as a vac for getting leaves out of tight spots around the foundation of the house and between the bushes etc. Just very light use.

Sorry for the late reply. Internet issues that took a while to troubleshoot.

Going to skip the vacuum (thanks, LBAR15 for the detailed reply) and go with a blower.

Patriot, I googled nut gatherer and while it's a nifty looking tool for the right conditions I'm not sure if it's going to work on a rock landscape. The acorns are only slightly larger than the rocks.

For those recommending gas, why? I'm not against it but isn't it about speed and volume of air? I see electrics whose specs equal gas models.

LBAR15, I live on a 6381 square foot (.15 acre) lot with a 1441 square foot home. Backyard is a piece of cake. Might I be ok with a pro-sumer handheld for the front or go with the backpack? Leaves are leaves and it's the acorns that are my issue.

Thanks,

Dan

quote:

Originally posted by KBobAries:
Sorry for the late reply. Internet issues that took a while to troubleshoot.

Going to skip the vacuum (thanks, LBAR15 for the detailed reply) and go with a blower.

Patriot, I googled nut gatherer and while it's a nifty looking tool for the right conditions I'm not sure if it's going to work on a rock landscape. The acorns are only slightly larger than the rocks.

For those recommending gas, why? I'm not against it but isn't it about speed and volume of air? I see electrics whose specs equal gas models.

LBAR15, I live on a 6381 square foot (.15 acre) lot with a 1441 square foot home. Backyard is a piece of cake. Might I be ok with a pro-sumer handheld for the front or go with the backpack? Leaves are leaves and it's the acorns that are my issue.

Thanks,

Dan

I always was a gas versus electric guy. I have a hitachi gas blower. But, the homeowner of a house I manage that has 4,000 sq feet of pavers bought a greenworks 56 volt battery blower. It's 90% as powerful as my gas blower, works great, is lighter and quiet, and have never come close to killing the battery on it. It would work perfect for the size of your lot.

I have a cheap electric handheld 40v that I use to blow out the garage and for that it works well but I have run down the battery more than once when I decided to blow the driveway down as well. I also find it poorly balanced as the battery is ALL the weight. For bigger jobs I prefer gas for the power and no need to recharge anything but in your situation with that size lot and application, it’s down to personal preference. You’d do fine with a higher end electric I get why you’re leaning that way, I would still go backpack over handheld.

Came home with an Echo PB-2520. It's going to do everything I need. Local place is an authorized dealer/service center whose regular price was equal to a big box sale price.

Just cleaned up the front and side yards and half the time using it at idle speed was enough. Still not certain how to get the acorns out without taking half the rocks as well but filled 3 large leaf bags and it's a vast improvement.

Thanks for the help.

Dan

I have the Ego 56V blower, its hands down better than the gas attachment to my old edger, enough power to do the garage, driveway and clean the oak crap off the street from my house to three doors down.

If you need big air power Ego makes a backpack blower that is rated at 145 mph, probably send those acorns into orbit.....

link

see you in six months

At my house we need a serious piece of equipment for the leaves. I have a Little Wonder 10 HP walk behind. It certainly gets the job done, but I preferred my 7 HP Giant Vac that was stolen a few years ago and sadly is no longer made. Just a bit more manageable without much sacrifice in performance. The Stihl backpack is fine for detail work, but just can't handle large volumes in a reasonable amount of time.