I want to get one of these garden blowers, the ones that suck too. I intend
on doing the leaves in the garden but also down the side of the house there
is a tarmmac area where all the leaves and debris fall. If I were to put the
machine on suck to gather it all up, would the small stones from the tarmac
knacker the motor in the machine? Or are they designed to cope with small
amounts of stones?
Thanks

In article ,
"Ben Short" wrote:

I want to get one of these garden blowers, the ones that suck too. I intend
on doing the leaves in the garden but also down the side of the house there
is a tarmmac area where all the leaves and debris fall. If I were to put the
machine on suck to gather it all up, would the small stones from the tarmac
knacker the motor in the machine?...

I had the opportunity of having a go with one of these a few weeks ago:
I found it disappointingly weak on the sucking, but more importantly I
found the whole thing extremely bulky and awkward to handle. (Never
mind it being Yet Another Gizmo to find storage for.) So I was relieved
to be able to think "No, I do NOT need one of those!"

Without wishing to cause any offence Ben, I've always though garden vacs
to be a bit "anal" ... after all, outdoors is outdoors ... leaves 'n'
stuff is what it's all about.

Having said that ...

I use my pressure washer for blowing leaves off our (3/4") gravel: I use
the normal wide-angle fixing at high pressure, and I keep well back, so
that the main thing hitting them is the airwave: you can blow them into
piles. You need practice in order to avoid ricocheting gravel all over
the place,but it does work [well enough for me].

Cheers
John

On Jul 13, 3:40*am, John Rumm wrote:
On 13/07/2010 03:14, Ben Short wrote:

I want to get one of these garden blowers, the ones that suck too. I
intend on doing the leaves in the garden but also down the side of the
house there is a tarmmac area where all the leaves and debris fall. If I
were to put the machine on suck to gather it all up, would the small
stones from the tarmac knacker the motor in the machine? Or are they
designed to cope with small amounts of stones?

They usually are "clean fan" designs - so the stuff sucked up does not
go through the motor fan. Some have a nylon wire strimmer type affair
for shredding leaves just before they go into the waste bag - but these
are not affected by stones, and can be removed if required. I have found
you can lift leaves of gravel, and they usually don't have the suck to
get much gravel anyway.


To have a clean airstream fan, a machine would need to have a rigid
case around the debris bag. Anything with an exposed debris bag has
the fan in the dirty airstream where any stones will hit it.


NT

"NT" wrote in message
...


To have a clean airstream fan, a machine would need to have a rigid
case around the debris bag. Anything with an exposed debris bag has
the fan in the dirty airstream where any stones will hit it.

Mine has a flexi bag and a clean fan!
Its one of those cheap orange (flmo?, its ten years old and I don't recall
the make) things.
It works by blowing the air down one pipe in the orange case, it exits
inside the case in a direction going back up the other pipe towards the bag.
This draws in a lot of air through the nozzle and sucks stuff up. It works
in a similar way to that Dyson "invention", the bladeless fan.

In message ,
writes
Me too - I bought one (admittedly a cheap one) and it was cumbersome,
inefficient and basically *useless*. I went back to using a rake.
Useful bit of exercise!
Son with new house bought one of these and as far as I know has only
used it once and declared it useless as a sucking device. Said many of
the leaves were stuck to the path and didn't budge.

But, behind the Webb mower that he found in the shed, and I keep asking
about, was a thing labelled "Billy Goat Industries " with a 6HP Briggs
and Stratton engine. It looks a bit like something Stephenson might have
invented to suck the wrong sort of leaves off the track. When we get
round to trying to start it no doubt I'll be back with more questions
--
Bill

Bill wrote:

But, behind the Webb mower that he found in the shed, and I keep asking
about, was a thing labelled "Billy Goat Industries " with a 6HP Briggs
and Stratton engine. It looks a bit like something Stephenson might have
invented to suck the wrong sort of leaves off the track.

Something a bit like this then?
http://www.mowers-online.co.uk/itm00554.htm

Looks like fun!

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Have dancing shoes, will ceilidh.

On Jul 13, 10:17*am, "dennis@home"
wrote:
"NT" wrote in message

...

To have a clean airstream fan, a machine would need to have a rigid
case around the debris bag. Anything with an exposed debris bag has
the fan in the dirty airstream where any stones will hit it.

I can confirm if a stone or stones are sucked up by the user it will
disintegrate the fan and said fan will explode a hole through the side
of the unit. This is exactly what happened when I lent mine to a not
so bright friend.

Yet another good reason for never lending out any tools to family/
friends.

Dave.

In message , Chris J Dixon
writes
Something a bit like this then?
http://www.mowers-online.co.uk/itm00554.htm

Looks like fun!

It looks like a similar older model without the hose over the top, and
with smooth cast iron wheels (slightly wobbly), so I think the 6HP just
sucks and doesn't pull you along.
We haven't had time to look at why the engine doesn't seem to start.
--
Bill

"Bill" wrote in message
...
In message ,
writes
Me too - I bought one (admittedly a cheap one) and it was cumbersome,
inefficient and basically *useless*. I went back to using a rake. Useful
bit of exercise!
Son with new house bought one of these and as far as I know has only used
it once and declared it useless as a sucking device. Said many of the
leaves were stuck to the path and didn't budge.

