According to Ian :
Does anyone have any experience with the Shop-Vacs that can be used as leaf
blowers? If they really work it would be a nice benefit (and cause me to go
buy one now) but if it's a half-assed solution, better to know now. It
seems like an "oh yea, and you cal also do this".

Define "work".

Blow really large dry leaves off a sidewalk?
Or, blow sopping wet pine needles out of 8" grass?

Generally speaking, I wouldn't expect a shopvac unit to succeed beyond
the dry leaves on pavement level. They're optimized for different
things.

Purpose-built blowers are almost always going to be better than
a kludge.

I've reserved my shopvac (a small and very old ordinary one,
not a "convertible" that I got at a garage sale for $5) for
blowing out pool lines.

I have a weedeater electric blower. It's not bad, but can't
handle even slightly damp leaves on grass. I wouldn't have
bought one, but it was free, and it gets used for blowing dry
stuff off paved surfaces and is occasionally useful as a second
pass after the slave teenagers finish raking ;-)

Warning: if the impeller explodes (it's plastic), you'll think
you've been shot. Don't ask... Yes, you can repair housing
cracks with ABS DWV glue.

Decent (as in backpack mount) gas blowers are really good.

If you need to blow any significant amount of leaves off grass,
I recommend forgoing buying a blower, and rent a real one when
you need it. And get weather-cancellation insurance ...

Walk-behind vacuum leaf shredders work well too. But _rent_
one (the Cub Cadet unit was $1300 CDN when I drooled over the
sales fliers).
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.