Sthil BR350 Wow, wish I had purchased this years ago.

[newbury]

So what do you all do with the leaves when they are finally blown up into a pile?

What's this "pile" you write of?
I just blow them into the woods besides my roads.
And I just got done doing about 20 minutes of blowing damp leaves with my BR400 and I've got to agree it's about the best $150 lawn tool I've bought.

 

[Code54]

We have a ½ mile long lane that runs back to the house with trees over the whole thing. I ended up getting a backpack blower for the flower gardens and porch and a blower for the PTO of the tractor. The lane is about 12' wide and I do the entire lane in about 30-40 minutes (also clears the ditches and the side an extra 4 or 5 feet at least). The yards used to take me about 6-7 hours and now I can do them in about 1 hour - Found it on craigslist for the cost of my backpack blower! The PTO blowers are worth their weight in gold (also works good on light snows)

 

[oldballs]

The "pile" that I write of are in the yards around the house. I've done the canvas thing even by hand...I've hauled them away in carts....I've burned them. It seems like getting them into "piles" is the easy part. In fact, today I tried out my new Pine Needle Rake 3 pt attachment. Although the ground was wet it did fairly well. But I still got piles of needles and leaves. And the big stuff hasn't even fallen yet. I think a lawn service would be cheaper.

 

[newbury]

The "pile" that I write of are in the yards around the house. I've done the canvas thing even by hand...I've hauled them away in carts....I've burned them. It seems like getting them into "piles" is the easy part. In fact, today I tried out my new Pine Needle Rake 3 pt attachment. Although the ground was wet it did fairly well. But I still got piles of needles and leaves. And the big stuff hasn't even fallen yet. I think a lawn service would be cheaper.

For "around the house" I prefer to just mow them low as a natural mulch. But I only have hardwoods.

 

[JohnfromPA]

So what do you all do with the leaves when they are finally blown up into a pile?

I primarily use the blower to get the leaves out of the raingutters, flowerbeds, and all the other places they end up. I blow them onto the lawn and shred them up with my mulching lawnmower.

Stihl makes a great blower, as does Echo. I haven't seen any other brands that can compare to these two. Depending on the year and each company's R&D cycle, one may have a better model than the other, but you really can't go wrong with either. Home Depot sells 3-4 models of the Echo blowers.

I'd like to submit RedMax for consideration. Husqvarna blowers are rebadged RedMax units also. I looked at the Echo PB770 and the Stihl BR550/600 but ended up with the RedMax EBZ7500.

 

[QRTRHRS]

I've spent several years trying to figure out how to clean leaves out of the ditches on my 1400' gravel drive. I've tried a tow behind wheeled blower and a hand held blower. Did I mention that the drive is through the woods and rises 250' above the country road? I've used my hand held Stihl blower the past few years. It took me at least 2 fuel refills and 60-90 minutes depending on how heavy the leaf coverage was on that trip.

I saw a review of leaf blowers and they suggested a backpack model for large areas. I am an all-Stihl garage, so thought I should just stick with the brand. Picked the blower up at my local hardware store (20 miles away) and gave it a try this afternoon. I cleared the drive in under 30 minutes and still had half a tank of fuel left. The 20LB backpack felt comfortable and even though I'm left-handed, the blower tube and throttle control was easy to use.

Told my wife this is the best $380 I've spent in a long time.

I would recommend using the Stihl Ultra oil with 89 octane for longevity and ease of starting if you are not already doing so.

I have the BR600 mostly to clear leaves from my pastures bordered by trees so the leaves don't rot and mold on the grass. Been good to go for the past five years with only a new plug and fuel filter. I usually run through seven gallons of gas but last year was a killer due to the wind bringing the leaves out of the woods rather than the usual direction into the woods. I went through 22 gallons of gas, whoo! So far so good this year with the wind. I figure one more blow ought to do it and mostly the leaves have gone into the woods so I can get started on blowing the rest in.

 

[murphy1244]

Here's how I do leaves now

 

[lhfarm]

Here's how I do leaves now

That is impressive! I really wanted a tractor based solution, but couldn't get the leaves out of the bottom of the side ditches, which are a foot deep in places. I thought about a vacuum system, but would have spent as much time off the tractor as on.

Would be fun to see a video of the blower in action.