Leaf Vac/Mulcher

[Jmellc]

Really needing a leaf vac/mulcher. Had one years ago by Ryobi, was junk. I'm seeing some Worx models on Amazon that look promising. What do any of you have and like? The vac is mainly to get up leaves from driveway without picking up gravel & flower bed without picking up wood mulch. Thanks for any feedback.

 

[theoldwizard1]

The vac is mainly to get up leaves from driveway without picking up gravel & flower bed without picking up wood mulch.

Not going to happen !

 

[kaymccampbell]

Gently blow them off with a weedblower, then **** em up with the mower.

 

[RTM]

The vac is mainly to get up leaves from driveway without picking up gravel & flower bed without picking up wood mulch. .

As the wizard said, not gonna work well, especially if they are wet.

I had a Craftsman leaf blower you could convert to a vac mulcher, it stunk.

I had an old TroyBilt monster (47282) that would shred up to 3-4", but as a hosed vacuum it stunk, you could pick up a random leaf here or there, but not a pile, without clogging. I could occasionally rake light dry leaves into a chute, and it could **** them up, for a while. As a walk behind vacuum it was better, but again, a light coating of leaves, not a fall weekend in the Midwest, where you rake a 2' high pile to the curb line for the city to pick up.

Now moved on to a Tazz, same story, but they at least tell you it's only for sucking up random leaves, not digesting a pile.

Again, mulch was hard to stop from flying, gravel a little easier, but once you start getting a mat, or wet leaves, I've had no luck.

 

[engineer2]

I got an inexpensive WORX 12 Amp TRIVAC 3-in-1 Electric Leaf Blower/Mulcher/Yard Vacuum WG512 on clearance at Menards last year.
I have a blower already so I just use it as a leaf vac.
I like it and it works fine for detailing the yard where a rake won't fit and getting the stubborn leaves off of gravel.
It's 2 speed so you can slow it enough to not to pick up gravel. Hold it away enough and it won't pick up many cedar chips.

 

[M6erfan]

What size property? Back in Dallas where I had a small property I had a Toro Blower Vac. It was awesome. We had a huge oak in our front lawn and I'd get at least a dozen bags full every fall. It did a great job of mulching the leaves, perfect for the compost pile. The bad news? It's corded. But if you have a small property I'd suggest checking it out.

Edit: Also the Toro has two speeds so if you want to blow out a bed and not disturb the mulch too much, use low speed. Clearing the driveway or yard, use high speed.

 

[ronkz650]

I had a Stihl which is probably one of the best, and it was worthless. I eventually put it on the curb with a free sign on it.

 

[Kscardsfan]

I have a Troy Bilt CSV-70 ( I think) and it does a bang up job at cleaning up leaves around the yard as well as chipping up small brush and sticks. The vacuum hose and bag needs replaced, but it makes cleaning up after 50'+ tall trees in our yard a breeze vs using a rake and a blower. And the vacuum picks up leaves without sucking up mulch or gravel somehow.

 

[theoldwizard1]

I had a Craftsman leaf blower you could convert to a vac mulcher, it stunk.

I have a Stihl. Works "OK". Easier to mulch and bag with the mower.

 

[NORTON'S SHOP]

I had a Stihl which is probably one of the best, and it was worthless. I eventually put it on the curb with a free sign on it.

Wish I would have been driving by.

 

[M6erfan]

Wish I would have been driving by.

Their blower/bagger vacs really don't work well. The corded Toro blows it away at 1/3rd the price.

 

[GTO]

I have a Craftsman Walk behind gas model from at least 25-30 years ago. It's the vacuum/mulching model. It works awesome as long as the leaves are dry. It chops them up pretty fine

 

[MongoTA]

Might be a budget buster but I have a Cyclone Rake. Bought it second hand probably 15 years ago, my one and only craigslist buy. You can pull it behind a mower and it'll **** everything from the mower discharge chute, or you can park it and use the 32' long 6" diameter hose to walk around the yard and **** up leaves. I use the hose to clean up the planting beds. No problem getting the leave and leaving the mulch behind.
Impeller does a nice job of breaking down the leaves, I dump them in the woods and recycle them into leaf mold, then use that to dress the planting beds as needed.

 

[ChevyEFI]

I have a corded vac. I picked up from the depot. Haven't used it much. I would use it more if it required less frequent emptying of the bag.

 

[NORTON'S SHOP]

Their blower/bagger vacs really don't work well. The corded Toro blows it away at 1/3rd the price.

I have a SH86 and it works fine for me. Like it so much that I have two for when my son helps out. If I had the Toro, I'd need an 1/8 mile of cord.

 

[IndyGarage]

I had a Troy Built that had a chipper and a self propelled vac. Also had a hose for remote vac. It was powered by a 10hp engine with a giant chipping wheel on one end of the crank and a pulley to drive the wheels mounted on the other end of the Crankshaft.

It was big, bulky and heavy but worked great - The vac part worked well and the chipper was reasonably useful. The problem was the engine just couldn't handle the stress. The third time I broke the crankshaft, I gave the whole thing away

 

[IndyGarage]

 

[larry_g]

I have a Troy Bilt CSV-70 ( I think) and it does a bang up job at cleaning up leaves around the yard as well as chipping up small brush and sticks. The vacuum hose and bag needs replaced, but it makes cleaning up after 50'+ tall trees in our yard a breeze vs using a rake and a blower. And the vacuum picks up leaves without sucking up mulch or gravel somehow.

