blower vacs

[rdak]

I am about to start go leaf collecting to make some leaf mould and use as a mulch. I would like to shred the leaves to make quicker mould, and wondered if anyone had bought a cheap blower vac with a shred function. Argos website is selling one for £21.99 which looks very cheap compared to normal garden shredders. It's not cordless so would have to cart my leaves home in bags before sucking up and shredding. Anyone used one of these? any good?

Also, could someone give me an idea how much space I gain from shredding leaves. It's not going to be worth it for me if I have to cart home 3 bags of leaves, shred them, and have to cart back 2 bags to the allotment, but if I only had to cart back 1/2 bag, then I'm seeing the benefit.
thanks
Ross

[rdak]

[aquilegia]

That's funny Ross. I was watching a man blow/vac leaves up from a park this morning. It was so noisey and I had a little mental rant about the loss of the art of raking. But it did look incredibly cool seeing all the leaves blowing about. I was rather conflicted.

I'm sorry, that in no way answered your post. I'm just rambling.

I know lots of people use their mower to shred leaves - is that not an option for you?

[rdak]

think you need a rotary mower- I only have a cheap flymo type

[sandersj89]

Ross

I have one of the Orange Garden Vacs from Flymow. Owned it for a number of years.

This blows as well as suck and can shred leaves or you can remove the little plastic arm so it does not shred.

Shredding the leaves probably reduces the bulk around 50 to 70% but it also has one other advantage, it helps to speed up the process producing leave mould quicker.

Jerry

[rdak]

Jerry,

The model I have seen has a very small collection bag which would need constant emptying. Do these vacs throw the shredded leaves out at such a rate that they would go all over the place if I left the bag off?

[sandersj89]

Jerry,

The model I have seen has a very small collection bag which would need constant emptying. Do these vacs throw the shredded leaves out at such a rate that they would go all over the place if I left the bag off?

Not sure about most models, but on my flymow, if the bag is removed the fan does not engage. This is a safety measure as the spinning plastic arm that does the shredding would be exposed. The bag also forms an integral part of the channel that the leaves are sucked up through.

On my machine 4 full bags just about fill a bin liner. If the leaves are thick on the ground you can fill a bin liner in 10 minutes easily. They recommend you blow the leaves into piles and then suck them up.

HTH

Jerry

[rdak]

Jerry,

Here's the model:

http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=2501&productId=102076&clickfrom=name

looks to me like the bag could be removed without stopping operation

[sandersj89]

Look like you could be right. Might be worth asking if there is a safety cut out on it though before you buy.

They will spray the leaves around a fair bit once chopped though I would think.

You may be able to enlarge the sack, might be able to open the bottom and add some more material to increase the capacity?

Jerry