Mine has three modes..
blow, useful for getting leaves into a pile.
suck, useful for getting the leaves up.
blow and suck at the same time.. it has a small jet that lifts wet leaves
and stuff off the paths and they then get sucked into the bag.

Bill wrote:
In message ,
writes
Me too - I bought one (admittedly a cheap one) and it was cumbersome,
inefficient and basically *useless*. I went back to using a rake.
Useful bit of exercise!
Son with new house bought one of these and as far as I know has only
used it once and declared it useless as a sucking device. Said many of
the leaves were stuck to the path and didn't budge.

But, behind the Webb mower that he found in the shed, and I keep asking
about, was a thing labelled "Billy Goat Industries " with a 6HP Briggs
and Stratton engine. It looks a bit like something Stephenson might have
invented to suck the wrong sort of leaves off the track. When we get
round to trying to start it no doubt I'll be back with more questions

Excellent device. I work part time in a school with 6 large trees and
spend a lot of my time in the autumn pushing one of these around. We
had a B&S engined model but now have a Honda engined model which is much
more powerful and easier to manage. Designed in USA to suck leaves off
lawns but we use it on hard surfaces. Engine power (and therefore
suction) is controlable, we also use it for litter collection - it will
easily digest a 0.5 litre drinks bottle. Our last one did eventually
develop a split fan casing as it will also suck up stones or anthing
with a rough surface - horse chestnuts no, but the casings yes. Not a
problem as the kids pick up the conkers

Malcolm

On 13/07/2010 03:40, John Rumm wrote:
On 13/07/2010 03:14, Ben Short wrote:
I want to get one of these garden blowers, the ones that suck too. I
intend on doing the leaves in the garden but also down the side of the
house there is a tarmmac area where all the leaves and debris fall. If I
were to put the machine on suck to gather it all up, would the small
stones from the tarmac knacker the motor in the machine? Or are they
designed to cope with small amounts of stones?

They usually are "clean fan" designs - so the stuff sucked up does not
go through the motor fan. Some have a nylon wire strimmer type affair
for shredding leaves just before they go into the waste bag - but these
are not affected by stones, and can be removed if required. I have found
you can lift leaves of gravel, and they usually don't have the suck to
get much gravel anyway.

My experience too.

Dave

NT wrote:
On Jul 13, 3:40 am, John Rumm wrote:
On 13/07/2010 03:14, Ben Short wrote:

I want to get one of these garden blowers, the ones that suck too. I
intend on doing the leaves in the garden but also down the side of
the house there is a tarmmac area where all the leaves and debris
fall. If I were to put the machine on suck to gather it all up,
would the small stones from the tarmac knacker the motor in the
machine? Or are they designed to cope with small amounts of stones?

They usually are "clean fan" designs - so the stuff sucked up does
not go through the motor fan. Some have a nylon wire strimmer type
affair for shredding leaves just before they go into the waste bag -
but these are not affected by stones, and can be removed if
required. I have found you can lift leaves of gravel, and they
usually don't have the suck to get much gravel anyway.


To have a clean airstream fan, a machine would need to have a rigid
case around the debris bag. Anything with an exposed debris bag has
the fan in the dirty airstream where any stones will hit it.

Agreed - and the benefit of dirty fan in these leaf vacs is that the fan
shreds the leaves - reducing their bulk considerably. Otherwise the bag
would fill in minutes.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

Bill wrote:
In message ,
writes
Me too - I bought one (admittedly a cheap one) and it was cumbersome,
inefficient and basically *useless*. I went back to using a rake.
Useful bit of exercise!
Son with new house bought one of these and as far as I know has only
used it once and declared it useless as a sucking device. Said many of
the leaves were stuck to the path and didn't budge.

But, behind the Webb mower that he found in the shed, and I keep
asking about, was a thing labelled "Billy Goat Industries " with a
6HP Briggs and Stratton engine. It looks a bit like something
Stephenson might have invented to suck the wrong sort of leaves off
the track. When we get round to trying to start it no doubt I'll be
back with more questions

Wonderful piece of kit! Similar to the Parker Vac. Will pick up a milk
bottle & render it unto dust.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
news:PZ4%n.142154$wi5.24713@hurricane...
NT wrote:


To have a clean airstream fan, a machine would need to have a rigid
case around the debris bag. Anything with an exposed debris bag has
the fan in the dirty airstream where any stones will hit it.

Agreed - and the benefit of dirty fan in these leaf vacs is that the fan
shreds the leaves - reducing their bulk considerably. Otherwise the bag
would fill in minutes.

They do not have to have a rigid bag to be clean fans!
Likewise they do not have to have dirty fans to shred!

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "The Medway Handyman"
saying something like:

Will pick up a milk bottle & render it unto dust.

Verily Dairies, I assume?