I have had one of these for years, I use it on the gravel drive, the wood deck, the shop floor, as well as leaves in the yard. I will second the recommendation of this unit.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[RTM]

I had a Troy Built that had a chipper and a self propelled vac. Also had a hose for remote vac. It was powered by a 10hp engine with a giant chipping wheel on one end of the crank and a pulley to drive the wheels mounted on the other end of the Crankshaft.

I don't recall using the self drive on mine but once it twice before something broke , I got it used. Loved that thing for what it was, but it was vibrating itself to death.

 

[DGersic]

Really needing a leaf vac/mulcher. Had one years ago by Ryobi, was junk. I'm seeing some Worx models on Amazon that look promising. What do any of you have and like? The vac is mainly to get up leaves from driveway without picking up gravel & flower bed without picking up wood mulch. Thanks for any feedback.

Which one are you looking at? Looks like these are all too small to be useful for anything more than a few stray leaves. I had a Craftsman two stroke blower / vac thing that looked similar to these, and it was pretty useless as a vac. Worked ok as a blower.

 

[IndyGarage]

I don't recall using the self drive on mine but once it twice before something broke , I got it used. Loved that thing for what it was, but it was vibrating itself to death.

Self drive worked fine on mine. It was a little awkward because the whole machine was heavy steel.

Mine just liked to snap off the crankshaft on the chipper end just outside of the crankcase.

I went to a stationary Super Tomahawk model, and it works as good for chipping and mulching, but it's stationary, so you have to bring the stuff to it.

 

[DGersic]

I picked this up cheap on CL a few years ago. The Tecumseh motor it came with ran for about an hour, then shredded its camshaft. I repowered It with a HF Predator, which works great.



But to the OP, this will definitely **** up wood chips & mulch. I don’t know what it would do with gravel, but there’s a good chance it’d lift that too. It will chew up any pile of leaves you can run it in to, though.

It’s a bit of a workout, being push only. But it’s a lot better than raking.

 

[jimindm]

I have a billy goat brand. I bought it at an auction several years ago. It was a spring time auction, but they put a 48 hour warranty on it. Started right up when I got home.

Have to say it is a pain in the but to walk around, most of the year. But the few weeks you use it, it is such a good feeling.

My auction going buddy live a few houses away. He laughed when I bought it, joked about storing it, was amazed how it worked. That next year I took it over for him to walk behind on a Saturday. Took him about six months to buy one.

He was just telling me his first one actually had a problem and now he has bought another. This one is self propelled. He said it is kind of hard to use. There is never like a uniform layer of leaves, to use it. It is to fast in some places and to slow in others.

Neither of his units had a bag the size of mine. We have 96 gallon toters and i can fill about two thirds of it in one load. I wait a few days and dump a second in to fill it for the week

 

[Jmellc]

I got an inexpensive WORX 12 Amp TRIVAC 3-in-1 Electric Leaf Blower/Mulcher/Yard Vacuum WG512 on clearance at Menards last year.
I have a blower already so I just use it as a leaf vac.
I like it and it works fine for detailing the yard where a rake won't fit and getting the stubborn leaves off of gravel.
It's 2 speed so you can slow it enough to not to pick up gravel. Hold it away enough and it won't pick up many cedar chips.

Sorry for long delayed reply on this topic. I bought the Worx Trivac as well. Works pretty well but it is slow. Can manage a few small twigs. I might still look at other options when we get some other priorities cleared up.

 

[Steve_P]

You are asking to pick up leaves but not mulch or gravel- this is a fine line.

When I worked in a small engine shop, we sold Billy Goat gas powered walk behind vacuums. This is what the commercial guys used for leaves on lawns and cleaning up trash and leaves in parking lots.

 

[Jagmandave]

If you're talking a walk behind, I have nothing to add to the conversation, except that storing it for the one or two weekends a year you need it seems excessive. But then people do that with snow blowers too.

I have a corded Toro blower/vac and it works extremely well for getting back in the corners behind the bushes etc. I even bought an accessory hose thing that fits over the trash barrel, it lets you **** up and process a lot more leaves without having to empty the bag all the time, the hose stretches out about 20 ft. I have a pin oak in the front yard which puts down epic amounts of leaves every year.

I made sure to get one that had a metal impeller instead of plastic because it does tend to **** up mulch and the pin oak nuts, they bang around pretty good but it still processes them without breaking the impeller like a plastic one does - it will even mulch up smaller sticks. It mulches the leaves down to a fairly fine mulch, so a LOT of leaves will fit in a barrel.

I also built a plastic length of downspout with a hook shape on the end that I can stick over the blower attachment and clean out the gutters with - works treat tho it can be a bit un-wieldy to get to the really high gutters. You do have to wear a hat and a jacket tho cause inevitably you will get a certain amount of schmutz on you from the gutters.

 

[Lorydr]

What size property? Back in Dallas where I had a small property I had a Toro Blower Vac. It was awesome. We had a huge oak in our front lawn and I'd get at least a dozen bags full every fall. It did a great job of mulching the leaves, perfect for the compost pile. The bad news? It's corded. But if you have a small property I'd suggest checking it out.

Edit: Also the Toro has two speeds so if you want to blow out a bed and not disturb the mulch too much, use low speed. Clearing the driveway or yard, use high speed.

I had one of those. I wasn't thrilled with it's performance.