I have a Husqvarna 145 backpack blower. I know, price range, use, etc... you're gonna blow it off (no pun intended). Last year several of the neighborhood kids got into a leave raking job that was much too large for them. We parents decided to lend a hand to get them done before dark. Everyone showed up with their blowers and rakes and got started. After about 20 minutes, that Husky was the blower of choice and two of my neighbors with handheld blowers purchased a backpack similar to mine the next day. It moves more air, more grass, more leaves, then any handheld you will find. It makes the job quicker and cleaner.
Are you and Mrs. RP going to live in that house forever? Probably not, so why not be prepared for any yard. The more expensive, more powerful backpack blower will do the little jobs, along with the big jobs, the handheld will not.

Any of the top brands make good blower, you probably can't go wrong with any of them.

(I remember the lawnmower thread..... ***** cringing*******)

 

Stihl all the way!!

No question about it. Husqvarna is a close second.

 

That's exactly what I'm replacing after 2.5 years. It's totally lost compression... it was $80 new (I know, you get what you pay for) and thus, it's not really worth my time to put more $ into it -- hence, the reason I'm hunting for an upgrade.

I do wish it had lasted as long as yours... I just wasn't as lucky. You're right though - they do make some nice items -- my cheapy blower just wasn't atop that list. *shrugs*

 

Thanks guys. I appreciate it!

I'm watching a couple on ebay right now -- may pounce on a slightly used one so that I can really upgrade the unit for little dollars. I'm a bit hesitant to buy a used one but, if it only has a few hours on it, I'd think it'd be okay -- famous last words. I'm just trying to stay within a budget to apease the wife. HAHA! Otherwise, I would've already purchased a $500 backpack -- this is man land right? We're all about over buying on tools and getting WAY more than what we need.

Thanks again folks...

-RP-

 

Yeah... that's a good point. Probably won't be in this house any more than another few years honestly -- no kids (yet) and we're already pushing our comfort limits (we have too much junk -- whoa... let me rephrase, my wife can't throw away anything!)

I'd really look goofy walking around with a backpack unit with this house though... I'm on a postage stamp and don't have many trees. The ones I do have are not fully mature... I think handheld is the way to go right now.

LOL! Steve deleted it... it's forever gone! There was a lot of great information in there... lots of gobbledygook too.

 

D/k(never used a leaf blower) if it makes any difference or not but with outboard motors, the 4-cycles arw much quieter in operation than the 2-cycles. The blowing noise may make that NA?

Love my Echo chain saw. It is a loud little bugger though.


Dan

 

I dont remember it, plz tell me about it. Anything good in it?

 

Good if you're pricing a pushmower. I think it was like 59 pages long or something stupid like that. HAHAHA! No, seriously. It was really that long.

 

I highly recommend Echo, and the fact that we're an Echo dealer has nothing to do with it.

I Start is the greatest thing since sliced bread, try it once, you'll be a believer.

All the pros in this area use Echo and have before we became a dealer, we refuse to even work on Stihl anymore unless it's a good customer, way too many headaches.

If you have a specific model in mind RP let me know and I can probably get you a lot better price.

 

I had a hand held leave blower last year, a cheep one, less then a hundred bucks "I even forgot what brand it was" got it from Home Depot. Anyway, it didn't last more then one season. The thing blew up on me as I was blowing leaf's, not Literally, but stopped working and white smoke came rushing out of it.

I then decided to buy a backpack leaf blower which blows at 420MPH! It takes me no time to blow the leaf's in my yard anymore, It's made my Craftsman. The only downfall is our city makes you bag your leaf's instead of leaving them on the tree lawn for the city to pick up.

 

X's 2

Except Husqvarna is a Poland, so would also price Polands and decide if I wanted to pay for the status of the orange paint.....

 

RP I got an Echo pb200 for 150 excellent handheld blower.

 

Thanks for all of the input guys! I'm going to close this one down as I believe I've made a decision... Thanks again!

 

Just as an update... and the thread is reopened... I bought an Echo 413 T (backpack unit, tube mounted controls) for $150 shipped NEW. This was the best deal, by a long shot, that I found...

Originally priced at nearly $290, after contacting the guy about 10 times with questions, he asked me what it was going to take for me to buy one... I told him that he put it on my front door step for $150... he said, 'sold'. LOL! I promptly sent funds via Paypal...

Prior to that though, I bought a 413H on ebay... spent $240ish... sold that one to my neighbor down the road for exactly what I had in it.

Life is good.

 

I have had an echo handheld for 7 years, never had a problem. I use Opti 2 for my oil/fuel mixture.