I'm looking at buying a leaf blower/ blower vac for a present. Mainly to be used on roof to clean out gutters. Can anyone recommend a good one or one sto avoid. I'm after a petrol one, not interested in electric. Thanks
Myself and my old man have been using Stihl blowers (he's a lawnmowing contractor) and they have plenty of power. 2 stroke. Have also got a Honda 4 stroke and a Shindaiwa 2 stroke, both Jap made and have enormous grunt. But both are plenty expensive. If just for roof/gutter cleaning you can't really go wrong with a Stihl. reasonably priced, plenty powerful and you will get years of use out of it, I know i have.
I've got a husqvarna 2 stroke blower/vac and it's excellent. Has plenty of balls on both attachments and is a breeze to start and use. Was around the $450 mark i think which is what you'll pay for something decent. DON'T buy any cheapies julie, been there done that. They just **** themselves in no time.
+1 to not buying cheap ones. My old man's Stihl blower stihl (mind the pun he he he) goes strong and we've had it for years. As Juzo said, Huskies are good, too
We use mostly Stihl tools at work, they cop and a bit of **** but they are the best out there unless you want to get a Honda, I've heard those are good too.
Check the profile of your gutter and make sure the blower can do something with it. You may have to fashion an implement to give better pressure or suction. Personally, if it is something that get used once a month, I would not be spending mega dollars on it, go for something with a 12 month warranty and be ready to exchange it.
if you do get a 2 stroke blower dont put 4 stroke fuel through it (been there done that) but yeah if you get the better of the brands out there more then likely youll never have to get another one again. (in other words look at what tradesmen use, if they can last being used all day for yay long, they will last home handyman a lifetime)
Stihl all the way I have a BG65 for home mainly to clean the driveway after I mow the lawn, it starts prefect every time, heaps of power I would buy one again. I have used an Echo branded one also what I was impressed with it has a throttle lock so you dont have to hold the throttle when using it handy when you change hands. If I was to look at buying one again and they were all the same price I would buy the stihl Scott
Stihl bg65, for sure. $200 I think. I got one recently. The Stihl starts easy and is light too. Will last for ages and is serviceable.
Thanks for the replies I was going to pop into the stihl shop this arvo so looks like I was on the right track. I had a look on their website and can't see a bg65 model as a couple of you have mentioned, there is a bg56 model for $250 is this the one you mean? I want to get something good but on the otherhand I don't want to spend a heap of cash on something that is just going to be overkill. I'm thinking the bg56 model looks like what I want, not sure whether to go the next model up, if its just a quieter model and not going to perform any better I won't waste the cash because I don't really care about noise levels, the neighbours are arseholes anyway so noisy is good Though the next model up is supposed to be easy to start, are they generally a pain in the arse to start up or is the easy start thing wanky?