best budget leaf blower

[mobileaudio219]

Looking for a decent leaf blower that's easy on the wallet. A hand held would probably do the trick, but it needs to be gas powered.

Mainly for cleaning up leafs around the house/fence line.

 

[Dhagan887]

Loved my echo handheld for about 8 years now. I thing it was about $150 at my local mower shop. Not the cheapest but I plan to get many many more years out of it

 

[stihlntime]

Go to the nearest Stihl dealer and buy the new BG 150 at 139.99 2 year standard warranty buy a six pack of their synthetic 2 stroke oil at the same time (12.99) and it will double the warranty to 4 years. Its a great basic blower.

 

[FigureItOut]

I don't know if it's nationwide but my Home Depot has a Ryobi 4 stroke on sale for $120, I've been eyeing it. That said, ^^a Stihl at $20 more^^ might be a better buy.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337Z using Tapatalk

 

[gdocktor3]

Stihl, Husqvarna, echo, red max are all good names. Research the cheapest of those, probably the echo, and enjoy for the rest of your life.

 

[Vette10R]

I have the Husqvarna back pack, it was on sale at Lowe's for around $250. A little more than I wanted to spend but in the end I'm glad I did. Plenty of power and you don't get tired using it since it's on your back! Echo also makes nice blowers...

 

[mrjaw14]

Most important thing: use good gas and oil. Get Stihl or opti-flow 2 cycle oil. the opti-flow isn't mixture specific, so you can run it in 50:1 or 40:1 no problems. If you use regular oil if you use too little you can damage the engine, if you use too much you can cause carbon build up, which can flake off and tear up the piston and cylinder. Shake your can to re-mix before each use. Keep your machine properly oiled with quality oil and ethanol-free gas if you can find it and it'll last you.

 

[Two Door]

I'm generally an Echo fan but I've discovered through personal experience that some of the Echo handhelds had problems - specifically with sheared flywheel keyways and coil packs which wouldn't advance the timing. I've heard very good things about the Stihl mentioned above and would go that way if I were doing it again.

 

[Tepid87]

I have a Hitachi, always starts instantly. Have it for 5 years now without any problems. Does the job well, though it vibrates quite a lot. But if I use it it is for no more than an hour so thats no big deal.
But I would go for the Stihl if I lived in the USA. $150 for a Stihl is a steal. Here in Europe the Stihl costs almost twice as much the Hitachi.

 

[zkling]

How big is your property? How many leaves? And what is your absolute max budget?

I bought a BG55 brand new a few years back 2013? It needed to go back and get a carb a few days after I bought it. I can be finicky to warm up at times, but once warm it runs great. Very handy, compact unit. Use it all the time, grass clean up, washing cars, removing snow, cleaning roof/gutters, drying large parts. With that said, it doesn't have the power a backpack does and if you have a lot of property or trees that produce large leaves it would be pretty tiresome.

Looking back I might have gone with the BG85 or 86, the next step up. I got the 55 for ~$160 I want to say out the door with a "pack" of the still oil for warranty. The 85 was right over $200 IIRC.

 

[gdocktor3]

Most important thing: use good gas and oil. Get Stihl or opti-flow 2 cycle oil. the opti-flow isn't mixture specific, so you can run it in 50:1 or 40:1 no problems. If you use regular oil if you use too little you can damage the engine, if you use too much you can cause carbon build up, which can flake off and tear up the piston and cylinder. Shake your can to re-mix before each use. Keep your machine properly oiled with quality oil and ethanol-free gas if you can find it and it'll last you.

I won't say this is an incorrect statement, but I've owned a landscaping business since 2007 and have used the same Stihl BR600 blower, same Homelite and Echo weedwackers, same Shindaiwa hedge trimmers, etc using what ever two stroke oil I had at the time. Everything from Stihl & Echo to the cheap stuff sold in Home Depot or Walmart. What ever it says on the bottle is how much gas to mix. Usually one or two gallons. I use 89 octane. I feel the Stihl, Husqvarna, Echo stuff is over rated and over priced. And, if you're not sure how much to mix, its safer to add more oil then it is gas.

On a similar topic, a highly respected mechanic told me the Super Tech oil sold at Walmart for $11.99 gallon is just as good as the Castrol GTX, Pennzoil, etc sold for $20 a gallon. Most of the cost is for the name on the bottle.

Another highly respected mechanic (my father) once told me when I was 16 "any oil, is better than no oil."

 

[SergioKurba]

Looking for a decent leaf blower that's easy on the wallet. A hand held would probably do the trick, but it needs to be gas powered.

Mainly for cleaning up leafs around the house/fence line.

I saw here an excellent Hitachi RB24EAP for only $ 129.00. I think this is an excellent leaf blower for little money

 

[manwithtools]

I saw here an excellent Hitachi RB24EAP for only $ 129.00. I think this is an excellent leaf blower for little money

Looks like your first post here is for a paid review site. Your posted link must generate some "click thru" revenue for you. Every review on that web site has a link to Amazon to buy the reviewed product, not cool.

Back on topic, I've had a Stihl BG85 C for a long time now. It's been dead nuts reliable. If Stihl is offering a model at $139, I'd have to at least recommend a close look at that. I've now got a BR430 backpack blower and with three acres covered in trees, I'm not sure why I waited so long to buy a backpack blower. It cut my fall cleanup time by at least 2/3's.

 

[maxchevy]

Have owned a Husqvarna 150bt for 3-4 years. Very happy with it and won't go back to a little hand held blower. Great bang for your buck compared to high end professional ones.

 

[76HighBoy]

I have a Hitachi, always starts instantly. Have it for 5 years now without any problems. Does the job well, though it vibrates quite a lot. But if I use it it is for no more than an hour so thats no big deal.
But I would go for the Stihl if I lived in the USA. $150 for a Stihl is a steal. Here in Europe the Stihl costs almost twice as much the Hitachi.

I also have a handheld 2 stroke Hitachi I picked up for $100 a few years back and it starts up in 2 pulls every time. I use it just about every day between March and November to sweep the driveway and patio (and sometimes to blow light powdery snow off the cars also.) It has a 7 year non-commercial warranty as well but I haven't had to use it so no comments on the customer support. Unless you have a big property to maintain, I'd recommend it as much as any handheld Stihl or Echo. If I needed more power than what the Hitachi has, I'd be looking at backpacks.

 

[themiller]

I prefer echo over stihl for pure blower. Lighter and better ergo last time I looked. Of course that was ~10 years ago as they last forever... If you want to use vacuum stihl has better kit included. My .02.

 

[BadDriver_GoodCar]

Looking for a decent leaf blower that's easy on the wallet. A hand held would probably do the trick, but it needs to be gas powered.

Mainly for cleaning up leafs around the house/fence line.

I'd say get the cheapest one you can, unless you live in an area with tons of trees and all four seasons lol.

Groupon sometimes has great deals on not-so-great products! I bought one one of these a while back due to the price and I can say it works if you don't have to be out there very long. Here's a link:

https://www.groupon.com/browse/inla...=Pro-Series+Electric+Leaf+Blower&locale=en_US

 

[M6erfan]

My guess is that he's bought one by now, original post is 5 mos old...

 

[cashishift]

Stihl BG56

 

[bmwpowere36m3]

Lot size, frequency of usage, leaves?

A hand held will get old quick for anything other than a quick blow of the driveway for clippings....

Personally I wanted a backpack for my acre with a few oaks. Bite the bullet and got a Stihl BR600, local dealer had a sale so I got it and a FS90 trimmer. The blower was $430 OTD. My dad always kept good quality OPE and it last him YEARS. So I figured these should last be a LONG time.

Even the cheapest ones at the box stores will set you back $200+ and I have no illusions of them lasting.

 

[streem26]

Have a look at the Stihl BR200, its a backpack with decent power, very light. Youll get tired of holding the handheld blower day after day for longer periods of time, especially when it comes time to blow leaves. Everyone here says to get the biggest backpack you can afford to start off with.But my neighbor bought just for $100 Hitachi 3 month ago and he completely satisfied

 

[BadDriver_GoodCar]

My guess is that he's bought one by now, original post is 5 mos old...

lol sorry I'm actually new to forums in general and I don't always check the original date my bad

noob move noob move

 

[M6erfan]

lol sorry I'm actually new to forums in general and I don't always check the original date my bad

noob move noob move

No worries, looks like you're not the only one...

 

[drink]

Looking for a decent leaf blower that's easy on the wallet. A hand held would probably do the trick, but it needs to be gas powered.

Mainly for cleaning up leafs around the house/fence line.

I bought a Craftsman hand held gas powered leaf blower from Sears. It has been used a bunch with the non-ethanol premix Craftsman fuel. So far it has worked really good with no problems.

I would also consider buying a Stihl blower. Maybe a backpack or handheld. I prefer industrial grade Stihl products.